The University of Chicago Magazine hired its first Metcalf intern in 1997, the year the program started. Once the Magazine began hiring two interns, legendary editor Mary Ruth Yoe had a standard practice assignment: interview each other.

This summer, Brady Santoro, Class of 2027, and Vivian Li, Class of 2028, will be interviewing alumni of the Hutchins College for an oral history planned for the Spring/26 issue of The Core. As practice for these long-distance conversations, we had them interview each other over Zoom—even though they sit right next to each other at the Magazine’s offices in Harper Court.

Here are their answers to the standard UChicagoan questions (lightly adapted for current students).—Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93

What surprising jobs have you had in the past?

Brady: I used to be a semi-professional jazz musician. Heavy emphasis on “semi.”

Vivian: I worked in a cake shop, putting cream on cakes. I quit after one day—it was boring, and the environment was bad. I thought I had better things to do in life.

What would you want to do if you were not a student?

Brady: It would be fun to be a park ranger, mostly for the hat. I also wouldn’t mind being a postal worker.

Vivian: I would like to be a painter.

What do you hate that everyone else loves?

Brady: Long guitar solos.

Vivian: Bagels. I just don’t see the appeal.

What is your least useful talent?

Brady: All of them. I can juggle two balls, but that’s just not impressive or useful.

Vivian: Also all of them. I know how to sing Peking Opera, but nobody listens to that anymore.

What UChicago and non-UChicago book (respectively) changed your life?

Brady: At UChicago, anything by David Hume. In general, either One Hundred Years of Solitude or The Brothers Ashkenazi by I. J. Singer. Long translated family sagas are very good.

Vivian: At UChicago, probably Goethe’s Faust. In general, The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse. It really changed my perspective.

What have you learned at UChicago that benefits you?

Brady: Read everything you are assigned but learn to skim.

Vivian: Approach every situation without judgment and with appreciation.

What’s your most vivid UChicago memory so far?

Brady: When my (non-Iranian) friends interrupted their conversation about Byzantine leadership crises to have an argument in Farsi about the best filling for burritos.

Vivian: I was on the debate team last year, and during a debate tournament one of the seniors started rapping about John Locke and David Hume at the Harvard team. They looked so confused.