Critical Minded Podcast (2025)
In March of 2025, Critical Minded launched its Critical Minded podcast hosted by Steven Vargas. Pugh was interviewed on the third episode, “What Does It Take to Be a New Critic Today?”
Episode description:
Entering a career as a critic today takes more than a good resume. The next generation of writers faces the aftermath of a global pandemic, a volatile job market and low pay rates.
With personal accounts of navigating publications and industry constraints, host Steven Vargas unpacks the current criticism landscape for new writers of color with Washington D.C. critic Nathan Pugh, New York critic Brittani Samuel, and Miami critic and educator Cristina Pla-Guzman.
SSSAS, “Colloquium for the Common Good” (2022)
On January 24, 2022, St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School held the “Colloquium for the Common Good” for its high-school students. The goal of the colloquium was to be a “day of learning and deep thinking around some of the most challenging and important social issues of our day.” The colloquium included “35 dynamic workshops led by community leaders and changemakers, as well as SSSAS faculty and alumni.”
As a 2017 graduate from the school, Pugh led the workshop “All of it Matters: Bringing Identity to Writing and Journalism.” The workshop started by exploring the importance of nonfiction writing in everyday life and in college applications. Then, drawing on the work of Black journalists (like Isaac J. Bailey, Wesley Lowery, Sam Sanders, and Hanif Abdurraqib), Pugh explored contemporary disruptions into the idea of “journalistic objectivity.” The workshop ended with students practicing their own non-fiction writing, blending together journalistic rigor with personal experience.