Through their new project, SideGig, School of Arts & Sciences faculty Paul Saint-Amour and Kevin Platt explore songs and sound. Plus, it gives the pals a chance to hang out.
2 min. read
When one tunes into a podcast, they probably don’t expect to hear the sack of Troy chanted in ancient Greek and accompanied by bass and guitar. But that’s “all in a day’s quirk,” says Paul Saint-Amour, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, describing SideGig, his new project with Kevin Platt, department chair and professor of Russian and Eastern European Studies.
Emily Wilson, Kevin Platt, and Paul St. Amour recording an episode of SideGig at Kelly Writers House.
Debuting in August 2025, the podcast is exactly what its moniker implies: a side project. Each episode sees Saint-Amour and Platt interviewing guests who, at one point, sing a song or recite verse while the co-hosts accompany them on instruments. That premise gives Platt and Saint-Amour a chance to explore music, something they both love but don’t teach or study.
“This is a different kind of intellectual work, but it’s still intellectual work,” says Platt.
Recorded and edited at the Kelly Writers House with help from editors Zach Carduner, Magda Andrews-Hoke, and Makena Devereaux, SideGig hinges on the availability of its guests. For its inaugural episode—the one containing the Ancient Greek chanting—the co-hosts nabbed colleague Emily Wilson, College for Women Class of 1963 Term Professor in the Humanities. Other guests have been traveling through the Philadelphia area or were specifically invited by Platt and Saint-Amour. No matter how they wind up on an episode, they eventually partake in a musical trio.
“It’s really about the joy of amateur musicianship and doing something for the love of it,” says Saint-Amour. “That means being okay with the possibility of face-planting.”
As co-hosts, Saint-Amour and Platt bring different strengths. The former studied classical piano until he was 18, joined an a cappella group at Yale University, and played in a rock band during graduate school; the latter came to the podcast as a lifelong dabbler in guitar with some college glee club and a cappella experience.
“Paul is almost professional and can play any instrument,” says Platt, who has recently taken up bass. “My musical abilities are all kind of intuitive; my musical education was … a bit spotty.” But SideGig, he underscores, isn’t about being a virtuoso—it’s about friendship and a shared love of music. “SideGig is really intended to be a space for friendly conversation more so than anything hyper-technical,” Platt continues. “We want to tap into what people are interested in, while also keeping a focus on music.”
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