This week, as an unseasonably warm fall break came to a close, The Argus had the joy of sitting down with Isaac Moss ’25. Sitting in her kitchen with a lovely cup of tea, surrounded by cozy decor including a wall of recipes left by guests of the house, the Physics and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (FGSS) double major talked to us about their very busy day-to-day. From gardens to laboratories and studios to farms, Moss painted a picture of a life well-led.

The Argus: Why do you think you were nominated to be a WesCeleb?

Isaac Moss: I feel omnipresent sometimes. That sounds crazy, I don’t know. I think I’m very much in the visible eye. I work a lot with the farm and with WILD Wes and with the radio—I have my hands in a lot of pots on campus. People know me!

A: I’m glad you brought up the farm, because you are involved in not only Long Lane and WILD Wes, but also the Sustainability Office. How did you get so involved with all things earthy and plant-esque?

IM: I’ve always been passionate about gardening. I lived in Baltimore and had a very small urban garden plot right in front of my house and learned how to grow tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, whatever. When I showed up to Wesleyan, there was an orientation event which was something like “Intro to the Permaculture Garden Here,” and I was like, “Oh, great, that sounds perfect!” So I just stayed involved. I’m stubborn, I want to see things through to the end, whether that be the end of a project or the end of my four years here. There’s a lot of stuff I pick up, like the farm, like WILD Wes, like the Sustainability Office, where I love doing it, but I’m also stubborn, and I want to see it through.

A: What’s your favorite plant in WILD Wes and why?

IM: The cherry trees. I’m allergic to cherries because of the pollen, but the second summer I was here, my housemate Stefan [Hesseling ’25] and I climbed up in that tree, and we picked gallons upon gallons of cherries, and all I ate was cherries. It was so, so enjoyable, even though it made me itchy.

A: Outside all of your time in the dirt, you’re also, as you mentioned, a DJ at WESU with a pretty unique and fun show concept combining sci-fi stories with related music. What prompted you to do that?

IM: I’ve always loved college radio. Morgan State radio in Baltimore has a ton of local music, and I would listen to it all the time. The music I grew up in came from college radio, so why not keep doing it? I have a show called “The Radio Show at the End of the Universe” where every week I choose a short sci-fi story, read it out loud, and play [music] that I think relates to the story. I love the people on the radio station. I have [another] show with my co-host, Ford [McDill ’25], which is a musical improv show. It’s called “Two’s A Crowd.” It’s a silly show, I really can’t explain it without having to go into this whole tangent. 

A: I have had the great fortune of being someone who has tasted the food you’ve made. You’re an excellent cook. What role has food and cooking played in your time at Wesleyan?

IM: Food has been my main impetus for community. Freshman year, it was Hanukkah, and I made latkes in the Butt[erfield] C kitchen. And then I realized: “Hey, I’m a freshman, but I am enjoying cooking. I have points. Why not just keep cooking?” So I cooked in the Butts C kitchen. I also spent two summers here cooking for myself, not being on the meal plan. I had to learn how to cook, and I had to learn how to cook well because I want to enjoy the things I’m eating. And now my primary vector for hanging out with people is having them over for a meal. I’ve got a list on the back of my door of all the people I want to have over in the next few weeks, and I’m slowly crossing them out. It’s my hobby, but also the way I build a community around me.

A: What’s your favorite thing that you’ve cooked recently?

IM: Isadora [Goldman-Leviton ’25] and Stefan, my other two housemates, will leave such amazing leftovers. Stefan and I make a lot of Japanese food, Isadora and I do a lot of fusion. So we had leftover brisket and rice and kimchi, and we made this amazing brisket-kimchi porridge or whatever, and it was cold, so it was the right thing for that time. I don’t have a recipe for it, we threw together whatever we had in the fridge.

A: But that’s kind of the best recipe.

IM: Yes, that’s how I operate a lot: going and being like, “What do I have to eat? Let’s make something beautiful out of it.”

A: So on top of all the things that you have going on, you were also an orientation leader [(OL)] for three years. You were one of eight seniors this fall who stuck around for all possible years. What kept you coming back? 

IM: I really like being an OL! I like the connections you get to make with everyone on the Wesleyan campus, I love the people that I’ve met. I’m not the most “rah-rah Wesleyan” person around, but I really enjoy the chance to make these connections and to foster belonging on the Wesleyan campus. It’s also legitimately a fun time. You get to come back early, you get to hang out with friends!

A: So if you’re reading this and you want to be an orientation leader, it has the Isaac Moss stamp of approval. You’re also a STEM major and an FGSS major. How do you balance those, and how do they fit into everything else you’re doing at Wesleyan?

IM: So the short answer as to how they fit into anything I’m doing at Wes is that they don’t. It’s completely incongruous with my environmental career. Not that physics and FGSS are completely separate from environmental justice and such, but I’m not doing the environmental work I’m doing because of these majors. 

I’m writing my FGSS senior capstone on truth in physics and [asking] “How do we understand what Western science says to be truth? Can we understand it as absolute truth? What is that? What are the implications?” Physics has less room to rely on gender studies. It’s a lot of problem sets. I’m not as good at the math as I’d like to be, but that’s okay. I’m persevering, I’m stubborn. I choose to persevere because I love the fundamentals, [and] I love exploring the base concepts of the universe. FGSS studies the base concepts of social structures, so maybe I’m interested in fundamentals. 

A: What’s been your favorite class or professor that you’ve had?

IM: This goes back to my radio show! I took this amazing class called “New Worlds, Indigenous Futures” [(AMST292)] with [former Visiting] Professor Lou Cornum. It was a class about Indigenous and Indigiqueer science fiction and how we conceptualize the future. There’s a very popular frame that the apocalypse has already happened for many people already. So, how do we contextualize science fiction and looking to the future with the fact that the apocalypse has already happened, and what are minority writers who are not normally getting the limelight in the world of science fiction writing about? So whenever I can, I try to feature them on my radio show too.

A: So between the physics, the critically analyzing fundamentals of society, the gardening, the farming, the radio show, the orientation leading, and the cooking, what’s been the most rewarding thing for you?

IM: I do think it’s been the farming. Shameless plug, but I have a very heavy hand in making Pumpkinfest happen each year, which is Long Lane Farm’s annual festival, which happens tomorrow if you’re reading this the day The Argus comes out. It’s a chance to bring together the Middletown community and the Wesleyan community. Having that happen and go well has been super rewarding, and I’m excited to have it happen again. I picked it up sophomore year and have been doing it since, not out of stubbornness, but out of pure love. 

A: I know this might be a scary question, but what’s going on for you after graduation?

IM: I can take anything in several ways. I’m really interested in WWOOFing [World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms], but I’m also right now getting started in a career as a science writer. Science, a lot of times, is very inaccessible, and right now, I’m aspiring to be the bridge between the general public and science jargon. There’s huge, crazy, awesome research going on on the Wesleyan campus, and it doesn’t have that connection to students or to people around us, because often it’s inaccessible. I want to be able to bridge that gap.

A: When people hear the name Isaac Moss in a year or two, what do you hope they think of? What legacy do you want to leave behind?

IM: “Oh, I got emails from this person!” No—I’d like to put my name on a bench in WILD Wes or name a tree after myself. In two years, people here will probably still remember who I was, but I think it could be fun to have my name on a bench in WILD Wes, so people in 10 years will be like, “Who’s this Isaac?”

A: What’s this “Moss” bench? There’s no moss on it! I guess your name is really good for what you do.

IM: Yeah!

A: If you could give advice to someone who’s just starting at Wesleyan, what would it be?

IM: Don’t be afraid to say yes to things that come up. That’s how I’ve made a lot of my friends, by saying yes to going to events, saying yes to being on committees. Probably don’t do as much as I do. Don’t follow my example, don’t be as stubborn as me. But, get involved. Go outside. Going gardening and working on the farm and actually getting sun has made me happier by far.

A: Even though you’re allergic to pollen?

IM: Well, yeah, but isn’t everyone?

 

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Correction note on Oct. 25, 2024: An earlier version of this article only partially listed the last name of Isadora Goldman-Leviton ’25.

Sam Hilton can be reached at shilton@wesleyan.edu.