January 2012
1 post
Hello!
To those that followed the project, I hope you’ve been well. It’s been too long since we last talked.
To those of you visiting 52 Cups for the first time, thanks for stopping by!
52 Cups of Coffee was my yearlong experiment in caffeine and conversation. I wanted to see what would happen if I spent a year talking to strangers so I invited 52 different people to coffee and asked them...
December 2011
1 post
Cup 52
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It’s Tuesday morning and I’m sitting at an adorable breakfast spot in San Francisco eating some of the best bacon and eggs I’ve ever had while enjoying a cup of coffee that the waitress will refill at least three times before I leave.
All throughout senior year, people asked me where I’d be after graduation. I assumed I would be in a cubicle somewhere climbing the...
November 2011
3 posts
Thank You
Before I post Cup 52 I want to take a moment to say thank you.
This may have been “one girl’s experiment” but it was anything but a solo venture. The beauty of this project comes from the wonderful people that have been a part of it.
From the 52 people willing to sit down and share their stories with me to the readers that kept me writing during the days I really didn’t...
Cup 51
Person: Elaine Rosenblatt
Drink: Grande Americano, Chicago Starbucks
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I’m going to be upfront with you guys, cup 51 was hard to write.
There are a lot of explanations, or rather excuses, for why but I think the most relevant one is that I don’t want this project to end because I don’t know what comes next. The irony is that this post is about learning to let go and...
Cups 51 and 52 are on the way!
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I promise
I’ve already done the drinking. Now I just have to do the writing.
I’ve been traveling a lot lately, which has made writing harder than usual. But that’s not the real reason behind the delayed posts. I’ve come down with a case of Writer’s Block, which is inconvenient considering I’m so close to the end.
I suppose it makes sense. This project...
October 2011
3 posts
Cup 50
Person: Clark Bunting
Drink: Medium house coffee from the cafe inside the Discovery headquarters
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Clark Bunting is the president and general manager of Discovery Channel. For the past 25 years, he has been a part of the team that has brought programs like Planet Earth, Shark Week, and Deadliest Catch to life.
He’s also a proud Spartan so I reached out to him to see if he’d meet...
See more pictures from the Cup 49 adventure here →
6 tags
Cup 49
Person: Steve Googin
Drink: Fresh cow milk
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Cup 49 did not involve any coffee. But it did include raw cow milk. I bet you didn’t see that coming. I didn’t either. It all began when a crazy idea infiltrated my mind while filling up my car for an eight-day road trip:
I should find a way to milk a cow!
In all honesty, I have no idea where these ideas come from. Luckily, I...
September 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Cup 48
Person: Steve Schram
Drink: Green tea at the Michigan Radio Headquarters
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Nobody can do it all by themselves.
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The Monday I drove to Ann Arbor to meet Steve Schram I wasn’t in the best spirits. I’d had one of those weekends where everything felt uncertain: the ground I was standing on didn’t feel solid, I questioned every choice I was making, and I worried I was...
The Homestretch
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only got five Cups left of this crazy experiment. I’ll be posting Cup 48 by the end of the week, which means I’ve got four more until I’m done.
Like a mom watching her baby board the bus to kindergarten for the first time, I keep thinking—how did this project grow up so fast?
It’s incredible to think back to the...
4 tags
Cup 47
Person: Brittany Fox
Drink: Decaf coffee at home
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If you convince yourself something won’t work and never try—you might miss out on something incredible. … Brittany Fox has traveled to a lot of cool places. However, in all of her travels, she never found a city she could envision herself moving to. She liked Michigan and that is where she wanted to stay. Until she...
August 2011
2 posts
7 tags
Cup 46
Person: Bo Fishback
Drink: Regular coffee in a Kansas City coffee shop
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Bo Fishback is the self-proclaimed luckiest man in the world.
By age 30, he had found his dream job. He worked as the president of Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation in Kansas City, Missouri where his main task was allocating $100 million dollars a year to various entrepreneurial projects. It was a job that was...
6 tags
Cup 45
Person: Steve Wozniak
Drink: Water while at lunch in Palo Alto, CA
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This story begins in October. Around Cup 16, I was talking about 52 Cups with Todd, a friend at work when an idea hit him, “You should try to set up a meeting with Woz, the co-founder of Apple! I know he’d do it—in fact, I bet he’d even fly to Michigan.” I figured I had nothing to lose so I explored ways to contact...
July 2011
3 posts
Cup 44
Person: Tony Stone
Drink: Office brewed coffee in Edinburgh, Scotland
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Cup 44: Tony Stone Don’t be afraid to change directions. That was my mentality going into my Europe adventure and the reason I ended up in Scotland. My flight back to the States was out of London so I decided that’s where I would spend the last four days of my trip. However, when a friend from MSU emailed...
Cup 43:
Person(s): Yasmina Boustani and Katharina Schmitt
Drink: Cafe Americano in Cannes, France
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On Friday, June 20th at 8:30 PM, I sent Yasmina Boustani a Facebook message.
At 9:10 PM she responded.
By 9:41 that night we had arranged to meet for coffee the following morning.
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It was because of a Facebook message that I was in France in the first place. A few weeks before my trip, I...
Back to Reality
Hello from the Big Apple!
After seven incredible weeks in Europe I am back in the United States!
Over the past two months, I have been in a new city every three or four days meeting new people, seeing great sights and enjoying great food along the way. It has been a great learning experience and one that would not have happened without 52 Cups. The lessons I’ve learned and people...
June 2011
4 posts
Cup 42
Person: Mihaela Fabian
Drink: Cafe Americano in Den Haag, Netherlands
Before Cup 42 I had never given Romania much thought. After Cup 42, I decided I needed to visit Romania so I did some research and swung through Bucharest on my way to Istanbul (I took this picture while there). Here’s a very quick history lesson: After WWI, Romania was experiencing an era of prosperity. At the start of...
Cup 41
Person: Roman Kroke
Drink: Espresso
I was sitting on a small floor cushion inside a fourth floor studio in Art House Tacheles. It’s an art center in Berlin that began as a department store in the Jewish quarter that was later used as a Nazi prison. When the Berlin wall fell the partially demolished building was overtaken by artists and transformed into studio space and a nightclub. It’s...
Cup 40
Person: Janina Pasik
Drink: Coffee brewed at her home outside Warsaw, Poland
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As I sat on a train to Warsaw, I had no idea what I would find when I arrived.
Since we met for coffee in November, Piotr Pasik (Cup 17) and I have become good friends and when he found out I was going to be in Europe, he insisted I swing through Warsaw to visit him at his grandmother’s house. After two...
Cup 39
Person: Colin Wright
Drink: Americano in Reykjavik, Iceland
I found Colin Wright through Twitter. I was leaving Iceland’s Blue Lagoon (a recommendation from Cup 21) where I’d been sitting in 100 degree water with 30 mph, freezing winds blowing around me.
The outside temp was a meager 40 degrees, or I suppose I should say 4 degrees Celsius. I had just finished eating an Icelandic hot...
May 2011
5 posts
Cup 38
Person: Seth Godin
Drink: House Coffee in NYC
There is a passage in Seth Godin’s latest book, Poke the Box, that goes like this:
Take action. Move forward. The world doesn’t have room for standing still anymore. You have to innovate. Take initiative.
Take initiative. Which, interestingly enough, was how I ended up sitting across from Seth in Le Pain Quotidien, a delightfully fresh...
Cup 38
Cup 38 is on its way!
I arrived in Iceland at 3 pm this afternoon (after an unexpected 12 hour layover at JFK) and am working on some finishing touches before posting!
-megan
Cup 37
Person: Peggy Brennan
Drink: Cup of french pressed coffee from MCBW
The day I visited the Green Garage in Detroit was sunny, and the hour-long drive was just what I needed to clear my head from a stressful few weeks of school. When I arrived at the address I found an old building clearly under construction, which I had to circle a few times to make sure I was in the right spot. (photo...
Update
Well, it’s official. I am a college graduate. Saturday, I walked across the stage and received the diploma I’ve spent four years working to earn.
Unfortunately, all the pomp and circumstance got in the way of my writing and coffee drinking, but that has since resumed and I’ll post Cup 37 on Monday.
So now that I’m done with college, what’s next?
Well, I’m...
Cup 36
Person: Tom Izzo
Drink: No coffee this time, just conversation
For fans of college basketball, and especially Michigan State, Tom Izzo is a hero. He has led the team to the 2000 National Championship, 6 Final Fours and 6 Big Ten Championships. In 2011, he earned the prestigious Legends of Coaching Award and in 2010 when the Cleveland Cavaliers made him an offer to coach in the NBA, the East...
April 2011
4 posts
Cup 35
Person: Stacy Bohrer
Drink: Regular brewed coffee
Stacy cuts straight to the chase. All year I’ve had people advising me to decide what I’m passionate about and turn that into a job. Stacy Bohrer told me she knows what she is passionate about—but consciously decided she wasn’t going to make it her job. She told me this as I sat in front of my computer, headphones plugged in, coffee at my...
Cup 35
Hello Everyone!
Just wanted to let you know Cup 35 is on its way shortly. With graduation 16 days away, I’ve had some T’s to cross and I’s to dot, but will resume posting soon!
Also, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you all for joining me on this crazy adventure. Knowing you’re out there reading has made an incredible difference.
megan
Cup 34
Person: Mike Wardian
Drink: Water (Much needed after wandering around Washington, DC all day)
Mike Wardian is a running junkie getting up at dawn to put in a dozen miles before leaving for work and another dozen sometime during lunch. He ran 17 marathons last year, has qualified for the olympic trials twice and is sponsored by companies like NorthFace, Powerbar and MarathonGuide.com. This...
1 tag
Cup 33
Person: Jonathan Zittrain
Drink: Water (I’d had enough caffeine for one day)
I never expected a project that started in Michigan would lead to a conversation in Texas with a Professor from Massachusetts that happened because of a conversation in California. But the world works in strange ways. It all started when Jonathan Zittrain, an accomplished Professor at Harvard Law, came...
March 2011
5 posts
1 tag
Cup 32
Person: Wanda Herndon
Drink: Grande decaf Americano from Starbucks in Belltown, Seattle
Every year since I’ve been in college, I’ve spent spring break visiting my brother. With the turbulence of college in the spring, I always look forward to the respite with family. For the past three years, that has meant flying to Wyoming, but my brother and his new wife recently relocated to Seattle,...
1 tag
Cup 31
Person: Kenyatta Berry
Drink: Home brewed coffee as we talked over the phone
It’s alright to strike out a few times.
In college, Kenyatta Berry found herself on academic probation. It wouldn’t be the first time and it wasn’t because she wasn’t smart. In high school she went to a Detroit magnet school for gifted kids, she never left the house without a book to read if she had a few spare...
1 tag
Cup 30
Person: Mike McFall
Drink: Grande Americano from the Biggby Headquarters
“Do you ever wonder how your life would be if you’d made one decision differently?” Mike McFall asked me this question as we sat in his office at the Biggby Headquarters. The question came after he recounted the events leading up to the year in high school that he spent sailing around the world for...
1 tag
Cup 29
Person: Sue Carter
Drink: Grande house coffee from Biggby on Grand River
“The water buffalo are waiting at the gate. Let’s go!” This was a common phrase heard by Sue Carter growing up. It was one of her mother’s favorite. An expression that implied there was a whole world outside waiting to be discovered and you weren’t going to find it sitting inside waiting. The mentality clearly wore...
1 tag
Cup 28
Person: Ellen C
Drink: medium green tea, Bean and Leaf Cafe, Royal Oak, MI
Ellen C has a challenging job. She teaches first grade at an elementary school in Macomb County, a suburb of Detroit.
I can’t imagine capturing the attention of a couple dozen seven year olds and keeping it long enough to cover the principles of basic math and proper nouns. I’m just not fit for the elementary school...
February 2011
6 posts
1 tag
email
Sent: January 24, 2011 3:26:06 PM
From: Megan Gebhart
To: Ellen C
Hello Ellen, I am a senior at MSU. I am working on a yearlong blogging project called 52 Cups of Coffee. Each week for a year, I am meeting with someone I don’t know and writing about what I learn and how I change in the process. Scott Westerman mentioned your name the other day while we were in a meeting, he had...
Cup 27
Person: Masaki Takahashi
Drink: Green tea from Wanderer’s Teahouse
Cup 27 started with an unexpected email.
My college newspaper ran a story about 52 Cups and Masaki Takahashi, a fellow MSU student, stumbled across it and felt compelled to email me.
It was the last line of his email that really hooked me:
“I love the idea of the blog because I am on my own mission to branch out as well. I...
1 tag
Email
Received: February 4, 2011 12:03:17 AM
From: Masaki Takahashi
To: Megan Gebhart
Dear Megan, I do not usually read The State News but I was at my job cleaning the Engineering building today and I saw the article about your blog and became compelled to write to you. I love the idea of the blog because I am on my own mission to branch out as well. I have kept this guard up from letting...
Cup 26
Person: Jim Little
Drink: Medium brewed coffee, Hazelnut blend
Snowapocalypse 2011 descended upon East Lansing, which closed school and successfully interrupted my plans to head to Detroit for Cup 26 in the process.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to carry out the week’s coffee, but as I looked at the 11 inches of snow I’d have to trudge through, I remembered hearing a story about how Jim Little,...
1 tag
Phone call
Made: February 3, 2011 4:07 PM
To: H&H Mobile
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Me: Hi Jim, My name is Megan and I am a marketing major at MSU. I got your name from a friend of mine. I am working on a project where each week for a year, I have coffee with someone I don’t know and write about what I learn in the process. I know this is late notice, but would you be free to meet tomorrow for...
Cup 25
Person: Betsy Miner-Swartz
Drink: House coffee from Edmund’s
By the time I got to the Edmund’s, I was 15 minutes late and flustered from an unexpectedly hectic afternoon. I had let Betsy know of my delay, but that didn’t loosen the knot in my stomach knowing I potentially ruined the first impression.
I rushed into the restaurant and spotted Betsy immediately. She was patiently waiting at a...
January 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Email
Sent: January 23, 2011 6:57:46 PM
From: Megan Gebhart
To: Betsy Miner-Swartz
Hi Betsy, I am a senior at MSU and a friend of Robin. I am working on a year-long blogging project titled 52 Cups of Coffee (http://www.52cups.tumblr.com). Each week for a year, I’m having coffee with someone I don’t know and writing about what I learn in the process. I have heard wonderful...
1 tag
Cup 24
Person: Angela Shetler
Drink: Starbucks venti coffee to go
I’d set my alarm early enough to run to the corner Starbucks and back before nine. I hadn’t gotten used to the early morning routine of the semester and knew waking up would require something stronger than what my puny coffee maker could brew. Once back in my room, I sat down at my computer and got ready to chat.
Angela Shetler was also...
1 tag
Email
Sent: December 16, 2010 at 4:07 PM, M
From: Megan Gebhart
To: Angela Shetler
Hi Angela, I am sorry for being bad at my correspondence! l blame it on finals week, but that is a poor excuse. If you’re free to skype next week, I can be really flexible anytime after Sunday. I’ll be at my parents house looking for something to keep me occupied! Let me know what your schedule looks...
1 tag
Cup 23
Person: Barry Litwin
Drink: House coffee Wild Board Coffee
I met Barry at a coffee shop in Fort Collins, Colorado—a city not too far from my grandma’s house, where I was staying for a few days before flying back to Michigan.
I’d found out him through my friend Emily. A few weeks ago, she emailed me with information about a friend of hers I had to meet—a former Wall Street man that had worked as a...
1 tag
Email
Sent: Jan 1, 2011, at 4:43 PM
From: Megan Gebhart
To: Barry Arthur Litwin
Hi Barry,
Happy New Year! I am a friend of Emily Winter’s. I believe she told you about me, but in case she didn’t—I am a senior at Michigan State. I am currently working on a project called 52 Cups of Coffee (http://www.52cups.tumblr.com), where each week for a year I talk to someone I...
1 tag
Cup 22
Person: Abby Ward
Drink: Small coffee from Brothers Coffee, Gillette, Wyoming
Just when you think you know someone, you learn something new.
Richard Ward works at the Public Library with my mom. Growing up, the library was practically my second home so I’ve known Richard and his wonderful wife, Rachel Nava, for a long time.
The family member I did not know was Abby, the daughter they adopted from...
1 tag
Cup 21
Person: Torya Blanchard
Drink: Cup of brewed house coffee
Torya Blanchard was caught shoplifting when she was 15—a few weeks before a trip to Paris for her 16th birthday. When she got home, her mother’s furious words were simple, “Only good girls go to Paris!”
Her mother doesn’t remember the scolding but it’s something Torya will never forget. 15 years after the trip to Paris, Torya...
December 2010
8 posts
Email
Sent: December 7, 2010 9:49:42 AM
From: Megan Gebhart
To: Torya Blanchard
Hello Torya, My name is Megan, I’m a senior at Michigan State. I am currently working on a yearlong blogging project called 52 Cups of Coffee. Each week for a year I am having coffee with someone I don’t know and writing about what I learn and how I change in the process. I came across Good Girls...
1 tag
Cup 20
Person: Sam Rosen
Drink: regular coffee at Lovely, a bake shop
If I handed you a pen and said, “what is this?” you would say “a pen.” If I asked what you do with a pen, you would say, “write.” And you would be correct because that’s what it is, and that’s what it does.
But what if I handed the same pen to a dog? He wouldn’t use it to write, he would use it as a chew toy. Is he wrong? No, from a...
Email
Received: December 8, 2010 12:39:54 PM
From: Brett Kopf
To: Sam Rosen, Megan Gebhart
Sam-congrats on the full launch. Say hi to Meg, a friend & blogger. She’s still a student at MSU, started 52cups and is on quite the roll. She’ll be in Chi & thought you’d be a great person to interview…she’ll be here tomorrow-Sunday, hope you guy’s find time...