Six BU Alums Celebrated in Latest Forbes Lists
Viral playground interviewer Julian Shapiro-Barnum (CFA'21) is among the Terriers honored
Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees Joel Bervell (CAMED’19) (clockwise from top left), photo courtesy of Forbes; Julian Shapiro-Barnum (CFA’21), photo courtesy of Forbes; Raya Bidshahri (CAS’17), photo courtesy of Forbes; Griffin DiStefano (ENG’19), photo courtesy ofGriffin DiStefano; and Toshit Panigrahi (CAS’17), photo by Martin Zhu; and 100 Most Powerful Women honoree Shari Redstone (LAW’78,’81), photo via AP/Evan Agostini/Invision
Six BU Alums Celebrated in Latest Forbes Lists
Terriers named to the magazine’s 30 Under 30 lists for 2025 and the 100 Most Powerful Women list for 2024
This article was originally published in Bostonia on January 22, 2025. By Alene Bouranova
Excerpt
Five BU alumni—a media marketplace manager, an online high school founder, a medical mythbuster, a video production phenom, and a viral playground interviewer—have been named to this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 lists. The annual Forbes magazine lists celebrate the biggest and brightest young talent across a multitude of industries.
Among the honorees is…
Julian Shapiro-Barnum (CFA’21)
There’s a very good chance you’ve seen Shapiro-Barnum online. He’s the founder of Recess Therapy, a comedic video interview series with kids that sprung out of a BU College of Fine Arts senior thesis project. Shapiro-Barnum’s interviews ask the important questions—Do you have any crushes right now? If you threw a party, what would it be like? What’s the most magical place in New York?—to unpredictably hilarious results. (Answers: Three-and-a-half, one human and hundreds of skeletons, and Jersey Mike’s.) His videos frequently spawn megaviral moments, like Corn Kid. Recess Therapy has more than three million followers, including celebrities who often appear as guest interviewers.