While PhDrinking is now officially retired, I haven't given up podcasting!Check out my two new podcasts and hit subscribe if either/both catch your interest!Carry the Two: A podcast from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovationhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/carry-the-two/id1629115184In Defense of Fandom: The show that examin…

After 6 years, 116 pages, and 29,379 words- I was officially made Sadie Witkowski, PhD! I thought the appropriate way to celebrate such a momentous occasion was to flip the show on its head so that I can share a bit about the work I've conducted throughout grad school. Suggested Reading:My lab's work with TMR: https://aeon.co/ideas/how-sound-and-sm…

Send me your questions about sleep, memory, and science communication!facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhDrinking/twitter: @SadieWit, @PhDrinkingemail: phdrinking@gmail.comAv PhDrinking

Olea Morris studies ecovillages, places where people try to live off-the-grid in the most sustainable way they can. Olea focuses specifically on how humans in these villages interact with the animals that share their space.Suggested Reading:ecovillages: Karen Litfin's "Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community" https://books.google.de/books?id…

We all have that friend who is convinced CBD is a true panacea, but has no scientific evidence to back it up. Well, let me introduce you to a memory researcher who has moved into clinical research focusing on CBD, psilocybin, and other trippy drugs. Manoj Doss walks us through some of his research and what we do (or don't) know about different subs…

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Our brains are great at soaking up all sorts of information, but less good at updating that information. This can become a problem when it comes to the insidious nature of fake news. Thankfully, Nikita Salovich is on the case, studying how we cope with fake news.PS- early in the episode, Nikita says Chicago is the capital of Illinois as an example …

Guys, it finally happened. My longest time friend in grad school and thrice-weekly lifting partner finally joined me on the pod to talk research! So enjoy this episode where Ben Reuveni and I talk about memory, learning, and the joys/headaches of data exploration.Ben's lab profile: http://reberlab.psych.northwestern.edu/people/ben-reuveni/Research …

Have you ever returned home after a loud concert, only to notice everything sounds muffled and a bit more quiet? In those moments, I usually think of my mom chastising me by saying that I can't recover lost hearing. But thanks to Amrita's research, there's a chance we may be able to recover our hearing after all!Suggested Reading:Article Amrita wro…

Just in time for the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting here in Chicago! In this conversation with Alie Caldwell, we talk about her dissertation research, her scicomm efforts, and just geek out about the brain in general.Suggested Reading:The roles of glia in CNS development: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6411/181/tab-pdfAstrocyte…

I know that everyone jokes that if you're a biology PhD, you must be studying cancer. But sometimes, that's actually true! I had the pleasure to chat with Keighley about her work with cancer stem cells, specifically in breast cance.rSuggested Reading:Breast cancer overview: https://www.healthline.com/health/triple-negative-breast-cancer-recurrenceW…

It was a happy accident that I found Hannah Groch-Begley though an old college friend. Her historical research on the changing roles of women in the British Empire during WW1 covered much more than anything I've seen in a textbook. I'm sure you'll enjoy the conversation as much as I did.Suggested Reading:12 Things you didn't know about WW1: https:/…

It's not often that I get to chat with a fellow psychology grad student about their research! For this episode, I spoke with Jennifer about how emotions affect decision-making, particularly when it comes to mood disordersSuggested Reading:Recent publication about arousal and impulsivity: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30259983Lab website: CALM…

We often hear about research that requires intensely specialized equipment- from the large hadron collider to PCR machines. But imagine of you could conduct your research by just using a household appliance. Well Matthew is one of the lucky few who can conduct his research on graphene with the help of a typical blender!Suggested Reading:General pie…

**Head's up, we had some technical difficulties when recording this episode. There was a break in our audio that we filled with some pleasant elevator music (courtesy The Mini Vandals) before continuing the conversation. Sorry about that!**Have you ever wondered if DNA is the only way to identify a unique person? What if we could use the microbiome…

The landscape of journalism is changing rapidly. With established newspapers going out of business and the rise of online publication, working as a journalist today is very different than even 20 years ago. Nick Hagar studies these trends and researches how the world of journalism is continuing to evolve.Suggested Reading:A great recent rundown of …

Hey guys,No episode this week as I recover from ComSciCon-Flagship. We will be back to our regular schedule on July 29th with a new episode. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me!Follow me: PhDrinking@gmail.com, @PhDrinking, @SadieWit, www.facebook.com/PhDrinking/Thanks to www.bensound.com/ for the intro/outro…

Thanks to the NPR SciCommers community, I had the chance to chat with Gosia all the way over in Porto, Portugal! She studies genetic variation within pigeons and other birds, all while applying this research to a broader context.Suggested Reading:CIBIO: https://cibio.up.pt/people/details/malgorzatagMolecular Ecology blog: https://www.molecularecolo…

There are lots of unusual research animals, but Amanda's animal of choice is one you might see on your plate. She studies the behavior of cattle (the meat variety, not milk producing) and what that can tell us about best practices to keep them happy and healthy.Suggested Reading:Modern beef production: https://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/raising-…

In grade school, we learn about the solid, liquid, and gas form of water and assume we know everything. Turns out, that's totally wrong! There's a lot that we don't know about water molecules. but don't worry, we have PhD student Memo here to get us up to speed on his research.Suggested Reading:Intro to ultrafast spectroscopy: https://www.youtube.c…

We tend to think of our genetic inheritance as stable over time, but the expression of those genes can be altered by your environment. Laetitia studies one example of this- gestational (pregnancy-induced) diabetes. Suggested Reading:A general primer on epigenetics- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1392256/The human genome project- http:…

Conferences aren't just for presenting your research, sometimes you meet other students doing amazing work! In this episode, I chat with Bryan about his research on marine ecology using computational tools.Suggested Reading:Smithsonian Ocean Portal (for cool ocean news & educational resources): https://ocean.si.edu/Smithsonian Ocean Portal coverage…

How do you design a more egalitarian society through the clothing choices of men and women? Turns out, the social cues of clothing (and how well you can actually move in those clothes) were a major concern for some French revolutionaries. Fellow Northwestern PhD student Marissa Croft studies this intersection of costuming and politics.Suggested Rea…

Imagine having the last name Doctor, but still finishing your PhD. That's just life for Zoheyr, a student studying gravitational waves at UChicago.Suggested Reading:LIGO website: https://www.ligo.org/ Blog on the scientists of LIGO: https://humansofligo.blogspot.com/Find Zoheyr Doctor: @almostdrdoctorFollow me: PhDrinking@gmail.com, @PhDrinking, @S…

In this episode, I explore the world of professional smash bros players with Kyle Nolla. We talk about everything from the role of stress in performance in video games to gender representation in gaming to her work on the Harassment Task Force.Suggested Reading:Super Smash Con 2018 mindsets and stress management panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Newly-minted PhD Thom Booth took time from his busy schedule (moving to Australia!) to tell me all about his PhD research. Thom studies natural products discovery, which honestly I didn't know what that was either. But don't worry, he does a great job breaking down his research in this episode!Suggested Reading:Molecular explanation of Geosmin (the…

Some graduate programs place you right into your lab where you'll stay for 5+ years, but others go on a tour of the research being done in their area. Today, grad student Jordan Harrod joins me to tell us about the different labs she's rotated in & the cool research they're doing. Oh, and did I mention she's on the leadership board for Students for…

How do you go from working on agricultural tech to modelling how robots move and manipulate tools? Well, Zack Woodruff made exactly that academic leap. He shares his expertise ranging from green technology to the world of robotics.Suggested Readings:General background: https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/robots-getting-a-…

Science communication can take many forms, including posting on instagram about the science behind your favorite disney characters! Sarah White is a graduate student studying learning sciences, but when she's not working on her research, she's known as the PhD Princess.Suggested Reading:Website specifically related to Sarah's research: https://www.…

In this episode, I dive deep into quantum communication with Sam Whiteley. We talk about unhackable communication networks, the difficultly of setting up a totally quantum system, and where work on quantum communication still has a ways to go.Suggested Readings: Link to a free version of our manuscript, recently accepted by Nature Physics: https://…

In this episode, another fellow AAAS MMF alum joins me to talk about her research on fire! Allie Weill studies the connections between fire, plants and the ecosystem at large. She specifically studies fire-adapted plants in Mediterranean shrublands in California, but our conversation was much broader than that.Suggested Readings:Various posts on ma…

This week, my guest & I did more than talk about his environmental engineering research. We also took a deep dive into the DeGrowth movement, both abroad & here in the United States. DegrowUS Suggested Readings:A distilled list of degrowth overviews, opinions, and academic research: https://www.degrowus.org/readings/A review article I published las…

A message from Lauren:During graduate school, I have been funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Program, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders. The content presented in this podcast is solely my responsibility and does not necessarily reflect the offic…

Although DNA is often treated as the end-all in individual differences, it's not just about the blue print of the body. Ittai studies genetic regulation, or how DNA is expressed (or isn't). In this episode, we dive into his research techniques and talk about what it means to be human.Smithsonian DNA explainer: http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/ge…

Math is way more than formulas learned in algebra class in high school. This episode's guest, Yen Duong, earned her PhD studying graph theory and topology! While she's now a science reporter in North Carolina, she was happy to tell me all about her PhD research!Suggested Reading:Yen's blog on geometric group theory: https://bakingandmath.com/2015/0…

Nathan Bradshaw once worked on a nuclear submarine but wanted more adventure in life. So, he came to grad school and started studying colloidal COFs. Don't know what those are? Why not give this episode a listen and find out!Suggested Reading:Wikipedia for COFs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covalent_organic_frameworkShort article about colloidal C…

Imagine if you got to spend your summers heading down to the Antarctic continent on a boat to release small robots. That's exactly what Giuliana does as part of her PhD, studying climate change in the currents of the ocean. In today's episode, I chat with Giuliana about her research and what got her interested in it to begin with.Suggested Reading:…

Guys, I was just too excited to talk with Breanna about her chickadee research and wasn't paying enough attention to the audio quality when I started recording. Can you blame me? I was excited to learn about animal behavior and personality a la behavioral ecology!Suggested Reading:Research article on animal personality: https://www.cell.com/current…

Did you know that sunflowers aren't just pretty, they're also a model organism! Rishi uses sunflowers to study how different drought conditions affect agricultural out put.Scientific overview of how droughts affect different groups: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1019&conte…

Did you know not all bees live in hives or create honey? In fact, most species of bees native to the US are of the solitary variety. This week, Meghan Barrett tells us about a few of those species and what makes them so unique.Suggested Reading:The Bees in your Backyard by Wilson and Carril: http://beesinyourbackyard.blogspot.com/p/poster.html (Pos…

Fellow ComSciCon- Chicago attendee Gourav Khullar joined me to chat about galaxy clusters. He explained how he models galaxies, infrared telescopes, and gravitational lensing.Suggested Reading:What is a galaxy cluster? http://chandra.harvard.edu/learn_galaxyCluster.html How galaxy clusters tell us a story about the universe: https://astrobites.org/…

Have you ever visited a museum and wondered where all the artifacts come from? Well Heather studies collections of objects from WW2 (yes, like those you sometimes see at your favorite history museum) and where those objects originally came from. It can range from the usual battleground trophies to the truly bizarre...PS- sorry for the wonky sound r…

How are emotional memories stored and retrieved? And what if we could use brain stimulation to learn more about emotional memory? Well today's guest tells us all about his work with stimulating live human brains!Suggested Reading:A quick primer on amygdala-mediated memory enhancement: http://www.dana.org/News/Understanding_the_Amygdalas_Role_in_Mem…

What can a common flower teach us about evolutionary biology? Well it turns out the incredibly diverse columbine flower is a great model organism and youtuber/grad student Molly takes us on a journey to learn more.Suggested Reading:Paper about developing Aquilegia (columbine flowers) as a model for evo-devo: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/851926…

Machine learning is quite a hot-topic of research right now, with many different offshoots linking it to other fields of research. Scott Cambo, today's guest, studies the intersection of machine learning and human-computer interaction. In particular, he's interested in how mobile self-tracking (think FitBit) user design can increase healthy behavio…

Moving from our more typical science topics towards more applied research, I talked with Lindsey about her research in public history. She focuses on the representation of women in historic house museums and examining the disconnect between academic research about early American women and their portrayal in spaces that are stereotypically feminine.…