A journey through ecology, evolution, infectious disease, mathematics and computational biology in medicine is what has made Dr. Brandon Ogbunu the scientist he is today. And he is completely unapologetic about it because Brandon’s believes that all these facets of his work, personality and ethnicity put him in a unique position to understand complex interactions. That includes those that we’re seeing in the midst of a pandemic. We had the pleasure of talking to Brandon about his...

Dr James Gurney is a microbiologist interested in infectious diseases. He is also a big fan of science communication whether that means talking to students in classrooms, hosting his own podcast, or consulting for Kurzgesagt. In fact it’s the latter that inspired us to ask James on our show. You can find the Kurzgesagt on the novel coronavirus here. We talked about James’ current research, armchair scientists and naturally, COVID-19.

Bats are a hot topic right now in light of COVID-19, but anyone working on them will tell you these are some of the most misunderstood mammals. Thankfully Dr. Susan Tsang is an expert and she sat down with us to talk about her favorite pollinators. Yes, just like the birds and the bees, we should be including bats among the organisms that help transfer seeds. Listen in, or this time watch(!) to hear more about Susan’s field of biogeography (the study of where things live), conservation,...

Eat the crust? No, we’re not talking bread, we are talking about that layer of our planet earth, because our guest is geoscientist, Beth Bartel. For someone who’s worked a lot with GPS, much of Beth’s career has been pretty meandering. For now though she’s settled on a job she loves, helping communicate the science of geology and natural hazards, while training other scientists to share their work. We talked to Beth about the challenge of tackling pseudoscience, and the need for...

Oz Ismail went from being a research scientist taking pictures of bones, to a doctoral scientist, taking pictures of brains. He spent his PhD imaging as part of a project on Alzheimer’s disease. We talked to him about what’s known about the disease and the difficulties in treatment and diagnosis. We also talked about how along the way he’s performed stand-up, worked with friends to create the Minorities in STEM community, and how he himself is co-host of a science podcast called Why...

How many people knew what they wanted to do when they were 9? Sure, maybe you wanted to be a rockstar or a fire fighter, but a psychologist? Well we know one person at least! Dr. Lindsey Rodriguez is a social psychologist interested in the science underlying close relationships. As the director of Healthy Emotions and Relationship Theories (HEART) Laboratory she and her colleagues are looking for new ways to help people with difficult relationships. We talked to Lindsey about her work...

Science, genetics, teaching and policy. Four things that easily define our guest Dr. Amy J Hawkins. She’s studied the ways that DNA can be damaged in cancer. She’s worked on curricula to help teach genetics at the Genetics Science Learning Center in Utah. She’s worked with policy makers to help improve the lives of fellow Utahans. All makes sense because science, people and politics are all connected. Find out how in this episode with Amy.

Knock knock.Who’s there? Since this is the extent of our joke-telling ability, we’ll leave the real thing to the experts and one of our favorites is Kyle Marian. She began her scientific career as an anthropologist, but has since transitioned into communicating science through…comedy? Find out more about the parallels between academia and stand-up, and how Kyle uses her art as a powerful tool to include those most disenfranchised. Before we go on though, this episode contains a lot of strong...

What’s the shape of a word? How do you save a dying language? How is studying languages a science anyway? All excellent questions for our guest Prof. David Adger a linguist at Queen Mary University of London. He is interested in what underlies the patterns found in the grammar of human languages. Why would anyone study this? As David states, just to better understand the world. But there are also more practical applications like saving dying, often Indigenous languages which hold...

Julian (Zunping) Xue is an MD/PhD (so good they doctored him twice!). He’s a mathematician trying to understand evolution. Why does it set off down a certain path, but not others? He’s also a psychiatrist, in fact the only Mandarin speaking one in all of Montréal. We spoke to him about the connections between two seemingly very different fields, his work to create a network of health professionals for the local Chinese community, and his disgust for the last season of Game of Thrones.

Ankita Patil studies mircrotubules, which as the name suggests are small tube-like structures. They can assemble and disassemble in neurons to transport things around cells. Outside of her research though, Ankita is a mentor to other women in STEM as part of the Philadelphia chapter of the Association for Women in Science. She is also the City Coordinator for taste of science in Philadelphia and in whatever time she has left, she draws cartoons, often about science.

Despite our physical differences, humans are genetically 99.9% the same. Graduate student Renée Fonseca is fascinated by why this is, and how it is important in the case of human health. Part Colombian, part Puerto Rican and part American, Renée’s background is partly responsible for her scientific interests. We discussed her Fulbright Scholarship, outreach in research and the importance of respecting local communities. We also talked to her about her local advocacy.

Bugs of a biofilm flock together, or so says Dr. Sophie Darch. Sophie and her lab study how bacteria interact with each other. She’s interested in what these interactions mean for chronic infections in diseases like Cystic Fibrosis. We talk about her journey through science, moving from the UK to the US, and “basic” research.

She enjoys STEM advocacy, she works on stem cells, she is: Dr. Kristi Stemler. While she works at MD Anderson, she isn’t a cancer researcher. Rather she looks at the role of stem cells and diet in making cancer sufferer’s lives more comfortable. We talked to Kristi about being a first generation college graduate, an artist and thrower of sharp implements! This episode also features a guest appearance from cancer scientist, Stanford postdoc, and our SF taste of science coordinator:...

In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum (well, his character anyway) “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” This feels like a recurring theme in today’s world of technology that has the power to change our very DNA. Enter Dr. Katherine Drabiak, a doctor of jurisprudence and a bioethical scholar. What are our rights once we spit in a tube for 23 and me? How do we decide when science is being done for the greater good...