In the sixth episode of the Microbiology Lab Pod, recorded on December 17, the crew (Johan Bengtsson-Palme, Emil Burman, Haveela Kunche, Anna Abramova, Marcus Wenne, Sebastian Wettersten and Mahbuba Lubna Akter) talks about Haveela’s master thesis, virtual conferences and bring three Christmas themed papers. The specific papers discussed in the pod (with approximate timings) are as follows: * 13:00 – Fulcher, M.R., Bolton, M.L., Millican, M.D., et al., 2020. Broadening Participation in Scientific Conferences during the Era of Social Distancing. Trends in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2020.08.004* 25:15 – de Clercq, N.C., Frissen, M.N., Levin, E., et al., 2019. The effect of having Christmas dinner with in-laws on gut microbiota composition. Human Microbiome Journal 13, 100058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humic.2019.100058* 44:00 – Garcia-Lemos, A.M., Gobbi, A., et al., 2020. Under the Christmas Tree: Belowground Bacterial Associations With Abies nordmanniana Across Production Systems and Plant Development. Frontiers in Microbiology 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00198* 56:15 – Halverson, L.J., Clayton, M.K., Handelsman, J., 1993. Population biology of Bacillus cereus UW85 in the rhizosphere of field-grown soybeans. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 25, 485–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-0717(93)90074-L* 65:00 – Glendinning, L., Genç, B., Wallace, R.J., Watson, M., 2020. Metagenomic analysis of the cow, sheep, reindeer and red deer rumen. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.12.945139 The podcast was recorded on December 17, 2020. If you want to reach out to us with comments, suggestions or other feedback, please send an e-mail to podcast at microbiology dot se or contact @bengtssonpalme via Twitter. The music that can be heard on the pod is composed by Johan Bengtsson-Palme and is taken from the album Cafe Phonocratique.