Zero Bearings: Recent Episodes
Nicole Joy
The Zero Bearings podcast is an audio commentary on the articles published on https://zerobearings.weebly.com/. They are managed by Nicole, the creator/human behind all the ZB works. [ Season 1: Journey to Starting a PhD | Season 2: Getting to Know the Lost Bear ]
As we’re talking about career and financial stability today, let’s keep in our thoughts all the parents in the world, the single dads the single moms, adoptive parents and those who’ve had to take care of themselves and/or their siblings. I’ll keep you guys in my thoughts and prayers today as we delve into this topic.
This season, it’s all about getting to know the lost bear, and if you haven’t guessed it by now, that bear is me. If you’ve seen the poster for this season, you’ll have seen a little girl. Fun fact, that girl is me. I don’t want to bore you with personal stories that aren’t important but I do want to bring light to issues I find significant by using examples from my own life. The goal here is about inclusivity and relatability. I have met individuals, good and bad, who have made a significant impact on my life and it would be a shame to keep all that I’ve learnt to myself. I have quite a few younger friends as well and thought this might be helpful. As for this episode, I’ll introduce you to Zero Bearings; how it came to be and the lost bear behind this production. So grab your choice of beverage, sit back, relax and kick your feet up. Let me entertain you with a story.
To wrap up this season, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a brief idea of everything that happened in a timeline I call the PhD waiting period, which is the time it takes to actually start on a PhD. Many may assume it is a straightforward process, just like applying for any other undergraduate or most postgraduate courses. But with flexibility comes uncertainty. My PhD waiting period might have been a little vague before so I hope this helps to put things into perspective.
This time ‘round, I’ll be talking about academic shock. I’ll also touch a little on my drop in research confidence. I really do hope that if you tune in to listen to the topics I’ve been covering, I’m able to enlighten you on what you want to know. If you can’t find an answer to your questions in any of my episodes so far, you can always ask and I’ll try my best to give constructive feedback. I don’t know everything but I do know a little, so I’m hoping my little helps.
This episode will touch on the challenges that came my way while trying to work on a multidisciplinary research. Forgive me for the amount of times I’ll be saying multidisciplinary in this one. Watch my pronunciation go all over the place. I’m here for your entertainment so no hard feelings, enjoy!
In this episode, I talk about the five main obstacles I faced in getting my PhD application submitted and approved. I hope these points are relatable for those who have went through a similar application process or for those who walk a different path, that these points serve as an eye-opening experience for you. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy listening :)
Website: https://zerobearings.weebly.com/
This episode's full write-up: https://zerobearings.weebly.com/am-i-too-young-for-a-phd.html
This episode I’m recording is the first episode of a mini-series I’ll be doing. It is about my journey heading towards starting a PhD. When I first started working on my application, people around me started finding out too. I think humans are just wired to want to comment on things, be it positive or negative. As expected, I received both positive and negative feedback on what they thought I should be doing instead of pursuing a PhD.
I’ve been wanting to do this podcast for a year now and even planned ideas out. But unexpected things happened like the hospitalisation and this pandemic. Since I’m stuck at home and have a mic and a voice, why not prove all my doubts wrong? It’s scary for me to put myself out here. I can be hard on myself too so this is a real personal challenge but one I’ll take. I think the intention I have for my podcast and website far outweighs the fears I have. I’ve been asked to talk about different areas in life and I’ve managed to consolidate them into a few mini-series. Let me just say, I’m extremely humbled that another human being would be interested in my experiences and this has made me reflect on how much progress I’ve made in life and how I don’t give myself enough credit. So instead of bringing my own self down, I decided to listen to my dear friends instead and believe in my own capabilities for once. I’m diving head first into this whole experience and I hope you’ll join me along for the ride.