Biosplaining: Recent Episodes

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Perhaps more than any other industry, mental health struggles seem rampant in academia.

The stress, isolation, common lack of work-life balance, and anxiety can have serious implications for grad students and established researchers alike, when combined with the nebulous work and deliverable structure that is common in the sciences.

To dive further into this phenomenon, I spoke with Özgün Ünver -- a social scientist who recovered from a debilitating burnout at the tail-end of her PhD.

Seeing this as an opportunity to raise awareness and help other academics avoid the same fate, she has become a "burnout coach" (and podcast host!) for academics, helping them to navigate their current situations and proactively manage their mental health, and to help them recover from burnouts in a healthy, measured way.

This episode is important to me as I (like many others) had some pretty big problems with my own mental health in grad school.

We touch on SO many points (we'll definitely need a second chat), including:

• Why mental health struggles are over-represented in academia

• Why "setting boundaries" isn't always possible or the best advice

• How the work and deliverable structure of academia makes it difficult to maintain work-life balance

• The rise of unpaid labour and increasing expectations placed on academics

• The difficulties in speaking out against PIs who have been less-than-kind

I had a blast chatting with Özgün! There is so much ground to cover with this issue -- we only scratched the surface. If you enjoyed it and want us to continue this conversation, get in touch and let us know!

Reach out via:

Email - biosplainingpodcast@gmail.com

Özgün's podcast - https://www.mindyourownrevisions.com/podcast

Twitter - @IraSherr @ozgununver

Credits:

Audio everything - Fred Brenton

Visual identity - Gio Petrucci/GIOGRAFIK

Dr. Andrew Huberman's Podcast - https://hubermanlab.com/

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/biosplaining/message

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This is Part 2 of my conversation with Todd Harwell -- a PhD student who's research is examining the development of science identities among  queer folks who participate in citizen and community science projects.

In this Part, Todd offers some advice to students/scientists of all career stages. Particularly notable is his emphasis on putting your authenticity and self-worth ahead of your potential research placements -- it's more important to find a lab that values you, in which you can feel safe and appreciated, then to work in any situation in which you feel unvalued and unseen.

Read more about Todd's great research here: https://bit.ly/3j4hSJJ

Todd :  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddharwell/   |  Twitter: @ToddAHarwell

Wanna Reach out?

biosplainingpodcast@gmail.com

Music and audio everything: Fred Brenton

Visual identity: Gio Petrucci, 

PLUS,

Huge love to Stefan Maroni for the Pride flag vector. 

You can check out Stefan's AMAZING "Rebel Without a Closet" podcast here -  https://spoti.fi/3ya7WTk

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/biosplaining/message

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Todd Harwell's PhD research is examining the development of science identities among the queer folks who participate in citizen and community science projects.

In Part 1 of our conversation, we discuss the importance of being your authentic self in research, the lack of data on queer/LGBTQ+ -identifying scientists that dictate federal funding decisions, and how a childhood Christmas gift may just set you up for a lifelong passion.

Read more about Todd's great research here: https://bit.ly/3j4hSJJ

Reach out:

biosplainingpodcast@gmail.com

Todd on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddharwell/

Todd on Twitter: @ToddAHarwell

Music and audio everything: Fred Brenton

Visual identity: Gio Petrucci, and huge love to Stefan Maroni for the Pride flag vector. You can check out Stefan's AMAZING "Rebel Without a Closet" podcast here -  https://spoti.fi/3ya7WTk) 

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/biosplaining/message

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Hello, Friends!

Thank you so much for dropping in to the first episode of Biosplaining!

Our first guest is Sara Holland. 

Sara hails from Nottingham, UK, and represents fantastic biotech, synthetic biology, and pharmaceutical companies as a Patent Attorney at the international law firm Potter Clarkson.

I'm thrilled to have Sara join me on the podcast to help demystify an crucial component of R&D: IP Law.

This was a great discussion that touched on her career journey, her grievances with academia, and also very helpful explanations about IP concepts that I feel all scientists should pay attention to.

You'll learn:

-What IP is

-About patents and Operability Space

-What Tech Transfer offices at Universities do

-How novelty is evaluated in terms of IP

-Plus some genuinely helpful advice from someone who's left academia and not only survived, but thrived!

If you'd like to keep in touch, please do!

Reach out at biosplainingpodcast@gmail.co

LinkedIn: Ira Sherr

Quick Credits:

Editing, music design, and essentially everything to do with audio: Fred Brenton

Biosplaining logo: Gio Petrucci

Breaks & Bio

-Ira

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/biosplaining/message