Scientists in Training: Recent Episodes
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On today's episode, the podcast team discusses different ways we have professionally developed, gave back to our community, and shared our professional service activities. We share why it is important, how it has affected our career development, as well as, ways you can find ways to get involved in your own communities.
The science news this month concerns the strange time jump in our calendars in 1562!
https://www.britannica.com/story/ten-days-that-vanished-the-switch-to-the-gregorian-calendar
Hosts this month: Emily Johnson, Emily Hackerson, Odalis Garcia, and Alex Knopps
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Odalis and the Emily's discuss their experiences with the many forms of writing that we have come across in graduate school from disquisitions to research articles! We hope you enjoy our tips and tricks for writing!
Here are some resources that informed our episode!
Rejection rates in APA journals
Calarco, J. M. (2020). A field guide to grad school: Uncovering the hidden curriculum. Princeton University Press.
Science News:
H
ave you ever wondered how starfish would wear pants? Believe it or not, scientists have! Below is a scientific paper (and a pop science article) diving into that answer!
How would a starfish wear trousers?
Formery et al., 2023
Hosts this month:
Emily Hackerson, Odalis Garcia, and Emily Johnson
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On this month's episode, the podcast team is joined by Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) Graduate students Johnny Nguyen, Idris Malik, and Ariana Mcdarby to discuss what DBER is; with disciplines covering Biology, Microbiology, Chemistry, Physics, and Psychology. We share our experiences and perspectives working both within and outside of DBER. If anyone is interested in any form of Education Research, check out this episode to learn more!
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On this month's episode of the Scientists in Training, the podcast team discusses the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence. From using AI to help us write R code or cheesy dad jokes to directing us through a GPS, we use AI in a variety of ways on a daily basis.
We also discuss a new use for used coffee grounds on this international coffee day! Check out the research article and news story here:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138205
- https://scitechdaily.com/a-double-shot-of-strength-how-used-coffee-grounds-reinforce-concrete/
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In this episode, the podcast team interviews folks who are pursuing career paths other than the experimental research path that the podcast team is currently pursuing!
Time Stamps for each interview:
[5:25] Emily Hackerson's interview with Matt Bittman; Medical School path
[16:30] Emily Johnson's interview with Jade Berg; Psychology Counseling path
[34:45] Emily Hackerson's interview with Kay Adamski; Industry path
We also discuss some exciting science news about Mitochondrial Donation and treatments, as well as, a review article and BBC article on a baby that was born with three sets of mitochondrial DNA
Thank you for another great season of listening to our podcast! We look forward to picking up Season 3 in the fall of 2023!
Catch you then!
Hosts this month:
Emily Hackerson, Emily Johnson, Odalis Garcia, and Alex Knopps
Legal: The Scientists in Training Podcast is not associated with North Dakota State University. Any opinions expressed by the podcast, hosts, and guests are not associated with the university or their companies, universities, or organizations.
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In this month's episode, the podcast team discusses our experiences with attending conferences, including giving poster talks, paper talks, and round table discussions. We share our insights in the costs and benefits to attending conferences, as well as what types of professional development you can develop from conferences.
The podcast team is also enthralled with the current march mammal madness tournament that you can follow on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/MMMletsgo and https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0960-9822%2823%2900145-8
Check out this month's Science News story on the potential of life found on an asteroid!
In addition, the team discusses our experiences with writing manuscripts with the purpose of subitting to journals to get our research published!
Here are some links to conferences and societies that we attend as early career scientists!
https://psychosomatic.org/2023-annual-meeting/
https://spsp.org/events/annual-convention
https://saberbio.wildapricot.org/Future-SABER-Meetings
https://nabt.org/
https://www.psychonomic.org/
http://midwesternpsych.org/
https://www.tsfnc.org/
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In this month's episode, we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the podcast! Thank you to everyone who has listened to and supported us over our first year!
For our main discussion, the podcast team discusses the different activities they like to enjoy when not doing work for graduate school. Grad school is very stressful and challenging, which can lead to burn out and other downstream effects, so making time to do non-academic things is essential.
For more information on burn out, see the Mayo Clinic's website
In addition, the podcast team sets goals for ourselves for next year!
Hosts this month: Alex, Emily, Emily, and Odalis
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Over the course of the podcast, we've talked a lot about different facets of our identities as graduate students. For this month's episode, we wanted to share our experiences as sexual minorities as a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Alex Knopps and Emily Johnson share their experiences of growing up in a conservative environment, as well as, how their experiences shaped who they are. Alex shares his coming out story, so others know that what they are experiencing is normal and okay. Emily adds by sharing her similar journey as well as learning about her sexuality while in a relationship. Together we discuss the importance of finding and creating safe spaces so they can exist without fear of violence.
Afterward, we discuss the impact of living in the United States and how many states vote against human rights. We encourage all of our listeners to know how your state's representatives vote on different human rights issues by checking out the Human Rights Campaign: https://www.hrc.org/resources/state-scorecards/p4
Next, Emily Hackerson discusses particular challenges in this topic in the field of biology. The papers below investigate LGBTQ+ student experiences in biology classrooms.
Busch et al., 2022
Cooper and Brownell, 2017
Casper et al., 2022
For more information on the roots of using biology in public policy see the article here.
For science News, Odalis discusses the recent news from the FDA that the ban on gay men donating blood is to be reexamined for a modernized risk assessment.
See the FDA News Release from January 27th, 2023
The abstract of the paper Odalis discussed can be found here.
Read or listen to the NPR report on the news release
Hosts this month: Alex Knopps, Emily Johnson, Odalis Garcia, and Emily Hackerson
Additional Resources:
Here are additional resources for any of our listeners.
Check out The Trevor Project! They list a lot of great information that can help you explore yourself, find resources to talk to people in your life about your identities, chat with other LGBTQ+ youth, and get mental health support.
Check out Pflag here. This is a great resource for families and allies, is a good place to learn about current legislative challenges LGBTQ+ folks face, and is U.S.A. based.
Finally, check out GLAAD! They have a great resource for a breakdown of different identities.
Next Month, we discuss what we do to have fun in grad school!
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Episode Discussion
Odalis and the Emily's discuss their experiences as Scientists and People of faith including our faith story, particular challenges, and times our faith has really helped us through graduate school. From the Scientists in Training team to you, we want to wish our listeners, supporters, and families a Happy Holidays and we will see you in the New Year!
Barnes et al. 2021
Science News
Did you know rats like to dance to the beat just like (most of) us!?! Well they do! The evolutionary hypothesis behind how humans inherited rhythm perceptions is getting more and more support! Below is a scientific paper reporting these results and and news story covering the discovery!
Ito et al., 2022
ABC News Australia Story
A Moment from a Grad Student
Do you have an awesome undergraduate student interested in learning and teaching STEM? Encourage them to apply for our Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) REU program @NDSU! #REU #NSF #DBER https://www.ndsu.edu/dber/reu_program/
Our REU participants work in a learning community of undergraduate scholars over 10 weeks during the summer. They are immersed in hands-on research experiences in discipline-based education research, housed on-campus, and earn a $6000 stipend #NSF #DBER
Of particular interest, Alex and Emily (Hackerson) are mentoring on 2 projects! Project descriptions linked here!
Hosts this Month
Emily Hackerson, Odalis Garcia, and Emily Johnson
Next Episode
We will be taking off January to enjoy the winter break with family and return in February. Our next discussion will center around some of the host's experiences as sexual minorities in graduate school.
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Co-Host Check in:
The podcast team shares a bit about what has been going on in our lives.
Check out Alex's Cogbites interview here!
Grant Writing Discussion
Check out these fellowships that we have come across!
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Eligibility Quiz
Ford Foundation Fellowship Information
Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans Eligibility Information
You should also ask professors, advisors, or other graduate students about other fellowship opportunities.
Science News
Alex discusses a recently published paper in the Creativity Research Journal about the causes of writer's block, along with some of the proposed solutions.
In addition, check out Alex's first science communication blog post discussing similar research here!
Reference:
Ahmed, S. J., & Güss, C. D. (2022). An Analysis of Writer’s Block: Causes and Solutions. Creativity Research Journal, 34(3), 339–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2022.2031436
A Moment from A Grad Student
Academic Twitter can be a fun and useful place!
Check out our Twitter here!
Podcast: @podcast_SiT
Emily Hackerson: @HackersonEmily
Emily Johnson: @emjohnson42
Odalis Garcia: @garcia_og_
Alex Knopps: @AlexanderKnopps
Notes
Check out our other social media
Instagram: @scientistsintrainingpod
TikTok: @sitpod
Alex Wrote a blog post with his advice on how to apply to graduate school in about a year. Check it out here!
Hosts This Month
Emily Hackerson, Odalis Garcia, Alex Knopps, and Emily Johnson
Next Episode
Emily, Odalis, and Emily will discuss their perspectives and experiences with being spiritual while in graduate school.
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In this episode, the podcast team holds a roundtable discussion about the importance of taking care of your mental health.
Mental health care and the conversation surrounding mental health and mental illness continue to be stigmatized, inaccessible, and sometimes outright ignored. We glorify the grind and sometimes feel left in the dust if we dare to stop and take care of ourselves. We discuss some common academic mental health problems and our personal experiences with them. Our hope is to humanize the conversation instead of talking about statistics, because the statistics, albeit shocking, are clearly not inspiring much action to make the needed resources accessible and available to all.
Then Odalis discusses the new bivalent SARS-CoV-2 booster that most people are eligible for!
Then Emily discusses her search for a missing appendix.
The hosts this month: Emily Hackerson, Odalis Garcia, Emily Johnson, and Alex Knopps
The next episode: The podcast team discusses our experiences as we learn about, and apply for various grants, fellowships, and scholarships.
*Disclaimer: The Scientists in Training Podcast is not associated with North Dakota State University. Any opinions expressed by the podcast, hosts, and guests are not associated with the university.
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Translating our Jobs:
This month's episode discusses how we explain our complex and unique jobs to our friends, family, and community. Over our first year, we have learned many misconceptions about our jobs as graduate students in a research-focused program. We discuss how we work around common misconceptions and how we explain what we do. Our insight could be helpful for anyone curious about graduate school to keep in mind what we actually do as opposed to what it seems like we do.
Science News
Emily introduces information about the Juul ban (and stay of the ban) in the U.S. She also presents information about the risks of vaping looking at the cellular level.
NPR Article on the Juul Ban
Yu et al. 2016 Peer Reviewed Paper on the cellular consequences on vaping
Finally, thank you!
Thank you for listening to our first season of the Scientists in Training! Tune in for season 2 coming after a short break.
In addition, on August, 5th, 2022, we are launching our first blog post. Emily Hackerson reflects on her first year of graduate school and shares her insight!
Hosts this week
Emily Johnson, Odalis Garcia, Emily Hackerson, Rachel Delaney, Alex Knopps
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On this month's episode, Rachel introduces the conversation around the common phenomenon imposter syndrome. She introduces the phenomenon, how it can be represented in different people, and a few of the underlying factors that promote the syndrome. The podcast team shares their experiences with the syndrome spanning from high school to graduate school. They also shared their experience in ways to reduce the impact of the syndrome.
Here are the important sources we used to drive the conversation.
https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2013/11/fraud
https://impostorsyndrome.com/resources/
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/06/cover-impostor-phenomenon
https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-different-types-of-imposter-syndrome-and-5-ways-to-battle-each-one
https://www.scienceofpeople.com/impostor-syndrome/
https://www.verywellmind.com/imposter-syndrome-and-social-anxiety-disorder-4156469
https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_cox_what_is_imposter_syndrome_and_how_can_you_combat_it?language=en
https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2013/11/fraud
Moment from a scientist
Emily shared some tips and tricks on public speaking. She learned these through her public speaking experience. Some of the tips she discusses include how to prepare for a speech and how to reduce mistakes while speaking.
Science News
Odalis and Emily discuss the implications of the new California bill requiring later school start times.
Senate Bill No. 23 Pupil attendance: school start time.
Ziporyn et al., 2022
Bowers & Moyer, 2017
Join us next episode for our first discussion on translating our jobs.
Hosts this month
Rachel Delaney, Odalis Garcia, Emily Hackerson, Emily Johnson, and Alex Knopps
*Disclaimer: The Scientists in Training Podcast is not associated with North Dakota State University. Any opinions expressed by the podcast, hosts, and guests are not associated with the university.
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In this episode, we talked to a few of our friends to give us their insights, tips, or memorable experiences about higher education and collected a few main ideas to share! Along with insights from these students, Odalis describes what it's like being a graduate student coming from a family-oriented culture, feeling like you don't belong, encouraging you to share your perspective, and emphasizes the importance of social support. This episode is our way of introducing the topic of being a racial minority in higher education but this conversation will continue to happen throughout our content!
We would like to give a special thanks to our friends that shared a little bit about their experience with us!
- Ariana is a Hispanic woman pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemistry at North Dakota State University.
- Xaria is an African-American woman pursuing a M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of North Texas.
- Gita is an Asian woman with her MPH in Environmental Health at the University of Minnesota.
Their quotes included in this episode are read by Emily Hackerson
Featured in our episode cover is the Latina Scholar Crewneck from Latina Grad Guide (a great platform from a Latina Ph.D. student)
To learn more about the representation of minorities in STEM and Higher Education check out our sources!
Demographic Attributes of S&E Degree Recipients - National Science Foundation
Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education - American Council on Education & The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Emily discusses recent improvements to cancer diagnostic technology using nematodes (C.elegans)
Nematodes Sniff Out Cancer
Shiga et al., 2022
Alex discusses how to perform a systematic literature search.
In addition, the podcast discusses the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas. Below we provide petitions and resources regarding this important issue.
Gun Safety Petition to United States Congress
Gun Safe Candidate Look-up
Register to Vote
Midterm Election Calendar
Join us for our next episode on imposter syndrome.
Hosts this month
Odalis Garcia, Emily Hackerson, and Alex Knopps
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This month's discussion centers around some of the important historical events in the science community, and how they have led to certain ethical considerations and governing boards. Ethical considerations and the various governing boards serve to protect scientists, participants (human, animal, and otherwise), and the broader community. It is important to learn from our history when thinking about how we can best use science to help the world around us. Join us as we discuss the rich science history, different ethical dilemmas that have shown up, and how we are learning as graduate students to take this all into consideration every day. For science news this month, Odalis will share some interesting thoughts on how the new proposed changes to Daylight Savings could affect Americans' sleep patterns. Rachel, joined in conversation by Emily and Alex, will then share some thoughts and tips on maintaining work/life balance while in graduate school.
Important sources this month:
Ethics historical timeline
What is an IRB?
What is IACUC?
Animal Welfare Act
The Nuremberg Code
The Belmont Report
Hosts this month:
Emily Hackerson, Odalis Garcia, Rachel Delaney, Alex Knopps, and Emily Johnson
*Disclaimer: The Scientists in Training Podcast is not associated with North Dakota State University. Any opinions expressed by the podcast, hosts, and guests are not associated with the university.
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scientistsintraining/message
The hosts this month: Alex Knopps, Odalis Garcia, Emily Johnson, Emily Hackerson, and Rachel Delaney
The road to the Ph.D.
This month's discussion centers around our stories while deciding to pursue a Ph.D. We share our experiences and recommendations throughout the process of applying to graduate programs such as who to ask to write your letters of recommendation, writing personal statements and diversity statements, and how to effectively communicate your skills and abilities. Then we discuss our differing experiences with the interview process, as well as, what to consider when announcing your acceptance (and celebrating your success). This segment is exclusively our experience and the advice we were given during our application progress. What worked for us, could be useful for you.
Emily and Emily discuss exciting news in science!
They hold a Journal Club style discussion about the controversial paper suggesting Tyrannosaurus rex is actually three distinct species and using Transcranial-Magnetic Stimulation to treat severe depression.
A moment from a grad student!
Odalis discusses the importance of citation management software with a focus on the benefits of Mendeley and Zortero.
Episode 3
In our next episode, the podcast discusses the history and importance of ethics in conducting and reporting research.
Visit our website for more information!
www.scientistsintraining.com
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In the pilot episode, the podcast team introduces themselves and their goals and aspirations for the podcast. The hosts share a bit about who they are and their research interests.
Moderna enters the Phase I of clinical trials for the mRNA HIV vaccine. Emily shares the typical timeline for FDA approval. She describes the differences in mRNA vaccine technology compared to previous traditional vaccines and why HIV is so difficult to target. As well as, the recent news of a woman reportedly being cured of HIV.
Time management is an important skill for any student, academic, and researcher. Odalis shares the David Seah's Emergent Task Management sheet she uses to keep track of her activities.
Forward and reverse literature searching is a simple yet effective tool for researching at all levels of schooling. Emily shares what this tool is, where to find it, and how to use it.
Looking to the future, the podcast team shares the next four episode topics. For the next episode, the hosts will share their experiences when applying and entering graduate school. The following episode will be discussing the difficulties when dealing with imposter syndrome as new graduate students. Then Odalis will be leading a discussion about what academic life is like as an ethnic minority. Finally, the hosts will be discussing how to translate the complex world of research and academic life for our families.
For more information about today's episode, the podcast, and asking questions, visit www.scientistsintraining.com
The hosts this week are Alex Knopps, Odalis Garcia, Emily Johnson, Rachel Delaney, and Emily Hackerson.
*Disclaimer: The Scientists in Training Podcast is not associated with North Dakota State University. Any opinions expressed by the podcast, hosts, and guests are not associated with the university.
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scientistsintraining/message
Scientists in Training is a monthly science communication podcast giving you our inside experiences in academia. On the first of every month, our scientists share the tools, personal experiences, and advice for interested and new scientists when entering academia. We hope to provide open and honest conversations around the scientific issues of today and our experiences in academia. Here is a supercut of our podcast! Happy listening!
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