Secret Life of a Graduate Student

Laure and Megan bring the mini-series guests together for a final discussion on faith and science in graduate school. The group discusses some common threads from each of their individual interviews, such as religion as a form of life balance and how they navigate preconceptions from colleagues, friends, and podcast hosts of conflict within their way of life and their careers. 

Megan interviews Miriam Rafailovich, a distinguished professor of material science and chemical engineering at Stony Brook University, who practices Orthodox Judaism. Miriam talks about emigrating from Romania to the United States at an early age to escape racism and religious persecution. Her family valued education and openly encouraged her to pursue her academic interests. Miriam believes that her active pursuit of knowledge and nature enables her a rich relationship with her Jewish faith.

Laure interviews government scientist Tyler Westover, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, widely known as Mormonism. Tyler talks about growing up religious in Idaho, where he was inspired by the numerous science textbooks in his home. They discuss his very rational reason for pursuing a degree in engineering, and how he was ultimately swayed to leap into a PhD in quantum physics. Listen to hear how Tyler is moved by his faith and how it has moved him forward in his science career.

Laure interviews Catholic graduate student, Abigail Miller about what it is like to actively practice faith while being a full time graduate student. Abigail talks about growing up Catholic, and how she did not always know she was going to be a scientist. Listen to hear how Abigail expresses that becoming a scientist and learning about the universe has brought her closer to her faith.

Laure and Megan open up their mini-series on faith and science with a conversation about about how religion can play a role in life and graduate school. Even though 30-40% of scientists practice a religion, faith and science are often portrayed as oil and water. Laure and Megan explore this idea, challenge their own preconceptions, and talk about their own experiences with religion and spirituality. 

Laure interviews content optimization strategist David Lubertozzi about his windy and sometimes bumpy journey from pastry chef, to scientist, to marketing specialist. Dave candidly discusses some of the challenges he faced while in graduate school, and how those challenges may have been heightened as a result of uncommon path.

Megan interviews archaeological scientist Julie Dunne about her life before and after science. As a former accountant, Julie was unfulfilled in her career. She talks about how she found happiness in curiosity and science. She ultimately decided to rewrite her life, switch careers, and never look back, this is her story.

Megan interviews current graduate student Brett Garabedian about his life before science. Brett was an average high school student, a community college drop-out and on a path to a career in his family's business of selling gems on the home shopping network. This episode features the story of Brett's uncommon path from gemologist to scientist working in the exciting field of glycobiology.

Megan and Laure open up their latest mini-series on taking time before graduate school, by sharing their own anecdotes. They also discuss the challenges some women face when it comes to making life-impacting decisions about professional development and time.

Laure and Megan bring the overcoming obstacles interviewees, Katharine Seton, David Payne, and Richard Mankin, together for a panel discussion. They discuss how, while it wasn't always easy to do, making their conditions visible to their collaborators and employers has helped them feel comfortable in the competitive science environment. 

Laure interviews USDA field ecologist Richard Mankin who has a rare muscle disorder that impacted his mobility. Tested by his own will to do science in the field, Richard learned to find creative, out of the box solutions to enable his active and mobile career.

Megan interviews newly minted government scientist David Payne about his undocumented condition called aphantasia. David didn't know until after graduating from his PhD that he didn't have a mind's eye. It was like discovering that everyone else had superpowers. He talks about how he found ways to subconsciously cope with his differences, and how post-PhD the effort to cope is much more mindful.

Continuing the mini-series on overcoming obstacles, Laure interviews current graduate student, Katharine Seton who suffers from myelitis encephalitis, or chronic fatigue. Katharine talks about how she started to understand her condition better in graduate school. As she learned to define and ultimately embrace her limitations for herself and among her peers, her life and success as a student improved.

Megan and Laure introduce the series on overcoming obstacles by sharing their own experiences. Megan talks about her visual muscle disorder which caused a life-long challenge with reading, and Laure discusses how she was only aware of her dyslexia late in life. Their stories open up the broader conversation on how obstacles should not discourage people from pursuing their passions. 

Laure and Megan bring the series interviewees, Audrey Bascoul, Jamie Meadows, and Timothée Poisot, together for a discussion and debate about imposter syndrome. One thing they can agree on... imposter syndrome is universal and ubiquitous in science.

A culture of elitism in academia wrote his imposter into being. Before graduate school he did not consider how other's might see him. Now, he struggles with the idea that up and coming students will follow his ideas. Ecologist and professor Timothée Poisot talks with Megan about his imposter syndrome. 

Laure interviews current AAAS fellow, Jamie Meadows, about how imposter syndrome played a role throughout her scientific career.

Civil engineer Audrey Bascoul, double MS and PhD, talks about her imposter and how it continues to affect her even after completing her PhD. Milestone after milestone, accomplishment after accomplishment, she can't seem to shake the feeling that she doesn't belong.

Laure and Megan have an honest discussion about their own experiences with imposter syndrome and why they want to dedicate an entire series to the subject.

Megan interviews Marina Gardasevic, a graduate student in the UK, about how she finds balance in life as PhD through mixed martial arts. 

Megan interviews academic researcher Aindrila Mukhopadhyay about rediscovering art after a car accident nearly took her sight away. Aindrila reflects about how water color painting, and now drawing, bring her peace-of-mind during her most stressful days. 

Current industry scientist Sergey Boyarskiy talks about how he found life balance in grad school through cycling and gaming. While cycling had a universally positive impact on his life as a grad, gaming had a problematic affect on his sleep schedule and productivity. Despite the negative impacts of his outside hobby, gaming ultimately became an escape from all that is grad school. 

Laure interviews current industry scientist Tom Eyles who started his PhD right out of undergrad. At first he felt he needed to rush the experience thinking that finishing early would help his career. Listen to find out how and why he decided to slow down to focus on his life-balance.

To open their series on life balance in grad school, Megan and Laure discuss the pressures of grad school in the context of work-life-balance. If the goal in grad school is to get a PhD, why focus on anything else? The short answer, because self-care is a critical component of success in grad school. In this episode, Megan and Laure piece together their approach to life balance in grad school and preview the series to come.

This episode is a bit special. We decided to share more of Mina Bissell's fascinating interview. In a previous episode, we focused our discussion around Mina's reasons for doing science, her personal influences, and her graduate school experience. However, Mina had so much more to say. In this episode Mina talks to us about Iran before the revolution, her family's situation during the Shah occupancy. She then tells us about how she fell in love with English literature and finally how she was able to integrate into a prestigious lab at UC Berkeley during her post-doc.

Laure and Megan bring the group of series interviewee's, Maren, Pablo, and Mina, back together for a discussion on the broader implications of traveling during a scientific career. 

Mina Bissell, distinguished Scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, talks about growing up and being educated in Iran. She discusses being exposed to science at an early age and how that influenced her career. She moved to the US for higher education, listen to hear her travel story. 

Megan interviews Pablo Cruz-Morales about growing up and doing a PhD in Mexico. They discuss participating in long-term internships abroad and feeling out of one's comfort zone.

Laure interviews recent grad Maren Wehrs about leaving Germany to do her PhD across the globe in California. They also discuss opportunities to attend conferences abroad. 

Megan and Laure discuss why they chose the subject of conference and travel for this series. They talk about the importance of having experiences outside of the comfort zone and the benefits of going abroad. Through conversation, they preview what to expect in the rest of this series.

Laure and Megan bring the group of series interviewees (Luis, Ezinne, and Blake) back together for a group discussion on the qual exam in the broader context.

Megan interviews Blake Simmons, current director of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, about grad school in New Orleans. Blake talks about his time in the military prior to school and how he let the good times roll in NoLa, even during his qual.

Megan interviews former NC State grad student, Ezinne Achinivu, about her life in Nigeria and the US before her scientific career in chemistry. They discuss the ups and downs of taking the qual in exam after Ezinne's first year as a PhD student.

Laure interviews Luis Valencia, current graduate student at UC Berkeley, about his upcoming qualification exam. They discuss how Luis became interested in science and how he's feeling about taking the qual.

Laure and Megan explain why they chose the qualification exam for their first ever series and discuss their own qual experiences.