Podcasts about msu department

Michigan State University is working toward climate neutrality by mid-century, doing its part to address the global climate crisis within our own community and on our own campus.  The goal is to provide exemplary stewardship of institutional resources to foster the long-term sustainability of MSU and its high-quality education, research and outreach and engagement programs Ultimately, a desire to achieve climate neutrality. Joining MSU Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Bill Beekman on this episode of MSU Today to discuss the electrification of the MSU fleet are Adam Lawver, assistant vice president of IPF operations in Infrastructure Planning and Facilities; Stephanie O'Donnell, university traffic engineer in the MSU Department of Public Safety; and Dr. Mehrnaz Ghamami, associate professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Conversation Highlights: (2:12) – Adam, how many vehicles are in the MSU fleet? What kinds of vehicles? We began the process of electrification in 2022.  How is that going?   (6:37) - What are the lessons learned so far? (11:54) – Mehrnaz, as an electric vehicle researcher and based on your work studying electric vehicle issues at MSU and across the state of Michigan, what lessons are you learning? (20:28) - How do we develop a state-wide or national charging strategy?  (22:34) – Stephanie, what is the role of a university traffic engineer?  How do you spend your workday? (25:04) – How are electric vehicles impacting your work? (28:27) - Where are the problem areas or “hot spots” that you're working to make better?  (32:46) - What changes are on the horizon for MSU parking, transportation, and safety? What will you be working on for the next three to five years? (34:21) – Mehrnaz, what will you be working on in the years ahead? (35:21) – Adam, what's ahead as our university fleet continues to evolve? (39:58) – Where do you like to travel when you're not working? Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The presidential election is right around the corner and Michigan is going to play a crucial role in the election results.For MSU Today's 2024 Election Spotlight Series, I'm talking with MSU researchers and experts who can discuss all things elections and politics. Each guest brings a unique perspective on research and work they're doing that relates to the 2024 Election. Monique Mitchell Turner is a professor and chair of the MSU Department of Communication. She studies the role that emotion plays in persuasion. She has been researching anger since the 1990s, with emphasis on whether appeals to anger can work for politicians and activists and how it affects what we think and pay attention to.  Conversation Highlights: (0:57) – What's your background, and what attracted you to the deanship of the Department of Communication? (2:35) – What's the history and mission of the Department of Communication? (4:13) – What are your research interests? (5:42) – Talk about the dominant force that anger can be in driving judgments and decision making, particularly as it relates to the election. (8:40) – Candidates for office understand that fear and anger can motivate voters, right? Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The presidential election is right around the corner and Michigan is going to play a crucial role in the election results.For MSU Today's 2024 Election Spotlight Series, I'm talking with MSU researchers and experts who can discuss all things elections and politics. Each guest brings a unique perspective on research and work they're doing that relates to the 2024 Election. Mark Brandt is an associate professor in the MSU Department of Psychology. He is a social and personality psychologist. He leads the Belief Systems Lab to understand ideological and moral beliefs and why people adopt the belief systems they hold.  Elizabeth Dorrance Hall is an associate professor of communication and director of the MSU Family Communication and Relationships Lab. Her research focuses on communication processes in close relationships, especially in the context of family. Conversation Highlights: (1:10) – Describe your backgrounds. How long have you been at MSU, and what attracted you here? (2:33) – Most Americans don't follow politics that closely, but that can change with an election on the way. What are the implications? (3:45) – Why are so many people reluctant to change their mind when presented with new information? (6:00) - Political conversations with family members can be tricky at best and disastrous at worst. What are some of your tips for successfully navigating these conversations? (8:04) – Tell me more about the mission of the Family Communication and Relationships Lab. (8:40) – Tell me more about the mission of the Belief Systems Lab. Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University Professor and Olympian Kelly Salchow MacArthur is once again part of the Olympics, this time leading a community art project. Through the Olympian Artists program, Salchow MacArthur participated in a workshop series creating mixed-media collages with children from two community centers in Paris, France. Her workshop series, from Oct. 23 to 28, 2023, was the first community project in the Olympian Artists program leading up to the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The Olympian Artists program launched in 2018 as a way for Olympians and Paralympians to creatively share their experiences as athletes and artists on a global platform through community projects (new this year) and original art. The program, managed through the Olympic Museum in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, provides artistic explorations into athletics as connected with culture and creativity. Salchow MacArthur was a member of United States National Women's Rowing Team in the 2000 Olympics hosted by Sydney, Australia, and 2004 Olympics hosted by Athens, Greece. In addition to being an elite athlete, Salchow MacArthur is a teacher, researcher and practitioner of graphic design in the MSU Department of Art, Art History and Design. Learn more about Kelly and her work at Elevate Design. Conversation Highlights: (0:37) – Kelly shares her background and how she became interested in graphic design and rowing. (2:53) – How long have you been at MSU and what first attracted you here? (3:45) – Describe your role as a graphic design professor at MSU. (4:44) – What is graphic design and how has it evolved? (5:54) – How do you combine your love for graphic design with your love for rowing. (8:49) – Talk about your experience as an Olympic rower. (12:45) – How, when, and where did you get involved with the Olympics as a graphic designer? (16:50) – What is the Olympian Artists program? (17:32) – Talk about your project for the 2024 Olympics. (22:23) – What do you want to say about underdogs?  Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Here are all of Solo's links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/solomercene2019/  MSU Department of Entomology: https://www.canr.msu.edu/people/solo-arman-peralta-mercene Lab webiste: https://grotewold-lab.com/solo-mercene Fulbright bio link: https://www.fulbright.org.ph/index.php/solo-mercene  Lil Dudes Insect Academy is a non-profit dedicated to teaching the world about the amazing world of Insects (Entomology). We do this through workshops, classes, courses, resources, and online content! We have a free, family-friendly Podcast where Bradon talks with Entomologists, and we also have a Bug of the Week Series on YouTube! Website: lildudesinsectacademy.com Donate to the Academy: https://www.lildudesinsectacademy.com/donate.html Find our free Podcast here: https://www.lildudesinsectacademy.com/media/podcast.html ✌️Follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lildudesinsectacademy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lil.dudes.insect.academy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lildudesacademy YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDJx_th0guulNsJPE_75sDg Lil Dudes Insect Academy is proud to be registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our mission is to educate anyone and everyone about the amazing world of Entomology, which is the gateway to all the sciences. Contributions to Lil Dudes Insect Academy are tax deductible, to the extent permitted by law. Our Tax ID is: 86-1976172

Joyce deJong is the new dean of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. An alumna of the college, she began her appointment on Feb. 5, 2024. A nationally recognized forensic pathologist, deJong (pronounced DEE-young) was a professor and founding chair of the Department of Pathology at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, or WMed. She is also the medical examiner for 12 counties in Michigan, overseeing multiple deputy medical examiners and nearly 100 medical examiner investigators.   She is a graduate of the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine and was an associate professor in the MSU Department of Neurology and Ophthalmology and pathology division while she was the medical director for forensic pathology at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing.  Conversation Highlights: (0:30) – What's your background, and what are some career highlights? (2:39) – Did you initially think you would pursue law as a career? (4:20) – Why did you choose to attend MSU for medical school? (6:04) – What's the difference between a DO and an MD? (9:46) – What made you want to be dean of your alma mater? (11:40) – What are some of your goals for the college? (13:51) – Describe the evolving mission of the college. (15:21) – What's the state of the profession your students are entering? (16:41) – What are challenges and opportunities ahead for the college and MSU? Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University Vice President and Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch provides a campus safety and security update. Throughout the past year, the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety (DPPS) has been hard at work enhancing several different campus safety and security initiatives.  Following the violence our community experienced in February 2023, we continue to stand together as a community. And Lynch says MSU DPPS stands committed to ensuring the safety of our Spartan community.  Conversation Highlights: (1:28) - The third-party after-action review by Security Risk Management Consultants (SRMC) was completed in October 2023.  (2:48) - There are new metal detectors around campus that are allowing guests to enter venues quicker, while also ensuring overall safety.  (4:46) - Enhancements to the MSU Alert systemLog in to alert.msu.edu to review and update your notification preferences. You can also download the SafeMSU app and enable push notifications to receive alerts.  (9:22) - Door Lock Installations As of January 2024, the door lock installation project is 82 percent complete for identified classrooms. You can learn more about the new locks on the Safety Tips page.   (12:12) - MSU DPPS continues to develop the new MSU Security Operations Center, or SOC.  (13:23) - Active Violence Incident (AVI) Training Online-based active violence incident, or AVI, training is now available to all MSU students, faculty, and staff. In addition to the online training, MSU DPPS offers in-person training for students, faculty, and staff. More at the Community Program Participation page.  (14:31) - How are you reflecting on February 13, 2023? (16:16) - Moving Forward – Key Takeaways Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

For years, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine researchers in the Division of Public Health have been working with Flint Community Partners to improve the health of the community, improve access to healthcare, reduce health disparities, and advance policies and interventions that aim to eliminate structural racism in healthcare. And every step of the way the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has been a visionary partner by providing the funding for space and endowed faculty positions. The support from the Mott Foundation has allowed MSU to invest in public health researchers seeking community minded solutions to tackle issues like the Flint water crisis and the Coronavirus pandemic. Over the past six years, MSU's Division of Public Health has brought in more than 115 million in federal research funding for these efforts. Now the university is creating its first fully philanthropically-named department in recognition of this long-term support as MSU seeks to expand its efforts to recruit top talent. The expanded academic unit in Flint will allow for significant growth in faculty as well as increased community programming.The Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health is the first named department at Michigan State University. The Mott Foundation granted $25 million to expand the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine's Public Health presence in Flint about one year ago. The grants created an endowed fund to attract and retain public health faculty, increase academic research, and boost community partnerships. As a result, the public health division has grown and was recently elevated to a department. The naming of the department is in recognition of the Mott Foundation's transformational support. Here to discuss this are Dr. Aron Sousa, Dean of the College of Human Medicine; Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Charles Stewart Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health and founding director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative; and Ridgway White, President and CEO of the Mott Foundation.“The college was founded as really the first medical school in the country based on a community focus,” says Sousa. “We have been in our communities for the 60 years or so that the college has been in existence, and that includes Flint. And as we were trying to figure out what to do to better engage with communities and foster better health and healthier communities, public health is really where that kind of rubber hits the road. And our partners in Flint, Hurley Medical Center, McLaren, and the Mott Foundation started putting together this kind of concept of a community-based public health program where we philosophically wanted to be in the community, invite the community into our building, and most importantly, work with the people of Flint as collaborators.”Sousa talks about what it means to have the name of Charles Stewart Mott on the department and the value and importance of elevating and structuring the faculty and staff into its own department and how that benefits programming in Flint to create impact for the community, the state, and the nation.“I've had this amazing privilege of traveling all over the country and working in other public health programs and learning about what they do,” says Hanna-Attisha. “There is no other place that does public health or thinks about health as we do. We were born in this really bizarre way. We didn't just say, ‘Hey, we're really smart and we're the university and we're going to come into this community and we're going to fix your problems.' We sat and we listened, and this was the brainchild of Dean Sousa when he first sought out to build this public health program in Flint. We had community meetings and forums and town halls and surveys, and we literally asked the community, ‘Hey, what do you want us to work on?' And based on that, the public health programming in Flint was born and has grown and grown, and we've never lost sight of that kind of conception of being community partnered. We are working on issues that our community wants us to work on, and it's more likely to achieve health equity.”Dr. Mona highlights some of the current research projects taking place in the public health area and about how the naming of the department impacts the work of the faculty and researchers. “If it wasn't for Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and the MSU Department of Public Health, we wouldn't have had the science that was needed to prove that the blood level in the children in Flint was elevated,” White says. “That has had huge ripple effects on all kinds of policy and federal funding for water initiatives on clean, affordable, accessible water for all across the United States.“MSU has been an amazing partner, a great grantee. The Mott Foundation is only as good as its grantees. We applaud MSU for taking these dollars and maximizing them. We always say ‘nothing about us without us.' And that rings true to the land grant philosophy of MSU. For the Mott Foundation, that's core to us.”“In this nation, we spend trillions on healthcare,” Hanna-Attisha continues. “We have built a sickness-based system, but we have failed to really go after those root causes, those root determinants of ill health. And that's what we're trying to do in Flint. We're trying to go upstream and address those root causes so that our hospitals aren't filled with chronic diseases and that our life expectancy isn't 20 years less in Flint than another part of Genesee County. Our Department of Public Health is within the medical school. In so many other places, it is a separate siloed school or department that's not related to the medical school. Having these two kinds of departments or units married together really enables us to train a future workforce of physicians who understand what public health is and can see beyond the patient in front of them and can address these upstream determinants.“In a really short period, we have built awesome. We are doing awesome work in Flint, thanks to the investment and support of the CS Mott Foundation. But really, in some ways, our work is just beginning. So, we look forward to the next few years. We look forward to more partnerships. We look forward to more support, more folks out there listening who say, ‘Hey, I want to invest in this, too.' Come. We welcome all who want to support our work and who want to work with us.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

$15 million state grant will support Center for Targeted Violence PreventionMichigan State University's Department of Psychiatry is launching a pilot program – with a $15 million grant from the state of Michigan – to help curb acts of violence and spare families from unthinkable trauma before it's too late.  The Center for Targeted Violence Prevention is a collaborative program between the MSU Department of Psychiatry — a shared department in the Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Human Medicine at MSU — and the National Policing Institute, or NPI. The five-year pilot program will establish a research-to-practice hub to provide guidance, training and consultation in the regions, and will also assign intensive support teams to provide case management and mentoring services to high-risk/high-need adolescents and their caregivers. Alyse Ley, associate chair of education and research in the Department of Psychiatry, and Frank Straub, director of the Center for Targeted Violence Prevention at NPI are co-directors of the program. They discuss the mission of the program on this episode of MSU Today.Listen to "MSU Today with Russ White" on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

On this week's The Sci-Files, your hosts, Chelsie and Danny, interview Jamell Dacon. Jamell is the MSU Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His current research focuses on fairness and bias in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Because inclusivity matters in all forms. He intends to investigate, examine and mitigate societal biases to conceptualize the "isms" that plague our society via NLP technologies to increase social justice and reduce feelings of disenfranchisement. Specifically, he focuses on conceptualizing social harms arising from the advancements in language technologies, highlighting both positive and negative societal impacts. If you're interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube! 

 Welcome to the 2023 season of Arthro-Pod! In today's episode, we meet up with Dr. JoVonn Hill of Mississippi State and the Mississippi Entomological Museum to have our final word on Rocky Mountain locust. We've heard about their historical destruction, we've covered the biology of what happened on the plains all those years ago, and now we want to hear about the current era of research on this insect. Plus, JoVonn shares his story of how he got into entomology, how to become an orthopterist, and how the outreach mission of the Mississippi Entomological Museum works. Tune in!Show notesCheck out the MSU Department hereLearn more about the Mississippi Entomological Museum at this linkHere's just a taste of JoVonn's work with grasshoppers in the Southeast!Check out all the cool things that Mississippi Bug Blues does for outreachFind JoVonn on Twitter @JoVonnH Questions? Comments? Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review!Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

This was done through several projects including the establishment of the MSU Operations Center — a facility that will centralize the university's security systems and technology through MSU's Department of Police and Public Safety which is expected to be largely operational by the end of the year. The goal is to ensure a more comprehensive and robust safety and security portfolio for campus.   President Stanley and MSU Vice President for Public Safety and Chief of Police Marlon Lynch talk about the center and its mission. The center — which will feature a fully integrated security system for access control, intrusion prevention and video security — will be housed within the MSU DPPS building.  Stanley and Lynch also talk about how the East Lansing Police Department and the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety have partnered to form the Proactive Engagement and Community Enhancement Team, or PEACE, which will focus on stopping criminal activity before it happens, while also providing education and promoting community safety and crime prevention.   MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Robby joins Bill Heinrich as a guest speaker on the podcast Mindset in Motion to discuss “what (the heck) the metaverse is,” and how it may modify the learning experience through a range of new virtual experiences, avatar identities, and accessibility in post-secondary education. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion). The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website. About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab. He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University. Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts. Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website. 

This is a recording of a talk Robby gave at Carnegie Mellon University this month. Can you guess one truth against the two lies in this talk title? [Spoilers ahead] The meatverse may have become enamored with the concept of the metaverse during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the term “metaverse” is three decades old and the concept even older. What is so meta-different now? Do we finally have access to an interconnected universe of immersive virtual worlds powered by decentralized platforms that facilitate private ownership over digital goods!? No! Can we teach classes in virtual reality headsets? Yes, and I did so for the first time in spring 2022! Does this mean the end of the Zoom fatigue era? Maybe, but unlikely! During this talk, I will describe my VR class, my recent research on perceptions of the metaverse, and my research on zoom fatigue as an issue of gender and racial equity. I will connect these studies to questions about how avatars may serve as an important facet of improving equity and inclusion in virtual meetings, particularly through the Proteus effect (the phenomenon that people conform behaviorally to their avatars' identity characteristics). About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion). The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website. About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab. He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University. Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts. Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

Games have been serving up killer apps for new tech since the early days of model railroads, maybe longer. It's 1982, what do I do with this home computer thing? …mostly play some games! Thus, it should come as no surprise that the video games of recent decades have provided foundational technologies for the impending less-gamey, more-workey metaverse. And so who better to help parse this inevitable metaversatile future than expert Game Studies researchers!? Dr. Trammell, Dr. Williams, and I discuss a range of topics related to this question of connections between video games and the metaverse, from issues of equity and inclusion to the epistemological nature of technology development and adoption. We imagine a future metaverse—facilitated by augmented reality technologies—that layers on top of our meatspace world, enriching but also stratifying social interactions. We also talk about how games provide a safe space for experimentation with new technologies that facilitates a sort of evolution by sociotechnical selection, helping to identify which user experiences are likely to be most compelling in more serious (e.g., business) contexts. For more on our guests, please see: dmitriwilliams.comaarontrammell.com@aarontram About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

Dr. Megan Fritz (http://www.meganfritzlab.com/people.html) is alumna of the MSU Department of Entomology.  She sat down in person with Zsofia to talk about career and family. She chatted about being an undergraduate research assistant in an entomology lab, being inspired by the people around her to choose entomology as a career, and going to grad school without getting an M.S. first. Meghan also discussed her choice to start a family in graduate school, raising children while completing her Ph.D., the role of a supportive adviser and community to be able to do this and thinking about why it might be a good option for some to have kids during this time of life.*Contact/follow us @bugtalkpodcast on Instagram or Twitter.Thanks to Ellie Darling for designing the Bug Talk logo!

Laura Sawyer, ICA's Executive Director, describes her path to leading the organization (she used to be an actor!!), offers some useful tips for students and junior scholars interested in ICA, provides behind-the-scenes insights into the multifaceted foundations of a successful Conference, explains how the organization is structured and run under the guidance of the executive committee (from president elect select to president eject!), compares ICA to NCA (reluctantly but diplomatically), discusses ICA's approach to promoting inclusion both at the local and international levels, and hints at the location (continent) for the ICA 2026. If you're interested in the organization—whether a longtime member or ICA n00b—this episode is a great listen!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

Dr. Vasileios Stavropoulos describes his fascinating research about using cyber-phenotypes (e.g., uses of and attitudes about games, avatars, etc.) to predict health markers of depression (e.g., reduce sleep, appetite, interest in other activities). He eloquently explains how the effects of gaming are not uniform, but depend on individual differences (e.g., age, psychological profiles). We discuss the potential for regulations to promote healthy uses of games (spoiler alert: he thinks time-based restrictions are less effective than regulation of mechanisms, like loot boxes and algorithms). We also explore a few virtual worlds together in ENGAGE, a virtual reality meeting platform, while the live studio audience spawned farm animals in the background. https://www.vu.edu.au/research/vasileios-stavropouloshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGAkGgq626uJIeN5Y84O3oA https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasileios-stavropoulos-14234641/?originalSubdomain=au https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/16408/user-avatar-bond-risk-and-opportunities-in-gaming-and-beyond @group_vuAbout the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

For over 30 years, Dr. Carrie Heeter has been studying virtual reality and waiting for it to be the next big thing. And now it actually seems to be! However, these days she focuses more on internal than external simulations — meditation. During this episode, she talks about her research on meditation with virtual reality, such as a scenario she built for meditating on a virtual beach. She also talks about her own meditation experiences, such as floating through space as a polymorph. Join us for this edifying episode, or even better, join Carrie in her meditation community here: yogamindtools.comTake the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

Our guest this episode is Dr. Steve Yelon, who has been teaching people how to teach since the 1960s. He speaks about the history of distance learning (all the way back to the 1920s!), his work with Sesame Street and the Secret Service, some early distance learning technologies that he utilized (overheads, audio tapes!), the importance of pedagogy regardless of the medium (“Lousy instruction in a new medium is still lousy instruction”), and 10 principles of teaching that every current instructor should know. Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

Under the direction of Chief Lynch and with the approval of MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., the focus and structure of the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety has been adjusted to better represent the priorities of the Spartan community. The reorganization took effect July 1 and places greater emphasis on community engagement, diversity, equity, and inclusion, relationship violence and sexual misconduct, professional standards and public integrity, and behavioral support services. As chief of staff, Green is responsible for accreditation, internal affairs, recruiting, budget, finance, human resources, and strategic planning. In addition, Green will oversee DEI initiatives, including programming, training, and education. “I am an alumnus,” says Green. “I went to graduate school here at the School of Criminal Justice. I've always hoped to reconnect with MSU at some point in my career, and I've always been interested in university policing. One of the reasons I went back to grad school was because I liked the ability to be around different ideas and social identities and different understandings of the historical foundation of things and how things work. It was just a natural fit. This is an opportunity to grow and to further use a skillset I have from a municipal background and to bring that over to a university setting.”What will your role entail? What will you be doing?“One of the things I like about my role is that it's fluid,” Green continues. “Understanding and leveraging what the university has to offer has been key for me. And particularly, one of the key documents that I was able to analyze early when I started here in July was the great work of MSU's 2030 Strategic Plan and its DEI plan, the Diversity Equity Inclusion Plan and Recommendation. So that's been key to me because we have been charged with making sure that DEI is a foundational piece of our police and public safety department. Making sure that we align ourselves, as a police department, with the university's mission is going to be key.” Among Green's priorities is working on the department's accreditation, which he says “gives us an opportunity to examine and scan the department to determine and embrace our best practices and implement them. And accreditation gives us an annual review process so we're constantly reviewing those policies and procedures. And that's one thing I've learned throughout my history in policing is whatever the policy is today, it's going to change somewhere down the road. So, we must be constantly engaging and learning what's best for our university.“Interacting with our community is vitally important. Every day, our police officers are trying to interact with our community in a way that builds trust and legitimizes our police department. We're trying to build on a great culture that historically has done a great job. We're trying to take it to the next level and make sure that we create a system of accountability and lean on our community. We're leveraging the resources of the university, too. There are some bright people at this university, and we want to make sure that they have an opportunity to engage with us and have a voice. As we build and incorporate them into our training, our policies, and our supervisory leadership training, we want to make sure that they have a vital role in that.“And that includes a lot of the training that our officers must encounter to understand a diverse community. We must make sure that we have a multicultural competency when it comes to our police officers. They must understand as much as they can about social identities and the differences within our community.  We can do that and be very transparent about it, which can help legitimize our police and public safety department.”What are some challenges in reaching some of your goals and some opportunities in reaching some of them, too?“I'm very optimistic,” Green says. “Learning some of the internal workings of the university has been key to understanding how the strategic plan was built, what was the foundation of it, and how we move forward. I have been listening and reading and understanding what our values are as a university. And when you look at the strategic plan, you can almost substitute the word police for the word university. I think the university's strategic plan has been key. There's tremendous opportunity and metrics that we can use to show that we are progressing in this foundational piece of establishing DEI in everything we do and becoming the excellent police department that we have been and continue to be.”Chief Lynch talks about the Police and Public Safety Advisory Committee he has formed, and he describes the SafeMSU app.“It's a large committee because I wanted to be inclusive,” says Lynch. “One of the primary reasons for this committee to exist is to hear from our community directly and regularly and not only in a time of critical incident or in a time when allegations are being made. This is a regular conversation. It also provides ownership. You heard Daryl mention the university's strategic plan. Our department is also creating a strategic plan, and this committee will have a regular voice in that. So, as we develop the plan, they will be actively engaged in it. We will hear directly from our community on a regular basis. It gives our community ownership and accountability. It lets them in. There's nothing behind the curtain that they won't be exposed to. They can be the perfect conduit from our department to the MSU community.”MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and streams at WKAR.org. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Dr. Jakki Bailey, assistant professor and director of the Immersive Human Development Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, shares her expertise on childrens' uses of virtual reality technology. She shares some humorous moments from her research (e.g., “I wish I could do this [in VR] for forever”), describes some potential concerns about safety for kids in VR and succinctly explains the fundamental psychology behind why kids use and respond to VR differently than adults (e.g., executive function and impulse control). She also describes how kids perceive characters and avatars in VR, how her “Designing User Interfaces for Children” class prepares students to build the metaverse for children and the ways in which education in VR might be able to exceed the quality of current educational experiences. Her expertise on this important but all-too-often underappreciated topic is rare and valuable. Enjoy the episode!Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

Dr. Allison Eden, associate professor at Michigan State University, and Robby delve into her recently published research on media habits and well-being during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss how media use changed between the Spring and Fall of 2020, why some social media platforms were better suited as a hedonic distraction to help people cope with stress and anxiety and how people selected content to regulate their moods and reframe the pandemic. They also talk about gaming and virtual reality and speculate about how people might select media to optimize well-being in a 5-year-future pandemic.Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

This episode, Robby speaks with Professor Brian Winn, his colleague in the Department of Media and Information here at Michigan State University, about his unique path into academia and directing the Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab. They discuss how the Meaningful Play conference came to be as a marriage of academic games research and industry/creative game design and what to expect for the Meaningful Play 2022 conference (Oct 13-15) — which is totally awesome, you should submit/attend. And Brian talks about his new game studio, Will Winn Games, producer of Plunder Panic, a game of up to 12 players which supports mixed local/online and human/AI teams!Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

Dr. Dad is back again for an encore episode with Robby! They discuss the early days of supporting remote work at Bell Labs, the potential for virtual reality technologies (and the metaverse writ large) to influence the dynamics of remote work in the near-term future, Robby's recently funded NSF on topics of equity and inclusion within virtual meeting platforms, and the ~30-year future potential of nano-engineered smart materials to dramatically change the way we work remotely (and everything else we do).About this week's guest: Dr. Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan spent over three decades in communications. He worked at companies like Bell Labs/AT&T (inventors of the telephone and transistor,) VocalTec (inventors of Voice over IP and the Internet messaging app ICQ,) YellowPages, Pitney Bowes, American Printer and Bell & Howell (a pioneer in projectors and broadcast media.)   His work spanned the divide between digital and physical communication, as well as mass and targeted communication. Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

CROSSOVER EPISODE! When approached by Roxana Girju, professor of linguistics (and more, see below), requesting an interview for her podcast about the Metaverse, Robby thought, “Let's kill two virtual birds with one grey oblong NFT!” In other words, the interview is being cross-posted and Robby finally gets to blah blah blah on his own podcast! Seriously though, this was a great opportunity to synthesize some of the amazing lessons learned from the previous SPARTIE-Cast guests combined with some personal explorations into the Metaverse Robby has done recently with friend and colleague Dar Meshi (@darmeshi). During this interview, Robby's explains his understanding of what the Metaverse and Web 3.0 are, how they relate to virtual/augmented reality technologies, how the technological infrastructure is and will be governed, what societal benefits and concerns are on the horizon, how Facebook, Epic (Fortnite), and other major companies will operate in this space and how the SPARTIE-Lab's research relates to this impending brave new world. And huge thanks to Dr. Girju for conducting the interview!About this week's guest: Roxana Girju is a podcast host, professor of linguistics, computer science affiliate and part-time faculty member of the Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the co-founder and former director of the successful joint CS+Linguistics undergraduate​ program. Located at the intersection of language – technology – society, Dr. Girju's research interests are in designing, building and testing artificial intelligence systems that use language in order to facilitate successful human–human and human–computer communication. She is a longstanding supporter of the integration of STEM with the broader fields of humanities, social sciences and the arts, integration that would benefit the next generation of human language technologies.This episode is cross-posted with Dr. Girju's own podcast, Creative Language Technologies. You can check out her other episodes on any of the major podcast platforms but also here:  https://player.fm/series/creative-language-technologiesTake the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

The reorganization took effect July 1st and places greater emphasis on community engagement; diversity, equity and inclusion; relationship violence and sexual misconduct; professional standards and public integrity; and behavioral support services.Many of the changes directly align with the recommendations made by the Task Force on Racial Equity police working group, and the initiatives outlined in the Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct Strategic Plan.Deputy Chief Andrea Munford will lead the Community Support Bureau, including the Special Victims Unit, Center for Trauma-Informed Investigative Excellence, and the Community Care Unit. Munford will continue her role as special adviser to the president and RVSM issues.Chief Lynch will be bringing members of his leadership team with him to talk about their areas of focus in the department in a regular podcast series on MSU Today we're affectionately calling Chopping It Up with the Chief. Deputy Chief Munford is Chief Lynch's guest on this episode.“It is a fantastic opportunity to serve my alma mater in this capacity,” says Chief Lynch in referring to his first six months on the job leading public safety at MSU. “Having the ability to make positive contributions and have direct impact on our community is a great opportunity.”On the reasons for the restructuring, Lynch says “I felt it was important that we align to the mission of the university. We still provide our traditional police services, and we're emphasizing direct community engagement and community support, meaning everything from behavioral support to relationship violence and sexual misconduct. What we do every day is engage with our community, and so having diversity, equity, and inclusion be a part of everything that we do is going to be important. The structure was built with that in mind.”“I graduated from MSU in 1996 with a bachelor's in criminal justice, and I started with the department in 1997,” says Munford. “I started out on patrol working in our community engagement unit. I spent five years on a cold case homicide task force with Ingham County and State Police and learned a lot about what survivors of lost family members go through and how traumatic that situation can be. In 2014, we started our Special Victims Unit within the Investigative Bureau, and we really framed that around being trauma-informed, victim-centered, and offender-focused. We based our foundation on the work of Dr. Rebecca Campbell and the research she's done on the neurobiology of trauma.“Trauma-informed looks at the social and behavioral impact, and what it's like for someone to go through a traumatic experience. It affects everybody differently. We need to be aware of what happens to folks as they go through trauma so that we can understand how to do our investigations working with people on an individual basis. In the past, a lot of the guidelines on how to do an investigation focused solely on getting the facts and the evidence. But if you're not factoring in someone's experience going through trauma, then you're really missing a lot of the micro corroborations of what they're experiencing because of the traumatic event. It's really important to work with each person that goes through a traumatic event on an individual basis so that you're really understanding what they're going through.“Victim-centered means meeting people where they are and looking at what their needs are. We do investigative services; however, it may not be best for every person to go through a full investigation. The way we framed our unit is leading with support. For special victims' cases, we're connecting survivors with support services and resources so that they can make really informed decisions about what processes they want to participate in. Then when we look at our community care unit, there's a lot of intersectionality between RVSM issues and folks who go through some behavioral mental health issues. We look at that intersectionality, and we look at that side through a trauma-informed lens.”What are some short and long-term goals?“Like I mentioned, we really want our unit to lead by support,” Munford continues. “So as folks come into our process, whether they initiate it themselves or somebody on their behalf reports something to us, we want to provide support services first. That really involves a lot of collaboration with our community and campus partners so that we're really working as a team to provide support to students, faculty, staff, and visitors that come here too. The short-term goal is to get our unit trained in best practices. Again, that's a collaboration that we need to do with the whole community. Long-term is sustaining those relationships. We now have a social work intern on our team. We're making that part of our unit more robust so that we can enhance the services that we provide to our community.”What about both some challenges and opportunities to achieving some of your goals?“One of the biggest challenges right now is building trust with the community,” Munford says. “A lot of events historically and more recently have given people doubts about the police department and that's understandable. We want folks to know we're here to support them. We're really focused on being a big piece of the university's mission to enhance student success and to make the culture healthy and respectful and sustain that through the work that we do in collaboration with our partners.”“I would agree the challenge is the community trust,” adds Lynch. “It's a national narrative in regard to police reform. We definitely heard the concerns from our community. We saw the recommendations from the task force. We've reallocated our funds, and we redirected where our emphasis is. Andrea's comments about leading with support, that's what it's about. It's providing the support for our community and being a trusted, reliable resource for our community. That will be a challenge, but I think the opportunity is that there's a lot of willingness to do it. It's very well supported by university leadership. There are members of the community who have already reached out with support. There are opportunities as well that they will have through our police and public safety advisory committee to where there's a monthly opportunity to meet and help us with our strategic planning and initiatives. This is all day every day, Russ. It's not just sort of thinking about it one and done. We're moving on. It's time.“The structure of our department will be built on community need, engagement, and support. Traditional police services will remain, but it may not necessarily be the emphasis. Again, the structure is based on the feedback that we've received. The structure needs to be nimble. If things change, we change with it, and we'll continue to do that.”MSU Today airs every Sunday morning at 9:00 on 105.1 FM and AM 870 and streams at WKAR.org. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The Founders of Upworlds and Metaxu, Sonya Seddarasan and Dr. Pierre Gerard, respectively, describe their endeavors to support the community of Metaverse developers and users to host Robby Ratan. Upworlds provides a platform for virtual builders to gain useful skills (e.g., cross-platform development) and monetize their work through a peer-to-peer marketplace, special events, rentals and custom commissions. Metaxu is a design studio that hosts regular events, such as design office hours, to help developers learn about designing virtual architecture. Metaxu also hosts exhibits and live performances where virtual artists display and even sell their virtual work as NFTs. During the episode we visit one of these exhibit spaces — you'll have to watch the video to see the killer snail. In addition to their exciting contributions to the Metaverse community, they also discuss the meaning and history of the Metaverse, the need for user-centered architecture-informed design in virtual spaces, and the potential for the Metaverse to expand access to arts and cultural events ...and avatars. Of course Robby brings up avatars. Metaxu  hosts a real time event every last Tuesday at 5 p.m. BST (12 p.m. EST)Upworlds goes live on Discord every Thursday 5 p.m. BST (12 p.m. EST)Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!Want to live stream or video chat with your own avatar? Try Animaze for free! And if you want to subscribe, use code “spartielab” at checkout for 50% off all subscriptions. The free-to-use software is available on Steam and the Apple App Store. Code expires January 1, 2022. Thank you Animaze for sponsoring this episode!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan speaks with Yiming Skylar Lei, a Ph.D. student in the Information and Media program at Michigan State University, and a very productive member of the SPARTIE Lab. They discuss her childhood curiosity about gaming and how it led to her pursuit of a Ph.D. in game studies. She shares some advice for potential students who want to follow her path, her interests in the prosocial benefits of cooperative video games, why she thinks Guild Wars 2 is one of the best collaborative games out there, and the psychology behind her cringey reaction to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!About this week's guest: Yiming Skylar Lei is a Ph.D. student in the Information and Media program at Michigan State University and member of the SPARTIE Lab. Her bachelor's degree is in sociology and her master's degree is in emerging media studies. Her research interests include the psychological processing and effects of simulated worlds in interactive technologies like video games and virtual reality and how factors inside and outside the simulation influence users. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan speaks with Dr. Kelly Tran, a professional game designer and researcher working on a game to improve players' social and emotional learning. She discusses her transition from academia to industry, the importance of aligning game mechanics with the impactful (or “serious”) intent of the game, the value of games as tools for stealth assessment, her eudaimonic experiences playing Chicory and Mass Effect and the fun she's having Twitch streaming Final Fantasy XIV. And, of course, Robby nudged her to comment on avatars and self-presentation a bit too. Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!About this week's guest: Dr. Kelly Tran is the founder and applied designer at Evolved Play, a company building a free-to-play adventure role-playing game platform for children four-years-old and up. They plan to use social emotional learning to help players develop emotional intelligence, creativity and empathy through story and social gameplay. Tran is also a Twitch streamer on her personal channel and a channel she shares with other professors. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

This week host Robby Ratan had a truly enlightening conversation with Dr. Sarah Hays, a practicing clinician who uses video games and avatars in the therapy she provides to her clients. She also works at Take This and Queer Women of Esports. The two discuss the Geek Therapeutics movement (super cool idea Robby had never heard of), the exciting potential to provide therapy using and/or inside of video games and virtual reality, and the important role that avatars (and the Proteus effect) play in such therapy. Robby is truly inspired to help his research field build stronger bridges with practicing clinicians after this conversation! And remember, if anyone is skeptical about using a game for therapy, tell them it's just a playable book! Take the SPARTIE-Cast survey and let us know what you think of the podcast!About this week's guest:Dr. Sarah Hays is a doctor of counseling psychology and practicing clinician specialized in Geek Therapy, ADHD and LGBTQIA+ populations. She's the mentorship lead and a podcast co-host at Queer Women of Esports, an organization dedicated to providing resources and mentorship to help create positive change the esports industry and make it more inclusive. Hays is also a clinical contributor at Take This, a non-profit organization focused on supporting and decreasing the stigma around mental health in the gaming community and industry. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan speaks with Dr. Jorge Peña, associate professor at the University of California, Davis. They cover themes in "Westworld," "Black Mirror" and countless video games. And relate the themes to his research on a virtual recreation of the Milgram shock experiments, a study on how avatar identification affects acceptance of out-group members, and the theoretical underpinnings of the Proteus effect. The duo also brainstorm study ideas that build on these concepts and connect to notions of the Metaverse and cross-platform avatars. Peña's fascinating research is pushing the boundaries of the field and is highly relevant to the future of work, play and everything between. About this week's guest:Along with his role as Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Jorge Peña is the director of the Virtual Interaction & Communication Technology Lab. Researchers at the lab study how video games and virtual environments affect online and offline experiences and how those experiences can improve lives. Peña is also vice-chair of the National Communication Association Game Studies Division and is on the editorial board for the "Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication." About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode host Robby Ratan speaks with Cecilia D'Anastasio, the games journalist at WIRED. They talk about her writing on identity exploration through avatars, the potential for video games to foster empowerment of marginalized communities and skepticism about the vision of the Metaverse being touted by CEOs. To wrap up, they geek out about their professions and in particular and the complementarity of academic research and journalism in their contributions to the public record. About this week's guest: Cecilia D'Anastasio is WIRED's only full time games industry and gaming culture writer. She's an award winning journalist including an appearance on the 2020 Forbes' "30 Under 30" list in media. Previously D'Anastasio was a senior reporter at Kotaku, a news and opinion website that revolves around the gaming realm, a freelance contributor for VICE.About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, Dr. Edward Downs describes his research applying the MAIN (Modality, Agency, Interactivity, & Navigation) Model to learning in virtual reality, connects these concepts to themes from "Ready Player One," discusses some concerns about using “moral panic” too loosely, asks host Robby Ratan a question about the origins of digital avatars (and then shares an interesting anecdote that predates Robby's example) and then grapples with the idea of merging NFTS, avatars and the Metaverse.This episode contains spoilers of the books "Ready Player One" and "Ready Player Two."About this week's guest:Dr. Edward Downs is a professor in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Minnesota Duluth. His research focuses on the intersection of media and cognition. More specifically, how new technologies can be used in learning environments. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan and Dr. Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn discuss the concept of the Metaverse, the Korean Netflix original “Memories of Alhambra,” and how both relate to her 10+ years of research on virtual/mixed reality (VR/XR.) Ahn describes her amazing research lab where she can run experiments with 10 simultaneous participants in VR, her NIH-funded research on virtual pets for well-ing, why she thinks VR gaming has not taken off but VR for business and other contexts will and how social relationships between people and artificial agents are totally fine ...no need for moral panic! About this week's guest: Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn is an associate professor of research methods, user experience research, communication theory and advertising and society in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. She is the director of the university's Games and Virtual Environments Lab where research is conducted on the experience and effects of immersion in virtual and mixed reality environments. Ahn is also the co-director of the Virtual Environment Room and Gaming Experience Lab. The lab started in 2019 and gives up to 20 students and faculty to engage in the virtual reality world at the same time. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, Dr. Andrea Stephenson Won and host, Robby Ratan, analyze the film Pacific Rim (SPOILERS!) as it relates to her research in the Virtual Embodiment Lab at Cornell. We discuss the idea of many-to-one avatars (e.g., two-pilot Jaegers,) the psychological effect of proximity perceptions (e.g., does it matter if the pilot is in a mech or not) and the very definition of avatars in consideration of these concepts. She also shares some interesting findings from her research and recommendations for science fiction that help broaden our understanding of these exciting future media technologies. About this week's guest: Andrea Stephenson Won is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. She directs the Virtual Embodiment Lab where they research how mediated experiences change people's perceptions, especially in immersive media. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, Dr. Maxwell Foxman discusses the connections between his interest in history, journalism and game studies. We dive into his early research, Foursquare (OMG he still uses it!) and his approach to helping journalists understand how to present stories on media (e.g., virtual world use during the pandemic). He explains why virtual reality didn't take off during the pandemic (e.g., cost, supply chain) and why there is a rift between public perception and scholarly understanding of technologies like virtual reality and avatars.About this week's guest:Maxwell Foxman is an assistant professor of media and game studies at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. His research focuses on play in non-game situations like on social media, in politics and in journalism. Foxman is also a consultant for organizations like SuperData, Data & Society, Thunder 11 and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

This week's guest, Adam Sulzdorf-Liszkiewicz, talks about his path from philosophy and avant-garde art, to developing absurdist virtual reality games, to becoming an assistant professor preparing future generations to abstract upon his footsteps. Links to media featured in the interview:https://liszkiewicz.info/projects/Scan.htmlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1u1hMJXQh8&t=1s https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAh_PNH5RK1VF-vXrANLElQ About this week's guest: Adam Sulzdorf-Liszkiewicz is the President of Rust LTD, makers of the widely acclaimed Hots Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media & Information at Michigan State University. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan has a chat with Dr. Casey O'Donnell, a game developer and associate professor at Michigan State University. They chat about Casey's background in science and technology research, game development, MSU's top-ranked game design program for undergrad and professional students, serious games, and -- of course -- avatars.About this week's guest:Dr. Casey O'Donnell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. His research examines the creative collaborative work of video game design and development (for both AAA & independent game development communities), and has spanned game development companies from the United States to India. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Casey also actively serves as part of MSU's Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab, and works as an active game developers, having released 'Osy' in 2011, 'Against the Gradient' in 2012, 'GLITcH' in 2013, and 'Sparks of Eternity' in 2014. Casey's games, research, courses, and more can be found at his website.About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan has a conversation with Ryan Feldman, the senior unity developer XR specialist for Immersed, about his work on a virtual reality office space for at home workers. Immersed is a virtual reality company developing technologies to make a productive workspace in virtual reality. About this week's guest: Ryan Feldman is the senior unity developer XR specialist for Immersed, a virtual reality company developing technologies to remove the barriers of remote work and create an efficient workspace in VR. Feldman is also a recent graduate of Michigan State University, where he studied computer science and game design, and was a fellow at Hacker Fellows, a one year program for software engineers, coders, hackers and entrepreneurs. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan talks with the Clinical Director of Take This, Raffael Boccamazzo (Dr. B,) about working to destigmatize mental health in the gaming industry and community and providing support for those who need it. About this week's guest: Dr. Raffael Boccamazzo is a doctor of psychology and the clinical director of Take This, a mental health advocacy nonprofit that focuses on the game industry and community. The organization aims to decrease the stigma around mental health in all parts of the gaming industry while providing support. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode host, Robby Ratan, speaks with the CEO of WOLF3D, Timmu Tõke, about their avatar platform Ready Player Me and their vision to support avatars across multiple platforms from desktop games to virtual reality to video conferences for business meetings. About this week's guest: Timmu Tõke is the CEO and co-founder of WOLF3D. The company was founded in 2014 to build world-class avatar systems. They also created Ready Player Me, a cross-game avatar platform where users can make an avatar to use across more than 200 mobile, desktop, web and VR apps and gamesTõke is also a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

This week host Robby Ratan speaks with his dad, Dr. Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, about his perspective on avatars. They also cover his more than three decades in communications at companies like Bell Labs/AT&T, VocalTec and YellowPages. About this week's guest: Dr. Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan spent over three decades in communications. He worked at companies like Bell Labs/AT&T (inventors of the telephone and transistor,) VocalTec (inventors of Voice over IP and the Internet messaging app ICQ,) YellowPages, Pitney Bowes, American Printer and Bell & Howell (a pioneer in projectors and broadcast media.)   His work spanned the divide between digital and physical communication, as well as mass and targeted communication. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Robby Ratan and master's student Anna Praetorius talk in-depth about the Proteus Effect and research around avatars. About this week's guest:Anna Praetorius is the first author of "How Avatars Influence User Behavior: A Review on the Proteus Effect in Virtual Environments and Video Games," and a master's student at Reutlingen Univeristy in Reutlingen, Germany.About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, Jeremy Whiting, general manager of Michigan State University's student-run radio station, Impact 89FM, talks about his radio journey, running a college radio station and creating impactful audio work.  About this week's guest:Jeremy Whiting is the general manager at Impact 89FM, Michigan State University's student-run radio station. He is the only non-student employee and supports and supervises the over 150 paid and volunteer student staff members while ensuring the station follows the Federal Communications Commission guidelines for broadcasting. Whiting began working at the station when he attended Michigan State University as a student in 2000. He went on to become a journalism teacher before returning in the General Manager position. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the Director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

In this episode, host Dr. Robby Ratan talks all things SPARTIE-Cast while reviewing the first nine episodes and alluding to what's to come. About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found at the SPARTIE Lab website. About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the Director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

This week is an informative conversation with Domna Banakou on her research trajectory, the Event lab, and the future of avatar research.About this week's guestDomna Banakou is a researcher at the EVENT-LAB in Barcelona. Her research focuses on virtual environments, with a specific focus on how “body ownership illusions” affect people's perceptions and views.She has a background in Computer Science, receiving her BSc from the Ionian University. She has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology from the University of Barcelona and an MSU in Computer Graphics, Vision and Imaging from University College London.Her research has resulted in the publication of many research papers. They cover a variety of topics including embodiment of avatars, virtual reality, implicit bias and more. Many of these topics are intertwined. You can check out a substantial amount of her work here.About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found at the SPARTIE Lab website. About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the Director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

This week Dr. Robby Ratan speaks with Scott Galloway, a New York University Stern Professor of Marketing, founder of the business ed startup, Section4, author of "THE FOUR, THE ALGEBRA OF HAPPINESS" and "Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity," blogger of "No Mercy / No Malice" and the host of the podcast the "Prof G Show." He's also been Ratan's parasocial running partner for the past ~year (i.e., his podcasts help distract Ratan from his turtle pace). Galloway shares his thoughts on podcasting/media engagement, the intersection of gaming/virtual goods and crypot/NFTs, and the self-serving (current) nature of academia.About this week's guest:Scott Galloway is a professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business. He is the founder of Section4, the online business education startup. He also does research on modern media and marketing, with much of his research focusing on "The Four" (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google).He has founded Prophet, a consultancy firm for brands and marketing, and L2 Inc, a digital intelligence firm that he sold in March 2017. He authored several books, including The Algebra of Happiness, The Four, and Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity.He co-hosts the Pivot podcast with Kara Swisher and hosts his own weekly podcast The Prof G Show. He has his own blogging site, No Mercy / No Malice.About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found at the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the Director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

We are excited to dedicate this episode to two students who have been working with the SPARTIE Lab for most of their time at Michigan State University. In this episode, they discuss some of their lab experiences and what they expect in their future careers.About this week's guests:Ann Desrochers is a student and Alumni Distinguished Scholar at Michigan State University. She is currently majoring in Experience Architecture and Psychology. She is the President of the MSU Experience Architecture Club and is a Professorial Assistant for the College of Communication Arts & Sciences. She is also a researcher for the SPARTIE Lab!George McNeill is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Michigan State University Eli Broad College of Business. He is the operations manager for the Impact 89FM Radio Station and a Graduate Research Assistant for the College of Communication Arts & Sciences. He is also the owner of Cool Duck Productions, a media production company based in West Michigan and a researcher for the SPARTIE Lab!About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found at the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the Director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.

This week, host, Dr. Robby Ratan, performs a rap he wrote for the March for Science in Lansing a few years back as part of a small band (He plays the saxophone).  They were kind enough to allow me to insert a nerdy rap into "When the Saints Go Marching."About the SPARTIE Lab:The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found at the SPARTIE Lab website.About the host:Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University's Department of Media and Information and is the Director of the SPARTIE Lab.He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education's program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety).  He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.