Gradcast

In this special episode, host Anthony Cruz is joined by Tyson de Moura Umberger, a PhD Student in Hispanic Studies. Tyson researches the evolution of Spanish, French, and Portuguese in the Western hemisphere. How are these gendered languages evolving over time? Listen to find out. We also discuss Tyson's work as the Society of Graduate Students' Pride Commissioner. Recorded on June 25, 2024. Produced by Anthony Cruz. Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

This week, hosts Anthony Cruz and Mark Ambrogio are joined by Brianne O'Sullivan, a PhD Candidate in Health Information Science. Brianne's doctoral research focuses on medical delivery drones, which deliver essential healthcare supplies to people in hard-to-reach places. Could drones play a vital role in healthcare in the future? In addition to her doctoral research, Brianne is a policy analyst on Canada's World Health Organization team at the Public Health Agency of Canada. Brianne is also passionate about STEM education! Listen to learn all about her work. Recorded on June 25, 2024. Produced by Anthony Cruz. Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

This week, GradCast hosts Amalie Hutchinson and Anthony Cruz chat with Maddie Bloomberg, a Master's student in the department of psychology. Maddie shares her research into category learning and individual differences that can arise between neurotypical and neurodivergent fish-categorizers.  To find out more about Maddie's work, check out her linkedin Recorded on June 18, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

This week, hosts Mark Ambrogio and Garth Casbourn are joined by Alan Oldham, a PhD candidate in Western's School of Kinesiology. In his work, Alan asks some challenging questions about sports. Is it fair for games to end in a tie? How do we decide who can or can't play a sport? Sports play a huge role in our lives, but these questions aren't easy to answer. Fittingly, Alan also talks about his experience in the Olympic sport of rowing. To get in contact with Alan, find him on Twitter or LinkedIn. Recorded on June 11, 2024. Produced by Anthony Cruz. Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

In this very special episode, Meghan Voll and Mark Ambrogio interview soon-to-be Master of Media Studies graduate student Janelle Allan. In this episode, Janelle asks our hosts her burning question about all things grad school, from getting a teaching assistantship, to managing new academic workloads. If you're entering a graduate program, you'll want to tune into this episode! To follow Janelle on this new journey, follow her on Linkedin! Recorded on June 4, 2024 Produced by Suzy Lee Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, GradCast welcomes Ameena Abid back to the interview table to follow up on her independent study project within her Master's of Social Work. Join hosts Mark Ambrogio and Anthony Cruz in their discussion with Ameena into her own family history - an autoethnography - and explore topics of nostalgia, the connection between grandparents and grandchildren, and how a story that seems like an outlier case may well comprise a whole story on its own. To get in contact with Ameena, check out her Linkedin Recorded on May 28, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson  Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

This week, hosts Mark Ambrogio and Ryan Baxter interview Benjamin Vazquez, a student at Huron here at Western working on a master of arts in theology. They chat about the work of Gordon Lloyd, a local architect who lived and worked in the late 19th century. Benjamin follows Lloyd's career and spends, in his words, altogether too much time in old churches - but he loves it! Recorded on May 21, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson  Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

This week, hosts Liam Clifford and Amalie Hutchinson are joined by Alexander Sallas, a PhD candidate in Western's Department of English and Writing Studies. In his dissertation, Alexander talks about the Deus Ex Machina, a special, unpredictable way to end a story. Some people believe that this is not a great way to end a story, but Alexander strongly disagrees. Unpredictable events happen all the time in real life, so why can't they happen in a story? Recorded on May 14, 2024. Produced by Anthony Cruz. Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

This week hosts Mark Ambrogio and Liam Clifford are joined by John Kausch, a PhD student in Information Science studying knowledge organization systems and ways to translate knowledge. This episode delves into what an ontology is, John's work on creating a formal model for knowledge translation and wider applications of information science research in other domains. To learn more about John, check out his Twitter page @kausch and Observable Portfolio. Recorded on May 7, 2024 Produced by Maria Khan Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, hosts Mark Ambrogio and Ryan Baxter are joined by Caitlin Fitzpatrick, a Masters of Neuroscience student who is interested in examining the emotional effects of music on older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Tune in to this week's episode for discussions on the two sides of emotion in relation to music, as well as the grander applications of this research. To learn more about Caitlin and her work, check out her LinkedIn page! Recorded on April 30, 2024 Produced by Suzy Lee Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

For our first #BookCast recording, hosts Scott Walters, Amalie Hutchinson, Mark Ambrogio, Garth Casbourn, and Meghan Voll discuss The Idiot by Elif Batuman. Join our book club for a discussion about writing style, dissociation with the world around you, and how we can all relate to being a bit of an idiot.  Note: no spoilers, so if you've read the book already or haven't yet, you'll be able to enjoy this podcast. Recorded on April 9, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

Join hosts Carly Charron and Liam Clifford in their chat with biology MSc student Lauren Rego. Studying how mitochondria change during hibernation in thirteen-lined ground squirrels, Lauren shares her expertise in squirrel trapping and care, the physiology behind hibernation and what ground squirrels really do all winter.  To learn more about Lauren's work, check out her twitter @laurenrego3 Recorded on April 16, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Ground squirrel audio from youtube Ground squirrel photo available here Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

For this special #PostDocsTalk episode, former GradCast managing editor Dr. Ariel Frame joins hosts Amalie Hutchinson and Carly Charron to share his stories and advice on all things post-doc. We chat about finding a position, dealing with setbacks, how to defend work/life balance, and the trick of striving for your ideals while keeping expectations low (or at least manageable). To find Ariel on social media--though don't expect any comments--look for @arielframe on everything.  Recorded on April 9, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, hosts Mark Ambrogio and Liam Clifford interview MLIS student Aleesa Prendergast. Aleesa shares about some exciting projects she's done for her coursework, including investigating old tomes of fairytales and determining how libraries can be made more accessible for all.  Recorded on April 9, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

In the third installment of interviewing LIS Ph.D Candidate Alex Mayhew, we turn to Alex’s work on Aging Justice. Approached through a bio-ethical and health justice perspective, Alex makes the bold claim that aging should not only be treated at the same level as disease, but that it is necessary in order to expand capacity and quality of life for older people. Read Alex’s article here! Additional articles mentioned in the episode: "Just Because I'm 90 Doesn't Mean I'm Ready to Die - Or Disposable" "Why I hope to Dies at 75" López-Otín et al. (2013). "Hallmarks of Aging: An Expanding Universe" Listen to Alex's previous episodes: 234 | Cataloging without Plato 441 | From Books to Bits Recorded on April 2, 2024 Produced by Suzy Lee Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, Amalie Hutchinson and Anum Anjum are joined by a fellow GradCast host, Apurva Desai. A Master's student in Health Promotion here at Western, Apurva shares about the three components of health, how qualitative research methods fit his goals of connecting with people, and general wisdom to create healthy habits.  To find out more about Apurva's research journey, check out his LinkedIn profile linked here: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/apurva-desai-uwofans4285091   Recorded on March 26, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, hosts Anthony Cruz and Carly Charron speak with Riya Sidhu, a PhD candidate in psychology specializing in music cognition. Riya explains the three different projects she's working on to evaluate the factors that influence synchronizing in various contexts, such as during walking or in response to music. These factors include empathy, music training, and dance training and she focuses on talking about groove behaviour. Riya also describes her experience setting up a synchronization study using motion capture technology at the University of Oslo.  Recorded on March 19, 2024 Produced by Jordan VanderBurgt Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, GradCast hosts Meghan Voll and Mark Ambrogio are joined by Farshid Soltani, a PhD candidate in physics studying all about the nature of black holes. If you were ever curious about the science of black holes, the value of both classical and quantum physics, or wanted to know about the mysterious "white hole", tune in to this week's episode! Recorded on March 12, 2024 Produced by Suzy Lee Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, Scott Walters and Meghan Voll interview one of our own producers, Maria Khan. Maria shares about her master's program in clinical science and audiology. She tells GradCast what a degree in audiology looks like and what an audiologist actually does. Maria is involved with other research activities at Sick Kids, and discusses her research with infant screening tests for hearing, and more.  Check out Maria's other producing efforts, the Hear Here podcast at Sick Kids at this link. Recorded on March 5, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot  

This week, hosts Anum Anjum and Anthony Cruz join Gabriel Jobin, a PhD student with the Drover Research Group working with fundamental chemical reactions to design new and efficient catalysts. We dive into how Gabriel’s research relates to sustainability, life outside of the lab and future directions of addressing global challenges with chemistry. Tune in for Al-uminating chemistry puns! Recorded on February 27, 2024 Produced by Maria Khan Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot