Gradcast

Olivia Ghosh-Swaby is a PhD student in the neuroscience program conducting research with mice elucidating how poor diet reduces and exercising benefits the brain. Olivia excitedly informs hosts Nick Handfield-Jones and Ariel Frame about her growing expertise in the field of brain plasticity and her newest research findings including treatment of mice with the drug metformin. To find out more from Olivia, follow her on Twitter @ogoshhsw Full video on YouTube This episode was recorded on Tuesday, July 14th and was edited by Laura Muñoz Baena

How do you turn capitalism into a force for environmental protection? Join hosts Yousuf Hasan and Sarah Klapman as they talk to Economics Ph.D. candidate Emmanuel Murray Leclair about economics, international relations, pollution havens, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and everything in between.    If you would like to contact Emmanuel and learn more about his research you can find him on Facebook and Twitter @EmmanuelMurrayL       Full video available on YouTube   Recorded on July 7th, 2020.   This episode was produced by Gavin Tolometti

Hosts Monica and Greg interview P.T./Ph.D. student Morgan Jennings about her work on virtual visits for individuals post-knee surgery. Started before the COVID-19 pandemic (and before virtual visits became more popular), Morgan’s research has been focused on developing an app to identify knee wounds post-surgery and identify if someone would need to visit a physician for a follow-up appointment in order to reduce unnecessary appointments for patients. Morgan also talks about her work at the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic, how that work inspired her Master’s and current Ph.D. research, and what she hopes for her future in evidence-based practice. Full video can be found on YouTube This episode was recorded on Tuesday June 30th and produced by Gregory Ian Robinson.

Mohammad Sharifi (SOGS Racial Equity and Inclusivity Commissioner) spoke about issues concerning marginalized graduate students at Western with hosts Sarah Klapman and Yousuf Hasan. Mo explained his involvement in Western’s Anti-racism Working Group. The main purpose was to gather feedback regarding racism and to develop an action plan for a more equitable environment for our community. Mo also chatted with us about the experiences that led him to become SOGS Racial Equity and Inclusivity Commissioner and why it was especially important to fight for racialized students. For more information, check out SOGS on: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Discord   Watch the full episode on YouTube This video was recorded on June 22nd and produced by Gregory Ian Robinson

Elizabeth Mohler is an incoming PhD student in Occupational Science and a disability advocate. She is joined by co-hosts Rhys Paterson and Yousuf Hasan. Elizabeth chatted about the unique difficulties that people with disabilities have been experiencing amid the pandemic. As someone who has vision loss, she shared with us how challenging it can be to follow basic safety protocols. We also chatted about her co-authored book on Creating a Culture of Accessibility in the Sciences (2016) and her research on making STEM more accessible. To find out more from Elizabeth check out her Twitter @mohlerc Full video available on YouTube Recorded on June 24, 2020 Produced by Ariel Frame

Heather Stewart is currently doing her PhD in Philosophy. She chats about her research on harmful speech phenomena with cohosts Yousuf Hasan and Gregory Robinson. Heather argues that the more microaggressions are inhibited and discouraged, the more equitable and free our speech becomes. To find out more about Heather, visit her website.  Full video on YouTube.  Produced by Yousuf Hasan. Recorded on June 23, 2020.

In this episode Rhys Paterson and Ariel Frame interview four students who had been selected to present at the Society of Graduate Students annual Western Research Forum for 2020 had it not been cancelled due to COVID-19: Brendon Samuels, a PhD student in biology, discusses his research and advocacy for methods of preventing birds being killed by glass buildings. For more info about saving birds check out https://birdsafe.ca/ or follow Brendon on Twitter @eyeonthefly Abby Al-Takriti, a Masters student in professional education and continuous improvement coordinator with Western Engineering, speaks about her plans to conduct research on how to increase faculty engagement with learning management systems in higher education institutions. To find out more from Abby follow her on Instagram @abrar_alta or Twitter @abraralta Alex Mayhew, a PhD student in library science, tells us about his work developing a brand new cataloging system for libraries and potentially all of human knowledge. To find out more from Ale

In this episode Yimin Chen and Yousuf Hasan interview four students who had been selected to present at the Society of Graduate Students annual Western Research Forum for 2020 had it not been cancelled due to COVID-19: Navjot Gill (MSc Physical Therapy) tells us about her investigation into how wellness of older-adults relates with health-seeking behaviours. Her findings may help better guide them to age-in-place. To find out more about Navjot find her on LinkedIn Jaclyn Siegel (PhD Social Psychology) explains the detrimental effects of body shaming and the need for having a reliable self-report instrument to measure shame. Her findings support a model, which is good news for researchers. For more about Jaclyn, follow her on Twitter @JaclynASiegel or check out her website https://jaclynasiegel.com Kimberly Adamek (PhD Civil and Environmental Engineering) explains how high-rise buildings contribute to global warming and why her design mitigates the issues. She does this by studying wind-interaction with bu

In this episode Sarah Klapman and Gregory Robinson interview four students who had been selected to present at the Society of Graduate Students annual Western Research Forum for 2020 had it not been cancelled due to COVID-19: Dwaipayan "DP" Sarkar (PhD Mechanical and Materials Engineering) explains the intricacies and utility of heat pipes. They're not just a metal pipe. Connect with DP on LinkedIn to learn more. Alternatively, connect with DP's research group on LinkedIn as well. John Palmer (MSc Pathology) shares with us how HIV is extremely effective in evading the human immune system by constantly mutating it's own DNA.Connect with John on LinkedIn to learn more Rebecca Meaney (PhD Biochemistry) spends her time in the lab designing nitrogen-fixing organelles and inducing endosymbiosis of nitrogen-fixing microbes within a host cell. Learn more @karaslab and @FantasticLives on Twitter Aimee Josephine (PhD Health Promotion) is a LWHI NGO representative/Rwanda and her multisiciplinary research includes te

Attila Ataner, who is doing his PhD in Philosophy, chats about his research on the philosophical movement known as German Idealism. He discusses his ideas with hosts Ariel Frame and Yousuf Hasan and explains in what ways the 18th and 19thcentury philosophical works are relevant and helpful in legal matters today. Attila suggests that Kant’s works on duties, for example, can help provide a basis for having legally enforceable protectionist duties when it comes to the environment. It is fascinating to see how he extrapolates environmental conservation from German Idealism. More information about Attila's work can be found at Western Academia Full video available on YouTube Recorded on June 16th, 2020.  Produced by Laura Muñoz

In this episode, hosts Monica and Nikol talk with PhD/PT candidate Nicole Guitar about her experience in a combined program. They discuss the reason Nicole pursued PT based on her research, how her work can inform her practice, and what a future as a PhD/PT can look like. We also discuss her previous work with Chickadees, how exercise affects executive function, and how we should all be parking at the end of the parking lot to get groceries. What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's Let's make our day harder YouTube video To contact Nicole, you can reach her at nguitar@uwo.ca or @nicoleandann on twitter  Full video available on YouTube Recorded on June 11th, 2020. This episode was produced by Gregory Robinson  

Xiaochen Zhang is a Masters student in geology and planetary science. Xiaochen tells Nick Handfield-Jones and Ariel Frame about her research on artificial lunar regolith and why it is important to ensure it is as similar to true material from the Moon if we want to conduct experiments on Earth, which will facilitate humans inhabiting the Moon in the future. For more about Xiaochen, check out her personal YouTube channel Xiaochen to the Moon or follow her on Twitter @xchanggg and Instagram @xiaochentothemoon.  Full video available on YouTube Recorded on June 9, 2020. This episode was produced by Ariel Frame and edited by Gavin Tolometti

What's new in space this month?  What's the deal with SpaceX's Dragon Endeavour spacecraft I've been hearing so much about? Is there a way for rover spacecraft on Mars to detect rocks of interest without the help of a human? Should I be worried about artificial intelligence taking over the Earth? If any of these questions have crossed your mind lately (or not), join hosts Gavin Tolometti and Nikol Posnov as they interview Alexis Pascual about his novel Space-Engineering PhD research and his opinions on popular space news.  If you want to learn more about Alexis's research and the projects he has been and currently involved in, check out these sites: - https://cpsx.uwo.ca/canmoon/index.html - https://space.uwo.ca/research/projects/index.html Recorded on June 2, 2020.  This episode was produced by Gavin Tolometti

Join hosts Nikol & Laura to hear about a topic which has rarely been explored in the context of urban environmental history, something which has gone unremarked and is often invisible in our everyday lives: telephone poles and wires. The interviewee, Michael Feagan, explains the use and status of telephone poles within cities, and how they reflected social, economic, and political value of technology in the late nineteenth-century. Michael also highlights the importance of how the poles and wires were physically constructed, and how they interacted with natural elements such as plants and the weather. Give this a listen and we guarantee you will have a completely different view on telephone poles because after all, electrical poles are simultaneously so like trees but yet so different. To find more about Michael, you can follow on Twitter as @mrfeagan and check his work at Photographing Environmental History Produced by Laura Muñoz

Colonizing Mars has been a dream for planetary scientists for decades, expanding the presence of human kind in our solar system. However, for us to colonize Mars, we need to use resources available on the red planet. In this episode, hosts Gavin Tolometti and Yousuf Hasan chat with PhD candidate Shannon Hibbard from the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration about how we can search for buried ice on Mars and use it for drinking water, breathable air, and rocket fuel!  To learn more about Shannon and her research, check out her website https://www.shannonmars.com/ or follow her on Twitter @Shann0nMars   Produced by Gregory Robinson    

Have you ever wondered what it takes to destabilize a culture from the inside? Liam Clifford, current M.A. student in History, discusses his research on cultural genocide and internal colonialism with co-hosts Sarah Klapman and Yousuf Hasan, including the importance of language, the role of the institution, and why Russia and Ireland have a lot in common. Liam shares his knowledge of geopolitics, and draws fascinating connections between cultural marginalization and the destructive colonial structures whose echoes reverberate in the present.  To find out more about Liam, follow him on Twitter @LNJClifford Full video available on YouTube Recorded on May 12, 2020. Produced by Ariel Frame.

Maps have helped us find our way home and discover new places around the world. When we think of maps, we picture large sheets of paper with an image of all of the continents. Nowadays, with technology advancing and the digital era approaching, maps and mapping have started to become available online, without the need for large tables to set your maps on. Ask yourself, is there a way for you to access maps digitally? Well this is the episode for you! In this episode, hosts Gavin Tolometti and Sarah Klapman talk with part-time MSc student Liz Sutherland, who works in the Map and Data Centre in Western Libraries as their Geographical Information Systems (GIS) specialist. She explains how she fell in love with maps and cartography, discovered the world GIS and how it has made it easier for the public to access data, and how she challenges everyone to find her something she cannot map. To find out more from Liz follow her on Twitter @cartoliz, or find her in the Map Data Center: https://www.lib.uwo.ca/madgic/ind

After another month in isolation, Monica, Viki, and Gavin are back with Co-Hosts Greg and Nikol to talk about their experiences with COVID-19. The hosts discuss their new habits and routines (there's a lot of running involved), their feelings on Instagram challenges, and how their grad studies (and graduations) have been affected by COVID-19 isolation measures. Plus, we discuss "Zoom Gloom", how we feel about being constantly connected, and whether Dalgona coffee is worth the hype.   Watch the episode on YouTube by clicking here    Produced by Gregory Robinson

The quest for understanding the Earth’s geologic past has puzzled scientists for decades, slowly advancing based on the shreds of evidence left behind. There are clues everywhere – from fossils and remnant minerals to pollen spores of extinct plants, our planet's history can be preserved the most unlikely of places. In this episode hosts Rhys Paterson and Yousuf Hasan talk to Stephen Pilar, a grad student in the Earth Science department discussing a fairly new area of research. By studying microscopic bubbles within rocks and minerals using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), he is working on developing new ways to uncover valuable information about Earth’s ancient geology and add another piece to puzzle we call home.To find out more from Stephen, follow him on Twitter @stephenpilar or email him at spilar@uwo.ca Full video available on YouTube Produced by Ariel Frame

Historical sites such as Chernobyl and Auschwitz hold a dark past, and require respect and remembrance from visiting tourists. In this decade, social media has brought upon a new type of tourism known as dark tourism, where reeducation is needed to explain to tourists why these sites must be respected and not used as social media photo spots. In this episode, hosts Gavin Tolometti and Rhys Paterson talk with MA Public History student Kaitlyn MacDonald about how she is working with the public to provide education about dark tourism in Canada and around the world. To find out more from Kat follow her on Instagram @HistoricDame, email her kmacd253@uwo.ca,  or check out her website https://historicdame.wordpress.com/about/ Produced by Ariel Frame