Gradcast

Hosts Anthony Cruz and Garth Casbourn sit down with Jenny Richmond-Bravo, an EdD candidate and coordinator of Western’s Own Your Future program, to discuss how she is helping PhD students identify, build, and market their skills for career success beyond academia. Recorded on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 Produced by Riya Sidhu Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

GradCast heads to the Western Research Forum! Get a glimpse into Western's largest multidisciplinary graduate research conference as hosts Liam Clifford, Mohammad Zeraati, Riya Sidhu, & Mark Ambrogio conduct short interviews with attendees, presenters, and organizers. This year's conference featured over 60 different presentations from across Western's 11 faculties. See below for interview questions and timestamps. Funding for the 39th Annual Western Research Forum was provided by Western's Society of Graduate Students (SOGS), Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, and the Academic Joint Fund, a partnership among Western Research, SOGS, and Western's School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS). Recorded on March 14, 2025. Produced by Anthony Cruz. Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).   Interview Questions & Timestamps What’s the biggest takeaway from your presentation? What inspired you to pursue this research? What is the effect of your research on real life?

In his fourth time with us, Alex Mayhew joins his fellow office-mates in Western's Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS), hosts Mark Ambrogio and Meghan Voll, as he rapidly approaches the finish line. By the time this episode airs, Alex may officially have his PhD in Library and Information Science! Alex discusses what is involved in the final weeks of one's PhD, such as his forthcoming public lecture. He also shares the experience of receiving feedback from his students (in the Master of Library and Information Sciences program) to some of his ideas around Aging Justice. And how feedback is not always a bad thing. EDIT: Alex successfully defended his dissertation on Tuesday, April 22.  Congratulations, Dr. Mayhew! Recorded on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 Produced by Mark Ambrogio Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).  

In the second episode of #GlobalGrads, hosts Liam Clifford and Anthony Cruz are joined by Eva Deligiannis — a MSc student in Neuroscience and the PSAC610 Communications Chair. Eva shares her background in research, her journey through activism, and highlights key contemporary developments affecting international students at Western. Shifting from the personal to the political, the conversation explores Navitas — a private education company whose proposed international student pathway was previously rejected by the Western community. Eva breaks down what Navitas is, how the proposal could impact international student prospects, and how both the union and broader campus community are organising in response. Tune in for insight on how institutional policy affects our international colleagues and how domestic students can show solidarity. For updates on the matter, follow @stopcutsatwesternu and the union @PSAC610 on Instagram. You may find additional information on the local's and UWOFA's respective websites. R

This week, join us for the 5th episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills.  Hosts Maris Schneider and Anthony Cruz sit down with guest Lisa Zhu, a master’s student in clinical psychology, to explore the psychological impacts of today’s fitness trends that idealize muscularity. Lisa’s research investigates the often-overlooked connection between fitness ideals and food-related behaviours, revealing how disordered eating can be masked as "healthy" habits. She sheds light on how these unrealistic muscular ideals perpetuate harmful perceptions of health, especially among men, whose experiences with body image and disordered eating are frequently ignored. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversati

Hosts Liam Clifford and Ryan Baxter meet with Rafaela Platkin, a MSc student in Cognitive, Developmental and Brain Sciences Psychology. Her research looks at how engaged children become with different story themes, and how this may influence broader cognitive domains (listening effort, attention, load, etc). She discusses studies with behavioural dual task to measure listening effort through reaction time, gaze and EEG brain activity. The hope is to better understand how children engage with auditory-only narratives and general stimuli and see how their listening effort and/or fatigue are affected. Rafaela talks about how she became charmed by the field of Psychology and her future plans for her PhD, to look at hearing aid users to see whether there is a disproportionate increase in listening effort.   Recorded on April 1, 2025 Produced by Maria Khan Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

And yes, he's back!  Liam Clifford and Mark Ambrogio are joined, for the third time, by William Laur, a PhD candidate at Western in Biology, as he shares how he is making good progress on his doctoral research. William discusses his research on snakes; more specifically, he is interested in the human reaction towards snakes, which he studies by looking at both the scientific literature and social media posts.  Topics discussed include threat perception, human-animal conflict, and the importance of ecological diversity.  Snakes are not as dangerous as commonly perceived; indeed, it is possible, as William discusses, for us to learn to live alongside them.   Recorded on Mark 25, 2025 Produced by Mark Ambrogio Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

For this edition of #BookCast, we dive deep into The Secret History by Donna Tart, the origin of the dark academia genre. Join us as we discuss the book, which follows a student at a prestigious New England College, where he experiences new friends, an eclectic professor, and murder. The Secret History is a novel heavily laced with classical symbolism, and we discuss some of the central themes as well as engage in a breakdown of the main characters. This episode was recorded on March 5, 2025 Produced by Scott Walters Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

#GlobalGrads is back! In this episode, hosts Liam Clifford and Riya Sidhu sit down with Deepmala Rana Bhat, a PhD student in Epidemiology from Nepal and the International Commissioner for SOGS at Western. As an international student herself, Deepmala shares insights into Nepal’s rich culture, fun facts, and her experiences advocating for international students. They also dive into the evolving landscape of international student policies in Canada and how these changes impact students like Deepmala. Tune in for a lively and informative conversation about culture, advocacy, and student life! This episode was recorded on March 18, 2025  This episode was produced by: Jessica Eblie Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/  Produced by White Hot

On our fourth episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills.  Our hosts Riya Sidhu and Ryan Baxter are joined by Dennis Osei-Nimo Annor, a PhD candidate in the Department of Kinesiology, under the Faculty of Health Sciences. His research examines the ways in which sport can be used as a toolkit to address physical and sociocultural challenges faced persons who experience disability (PWEDs). By addressing this gap, he hopes to use sports as a tool for social inclusion to address harmful cultural stereotypes and perceptions about disability in Ghana. Dennis also talks about his journey to his PhD and his work in sports journalism. Check out Dennis' Inspiring Minds Showcase here! Recorded on March

In this week's episode, hosts Liam Clifford and Bruno Mesquita interview Niki Sinha (they/them), a PhD candidate in Neuroscience. Niki's research delves into the processes by which, when we read, we connect letters with sound and words with meanings.  As an example, the word "lead" has a very different meaning (and a very different pronunciation!) in the context of "lead singer," as opposed to "lead pipe." These cognitive processes are so quick as to almost appear automatic.  In this interview, we learn, from Niki, that making connections between visual information and language isn't something that our brain is programmed to do by itself (unlike recognizing faces for instance), but it is something almost all of us learn to do anyways.  Do tune in for a very erudite and engaging conversation!  Recorded on Mark 4, 2025 Produced by Mark Ambrogio Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

Hosts Mark Ambrogio and Meghan Voll welcome Alanna Acchione, a PhD student in Media Studies at Western University, to discuss her research on data harms and the role of algorithms in curating hate engagement on social media. Alanna explores how platforms intentionally foster ideological clashes by amplifying content that triggers emotional responses, ultimately driving user engagement and platform profitability. Drawing from Wendy Chun’s "Discriminating Data", Alanna explains how users are categorized into marketable groups, often pushed into ideological echo chambers that reinforce extreme narratives. She shares how these algorithmic structures fuel anti-feminist and anti-minority rhetoric, shaping online discourse in ways that can have real-world consequences. The conversation also delves into rhetorical silence—the act of disengaging from online debates—as a potential resistance strategy. Alanna discusses the effectiveness of "feed cleansing" to disrupt harmful engagement patterns and considers whether qui

Hosts Maris Schneider and Meghan Voll welcome Sarah Bidinosti to discuss her research on adapting traditional bone analysis methods for the digital age using CT scans. Sarah explains how techniques for estimating age, biological sex, and stature—commonly used in forensic and archaeological studies—must be refined when applied to digital scans. By creating a standardized methodology, she aims to improve accuracy and repeatability in osteobiography, the process of identifying unknown individuals based on skeletal characteristics. Our conversation explores the advantages of CT scans, which allow researchers to study bones non-invasively, preserving remains in forensic cases and with cultural artifacts like mummies. Sarah highlights challenges in translating physical bone analysis to the digital realm, as scan parameters and software algorithms can alter bone appearances. Sarah’s work bridges archaeology, forensic science, and medical imaging, offering applications across cultures and time periods. Recorded on F

  Hosts Mark Ambrogio and Ryan Baxter welcome back Kian Esmailian, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Western University, to discuss his research on ultrafast ultrasound imaging and Doppler applications. Kian shares his journey from Iran to Western, detailing his passion for merging engineering and medicine. He explains how ultrasound imaging plays a crucial role in diagnostics due to its affordability, safety, and real-time capabilities, making it a preferred choice over MRI and CT scans. The conversation dives into Doppler ultrasound applications, which allow for velocity estimation in blood vessels, helping doctors detect abnormalities like clogged arteries and aneurysms. Kian breaks down the trade-offs between frame rate and accuracy, highlighting how ultrafast ultrasound improves speed but requires balancing image quality. He discusses how his research focuses on optimizing transmission techniques to achieve both high-speed imaging and precise velocity estimation, ultimately improving diagnostic

This week, we engage in the third episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills.  Our hosts Garth Casbourn and Ryan Baxter are joined by Temitope Osifeso, a PhD Candidate at the School of Physical Therapy in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Temitope’s research explored how firefighters manage shoulder injuries and what they need to recover effectively by interviewing firefighters in North America. We chat about potential gender differences, what made Temitope engage with this research area and what can be done to minimize and treat these shoulder injuries in a high-risk occupation. Recorded on February 11, 2025 Produced by Maria Khan Theme song provided by https://freebeats

Just in time for Valentine's Day, GradCast hosts Anthony Cruz, Riya Sidhu, and Liam Clifford discuss all things love in graduate school. The hosts review a series of would-you-rather questions centered around dating within academia, planning a wedding during graduate school, and balancing research-related and romantic demands. Recorded on February 4, 2025. Produced by Anthony Cruz Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

For our seventh episode of #BookCast, we discuss “The Book of Two Ways” by Jodi Picoult—a story that explores whether we make our choices—or our choices make us. Our story begins with a plane-crash, where our main character, Dawn Edelstein is faced with the choice to return home to her life as a death-doula, or continue on to Egypt to complete her doctoral studies researching the coffin-texts and “Book of Two Ways”, a map of routes souls can take to the afterlife. Join Riya Sidhu, Garth Casbourn, Scott Walters, resident Egyptologist: Maris Schneider, and Meghan Voll as we dive into the book’s main themes and quirks, such as it’s non-linear writing style, the duality of life and death, the nature of choices, and selfless versus selfish action. This podcast edit features a reveal of the next title in our ongoing series.  Aired February 6th, 2025 at 11 AM on Radio Western, 94.9 FM in London, Ontario. Recorded on January 28, 2025 Produced by Scott Walters Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by

This week, hosts Garth Casbourn and Ryan Baxter speak with GradCast's own Mohammad Zeraati, a third-year PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering about some of the real-world implications of his research into the “Instability behaviour of granular soil and tailings and particle cementation.”  Some of the topics discussed include mining regulation, computational methods, and the environmental effects of mining, through mining waste.    Recorded on January 28, 2025 Produced by Jessica Eblie, Scott Walters, Maria Khan Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

Hosts Mark Ambrogio and Maris Schneider are joined by Sananda Sahoo, a Postdoctoral Associate at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. In Sananda's PhD dissertation, her research extrapolated how mainstream English-language Indian newspapers represent Muslims in the context of cow violence. She discusses the tension between the Muslims and other communities, mainly Hindus from colonial India and contemporary settings. Now, in Sananda’s post-doctoral research, she is looking into the government's usage of AI and facial recognition technology in the public sector in India and how it impacts human behaviour and surveillance. She also shares her academic joinery and her work at a newspaper and radio station. Content disclaimer: This episode touches upon religious lynching and violence against Muslims in India.  Recorded on January 21, 2025 Produced by Maria Khan Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, hosts Mark Ambrogio and Liam Clifford are joined by Jessica Eblie, a student in the professional master's program in Media, Journalism, and Communications. Jessica shares her fascinating journey from a music background to journalism and communications, discussing how her experience as a musician brings valuable skills and perspectives to her work as a journalist.     Recorded on January 14, 2025. Produced by Bruno Mesquita. Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).