GradCast

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 Recor...

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 so...

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...

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! Additiona...

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 pro...

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...

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...

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....

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...

This week, hosts Carly Charron and Ryan Baxter speak with Hunter Pharazyn, an occupational therapy student. They discuss the goals of occupational therapy and the unique program offered here at Western. Hunter also describes what led him to this area of work, and what he hopes to pursue in the future.  Recorded on February 20, 2024 Produced by Jordan VanderBurgt Theme song provided by https://free...

This week, GradCast hosts Amalie Hutchinson and Apurva Desai are joined by two guests: Varsha Vasudevan and Mani Ahluwalia, both studying topics in Health Promotion. We chat about holistic health, how graduate students experience resilience, and what mindfulness can do for many aspects of success in university.  Recorded on February 13, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by htt...

For this special #GraduatedLife episode, Meghan Voll and Garth Casbourn are joined by MLIS alumnus Matt Skidmore. Matt tells how his grad degree at Western helped him get his current job as a librarian in Mississauga, and how the things he learned during the degree and on-the-job experience prepared him for what he does now.  Recorded on February 8, 2024 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song pr...

Today's episode is a merger of two of our beloved mini-series #JarringQuestions and #GradLife. Join co-hosts Meghan Voll, Mark Ambrogio, and Suzy Lee in this mashup as they talk all about extracurriculars, places (and time periods) they'd love to travel to, and the eternal debate: cats or dogs? Recorded on February 6, 2024 Produced by Suzy Lee Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced...

Another installment of #JarringQuestions, where you get to learn more about three of our GradCast members as we answer an interesting range of questions pulled from a jar (paper ruffling noises included). This week, Carly Charron, Anthony Cruz, and Jordan VanderBurgt have some hot takes on morning vs. night people, appetizers vs. desserts, people who talk on speaker phone in public, and so much mo...

This week, join hosts Mark Ambrogio and Meghan Voll as they interview Luigi De Angelis Soriano about his recent dissertation exploring the Hebrew book of Ruth and the concept of Hesed, "a Hebrew term that is often translated as loving kindness and connotes loyalty, love, and extraordinary commitment", in the context of Spanish plays, European art, and Latin American poetry. We hear about the inter...

In our first episode of 2024, Amalie Hutchinson and Meghan Voll interview Jacob Evoy, a PhD student in the Women’s Studies program at Western University. Jacob tells us about their oral history research investigating the stories of queer children of Holocaust survivors. Jacob talks to us about what queer experience is, the effects of the Holocaust on these individuals, and how narrative is constru...

One of GradCast's own, host Ryan Baxter, is interviewed about his studies as a doctoral student in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the Don Wright Faculty of Music. Ryan chats with us about his program, the balance between research and musical practice, and performing both on campus and in the community. We also discuss Ryan’s diverse passions, including education, distance learning, and trut...

This week hosts Carly Charron and Anum Anjum speak to one of our GradCast members Anthony Cruz about his PhD work in psychology. Anthony studies the cognitive process of categorization, where we break down information perceived from the environment into smaller components to understand and group them. Tune in to hear some bonus discussions on qualifying exams, clothing for cats, and Anthony's expe...

In our last episode from the special miniseries "The Scoop on SOGS", GradCast host Mark Ambrogio speaks with two other SOGS councilors, Kayla Davies and Evan Sauve. They chat about how council functions for SOGS, how they found their way to their roles and what they enjoy most about them.  To learn more about SOGS council, visit their webpage https://sogs.ca/council/ To follow Kayla's academic jou...

This week, Meghan Voll and brand-new host Garth Casbourn interview one of our very own producers, Suzy Lee. Suzy shares her experiences in the master of library and information science (MLIS) degree program. The conversation delves into Suzy's co-op placement with the user experience and assessment librarians at Western Libraries. Recorded on November 28, 2023 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme s...

On this week's episode, GradCast hosts Anthony Cruz and Carly Charron are joined by Celeste Laube, who talks about her experiences so far in the one-year Master of Media in Journalism and Communication (MMJC) program. Tune into this week's episode for discussions about the projects she's currently working on, her grad experience at Western, and her plans for the rest of the program. Follow Celeste...

This week GradCast hosts Meghan Voll and Mark Ambrogio are once again joined by Alex Mayhew, a Library and Information Science instructor and PhD candidate. As a man of many interests, Alex briefly describes his thesis - the creation of a new cataloguing system called Phylomemetics - before delving into the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it's going to interact with society. Tune in...

In this special mini field-trip episode, managing editor Amalie Hutchinson travels to the Canadian Council of University Biology Chairs (CCUBC) annual conference in Banff Alberta to receive their Science Promotion Award and give a talk about what GradCast does. She also interviews some of the chairs about what graduate students are doing in their own universities to create connectivity and communi...

This is Sparta…and it’s not at all abs and Gerard Butler. In this episode, Meghan Voll and Mark Ambrogio interview Stephanie Dennie, PhD student and instructor at Western’s department of Classical Studies. Stephanie debunks common misunderstandings about Sparta, and discusses her research examining the lyrical poem Eunomia, and obstacles to finding resources depicting authentic accounts of the Gre...

We are back with our final episode of The Scoop on SOGS miniseries! Amalie Hutchinson chats with VP student services Kesavi Kanagasabai about her role on SOGS, how she balances a very busy schedule, her proudest moments as a student leader, how to deal with large problems, and more.  Recorded on October 30, 2023 Produced by Amalie Hutchinson Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by...