GradCast

Lily Yosieph is passionate about mental health issues. As an MSc student in Health Promotion, her research seeks to understand the unique challenges that African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) youth face and how service providers, educators, and families can work to dismantle systemic barriers affecting marginalized communities. Join Yimin and Connor as we learn about the ways in which social and eco...

Hosts Gavin Tolometti and Chantal Lemire dive into the world of post-1945 American literature with english literature PhD candidate Jeremy Johnston. In this episode we look at how adolescent mental health is portrayed in American literature and how it has changed to the modern day. Hosts: Chantal Lemire & Gavin Tolometti Produced by Gregory Robinson 

What did the landscape of Ontario look like over two billion years ago? The answer is hidden in the rocks. On this episode, geologist Carolyn Hill (PhD Candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences) tells hosts Yimin and Greg why the Pre-Cambrian may not be the nicest place for time travellers to visit. Plus, we learn about how oxygen once almost killed off life on Earth! Hosts: Yimin Chen & Grego...

In the depths of space, there are regions where stars don't form, despite all evidence that they should. This week, our guest Gianfranco Bino, from the Department of Applied Math, tells about how scientists are measuring magnetism in the surrounding area to figure out why the stars aren't being born. Join hosts Nick Handfield-Jones and Connor Chato as they also ask Gianfranco about the intersectio...

Bridge the gap between math and biology with Nickolas Goncharenko. This week hosts Nick Handfield-Jones and Connor Chato interview Nickolas, from the Department of Applied Math, about his intriguing research on modelling the interaction between the mosquito's immune system, malaria (Plasmodium sp.), and genetically modified bacterium (Serratio sp. AS1) that could decrease the spread of disease. We...

On this episode, hosts Taniya Nagpal and Gavin Tolometti talk with Connor Chato about his MSc research locating AIDS using a computer code algorithm, which can help provide treatment and understand the origin of the AIDS virus in patients. Hosts: Taniya Nagpal & Gavin Tolometti Produced by Produced by Viki Tellios

Taniya Nagpal and Joyla Furlano interview Greg Robinson , one of the GradCast Editorial Boards' newest members, and masters' student in Phys-Pharm about his current research, his and future research, and his experience so far in graduate studies at Western.  Hosts: Joyla Furlano & Taniya Nagpal Produced by: Chantal Lemire  

On this week’s show, Joyla Furlano and Gregory Robinson interview Anisa Morava, a 2nd year Master’s student in the psychological stream of Kinesiology. Anisa is exploring how acute aerobic exercise and caffeine intake may improve memory in caffeine and non-caffeine consumers. Look out all… this may be the place to find your graduate survival kit! To learn more about Anisa’s research, e-mail her at...

Is the damage you inflict to your head by playing a sport like football as severe as the media makes it out to be? Tune in this week to hear Justin Smith, and your hosts Ariel Frame and Gregory Robinson , dive head first into his research his work looking at executive function changes in kids before and after a season of playing football. Justin enlightens us with some new results from his Masters...

Roger Hudson and Gregory Robinson speak with Marie Gueguen about how to discern between conflicting ideas in science and arrive at informed conclusions in terms of describing the observable universe. Hosts: Roger Hudson and Gregory Robinson Produced by Gavin Tolometti

Chantal Lemire and Yimin Chen interview Elena Hillman from the Masters' in Public Administration program about her research on Ontario’s Social Assistance Program, Ontario Works , and discuss how different funding models for social services might impact not only the kinds of programs available to those in need, but also the employment success rate of those who utilize said services.  Produced by:...

How should one approach moral questions? Is Hume the best method? How do philosophers differ? These questions and more are the work of Chris Shirreff, a PhD student in the philosophy department. Chris enlightens Roger Hudson and Ariel Frame about his research on various methodologies in the study of ethics.  Hosts: Ariel Frame and Roger Hudson Produced by Gregory Robinson

Let's go behind the scenes of the Society or Graduate Students (SOGS) as Madison Bettle tells us about her time as former VPSS. On this week's episode, hosts Chantal Lemire and Nick Handfield-Jones explore Madison's tenure as Vice President - Student Services of SOGS. Madison tells us about the strides she made in representing Western graduate students. Specifically, she explains that including gr...

Let's enter the Matrix with Ethan Jackson as he explains his work on machine learning algorithms. This week hosts Yimin Chen and Nick Handfield-Jones dive into Ethan's fascinating research on artificial intelligence and how machine learning algorithms can solve complex problems in the information age. Self-driving cars, big data, and the iPhone face recognition app; all this will be discussed, and...

Julian Barg is a Doctoral student at Ivey. He speaks with Gregory Robinson and Ariel Frame about this research based program and how his work highlights the data on companies’ ability to act sustainably.   Hosted by: Ariel Frame & Gregory Robinson Produced by: Joyla Furlano  

Joyla Furlano and Ariel Frame speak with Aida Parvizi, Masters student in Biology, about her work on the armyworm moth and how she may be able to use spermatophores of the males to determine the natal origin of these pests. Hosted by: Ariel Frame & Joyla Furlano Produced by:  Gregory Robinson

Let's all walk the plank with Abdullah Al-Jaja as he shares his research with us. This week hosts Nick Handfield-Jones and Gavin Tolometti learn about Abdullah's journey immigrating to Canada from Lebanon and is now investigating dopaminergic signaling and anxiety in Parkinson's disease, which involves patients walking on a small plank to induce stress. All the while, Abdullah walks his own plank...

In her research, sociocultural anthropologist Mingyuan Zhang asks a deceptively simple question, "What does it mean to be Chinese?" in a remarkably complicated context: Madagascar. This week, Viki Telios and Yimin Chen learn that there's more to Africa's largest island than just lemurs. Plus, how to introduce yourself in the Malagasy language. To read more about Mingyuan's work check out Academia....

Cat Boucher is an MSc Neuroscience student working in Dr. Stephen Lomber's lab. Cat tells Ariel Frame and Nick Handfield-Jones about her work studying deafness and hearing in the brain. Her research is looking to show how some brain regions may be involved in processing visual and auditory input. Various treatments for deafness were also discussed. To find out more you can tweet her  @catcortex or...

What does it mean to be a man? Do the movies that we watch influence the ways in which we understand masculinity? Ryan Schroeder, MA student in Media Studies, think so. This week, hosts Yimin Chen and Greg Robinson learn about how the presentation of male protagonists in films has changed, and perhaps softened, over the years––from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Ryan Gosling.  Hosted by: Yimin Chen & Gr...

In this special episode, hosts Taniya Nagpal and Roger Hudson interview three talented students - Natalia Skomorokhova, Sonja Dass, and Rachel Gain -  participating in the Western University Graduate Symposium on Music. A variety of topics are discussed, including the ways in which music can imitate art, feminist advocates ahead of their time, and what in the world a harpsichord is!  Hosted by: Ro...

How do you study rocks up in space? Look at comparable formations here on Earth! Hosts Yimin Chen and Viki Telios learn about the work that Earth and Planetary Science PhD student Gavin Tolometti has been doing with Western's Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX). On this episode: lava, impact craters, karaoke, and Scrabble! Hosted by: Yimin Chen & Viki Telios Produced by: Ariel Fram...

Hosts Nick and Chantal speak with Natasha Ouslis about recent research progress from her Masters Thesis in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, with special emphasis on the nature of teamwork and very prominent ways these concepts play out in our daily lives.  Hosted by: Nick Handfield-Jones & Chantal Lemire Produced by: Roger Hudson

Taniya Nagpal and Nick Handfield-Jones talk to Kurtis Turnbull about his recent research trip to New Zealand and the beetles he studied there.  Hosted by: Nick Handfield-Jones & Taniya Nagpal Produce by: Chantal Lemire

Nick Handfield-Jones and Nav Mohan interview Cecilia Chavez Garcia about her computational work with intrinsically disordered proteins and how these proteins may impact disease. Cecilia is doing her PhD with Dr. Mikko Karttunen . To read more about her work you can check out their website http://www.softsimu.net/people.shtml . Hosted by: Nick Handfield-Jones & Navaneeth Mohan Produced by: Ariel Fr...