The juice and the squeeze

Julia and Jonathan tackle questions around authenticity and navigating all the different relationships we have in our professional lives. What do we choose to share with whom? And how? Being honest is valuable but it’s also nice to avoid oversharing. The “right” choice will be different for everyone, but as people who value authenticity your hosts try to find ways to be honest in a variety of situ...

Inspired by a listener question, Jonathan and Julia talk about mentoring, with specific attention to how it might look different for trainees of different stages (for example, undergraduate vs. graduate students). Important considerations include generalizable "don't call them soft" skills related to time management, organization, and so on. Some strategies include formal onboarding for new lab me...

It's really tempting to count things like credit hours, publications, or grants. Julia and Jonathan talk about some of the disadvantages of counting, including missing out on "hard-to-count" activities that may be important to us, and how to push the needle in our own thinking or evaluations to fight against easy answers. How do we consider the important aspects of helping students in our offices,...

Back after a year (!) away, Julia and Jonathan cover what’s been going on for the last year, and new things they are doing. Perhaps depressingly, they agree that being older or more advanced in one’s career doesn’t prevent the need for some degree of “starting over” when new challenges present themselves. Plus, Julia shares a strong book recommendation! Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

Jonathan has a career announcement and Julia is excited about graduation. Jonathan’s world didn’t fall apart when he checked his email less. And the main topic: what makes a good hobby? Do Jonathan or Julia have any hobbies? Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

Julia and Jonathan revisit the issue of how we manage our time and our commitments so that we can keep some sense of sanity, instead of feeling like butter being scraped over too much bread. In brief, when there’s too much stuff in the closet, you need to lean harder into your pile of no’s, because you probably only have about 4000 weeks to work with. How do we decide whether the juice is worth th...

After some long-overdue Halloween follow-up and Jonathan horrifying Julia with his new strategy for (not) dealing with email, your hosts tackle the topic of exam questions, and in particular, how to handle the prospect of open-book exams in classes where we would still like students to study. Should exams be timed? Multiple-choice? How do we incentivize students to spend time outside of class and...

For many of us, collaborating with other researchers is one of our favorites part of an academic career. In this episode Julia and Jonathan talk about different kinds of collaborations and what to think about when you’re starting a collaboration. And, some potential downsides of collaborations and how hopefully avoid the worst of these. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

Like all of life academia is social. Julia and Jonathan talk about different strategies for telling our colleagues about our work, including “advertising” our papers, talks, and the importance of having a website (you don’t have one? Get one!). These things are important at any career stage and you can start doing them wherever you’re at. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

There's a lot about the last year and a half we are happy to get rid of, but are there any things we'd like to keep? Julia and Jonathan talk about the advantages of online meetings and talks, flexibility in classes, and (if we're lucky) discovering we can say "no" to things and it's OK. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

After an unplanned summer hiatus Julia and Jonathan are back to talk about errors in research, and specifically how we can make fewer of them. Julia talks about her Error Tight project for implementing some culture changes, including standardization, how to cultivate a sense of shared responsibility in a research lab. Research mistakes reflect a failure of systems rather than a failure of people—s...

Wrapping up our mini-series on teaching, Julia and Jonathan talk about readings, grading, and how to fairly offer flexibility to students in our classes. In-class activities, quizzes, how many grades to drop, how to handle late assignments, how to get feedback from students, and more. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

After “big picture teaching” last episode, Julia and Jonathan dive into the weeds a bit, spending a lot of time on the syllabus. Is it a contract? A way to communicate “hidden curriculum”? A fun way to connect with your students? In short, yes, and also, it depends. Also, maybe it’s unrealistic to expect students to carefully read all 20 pages of our syllabus without offering incentives (can you b...

OK, your turn to teach a course for the first time (or the Nth time). Now what? Julia and Jonathan share thoughts and experiences (and mistakes) from teaching lecture courses. For example, how do you decide what to cover (hint: you don’t have to teach all of the topics in the textbook)? How do we model excitement for learning? What hidden curriculum will you include? Also, Oregon Trail. Theme musi...

Julia recaps the first-ever Midwinter Ball and sets the bar high for future MWBers, as a prelude for talking about how life these days can be hard even if we are “fine”. Having a hard time is normal, and when it’s Kobayashi Maru time, there might not be a perfect solution. Take a minute to be extra kind to others this week and keep hanging in there! Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

Julia and Jonathan share comments they made as part of a talk on science communication. Turns out, we scientists are ALL involved in science communication, whether we realize it or not (or whether or not we like it). Know your audience. Communication is a learnable skill. And many more tidbits on what is our longest podcast to date (!). Special consideration given to our experiences with Twitter a...

How do you bring a research project from brilliant idea to completion? Julia and Jonathan talk about implementing a research project pipeline, including some nuts-and-bolts of how files are organized and what gets kept track of. If all you take away is that having a project log is a good idea, it will be time worth spent! Also, get prepping for celebrating Midwinter Ball (January 17). Theme music...

Mentors are great, but can’t meet all our needs. In the last episode of 2020, Julia and Jonathan explore other people in our support networks, how we can find them, and why they are useful to have. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

After very excellent banter about Frozen Custard and Julia inventing a new Winter Holiday, your hosts offer wide ranging thoughts on having children as an academic. The general theme is along the lines of “don’t let anyone tell you what to do but here are our experiences and some things you might want to think about”. And, a little about what we, and institutions, might be able to do to help norma...

Julia likes Halloween JUST A LITTLE and Julia and Jonathan start with their annual review of Julia’s Halloween plans. Then, on to talk about finding a research niche. It turns out it's not Leonardo Da Vinci times where it’s possible for one person to know everything, and Julia and Jonathan extol the virtues of programmatic research (and some hints on how to find your program). Theme music courtesy...

Julia and Jonathan have a wide-ranging discussion on grant writing, starting with a basic question: Which audience are you writing for? Topics include the mindset of your reviewers (hint: not always as expert as you might think), how to handle resubmissions, and our wish that it were easier to see examples of grants. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

You get reviewer comments back on your manuscript. How do you respond to them? Julia and Jonathan give their perspective on picking your battles, structuring a response letter, and how much to include vs. not. Some of us get grumpy when we read reviews, and many of us have experience with Grumpy Reviewer 2. But what about Helpful Reviewer 4? Also, your hosts invite David Tennant to be a guest on t...

Peer review is an integral part of the scientific endeavor. Julia and Jonathan share thoughts about why we review, and how we review. And, some thoughts on how to review less if you review a lot, and how to review MORE if you’d like to get started. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers

Be serenaded by the dulcet tones of crying babies while you hear Julia and Jonathan discuss poorly-named “soft skills” of academia, including project management, general organization, and taking care of yourself (“sharpening your saw”). Empathy and theory-of-mind are undervalued as soft skills but are probably things we can practice. Imposter syndrome makes an appearance. And, Jonathan also explor...

What’s a postdoc? Why might you do one? And, how do you get one? Jonathan and Julia talk about their own experiences and advice, including why it’s never too early to start and why considering the F word is useful. But before any of that, a refreshing digression on cocktails and clear ice. Theme music courtesy of The Bobby Dazzlers