Do you feel dizzy after reading that title? Me too, after writing it, but this week on the show we did indeed speak to a trainer of the trainers who train trainers of little humans! Meet Maya Johnson, a 3rd year PhD student in the School of Human Development and Family Sciences. For her research, Maya studies early childhood education policy and the childcare system within Oregon, with a pretty applied policy focus. Alongside doing her research, in her capacity as a graduate research assistant at OSU, some of what Maya does is to write trainings and coaching systems for individuals who train e ..read more

Kayla Fratt is a PhD student in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation sciences, whose research uses scat samples collected from apex predators to better understand their biology and ecology. As if being a graduate student isn't already enough of a full-time job, Kayla has another one; she is one of the founders and trainers of K9 Conservationists, an organization that unites highly trained conservation detection dog teams with researchers to collect scientific data.For her graduate research, Kayla is working with her canine colleagues, Barley & Niffler, to understand isla ..read more

Elena Conser is a third year PhD student in the Plankton Ecology Lab within the Department of Integrative Biology. She really, really, loves plankton – marine organisms that are unable to swim against the current and are thus, at the whim and mercy of their environment. To study plankton, Elena employs a cutting-edge technology imaging system to view plankton in their natural environment, something that has not previously been possible in her field. (Disclaimer: this episode was recorded with a backup system so the audio quality is somewhat below the usual). Hosted by Matt Vaughan and Joseph V ..read more

Rachel Kaplan is a 4th year PhD student who studies both ends of marine food chains: the prey (krill) and the predator (baleen whales). Rachel conducts research in Oregon and along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. As a last-minute, life-saver of the show, this episode is a little different from our usual shows as we take a trip with Rachel to Antarctica and learn about what it means to be a researcher in one of the most remote places on our planet. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand ..read more

Elliot is a first year Master of Fine Arts student who draws on his own experience of growing up in poverty and continued financial precarity as a source of inspiration for writing fiction. Elliot says he is most inspired by people who “make it work”, such as single parents managing to make rent from paycheck to paycheck and overworked social services providers ..read more

Jose Aguilar is not here to help robots take over the world. In fact, the first year PhD student studying artificial intelligence says he’s actually working on the opposite–to ensure that AI systems are safe, and raise alarm when they’re not. Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Selene Ross ..read more

Today's guest is Lauren Diaz, a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. Lauren focuses on the population dynamics of freshwater organisms. We speak with Lauren about how she came to love stream ecosystems and her research on modeling the behavior of rainbow trout populations in California's Central Valley. Hosted by Joseph Valencia and Lisa Hildebrand.  ..read more

For those of us who consume dairy products, we often don’t give much thought to the trials and tribulations that had to be faced to get that product on the grocery shelves. It’s probably a fair assumption to say that most of us have never considered that cheese could explode, but that is the center of Madeleine Enriquez’s graduate research. Join us this week as we learn about this phenomenon and Maddie is doing to solve it! Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Hannah Stuwe ..read more

Join our conversation with Natalie Van Gelder, a first year graduate student writing creative nonfiction in OSU's MFA program. Natalie's work contributes to the emerging fields of medical humanities and narrative medicine, and she's passionate about bringing writing as a tool for discovery to those who many not be familiar with the practice. Hosted by Matt Vaughan and Selene Ross ..read more

This episode features Matt Vaughan, a third year PhD student in Integrative Biology working with Prof. Sarah Henkel in the Benthic Ecology Lab. Matt originally hails from Melbourne, Australia and recently joined the ID team as a host. Join us to learn about the fascinating ghost shrimp, their impact on marine systems, and how “disturbance and change" drives Matthew's research! Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Joseph Valencia ..read more