In Episode 50 we are joined by Dr. Alyssa Croft from the University of Arizona to chat about gender roles and social identities. Alyssa shares with us how asymmetrically changing gender roles have broad implications for gender equality. How are gender roles changing? What is the ‘second shift’ and why are gender stereotypes still common when it comes to the division of domestic labour? Have we achieved gender equality? All this and much more in Gender and Social Roles with Dr. Alyssa Croft!...
Oct 20, 2020•43 min•Ep. 50
episode 49 ( AKA Season Four!) In Part II, Kyle revisits Episode Two of Season One to provide an update on his research.
Oct 13, 2020•16 min•Ep. 49
Welcome to episode 48 (season 4 episode 1) Drake provides an update on his research since that very first episode of Brain Buzz.
Oct 06, 2020•17 min•Ep. 48
In the final instalment of Season Three we are joined by Alex Missick from the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism for a very special episode. Alex turns the tables on your hosts and has them sharing the origin story of Brain Buzz as well as how creating, producing, and publishing the podcast has changed their perspective on research and academia. Kyle and Drake acknowledge how the encouragement and support of many, including UBC’s Graduate Student Career Activation Project, ha...
Jun 16, 2020•26 min•Ep. 47
In Episode 46 we are joined by Dr. Ted Beauchaine from The Ohio State University to talk about hyperactivity and impulsivity in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Ted shares with us the neural underpinnings of and development of behavioral impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and intentional self-injury in children, adolescents, and adults. What are the differences in diagnosis rates between boys and girls? Are the trajectories similar for boys and girls who are dia...
May 06, 2020•48 min•Ep. 46
In Episode 45 we are joined by Dr. Eric Landrum from Boise State University and inaugural Co-Editor of APA’s journal Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology to talk about teaching, the role of educators in preparing students for life after graduation, and the value of a degree in psychology. In this wide ranging episode, Eric shares with us how educators can assist students in developing skills in the classroom to be successful in the workforce after graduating with a degree in psycho...
Apr 20, 2020•56 min•Ep. 45
In Episode 44 we are joined by Dr. Ashley Randall and Kai Kline from Arizona State University’s Couples Coping with Stress Lab to talk about relationships and stress. Ashley shares with us how stress impacts our romantic relationships and how our romantic partnerships can help alleviate feelings of stress. We learn how three dimensions of stress, the locus, severity, and acuity, play critical roles in the ability of romantic partnership’s ability to cope with the stress. Kai explains how positiv...
Mar 30, 2020•49 min•Ep. 44
In Episode 43 we are joined by Todd Kamensek from the Neuroscience of Vision and Action Laboratory at the University of British Columbia to chat about how social motivation influences facial perception abilities in adults with autism. Todd shares with us how repeated exposure to social stimuli increases our expertise at being able to identify social cues, and how differences in social motivation for individuals with autism might be diminishing the amount of experience they are getting and theref...
Mar 18, 2020•49 min•Ep. 43
In Episode 42 we are joined by Dr. Alexandra Crosswell from the Center for Health and Community in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco to discuss how the mind and body are connected and how that connection influences our wellbeing. Alexandra shares with us how stress influences our biological functioning and why stress has consequences for physiological and psychological health. How do scientists define stress? How does exposure to and perception of stress inte...
Mar 03, 2020•41 min•Ep. 42
In Episode 41 we are joined by Dr. Jordan Axt, director of the McGill Intergroup Cognition Lab to talk about the application of social cognitive processes in an intergroup context. Jordan shares with us how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are shaped by the distinction between “us” and “them,” and how these are manifest implicitly and explicitly. What are implicit and explicit biases and how do they differ? How do scientists measure implicit and explicit bias? What does the implicit and ex...
Feb 18, 2020•42 min•Ep. 41
In Episode 40 we are joined by Dr. Cheryl Harasymchuk from the Positive Activities in Intimate Relationships Lab at Carleton University to chat about how play and positivity can stave off boredom in long term intimate relationships. Cheryl shares with us how the leisure activities we participate in with our partner can improve relationship satisfaction and how exploration plays a critical role in making activities less boring. What is relational boredom? What can you do to promote play and fun i...
Feb 03, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 40
In Episode 39 we are joined by Dr. Chris Davis from Carleton University to learn about posttraumatic growth following trauma. Chris shares with us how individuals make cognitive and emotional adaptations that promote personal growth and health following traumatic life events. Plus, we get a sneak peek at new work from Dr. Davis’ lab about the psychological costs of keeping secrets from your partner! What is posttraumatic growth? After an individual experiences a trauma, how does that change thei...
Jan 21, 2020•47 min•Ep. 39
In Episode 38 we are joined by Dr. Taylor Kohut from the University of Western Ontario to discuss pornography, its consumption, and the consequences of pornography on relationships. Taylor shares with us how pornography makes us feel, think, and behave, and why it is important to understand the intersection between porn users and pornographic preferences. What is pornography? Does pornography consumption lead to sexual violence or other anti-social behaviours? How does consuming pornography effe...
Jan 06, 2020•55 min•Ep. 38
In Episode 37 we are joined by Kathie Bailey from Queen’s University and Trent University to chat about social problem solving and perspective taking in children with epilepsy. Kathie shares with us how the language ability of children with epilepsy contributes to difficulties in social perspective taking. How does epilepsy impact social cognitive processes and development in children? Why is language ability important in social perspective taking? What interventions are effective for assisting ...
Dec 06, 2019•37 min•Ep. 37
In Episode 36 we visit with Dr. Zach Walsh from the University of British Columbia Okanagan to chat about how social and cultural attitudes towards cannabis have changed with its legalization. Zach shares with us how research has shaped, and will continue to guide, changing norms and uses of cannabis - particularly surrounding its use medicinally. What barriers exist to understanding the advantages and disadvantages of cannabis medicinally and clinically? How can we integrate cannabis with other...
Nov 18, 2019•39 min•Ep. 36
In Episode 35 we are joined by Dr. Kathleen Gates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to chat about how each brain is unique and what that means for psychological research. Kathleen shares with us how measuring brain processes over time enables researchers to tease apart differences in psychological functioning and predict future psychological outcomes. How do differences in brain processes explain the uniqueness of human behaviour? If each brain is different, can we build perso...
Oct 21, 2019•20 min•Ep. 35
In Episode 34 we are joined by Dr. Carey Morewedge from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University to chat about bias in decision making. Carey shares with us how biases, such as anchoring or confirmation bias, contribute to decision making and what can be done to mitigate these biases. What happens when biases effect our decision making? Can we be trained to be less susceptible to bias? If so, how long can the effects of debiasing training interventions last for? All this and much mor...
Oct 02, 2019•28 min•Ep. 34
In Episode 33 we are joined by Dr. Liana Machado from the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand to chat about the effects of physical activity on cognition. Liana shares with us how exercise impacts brain blood flow and cognitive outcomes across the human life, especially in ageing. How does physical activity improve cognitive performance? What does brain blood flow tell us about how the brain functions? What kind of cognitive functions are benefitted by physical act...
Sep 13, 2019•48 min•Ep. 33
In Episode 32 we are joined by Dr. Wolf Vanpaemel from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at KU Leuven to discuss the crisis of confidence in the scientific community. Wolf shares with us how statistics and scientific replication has lead to a crisis of confidence in scientific research, and what this means for scientists, journalists, and the general public. What is the crisis of confidence and what is the role of replication and statistics in contributing to scientific discours...
Jun 28, 2019•51 min•Ep. 32
In Episode 31 we are joined by Ellie Gooderham from the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University to chat how cultural changes affect juvenile development and health. Ellie shares with us how the social, cultural, and physical environments affect population stress, and how these periods of stress impacted juvenile development in Portugal from the 8th to 16th centuries. How do cultural shifts affect population health? How do archaeologists determine the age of an artifact? Do all archa...
Jun 07, 2019•48 min•Ep. 31
In Episode 30 we are joined by Rachel Mazac from the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems to discuss sustainability in the development of food-based dietary guidelines. Rachel shares with us how governments and health agencies are incorporating food sustainability into dietary guidelines and how nutrition, health, and the environment are inextricably intertwined. What are the five domains used to approach sustainability in food-based dietary guidelines? Where does th...
May 24, 2019•48 min•Ep. 31
In Episode 29 we are joined by Matt Smith, the Information Technology Manager and Technical Analyst at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology, to chat about the role of information technologists in research. Matt explains how information technologists can work with researchers to empower, drive, and manage research projects. What is ‘general research computing’ and ‘high performance computing,’ and how do they differ? What does an Information Technologist do to facilitate ...
May 10, 2019•49 min•Ep. 29
In Episode 28 we are joined by Kaylee Byers from the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia to chat about rat ecology, behaviours, and their impact on human health. Kaylee shares with us how the movement of rats in urban settings leads to a clustering of disease pathogens. How does pest control lead to changes in social behaviour and an increase in pathogen prevalence? What is the density of urban rats and how far-ranging are they? Where in the world could ...
Apr 18, 2019•46 min•Ep. 28
In Episode 27 Dr. Athena Aktipis from the Department of Psychology at the Arizona State University joins us to chat about cooperation from a cellular to human scale. Athena shares with us how the five principles of cooperation can be applied across systems, how cancer represents a breakdown of this multicellular cooperation, and how a need based transfer system is an optimal cooperation and generosity strategy. What is cooperation and can any action be altruistic? Do we need bad people to have c...
Mar 30, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 27
In Episode 26we are joined by Simon Dubé from Concordia University to discuss artificial socio-sexual entities. Simon shares with us how people perceive new socio-sexual technologies and how that relates to their individual characteristics, personality traits, and sex life. We also talk about how people perceive these technologies psycho-physiologically in comparison with human romantic or sexual partners. What are artificial socio-sexual entities? How do arousal and sexual interactions differ b...
Mar 14, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 27
In Episode 25 we are joined by Lydia Roos from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to chat about Infidelity and PTSD. Lydia shares with us how interpersonal relationships can be traumatic and what the psychological outcomes of these traumatic experiences can be. What are the four components of PTSD? What constitutes PTSD? Why is infidelity not considered trauma? What are the rates of PTSD-like symptomology for individuals who have suffered interpersonal trauma? All this and much more i...
Feb 28, 2019•56 min•Ep. 25
In Episode 24 we are joined by Dr. Chris Rowell from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia to discuss blockchain technology. Chris explains how blockchains can empower individuals by enabling them to retake ownership of their own technological data and to reduce fees from online transactions. How does blockchain technology allow people to retake ownership of their data? Can smart contracts make online transactions safer, cheaper, and easier? How does blockchain work...
Feb 07, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 24
In Episode 23 we are joined by Marina White from Carleton University to discuss infant development born from mothers with HIV. Marina shares with us how exposure to maternal HIV infection affects neural and physical development pre- and postnatally. What is the transmission rate of HIV from mothers to pre- and postnatal infants? How does HIV exposure impact neural development? How is HIV transmitted and how effective are Antiretroviral Therapies? All this and much more in HIV and in utero Develo...
Jan 24, 2019•53 min•Ep. 23
In Episode 22 we are joined by Audrey Aday from the Social Identity Lab at the University of British Columbia to chat about social identity and authenticity.
Jan 10, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 22
In A Year In Review, Kyle and Drake get nostalgic as they reminisce about the year that was. The hosts recount the highlights from all the episodes and guests while sharing exciting news about Season 2, including new music and upcoming guests. Kyle and Drake share their academic and personal experiences through the 2018 calendar year and reflect on the moments for celebration. Join them in A Year in Review!
Dec 22, 2018•Ep. 22
