Graduate students are the backbone of academic research and innovation in our world. To capture graduate student experiences during COVID19 in Canada, The Toronto Science Policy Network(TSPN) , a student-run science policy group at the University of Toronto, decided to launch a national survey. What they found was really troubling and mirror survey's conducted in other countries. We spoke to Farah Qaiser (@this_is_farah), who helped lead this survey. She recently finished her Master’s degree in ...
Sep 15, 2020•32 min
Unfortunately not all of the Black in Neuro organizers could join our roundtable discussion. So we are releasing bonus material to hear more about everyone on the fantastic team. Don't miss all the love and laughter! Check them out here-> https://www.blackinneuro.com/organizers
Sep 03, 2020•15 min
Following the success of Black Birders Week(ep.7) many in the academic world are harnessing the power of virtual connections during the pandemic. BlackinNeuro created a space to increase visibility of Black neuroscientists and those in neuro related fields and to celebrate these individuals and their often overlooked contributions. We chat to 8 organizers to hear about the success of Black in Neuro Week, the scientists' behind it, their journey's in academia and the future of Black in Neuro. Org...
Sep 03, 2020•1 hr 11 min
On this episode we're getting an update on the $6 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline, a project that the hereditary chiefs of all five clans of Wet’suwet’en have opposed. We talk to Marlene Hale, who is a member of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. She is a culinary chef but also a vocal activist, advocate and community mobilizer who is now based here in Montreal. Marlene talks about the toll this Pipeline has had on the Wet’suwet’en Nation and the ongoing struggle facing the community. Since our recording...
Aug 14, 2020•36 min
Doreen Robinson (@dlrpretoria) is the chief for wildlife at the UN Environment programme, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She spoke to us about a landmark report, put together by many organizations including the United Nations Environment Programme (@UNEP), that highlighted zoonotic diseased were on the rise. The report lays out: “Pandemics such as the COVID-19 outbreak are a predictable and predicted outcome of how people source and grow food, trade and consume animals, and alter environments.” Report...
Aug 04, 2020•28 min
On this episode we discuss the intersection between COVID-19, the environment and Black communities, with Jared DeWese (@JaredDeWese). DeWese is a Senior Communications Advisor for the climate and energy program at Washington-based think tank Third Way. Their work is tackling the gap of Black inclusion in the climate change movement and sharing Black community voices and perceptions about the environment. We also discuss DeWese's recent op-ed for the Hill titled “Black people are dying from coro...
Jul 20, 2020•25 min
Beth Gardiner is a London-based journalist who focuses on climate, health, and sustainability. She is also the author of the book Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution, one of Guardian’s best books of 2019. We chatted with Beth to understand what it has been like to cover the environment during COVID-19 and what this pandemic is teaching us about the future of the climate crisis. https://bethgardiner.com @Gardiner_Beth
Jul 14, 2020•25 min
To celebrate #BlackBotanistWeek, we are releasing a story told by botanist Itumeleng Moroenyane, told during our November 2019 storytelling event "Bodies" with partners Confabulation. Itumeleng is a plant ecologist pursuing a PhD in biology focusing on how interactions between microbes and their plant host are acted upon by evolutionary processes. https://www.plantholobiont.com/ @Itumeleng_M #BlackBotanistWeek is a movement started that was started on twitter to celebrate and highlight the contr...
Jul 12, 2020•14 min
Academic research is often distant to the public, but now it’s more crucial than ever for the public to trust in and be involved with research. We spoke to Dr. Bella Starling, a public engagement professional and Director of Public Programmes at Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust., in the UK., about her role in fostering community engagement with research, and building relationships between healthcare professionals and the people that their work will ultimately impact. Notes: @bellastarli...
Jun 30, 2020•28 min
The internationally successful #BlackBirdersWeek on social media celebrated the often hidden presence, contributions, and community of Black birders—challenging the stereotypes of who birds and enjoys nature. The week was started by @BlackAFinSTEM as a response to a racist incident in Central Park where a white women falsely reported to the police that Christian Cooper a Black birder was threatening her. We chat to co-organizer Corina Newsome, a science communicator who is well known to thousand...
Jun 08, 2020•35 min
We talked to Courtney Skye, a public policy analyst and activist. She is Mohawk, Turtle Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, and is a research fellow at the Yellowhead Institute and the co-host of the Red Road podcast. She discusses the report she spearheaded highlighting major gaps of reported COVID-19 cases in Indigenous communities & barriers to getting this information. Report: “Colonialism of the Curve: Indigenous Communities & Bad Covid Data.”https://yellowheadinstitute.org...
Jun 01, 2020•25 min
We chat to Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, James R. Johnston Chair of Black Canadian Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Dr. Dryden discusses how the ongoing disproportionate impact of COVID-19 within Black communities is rooted in a larger Canadian conversation about racism and data that is often dismissed. This interview is the first of a 2-part investigation on the lack of race-based data collection re:COVID19 here in...
May 25, 2020•25 min
We chat with Neuroscientist, #Scicommer and Digital Media Producer Dr. Samantha Yammine, known to thousands of her followers as Science Sam @heysciencesam How can we leverage social media to engage often forgotten audiences with vital information, while combatting misinformation that’s intrinsic to those platforms?
May 18, 2020•24 min
We spoke to Liz Neeley, Executive Director of the Story Collider who recently wrote a piece in The Atlantic called How to Talk About the Coronavirus: Four ways to help those around you be better informed about the pandemic. Liz shares shares her tips for how we can communicate more empathically and constructively with ourselves and others during this pandemic. Twitter: @lizneeley https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/how-talk-about-coronavirus/609118/ https://www.storycollider.org/...
May 11, 2020•25 min
We chat to science communicator (Producer at Science Friday) Kyle Marian (@kylemarian)who co-created Asians Strike Back: A Coronavirus Comedy & Science Show. How can comedians, scientists and artists come together to tackle misinformation, xenophobia & reclaim narratives with comedy? Additional notes ThisNow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuIHXFfz-o0 The Daily episode "I became a person of suspicion": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/podcasts/the-daily/racism-chinese-coronavirus-asian-americ...
May 04, 2020•20 min
The new Broad Science minisode about communicating inclusive science in the time of COVID-19" Guest: Andre Picard acclaimed health columnist at The Globe and Mail discusses what it’s like to be a science journalist right now and how Canada is really doing in terms of communicating about COVID19, and what we need to be doing better. @picardonhealth Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oxQodUjjf1g3teFPluHp0_80_pbX2gMq/view?usp=sharing Every Monday at 11am on CKUT 90.3fm
Apr 27, 2020•21 min
Confabulation and Broad Science Presents Bodies. This show explored the theme of Bodies. Storytellers spoke about bodies both as human and celestial shells, as well as exploring the forms that define our lives. Storytellers: Alice Fleerackers (00.35) Fleerackers is a freelance writer, a researcher at the ScholCommLab, the Communications Officer at Art the Science, and a Science in Society Editor at Science Borealis. She’s also a doctoral student at Simon Fraser University, where she is working u...
Apr 12, 2020•21 min
On this episode, it’s all about ethics in AI! We’ll be sharing different stories about how AI is being used, what the pitfalls are, and who in the field is trying to make changes. We chat to the next generation of AI experts to understand how their institutions are preparing them(or not) to use AI ethically. Surya Mattu, a data scientist who was part of the Pulitzer nominated Propublica investigation “Machine Bias”, talks to us about the report that jumpstarted a global conversation. https://www...
Apr 03, 2020•1 hr 14 min
Broad Science and Confabulation return on stage for the theme of It’s a Phase: Stories of stage, changes and transformations. Storytellers: Dr. Kika Tuff, Founder of the Impact Media Lab https://www.impactmedialab.com/ Dr. Cristian Zaelzer, Founder & President of the Convergence Initiative https://www.convergenceinitiative.org/
Nov 15, 2019•25 min
Journalists Elsie and Giannouli discuss nanoparticles and creating sustainable chemistry with PhD student Alexandra Gellé. Based at McGill, Alex specializes in the field of Green Chemistry, focusing on developing more sustainable and safer alternatives to chemical reactions that already exist. Alex is also the director of Pint of Science Canada and a contributing writer for many outlets, including the Science Network and The Conversation Canada. You can follow Alex on twitter: @AlexGelle
Sep 23, 2019•11 min
Luca and Julia get tips on how to help save the environment and learn about what it's like to be a fish researcher in this interview with Chelsea Bishop. Chelsea is a Master's student in biology at McGill University, studying how chemicals in lakes (e.g., carbon) can cause changes in the fish.
Sep 22, 2019•5 min
Science Journalists Alyssia and Julianna ask Scott Bell some hard hitting questions regarding his research investigating rare genetic diseases in youth. Scott is a PhD student at McGill University based at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. Using advanced genetic techniques including making neurons from stem cells, Scott recently led a ground breaking discovery identifying a new neurodevelopmental disease cause by mutation in a brain gene called ACTL6B. You can read more about Scott...
Sep 21, 2019•15 min
Science Journalists Maine and Jonah interview Debarati Das. Debarati is a planetary scientist doing her PhD at McGill University. She is a National Geographic Explorer and collaborates with NASA's Mars Science Laboratory team to study the habitability of Mars. You can follow Debarati on twitter: @DebaratiDas44
Sep 20, 2019•8 min
Broad Science Youth is Back to school! This special youth edition has been especially released to celebrate science literacy week in Canada http://www.scienceliteracy.ca/ This episode features youth from the Pierre Elliot Trudeau elementary school interviewing scientists at the CKUT 90.3 fm station. This marked the launch of our first research project, which trained undergraduate STEM students to deliver the Broad Science Youth workshop and in collaboration with academic researchers from McGill ...
Sep 18, 2019•24 min
Our last episode of 2018 is about graduate student mental health and wellness. Rosalind, a PhD student shares her struggle with mental health and navigating barriers within her academic institution (13.48mins). Dr.Teresa Evans explains her team's study published this year in Nature that found grad students 6 times more likely to experience depression and anxiety compared to the general population (25.48). Lastly, we have a roundtable discussion about the roles students play to form community in ...
Dec 20, 2018•1 hr 3 min
In April, we teamed up with the Mcgill University’s Social Equity and Diversity Education Office (SEDE) for their My Day @ McGill events, which hosts and introduces hundreds of elementary school kids to what it’s like to be a university student for the day Youth 7 to 12 years came into our CKUT Radio Station to learn about science and why science communication is important. They also learnt about scientific interviewing and gained basic radio production skills. The young journalists then intervi...
Sep 07, 2018•52 min
We hosted our second science storytelling slam in collaboration with Confabulation at the Phi Centre on May 5th at 7:00pm. Our broad range of speakers involved in STEM fields shared stories about how science has impacted them. The theme for the night was Infinity and Beyond: true personal science stories about Imagination, The Future and Boundless Possibilities. This event also marked the 8 year anniversary of Confabulation, a unique Canadian monthly storytelling showcase bringing true personal ...
Sep 06, 2018•45 min
On Bite Size Science we’ll be discussing an editorial published last month in Science Magazine entitled “Instagram won't solve inequality” and the responses following this article, including that by science.sam (Samantha Yammine). Our main story will examine sexual harassment and assault in the academic science fields. We will hear about the lived experience of Ada, a survivor of sexual harassment (17.40min). We also spoke to Dr. Robin Nelson, a biological anthropologist at Santa Clara Universit...
Apr 16, 2018•1 hr 13 min
Interviews by: Liam Fitzpatrick (Master's Student in Bioresource Engineering) and Adeyemi Olutoyin Adegbenjo (PhD Student in Bioresource Engineering) The Broad Science team recently hosted a 3 day science communication and podcast workshop, for mainly graduate science students at McGill University's Macdonald Campus, which was generously supported by the Lister Foundation. www.mcgill.ca/osas/cpd/listerengagedscience
Mar 25, 2018•16 min
Interviews by: Marina Nguyen (Master's student in Food Science), Naresh Gaj (PhD Student in Bioresource Engineering), and Christopher Nzediegwu (PhD Student in Bioresource Engineering) The Broad Science team recently hosted a 3 day science communication and podcast workshop, for mainly graduate science students at McGill University's Macdonald Campus, which was generously supported by the Lister Foundation. www.mcgill.ca/osas/cpd/listerengagedscience
Mar 25, 2018•25 min
