Venus Mahmoodi

In this episode, my guest is Assoc. Prof. Venus Mahmoodi. She is an associate professor at Columbia University Medical Center (CUIMC), Clinical Researcher at the Early N3 Lab at CUIMC, and also directs the Muslim Perinatal Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. From her multiple positions as a researcher and a clinical psychologist, and from how she talks about her research with a great sense of humor in the interview, you can tell that she is genuinely passionate about her work and looking for ways to be helpful to people through her research and clinical work. I can assure you that the interview is worth the 50 minutes! If you’re interested in specific parts, you can skip to them directly here: 01:10 Choosing academia  05:00 First interest in research  07:15 Clinical Practice and going into research 11:50 Interest in Muslim mental health and challenges in early career  19:50 Current research questions  33:50 Balancing multiple roles 37:55 Joys and challenges in research and clinical work  42:40 Article suggestions for those interested in perinatal mental health  See here! Biological and Psychosocial Predictors of Postpartum Depression: Systematic Review and Call for Integration: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5659274/    Heterogeneity of postpartum depression: a latent class analysis: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4800818/.  45:05 Advice for graduate students