Your Thesis Won’t Change the World (and Here’s Why)

The path to discovery is paved with bureaucracy. Einstein was a patent clerk when he first proposed his famous equation that explained our universe…something that could never happen today. This week, we’re calling out the slow, tangled mess that is academic science. Why do some of the best ideas never leave a lab notebook? Why are 20-somethings with world-changing potential still spending 8 years writing theses that probably won't be read? And why does grant funding seem allergic to risk? MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush is juggling frustration, big ideas, and the reality of PhD science, and M3 Jeff Goddard, MD/PhD student Jess Smith, and M1 Sarah Lowenberg question whether Einstein would even make it today. Should the NIH institute a funding lottery? Jeff thinks Dave’s ringtone means he needs to grow up. And we finish strong by turning a stack of random medical words into fake personal statements. It’s messy, it’s a little salty, and it’ll make you wonder how anything changes in medicine or science. Episode credits: Producer: Dave Etler Co-hosts: Jeff Goddard, Sarah Lowenberg, Riley Behan-Bush, Jess Smith We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS! We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email [email protected]. The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast! Thanks for listening! We do more things on… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshortcoat YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/theshortcoat You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to [email protected]. We love you. Music provided by Argofox. License: bit.ly/CCAttribution DOCTOR VOX – Heatstroke: youtu.be/j1n1zlxzyRE Catmosphere – Candy-Coloured Sky: youtu.be/AZjYZ8Kjgs8 Hexalyte – Wandering Hours: youtu.be/FOAo2zsYnvA