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All Episodes

Working Scientist — 229 episodes

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Title
1

How jazz boosts my creativity in physics

2

Hit a lab project glitch? Thinking about your thesis title like a storyteller can help you focus

3

Running a farm, pursuing a research career: what’s the difference?

4

How a passion for baking fermented a fresh career move

5

How sewing can set you up for failure and success in science

6

Hit a glitch in your research? Some ‘night science​​​​​​​’ thinking could move it forward

7

How to thrive in science when you move abroad

8

How procrastination can rob you of career fulfilment in science

9

Why labs need a napping room to help you work, rest and play

10

‘Be a problem-solver, not a job-seeker:’ how to pivot from academia to industry

11

Nervous networker or conference presenter? Care less, says speech coach Susie Ashfield

12

Women in science are not a ‘problem to be fixed’

13

Why an industry career move is a taboo topic in academia

14

Academia’s parent trap: the struggles faced by researcher mothers

15

When a colleague dies: exploring academia's "death-denying culture"

16

‘We need to dismantle the stigma of alcohol dependence in academia’

17

Can academia handle my religious faith?

18

‘Bodies like ours aren’t considered in academia’

19

Campus protests and civil disobedience: does academia have a problem with activism?

20

'Coming out as a transgender scientist made me the best teacher I’ve ever been'

21

The problem with career planning in science

22

How to pause and restart your science career

23

Keep, lose, add: a checklist for plotting your next career move in science

24

When life gets in the way of your meticulously-planned career in science

25

Two tools to help you achieve career success in science

26

Tips and tricks to plan your career in science

27

Five reasons why Nepal struggles to attract women into science

28

Why strong mentorship was essential for my career success in science

29

How Indigenous values permeate my chemistry teaching and research

30

Why I co-developed a research career launchpad for first generation students

31

‘For AI to change how economies work, it has to represent all of us’

32

How AI can deepen inequities for non-native English speakers in science

33

Why I study trauma's genetic legacy

34

The Māori values that make good sense in science

35

Celebrating researchers who make the scientific workplace more inclusive

36

Why science recruiters struggle to find high-calibre candidates

37

Should I use AI to help draft my science job application?

38

Salary negotiations: a guide for scientists

39

How to delight your future boss at a science job interview

40

Seeking a job in science? How hiring practices across industry and academia compare

41

Curiosity, drive, willingness to learn: three qualities to display at science job interviews

42

How academia’s ‘lone wolf’ culture is harming researcher mental health

43

How to bring health and happiness to your lab

44

‘Researching climate change feels like standing in the path of an approaching train’

45

How my research focus exposed me to threats and harassment

46

‘There is life after burnout in academia’

47

‘Do I need to lead this lifestyle to succeed?’ The mental health crises that forced faculty members to change tack

48

How to be a brilliant ally to your neurodivergent lab mate

49

Mind matters: investigating academia’s ‘mental health crisis’

50

Four weddings, a funeral, and the Sustainable Development Goal logos

51

A checklist for delivering the Sustainable Development Goals

52

How artificial intelligence can help to keep us safe

53

My mission to protect threatened mangroves

54

How studying octopus nurseries can shape the future of our oceans

55

How we slashed our lab’s carbon footprint

56

Meet the retired scientists who collaborate with younger colleagues

57

A dumpster full of mercury and other things to avoid: lab closures made simple

58

Pension planning and psychosocial support: how institutions can help academics at the late career stage

59

“Who am I if not a scientist?” How to find identity and purpose in retirement

60

Choose your own adventure: navigating retirement after an academic career

61

The last few miles: how to prepare for the late-career stage in science

62

Counting the cost of fashion’s carbon footprint

63

Why female students at an inner London school are seeing scientists in a different light

64

Using live transport data to deliver sustainable cities

65

How artificial intelligence is helping to identify global inequalities

66

Infrastructure projects need to demonstrate a return on investment

67

Decent work for all: why multinationals need a helping hand

68

How artificial intelligence is helping Ghana plan for a renewable energy future

69

How a young physicist’s job move helped Argentina join the ATLAS collaboration

70

How to plug the female mentoring gap in Latin American science

71

‘Maybe I was never meant to be in science’: how imposter syndrome seizes scientist mothers

72

‘Hopeless, burnt out, sad’: how political change is impacting female researchers in Latin America

73

How we connect girls in Brazil to inspiring female scientists

74

‘There is no cookie cutter female scientist’

75

How Tiger Worm toilets could help to deliver clean water and sanitation for all

76

How we boosted female faculty numbers in male-dominated departments

77

Building robots to get kids hooked on STEM subjects

78

‘It reflects the society we live in where a young person does not feel that life is worth living’

79

‘Blue foods’ to tackle hidden hunger and improve nutrition

80

People need more than cash to rise out of poverty

81

Chandrayaan and what it means for India's brain drain

82

Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art

83

How to create compelling scientific data visualisations

84

How ChatGPT and sounds from space brought a “luminous jelly” to life

85

Scientific illustration: striking the balance between creativity and accuracy

86

The unexpected outcomes of artist-scientist collaborations

87

Art and science: close cousins or polar opposites?

88

Could new ‘narrative’ CVs transform research culture?

89

How to craft a research project with non-academic collaborators

90

“Couldn’t cut it as a scientist.” How lab managers and technicians are smashing outdated stereotypes

91

Culture clashes: Unpicking the power dynamics between research managers and academics

92

This alternative way to measure research impact made judges cry with joy

93

“Just get the admin to do it.” Why research managers are feeling misunderstood

94

A funder's guide to tackling setbacks and winning grants

95

Sexual harassment in science: tackling abusers, protecting targets, changing cultures

96

Bullying in academia: why it happens and how to stop it

97

Magical meeting: a collaboration to tackle child malnutrition in Bangladesh

98

How to deliver a safer research culture for LGBTQIA+ researchers

99

Trolled in science: “Hundreds of hateful comments in a single day”

100

Dodging snipers, fleeing war: displaced researchers share their stories

101

Science on a shoestring: the researchers paid $15 a month

102

Shielding science from politics: how Joe Biden’s research integrity drive is faring

103

Unlocking the mysteries of the brain’s neocortex

104

How to keep Ukraine’s research hopes alive

105

How trauma’s effects can pass from generation to generation

106

How deep brain stimulation is helping people with severe depression

107

Restoring the sense of smell to COVID-19 patients

108

Understanding the difference between the mind and the brain

109

The hospital conversation that set a young epilepsy patient on the neuroscience career path

110

How ice hockey helped me to explain how unborn babies’ brains are built

111

The brain science collaboration that offers hope to blind people

112

Social sponges: Gendered brain development comes from society, not biology

113

What happens in our brains when we're trying to be funny

114

Marvelling at the mystery of consciousness through a scientific lens

115

Brain and behaviour: understanding the neural effects of cannabis

116

Showing the love as a science leader: the emotional side of empowering and inspiring others

117

Leadership in science: “There is nothing wrong with being wrong”

118

Why empathy is a key quality in science leadership

119

Mastering the art of saying no should be part of a research leader’s toolkit

120

Leadership in science: how female researchers are breaking up the boys’ club

121

Rescinded job offers and quarantine hotels: what lockdown lab moves taught us

122

Moving labs: a checklist for researchers with disabilities

123

‘The dumbest person in the room:’ moving labs and switching fields

124

Moving labs, moving countries: how to get both right

125

‘Trailing spouses’ and ‘two body’ problems: how to move labs as a scientist couple

126

‘Is the PI a jerk?’ Key questions to ask when you’re moving lab

127

More support needed to survive the mid-career stage in science

128

Mid-career scientists: advice to our younger selves

129

Why the mid-career stage in science can feel like a second puberty

130

Burnout and breakdowns: how mid-career scientists can protect themselves

131

When life gets in the way of scientists’ mid-career plans

132

Muddle of the middle: why mid-career scientists feel neglected

133

Science in Africa: tackling mistrust and misinformation

134

Science in Africa: a wishlist for scientist mothers

135

Science in Africa: Diaspora perspectives

136

Science in Africa: ‘The world needs science and science needs women’

137

Science in Africa: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

138

Science in Africa: is ‘decolonization’ losing all meaning?

139

Science in Africa: lessons from the past, hopes for the future

140

Science in Africa: a continent on the cusp of change

141

The Dutch city where industry–academia collaborations flourish

142

Beyond academia: how to “de-risk” a mid-career move to industry

143

How to select your first scientific role in industry

144

Debunking the industry–academia barrier myth

145

Beyond academia: Planning the perfect exit strategy for a scientific career move

146

Breaking down the barriers that curtail industry collaborations and career moves

147

How the pandemic widened scientists' mentoring networks

148

How to keep the scientific-mentoring magic alive

149

The many mentoring types explained

150

Mentoring, coaching, supervising: what’s the difference?

151

How COVID-19 changed scientific mentoring

152

The mentoring messages that can get lost in translation

153

Why science needs strong mentors

154

Communities, COVID and credit: the state of science collaborations

155

Business of science: The transferable skills that straddle academia and industry

156

Business of science: The setbacks that can help your start-up succeed

157

Business of science: How to grow your start-up

158

Business of science: How technology-transfer teams can help your spin-off succeed

159

Business of science: How to register a patent

160

Business of science: Tips and tricks for a perfect investor pitch

161

Science diversified: Tackling ​​​​​​​an ‘ableist’ culture in research

162

Science diversified: Black researchers’ perspectives

163

Science diversified: The roads less travelled to research careers

164

Science diversified: Queer perspectives on research

165

Science diversified: The men who say no to manels

166

Science Diversified: Cosmopolitan campus

167

Science Diversified: Starting young

168

The postdoc career journeys that date back to kindergarten

169

A kinder research culture is not a panacea

170

Planning a postdoc before moving to industry? Think again

171

The career costs of COVID-19: how postdocs and PhD students are paying the price

172

Stop the postdoc treadmill … I want to get off

173

Why life as a postdoc is like a circling plane at LaGuardia Airport

174

How to craft and communicate a simple science story

175

How to sell your public outreach ideas to funders

176

How films and festivals can showcase your science

177

How to transition from the lab to full-time science communicator

178

Coronavirus conversations: Science communication during a pandemic

179

Science communication made simple

180

How the academic paper is evolving in the 21st century

181

How to get media coverage for your research

182

How to bounce back from a bruising peer-review or paper rejection

183

How to write a top-notch paper

184

How apartheid's legacy can still cast a shadow over doctoral education in South Africa

185

The PhD thesis and how to boost its impact

186

Team PhD

187

It's time to fix the "one size fits all" PhD

188

Too many PhDs, too few research positions

189

My courtroom battles to halt illegal peatland fires in Indonesia

190

Working Scientist: The award-winning neuroscientist who blazes a trail for open hardware

191

Working Scientist podcast: How to inspire young women to consider scientific careerssode

192

Start looking for jobs before you finish your PhD

193

Switching scientific disciplines

194

The school physics talk that proved more popular than Lady Gaga's boots

195

Career transitions from physics to data science

196

Global career moves, and how to survive them

197

Why physics is still a man's world, and how to change it

198

Talking about a technological revolution in the lab

199

Slack, and other technologies that are transforming lab life

200

How technology can help solve science's reproducibility crisis

201

Science and government, Canadian style

202

Love science, loathe coding? Research software engineers to the rescue

203

Learn to code to boost your research career

204

Why universities are failing to embrace AI

205

Challenges and opportunities for materials researchers in China

206

The grant funding lottery and how to fix it

207

How to beat research funding's boom and bust cycle

208

How to navigate the UK's new research funding landscape

209

Grant application essentials

210

How to plan a successful grant application

211

Inside the NIH grant review process

212

Salary and job satisfaction in science: voices from the front line

213

Women in physics, women in Africa

214

A winning team of innovators who promote women in science

215

Lean PhD programmes, and a conversation with Lego Grad Student

216

With a PhD you can do anything

217

Another country, and how to fit in

218

How to track the "lost generation" of scientists

219

How to run a creative and diverse PhD programme

220

Curating the careers of India's women scientists

221

Science, sickness and dyslexia

222

How to be a consummate networker

223

Stars of the yeast

224

Family life, career life: Making it work

225

Job satisfaction and transferable skills

226

Meaningful mentoring

227

Life in the PhD lane

228

Flexibility and forward planning

229

Companies on campus