Shell We Talk? A Day in The Life of a Yale Geobiologist (ft. Maoli Vizcaíno)

In this episode, we crack open the microscopic world of marine plankton and deep-time data with Yale PhD candidate Maoli Vizcaíno. From dissolving 650-million-year-old Mongolian rocks to measuring microfossils the size of a grain of sand, Maoli takes us through her unexpected journey into geobiology and the surprising intersections between marine ecology, paleoclimate, and... sidewalk hammering?

We dive into what foraminifera can tell us about ancient oceans, how a tedious lab job turned into a passion for research, and why feedback loops and frozen Earths might just blow your mind. Whether you're team fieldwork, team lab coat, or just curious how life and rock shape each other, this episode will most definitely rock your worldview

——————

Did you like this podcast? Leave us a rating and review! Follow us on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever else you get podcasts. 

Got a lava questions or want to be featured next? Email me at [e-mail]

——————

Transcript

Introduction and Guest Introduction

[00:00:00] Diya Gaur: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Art of Subduction. My name is Diya Gore, and today I'm here with 

[00:00:19] Maoli Vizcaíno: Um, Maoli Vizcaíno. 

[00:00:22] Diya Gaur: So, Maoli is a PhD candidate at Yale University, and she's currently Do you want to give an explanation of what exactly you do? 

[00:00:31] Maoli Vizcaíno: Yes. Um, I am a fourth year PhD candidate here, um, at Yale. I study foraminifera, which are marine plankton, and a bit of paleocenography.

Slash, I guess, kind of more modern these days, also modern like, like marine ecology. 

[00:00:51] Diya Gaur: Yeah. That's amazing. 

Maoli's Journey into Marine Ecology

[00:00:53] Diya Gaur: So my first question is like, how did you get into this? This is like such a niche and like fascinating field. So is there a certain experience or like? You know, just any event that kind of led you into what you do now.

[00:01:05] Maoli Vizcaíno: Yes, um, yeah, so I had, um, this was not a life dream of mine. I did not grow up dreaming of the ocean, aside from, I feel like, really regular, like, yeah, let's go to the beach, because it's vacation vibes. Um, I, um, you know, I went to college, um, I got into college. I went to college. That was like, kind of the goal was ultimately college.

And then I got there and I was like, oh, I need to, uh, figure out what I'm doing here. Exactly. So I took a bunch of intro classes as one does, and my freshman year, one of my professors would advertise. job opportunities at the end of her class. 

First Research Experience

[00:01:45] Maoli Vizcaíno: And, um, I applied, I hated my, oh, uh, this was my sophomore year actually, my sophomore fall.

So I hated my current job. Um, so I applied to work in her lab and I was just doing sample prep. So it was like, she had these rocks and I worked in the lab to, to solve them and pick out microfossils. Yeah. So I literally was just doing that as a job for like almost a year. And then I got a fellowship. a research fellowship and kept doing it like more seriously.

And so I think, um, not to, you know, start with the life lessons, you know, two minutes into the recording, but like, you really don't, there are so many people who are so amazing and know what they want to do their whole life and are super dedicated to it. And that's awesome. Um, and also though, you don't have to.

I didn't. And even my job, my first like research job, I got it because I was just working in the lab. She just needed someone to do the really tedious stuff. And I was like, I'm getting paid 15 an hour. I'm from Texas, which I mentioned to you before. So moving from Texas to Massachusetts, I was like, man, um, wow, 15 an hour, like I'll dissolve as many rocks as you want me to.

So. Yeah, anyway, I didn't know what I wante