GradCast

This week on GradCast, hosts Maris Schneider and Mark Ambrogio sit down with Linda Rosbach, a visiting research student from the University of Regensburg. Linda studies how the brain controls everyday actions, such as reaching and grasping. Her research explores whether our brains function the same way in the real world as they do in virtual reality. Tune in to learn more about her fascinating work and what it’s like to conduct res...

In this week's episode, hosts Garth Casbourn and Mark Ambrogio interview Zoltan Richter-Bisson, a PhD candidate in Chemistry.  Zoltan is studying the interaction between proteins, abundant in the human body, and the breakdown of implanted medical devices.  While there are a large number of such devices, Zoltan is specifically interested in hip and knee implants.  Tune in to learn about efforts to minimize the deleterious effects of...

Hosts Garth Casbourn and Kirstyn Seanor are joined by Rawan El Moghrabi, a student in the master's program in computer science.

How can human attitudes, behaviors, and expectations influence the internal representation and behaviors of AI? In this quite topical episode, Rawan offers some insight into the behind-the-scenes of large language models, as well as discussing her research project on AI safety and alignment. 

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Hosts Maris Schneider and Mark Ambrogio interview Taylor Northwood, a Master's student in Public History.  Taylor is interested in exploring the experience of teens in the past, particularly teens living in Windsor, Ontario, during the 1950s.  Taylor shares her insights into how teens navigated a postwar world shaped by shifting cultural values, emerging youth identities, and the growing influence of American media just across the ...

In this week's episode, hosts Riya Sidhu and Ryan Baxter interview Catherine Birt, a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) candidate in Performance and Literature.  Catherine is studying collaborative piano -- this, though, is just the tip of the iceberg!  In addition to her interest in piano, Catherine explores the emerging interplay between climate activism and classical music.  Intriguingly, Catherine points out that there has been a gro...

In this week's episode, Maddie Hertz, a PhD candidate in Anthropology, is interviewed by hosts Garth Casbourn and Mark Ambrogio.  Maddie's research touches upon the intersection of aging and physical activity.  More specifically, her research looks at bone loss in menopausal women, to see how physical activity may mitigate bone loss, comparing the effects of swimming and running.  Garth, Mark, and Maddie compare notes on resear...

In this week’s episode, hosts Maris Schneider and Meghan Voll interview Carly Charron, a PhD candidate in Biology, and previous GradCast host!  Carly breaks the news about the dangers of eating raw chicken and eggs (say goodbye to that cookie dough batter!) as she researches how to make food safer for consumption, starting at the source – chickens.  She is designing a plant-based vaccine to administer to chickens to induce immunity...

This follows up on a previous “Chairs Chat” from March 2021 Special Episode: Chairs Chat | GradCast, which commemorated 500 episodes. This “Chairs Chat” commemorates another milestone; namely, over 600 episodes, with specials, and hitting 500 regular episodes, wherein we interview individual graduate students about their research. In this episode, Amalie Hutchinson, Anthony Cruz, and Mark Ambrogio chat in the Rad...

GradCast heads to the Western Research Forum! Get a glimpse into Western's largest multidisciplinary graduate research conference as hosts Liam Clifford, Mohammad Zeraati, Riya Sidhu, & Mark Ambrogio conduct short interviews with attendees, presenters, and organizers. This year's conference featured over 60 different presentations from across Western's 11 faculties. See below for interview questions and timestamps.

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In his fourth time with us, Alex Mayhew joins his fellow office-mates in Western's Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS), hosts Mark Ambrogio and Meghan Voll, as he rapidly approaches the finish line. By the time this episode airs, Alex may officially have his PhD in Library and Information Science! Alex discusses what is involved in the final weeks of one's PhD, such as his forthcoming public lecture. He ...

In the second episode of #GlobalGrads, hosts Liam Clifford and Anthony Cruz are joined by Eva Deligiannis — a MSc student in Neuroscience and the PSAC610 Communications Chair. Eva shares her background in research, her journey through activism, and highlights key contemporary developments affecting international students at Western.

Shifting from the personal to the political, the conversation explores Navitas — a private education...

This week, join us for the 5th episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills. 

Hosts Maris Schneider and Anthony Cr...

Hosts Liam Clifford and Ryan Baxter meet with Rafaela Platkin, a MSc student in Cognitive, Developmental and Brain Sciences Psychology. Her research looks at how engaged children become with different story themes, and how this may influence broader cognitive domains (listening effort, attention, load, etc). She discusses studies with behavioural dual task to measure listening effort through reaction time, gaze and EE...

And yes, he's back!  Liam Clifford and Mark Ambrogio are joined, for the third time, by William Laur, a PhD candidate at Western in Biology, as he shares how he is making good progress on his doctoral research. William discusses his research on snakes; more specifically, he is interested in the human reaction towards snakes, which he studies by looking at both the scientific literature and social media posts.  Topics discussed i...

For this edition of #BookCast, we dive deep into The Secret History by Donna Tart, the origin of the dark academia genre. Join us as we discuss the book, which follows a student at a prestigious New England College, where he experiences new friends, an eclectic professor, and murder. The Secret History is a novel heavily laced with classical symbolism, and we discuss some of the central themes as well as engage in a breakdown of th...

#GlobalGrads is back! In this episode, hosts Liam Clifford and Riya Sidhu sit down with Deepmala Rana Bhat, a PhD student in Epidemiology from Nepal and the International Commissioner for SOGS at Western. As an international student herself, Deepmala shares insights into Nepal’s rich culture, fun facts, and her experiences advocating for international students. They also dive into the evolving landscape of internation...