Shiny Epi People

You will surely love today's episode with Fausto Bustos, PhD. Fausto is an infectious disease epidemiologist and an ORISE Data Science Fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he provides data analytic expertise, computational and statistical assistance, and substantive scientific knowledge to advance their research mission. Fausto grew up crossing the southern border of the US for school ever...

Rachel Hardeman, PhD is nothing short of a powerhouse. She is a reproductive health equity researcher, scholar, teacher, writer, speaker, and activist. Rachel is Associate Professor and the first Blue Cross Endowed Professor of Health and Racial Equity. Division of Health Policy & Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health.  Her research links structural racism to health, identifies opportunities for interventi...

Today, my chat with the amazing Maria Glymour, ScD, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California - San Francisco. Maria tells me about being lost after college and her winding road to epidemiology, growing up in rural Oklahoma, riding cows, the Beastie Boys, a dinner party with Jaws, and the 'flavor' red. I don't think I've ever laughed this hard during an interview. Enjoy!

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Tamarra James-Todd, PhD is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She tells me about the motivations for her research interests in environmental reproductive justice, dedicating her diabetes research to her late father, the value of peer mentorship, joy riding with her dad in his Mustang in the '70s, dinner with Hannibal Lecter and Molly Ringwald, and more! Laugh along wi...

Chenoa Cassidy-Matthews is a rockstar PhD student in epidemiology at the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health.  She is a member of the Sachigo Lake First Nation, which is an Oji Cree First Nation band government in an area that colonizers now call Northwestern Ontario Canada. Chenoa  is an indigenous health researcher and epidemiologist. She studies the impacts of overdose and COVID-19 on urban Indi...

Today you hear from Whitney Robinson, PhD, social epidemiologist and all around brilliant, thoughtful, vulnerable woman. She is so well known in the public health community after her positions as a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Societies Scholar, assistant and then associate professor at UNC in the epidemiology department, and now as faculty epidemiologist in the Division of Women’s Community and Population Health in the Departmen...

If you know my guest today, you probably know what a rock star researcher is, but you may not know much of anything personal about him. Today, Brandon Marshall, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Brown University, gives me a glimpse into his life: acting, snowboarding, home decorating, caring for 2 pugs, and stubbornly refusing to leave Celsius back in Canada. Of course, Brandon shares how he successfully manages a very la...

Today you'll hear from Dana Bernson, MPH, Epidemiologist and Director of Special Analytic Projects within the Office of Population Health at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She tells me about her position in state government and what she finds so fulfilling about it. Dana also generously shares the story of her first husband's passing, leaving her a widow at age 29. We discuss joy and grief, her pandemic el...

I am happy to present to you a delightful conversation I had with Sameera Nayak, MA, who is currently a doctoral student in Population Health in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research at Northeastern University. Sameera tells me about immigrating to the US from India at 18 for college and navigating the academic system as an immigrant. She very courageously talks about pa...

Today, I got to enjoy an informative, hilarious, and illuminating conversation with the incomparable Roland Thorpe, Professor of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. And his newest position, which we talk about today, is as the Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Diversity. Roland also discusses his love of food and drink, Android vs. iPhone, broccoli vs. broccolini, a story of academic...

Welcome to the premier of Season 2 of Shiny Epi People! I could not find a better way to start this new season than to chat with one of my epi besties Jaimie Gradus, DSc. Jaimie is an Associate Professor at Boston University School of Public Health whose research focuses on psychiatric epidemiology. She has an impressive NIH grant portfolio, so we talk success, luck, and the lack of meritocracy in grant funding. Jaimie and I also s...

It is the final of the update episodes with guests from 2020! Today, you hear from the hilarious Hoda Abdel Magid. Hoda is currently in the second year of her postdoc. She tells me about resubmitting her K99-R00 application, hot yoga in a hijab, a setup date in Cairo that she didn't know was a setup, surfing, therapy (a fav topic of mine!), and more! You will LOL in this one. Please enjoy, and thank you for all of your support...

Summer is nearly over, but I have two more updates of these episodes to put out! So we are going to keep calling them summer episodes! Today, you hear from two recent graduates and rising stars you first heard from in 2020: Louisa Smith, PhD, and Michelle Caunca, MD, PhD. Since her episode aired, Louisa has defended her dissertation, accepted a postdoc, participated in a triathlon, spent the summer in Switzerland, is on the dating ...

I believe in summer through September! Here is a fourth summer bonus episode for your enjoyment! And I have a treat with the hilarious and sweet Bertha Hidalgo. Bertha was my guest back in 2020, and so many of you loved her episode then. Today's will not disappoint! Bertha and I talk about her appearance on Dancing with the Stars (local version!), managing anxiety, valuing family during Covid, and holding your breath for 4 min...

It's early September, and I'm still going to call this a summer episode! Today, you'll hear updates from Matt Fox and Mya Roberson. If you haven't listened to their original episodes way back in 2020, go have a listen. Matt and I talk some more here on kindness (or lack thereof) on Twitter, deli meat sheets, and superheroes. Mya finished her dissertation and got a faculty position since her first episode, so her...

Summer is ending, but my summer bonus episodes are not! Today, you get to hear 3 interviews which all appeared first on my Patreon as a thank you to my patrons (become one at www.patreon.com/shinyepipeople). Today, they are out for all to enjoy! You hear updates from Leslie McClure, Penny Gordon Larsen, and Hailey Banack. They all appeared on the show early in Season 1 and are here to tell you what's going on in their lives si...

Hi everyone! Happy summer! I have been releasing update episodes this summer for supporters via my Patreon (www.patreon.com/shinyepipeople). I decided to publish this summer bonus episode for all listeners because it is poignant and timely. I caught up with coronavirus researcher Tim Sheahan, who recorded with me back in fall 2020, when the pandemic was raging. In this conversation, Tim gives me updates on his work in the lab and h...

After 40 episodes, Season 1 is a wrap! In this short episode, I share thoughts I have about the experience of launching a podcast during a pandemic, what I have learned about myself and people in public health, what I will be doing until Season 2, and where I want to go with the show. Thanks to all of the listeners who have trusted me to put together a show every week that teaches them, makes them feel and develop empathy, and adds...