The science of cancer and care

Dr. Brandon Blue is an oncologist and physician-scientist at Moffitt Cancer Center. As a medical doctor he spends his time treating blood cancers, so this is an apt episode for Blood Cancer Awareness Week.
As a researcher though he's trying to understand more about disparities in diagnosis and treatment of such cancers so that all patients receive better care.

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Psychology, psychopathy and creating positive change

What happens when your psychology research just doesn’t quite scratch that itch any more? Well, in the case of Prof. Edelyn Verona, it means you join with your colleagues to create a Center for Justice Research and Policy, something she is well placed to do as an expert in mental health, and violent and criminal behavior.

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From pikas to politics

Prof. Nancy Huntly is the scientist who almost never was. All through high school and university she didn’t feel like science was for her, but her curiosity has led her to study ecosystems as an academic, work for government agencies and more recently she's been researching how best to keep grad students in STEM programs. All that was not enough for Nancy though as she has also run for State Senate in Utah!

Join us as we chat about her unique and inspiring journey from pikas to politics

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COVID-19 special: The Math Epidemiologist

A journey through ecology, evolution, infectious disease, mathematics and computational biology in medicine is what has made Dr. Brandon Ogbunu the scientist he is today. And he is completely unapologetic about it because Brandon’s believes that all these facets of his work, personality and ethnicity put him in a unique position to understand complex interactions. That includes those that we’re seeing in the midst of a pandemic.

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COVID-19 special: The Microbiologist

Dr James Gurney is a microbiologist interested in infectious diseases. He is also a big fan of science communication whether that means talking to students in classrooms, hosting his own podcast, or consulting for Kurzgesagt. In fact it’s the latter that inspired us to ask James on our show. You can find the Kurzgesagt on the novel coronavirus here.

We talked about James’ current research, armchair scientists and naturally, COVID-19.

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COVID-19 special: The Conservation Biologist

Bats are a hot topic right now in light of COVID-19, but anyone working on them will tell you these are some of the most misunderstood mammals. Thankfully Dr. Susan Tsang is an expert and she sat down with us to talk about her favorite pollinators. Yes, just like the birds and the bees, we should be including bats among the organisms that help transfer seeds.

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Eat the crust

Eat the crust? No, we’re not talking bread, we are talking about that layer of our planet earth, because our guest is geoscientist, Beth Bartel. For someone who’s worked a lot with GPS, much of Beth’s career has been pretty meandering. For now though she’s settled on a job she loves, helping communicate the science of geology and natural hazards, while training other scientists to share their work.


We talked to Beth about the challenge of tackling pseudoscience, and the need for including social sciences to inform other fields of research.

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