Conversations with Academics

Anna Zivian - Senior Research Fellow at Ocean Conservancy. 20 December 2021.

Anna and I talk about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ), ocean conservation and the Ocean Conservancy, and her journey to her current position. At the end we briefly talk about spiders and the conservation of arthropods.

Kathryn McConnell - Doctoral Candidate at Yale School of the Environment. 4 April 2021.

Katie and I talk about her research on the impacts of wildfire on human lives, how Covid has changed our own lives, and a bit about the PhD process.

David Murray - Entrepreneur and writer. 28 November 2020.

David and I talk about his journey from through higher education, an archaeology excavation in Europe, his study of Classics, some entrepreneurial endeavors, and his latest switch to writing. David and I ramble for quite a while, but I hope some of it is useful or interesting.

Dr. Matthew Silk - University of Exeter. 16 October 2020.

Matt and I talk about how Covid has affected us, his journey from the PhD through a couple of postdocs (along with what is next for him), his recent paper "Perils and pitfalls of mixed-effects regression models in biology" and statistics more generally, at the end Matt gives some advice about being brave and "going for it" when contacting potential advisors.

Dr. Jesse Barber - Boise State University. 23 June 2020.
Jesse tells me about his academic journey, and we end by discussing publishing houses, journals, and the ethics surrounding decisions to submit to a journal.

Dr. Kathryn Turner - Idaho State University. 17 December 2019.
Kathryn tells me about her experience in the job search and what sort of things to look out for. She stresses the importance of hobbies, or taking time away from work, and she ends with the power of sleep and talking to humans - we are social creatures after all.

Dr. Kristin Byrd - USGS (Western Geographic Science Center, Moffett Field, CA). 5 December 2019.
Kristin tells me about her career trajectory, her current work, and life in a government position. She talks a bit about some skills that hiring committees might be after, and how her daily life probably isn't very different from that which would be found in a University position.

Dr. Nick Dowdy - NSF Post Doctoral Fellow (Milwaukee Public Museum) & Assistant Research Professor (Wake Forest University). 7 November 2019.
Nick tells me about not having a great work-life balance, being a self-proclaimed 'workaholic.' We discuss how work can sometimes actually be a hobby, and figuring out what is right for you. We discuss checking emails as a way to procrastinate or lose time. We discuss the difference between working all the time and productivity in a 'publish or perish' world. Nick uses a phrase 'productive procrastinator' to describe working on new / side projects, and explains how having a significant other can help with the balance, at least a little bit.

Dr. Steven Alexander - University of Waterloo - Environmental Change and Governance Group. 24 October 2019.
Steven tells me about his journey as an educator, and then his introduction to research. We talk a bit about decision making and having multiple threads of importance in your life. Academics can get caught up in only thinking that one thing, career progress, is important - often leaving other very important things behind.

Dr. Georgia Hart-Fredeluces - Idaho State University - Dept. of Sociology. 17 October 2019.
Georgia tells me about her journey into, out of, and back into academia - and how this path is never really that clear. She tells me about how she has trusted herself to know when something is not quite right, and how she made brave changes in her life in those cases.