Gradcast Radio

Episode 567 | The Young and the Restless: The Effects of Testosterone on Song Sparrows

In this week’s episode, hosts Ryan Baxter and Mark Ambrogio interview GradCast’s own Garth Casbourn, a PhD candidate in Biology. In his research, Garth studies how an animal’s internal physiology shapes its behaviour, looking at the influence of testosterone on the song sparrow, a migratory bird.

The changes in behaviour that Garth studies are chiefly migration-related, looking at both adult males and juvenile sparrows. Garth is studying two related hypotheses: First, the gonadal hypothesis is the idea that s*x hormones, including testosterone, are actually what causes migratory behaviour to develop. Secondly, it is hypothesized that migration in s*xually mature birds may have evolved from the dispersal behaviour of juveniles.

During his PhD, Garth has been an active member of GradCast, serving as both a host and as a producer.

Listen to Garth’s episode at the link in our bio!

Episode 566 | More than Meets the Archive: Sustainable Approaches to Preserving Shared Identity and Culture

This week on GradCast, hosts Anthony Cruz and Milan Mammen are joined by Jordan Sellers, a PhD student in Library & Information Science (LIS). Jordan researches sustainable digitization practices in community archives, challenging the traditional narrative that full digitization is the only way to accessibly and sustainably archive materials. Her long-term goal is to create an online toolkit to help community archivists figure out the best way to steward their knowledge. Tune in for a fun conversation about the way we store information!

Listen to Jordan’s episode at the link in our bio.

Episode 565 | There and Back Again: Amalie Migrates Home to GradCast

In this week’s episode, host Mark Ambrogio interviews GradCast alumna Amalie Hutchinson, a PhD candidate in Biology. Amalie was a GradCast host and producer, ultimately serving two terms as Chair and Managing Editor. She returns to GradCast as she prepares to enter the fourth year of her program (after a maternal leave – congratulations, by the way!).

In her research, Amalie studies how hummingbirds use torpor, a state of inactivity characterized by a lowered body temperature and decreased metabolic rate, to preserve energy at night. While this phenomenon is not entirely unique to hummingbirds, the extreme temperature they lower their body to is. Amalie is currently looking at the energy demands of migration, using the wind tunnel at Western’s Advanced Facility for Avian Research to study how hummingbirds consume energy over long-distance flights.

In their conversation, Amalie and Mark also discuss their shared history with GradCast as well as ways of staying grounded as graduate students.

Listen to Amalie’s episode at the link in our bio!

Episode 564 | What are Metals Hiding? Zooming in on Corrosion

This week, PhD candidate Mila Strelnikova gives a crash course into adapting the scientific spirit, and exploring problems in electrochemistry with a basic science focus (and pioneering steps towards making novel, state-of-the-art microscopy approaches usable across Ontario’s nuclear ecosystem!).

What is pitting corrosion? Why is it something that’s harder to catch when we’re inspecting metal equipment breaking down, and why is this important? How are these problems being tackled and broken down in the lab?

Join Chrishma Perera and Victor Lau as they hear more on Mila’s journey in learning about and building at the edge of this field. Come to hear about the electrochemistry and how she’s been supported by a great group of lab mates, and stay a bit longer to hear about her involvements as a grad student outside her research.

Episode 563 | A 21st century essay towards a real character language

In this week’s episode, hosts Ryan Baxter and Mark Ambrogio interview John (Jack) Kausch, who recently completed his PhD in Library and Information Science, formally graduating in June.

In his research, Jack looks at past attempts to establish a universal language, as a way of communicating knowledge and ideas across linguistic and cultural divides. Attempts to establish a universal language can be said to go back to ancient Egypt and continued with Francis Bacon and the quest for a « perfect language. »

Using Real Language Character ontology, Jack built, in his dissertation, a knowledge organization system which is a work of art intended to provoke questions concerning our assumptions about the cross-linguistic universality of knowledge, and also demonstrate expanded potentials for information retrieval in the era of machine learning.

Episode 561 | Popping the Bubble: International Experiences at Western

In this week’s episode, Anthony Cruz and Maris Schneider are joined by our newly reappointed international commissioner, Lucas Ferreira Marques dos Santos. Lucas is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry, but today he is telling us all about his experience moving to Canada, conducting research as an international student, and sharing the exciting new opportunities he pours his heart and soul into to help make Western a welcoming community for all. Tune in and get ready to think about how your soul is doing!

Listen to Lucas’ episode at the link in our bio!