GradCast

506 | Environmentally-Conscious Music

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 growing presence of environmental themes in classical music -- one example being the interplay of whale vocalizations ("whale songs") with some classical music in the late 1970s and early 80s, coinciding with the anti-whaling campaign.

Catherine plans on doing case studies and interviews with prominent musicians to better explore this interplay.  Tune in for more!





Recorded on Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Produced by Mark Ambrogio
Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot)

505 | Aging Actively

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 research methods and discuss how even graduate students need to enjoy some outdoor activity!

Those interested in learning more may read about the PAVE Lab (Phenotypic Adaptability, Variation, and Evolution Laboratory) here:  https://pavelab.ca/

Maddie's doctoral supervisor is Professor Jay Stock.



Recorded on Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Produced by Mark Ambrogio
Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot)

504 | The Chicken Trials

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 against Salmonella.  Carly has just finished her first round of chicken trials, administering her vaccine to a group of chickens who will be studied in various ways to test their immunity.  Join us as we talk about her research, her experience patenting her vaccine, and all the educational outreach she does along the way.



Recorded on Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Produced by Mark Ambrogio
Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

Chairs Chat 2

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 Radio Western studio, while Ariel Frame joins from Sheffield, England via Zoom. Together, they share fond memories of GradCast and discuss some of the history of the radio show and podcast.

Recorded on Friday, April 25, 2025
Produced by Amalie Hutchinson and Mark Ambrogio
Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

 

503 | Owning your future: Transferring skills from academia to the job market

Hosts Anthony Cruz and Garth Casbourn sit down with Jenny Richmond-Bravo, an EdD candidate and coordinator of Western’s Own Your Future program, to discuss how she is helping PhD students identify, build, and market their skills for career success beyond academia.

Recorded on Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Produced by Riya Sidhu

Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

Special Episode: 39th Annual Western Research Forum

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.

Funding for the 39th Annual Western Research Forum was provided by Western's Society of Graduate Students (SOGS), Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, and the Academic Joint Fund, a partnership among Western Research, SOGS, and Western's School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS).

Recorded on March 14, 2025.
Produced by Anthony Cruz.
Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Produced by White Hot).

 

Interview Questions & Timestamps

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What’s the biggest takeaway from your presentation?
What inspired you to pursue this research?
What is the effect of your research on real life?

01:00 - Jeremias
02:57 - Caitlin
04:47 - Elisabeth
06:24 - Rafaela

---

How has presenting here helped you refine your ideas?
What’s one skill that has helped you succeed in your research?
What’s your best networking tip for first-time conference attendees?

07:37 - Sid
09:51 - Lauren
11:10 - Xavier
13:10 - Liam

---

Summarize your research in one sentence.
What has been the highlight of the WRF?
How has AI influenced your research?

14:36 - Chloe
15:49 - Saghar
16:34 - Reza
19:29 - Andrew
20:16 - Aranya
21:25 - Anthony
22:12 - Ashley
23:09 - Olivia

502 | You'd Better Be Done!

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 also shares the experience of receiving feedback from his students (in the Master of Library and Information Sciences program) to some of his ideas around Aging Justice. And how feedback is not always a bad thing.

EDIT: Alex successfully defended his dissertation on Tuesday, April 22.  Congratulations, Dr. Mayhew!


Recorded on Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Produced by Mark Ambrogio

Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

 

#GlobalGrads Redux: Policy and Practice

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 company whose proposed international student pathway was previously rejected by the Western community. Eva breaks down what Navitas is, how the proposal could impact international student prospects, and how both the union and broader campus community are organising in response.

Tune in for insight on how institutional policy affects our international colleagues and how domestic students can show solidarity.

For updates on the matter, follow @stopcutsatwesternu and the union @PSAC610 on Instagram. You may find additional information on the local's and UWOFA's respective websites.

Recorded on April 8, 2025
Produced by Liam Clifford

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

501 | #InspiringMinds: Fit or Fixated? Unpacking Emerging Fitness Ideals and the Role of Disordered Eating

This week, join us for the 5^th 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 Cruz sit down with guest Lisa Zhu, a master’s student in clinical psychology, to explore the psychological impacts of today’s fitness trends that idealize muscularity. Lisa’s research investigates the often-overlooked connection between fitness ideals and food-related behaviours, revealing how disordered eating can be masked as "healthy" habits. She sheds light on how these unrealistic muscular ideals perpetuate harmful perceptions of health, especially among men, whose experiences with body image and disordered eating are frequently ignored. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that challenges conventional ideas of fitness and wellness.

Check out Lisa's Inspiring Minds showcase here!

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of body image and disordered eating.

Recorded on April 8, 2025.
Produced by Anthony Cruz.
Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

500 | Big Brain Energy

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 EEG brain activity. The hope is to better understand how children engage with auditory-only narratives and general stimuli and see how their listening effort and/or fatigue are affected. Rafaela talks about how she became charmed by the field of Psychology and her future plans for her PhD, to look at hearing aid users to see whether there is a disproportionate increase in listening effort.  

Recorded on April 1, 2025

Produced by Maria Khan

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot