Abstract: The Future of Science

Our guest this week is M.Sc. Lauren Tracey, coming to us live from beautiful Montreal, Canada. She holds a graduate degree in Exercise Science and just started McGill Medical School! Her primary research focus was on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), taking an exercise testing perspective, looking at risk factors for, and the human experience of, the disease. I met Lauren in High School and have known her for well over a decade. It was a real treat to have her on the show, and let me tell you, she delivered. Check it out for yourself, and feel free to peep the Topics & Concepts below to get an idea of what to expect on this week's episode!

Topics & Concepts

Our guest this week is Angelly Vasquez, a PhD student studying Myrmecology at McGill University! What is Myrmecology? You'll just have to listen to find out (psst the episode title might give you a hint).

Topics & Concepts

Complexity in Nature

Notes: Ants are pretty much all females except for the birthing of a male once or twice a year for the purposes of mating. The workers are all female, and the male grows wings to fly away from the colony to find females elsewhere to mate with, in order to propagate that gene pool and start a new colony. The males can't breed within their own colony because they're all siblings (ants are not incestuous). The queen ant has tyrannical rule over the female workers. In an ant colony, there are no individuals, only slaves to the matriarchy. Soldiers have disproportionately large and muscular heads to support their giant crime-fighting mandibles... While humans lack extreme morphology variation, we diversify in our divison of labor. 

There's so much juicy information packed into today's episode that your mandibles might expand upon listening -- you've been warned.

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Angelly is all about outreach, so feel free to reach out to her at [email protected]! 

Our guest this week is Concordia University Clinical Psychology PhD and now practicing Psychologist Sarah Newcomb-Anjo! We discuss stress, mental health and life transitions, with a big emphasis on mindset. Sarah also shares with us her favorite question she likes to ask her patients, which actually stems from her graduate research. 

Tune in now for a real treat of an episode!

Topics & Concepts

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If you want to keep the conversation going, you can:

(1) Reach Sarah by e-mail at [email protected]

(2) Comment on any and all social media posts (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter)

(3) Drop us a line at [email protected] for any other feedback and inquiries!

Chapter 11: Emotion. is most likely the last chapter that I will be releasing as part of the PSYC 211 album. As this has been a volunteered gig, my continuation has been contingent on increasing or at least sustained listership. While things started strong, engagement has dwindled significantly since the project's inception. It's been a blast, and I hope you enjoy the 10th installation of Rapstract Season 1 on Emotion.

Listen close and follow along with the lyrics (if you're not in PSYC 211, shoot me an email and I'll gladly send them your way). Study hard, study smart. Shoot me some feedback at [email protected]! If you like what you hear, shoot me an e-tran$fer at [email protected] or [email protected]!

Got a favorite lyric? Shoot me an email at [email protected]. Do you make beats and want to collaborate? Send me an email at [email protected]. Enjoy sending emails? Email me at [email protected]. You get the point: I want to hear from you.

You'll notice that Rapstract is available here on my podcast page, Abstract. I interview graduate students on their research, many of whom are studying Neuroscience and Psychology. I urge you to peruse and have a listen to the first episode that catches your eye. Episodes 18, 19, 20, 22 and 25 just came out in case you're looking for a change of pace, but still something in the realm of psych or neuro!

Chapter 11 is brought to you by:

Beat: Best Freestyle Rap Instrumental Beat [Prod. Mixla]

Vocals, Lyrics, Recording: Pcenna

Our guest this week is University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Engineering PhD Candidate Pulkit Khandelwal. His primary research focus is neuroimaging and specifically shape analysis of brain structures! If you haven't checked out Episode 22 with Nadia Blostein, feel free to check it out for a bit more background in neuroimaging before tackling this more technical episode! That said, if you've got a background in the brain sciences then you should be all set. 

This is our second episode featuring passages from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations! Let us know what you think about the addition -- you can drop us a line at [email protected].

Be mindful, and have a great day! 

Chapter 10: Sex & Reproduction. This is most likely the second to last chapter that I will be releasing as part of the PSYC 211 album. As this has been a volunteered gig, my continuation has been contingent on increasing or at least sustained listership. While things started strong, engagement has dwindled significantly since the project's inception. It's been a blast, and chapter 10 is coming next week. Unless things change in the next week or so, that will be the last one. Thank you and enjoy!

Listen close and follow along with the lyrics (if you're not in PSYC 211, shoot me an email and I'll gladly send them your way). Study hard, study smart. Shoot me some feedback at [email protected]! If you like what you hear, shoot me an e-tran$fer at [email protected] or [email protected]!

Got a favorite lyric? Shoot me an email at [email protected]. Do you make beats and want to collaborate? Send me an email at [email protected]. Enjoy sending emails? Email me at [email protected]. You get the point: I want to hear from you.

You'll notice that Rapstract is available here on my podcast page, Abstract. I interview graduate students on their research, many of whom are studying Neuroscience and Psychology. I urge you to peruse and have a listen to the first episode that catches your eye. Episodes 18, 19, 20 and 22 just came out in case you're looking for a change of pace, but still something in the realm of psych or neuro!

Chapter 9 is brought to you by:

Beat: Money, Power & Respect [Prod. Anabolic Beatz]

Vocals, Lyrics, Recording: Pcenna 

Our guest this week is Epidemiology PhD Candidate Adam Palayew, coming to us live (during recording,) from Seattle, Washington! Listen in on the magical and utterly fascinating discussion we had on the topics below.

As always we'd love to get your feedback on today's (or any) episode! WHat did you like? What could we have done better?

Are you a local artist looking to get your music or written work featured on the podcast? Reach out to us at [email protected] and we'd be happy to discuss features on future episodes.

Enjoy responsibly! 

Chapter 9: Sleep. Listen close and follow along with the lyrics (if you're not in PSYC 211, shoot me an email and I'll gladly send them your way). Study hard, study smart. Shoot me some feedback at [email protected]! If you like what you hear, shoot me an e-tran$fer at [email protected] or [email protected]!

Got a favorite lyric? Shoot me an email at [email protected]. Do you make beats and want to collaborate? Send me an email at [email protected]. Enjoy sending emails? Email me at [email protected]. You get the point: I want to hear from you.

You'll notice that Rapstract is available here on my podcast page, Abstract. I interview graduate students on their research, many of whom are studying Neuroscience and Psychology. I urge you to peruse and have a listen to the first episode that catches your eye. Episodes 18, 19, 20 and 22 just came out in case you're looking for a change of pace, but still something in the realm of psych or neuro!

Chapter 8 is brought to you by:

Beat: Rap Instrumental [Prod. Silver Krueger]

Vocals, Lyrics, Recording: Pcenna

Our guest this week is McGIll Master's of Neuroscience candidate, Nadia Blostein, in an episode dedicated to subcortical brain structures, brain imaging, physical features of the brain and its evolution up the phylogenetic tree! You don't want to this delightful interview with a fresh-faced graduate student -- this could be you one day!

Bullet Point Topics:

Brain Volume + Shape

Guest Appearance: Michael Smilovitch (from Ep. 6 - Virtual Reality & Immersion) reading from his "neuropoetry" collection

Find his other work on his website: michaelsmilovitch.com

Get access to his poetry collection directly here: theblastedtree.com/obscuritysquared-index

Chapter 7: The Senses. Listen close and follow along with the lyrics (if you're not in PSYC 211, shoot me an email and I'll gladly send them your way). Study hard, study smart.

Got a favorite lyric? Shoot me an email at [email protected]. Do you make beats and want to collaborate? Send me an email at [email protected]. Enjoy sending emails? Email me at [email protected]. You get the point: I want to hear from you.

You'll notice that Rapstract is available here on my podcast page, Abstract. I interview graduate students on their research, many of whom are studying Neuroscience and Psychology. I urge you to peruse and have a listen to the first episode that catches your eye. Episodes 18, 19, 20 and 22 just came out in case you're looking for a change of pace, but still something in the realm of psych or neuro!

Chapter 7 is brought to you by:

Beat: Inhumane [Prod. Shirazi]

Vocals, Lyrics, Recording: Pcenna