Empty Space Inbetween Podcast

James Williams is an academic in rehabilitating foreign and British national prisoners. His work involves arming inmates with the skills and tools to adapt to prison life and reintegrate into society once released. James has also worked with Refugees and Asylum Seekers, teaching English through the ESOL National Curriculum to various nationalities, including North East Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South American students. As per we delve into the empty space inbetween every now and then, discussing James' FUDGE grades in school and his love for British bacon.

James runs The Policing Conversation podcast. Links below:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2FsWhESximhNxPUdGF0I2N?si=065c96f6e6a5444e

Professor Andy Biggin is an expert in palaeomagnetism and leads the Geomagnetism Laboratory and DEEP research group at the University of Liverpool. Prof Biggins work includes explaining and investigating the past behaviours of the Earth's magnetic field on time scales from centuries to billions of years.

Get involved and find out more about the Geomagnetism Labs work here: https://www.geomagnetism.org/

Dr James Baker is a mathematician and researcher who has worked at Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Manchester, and the University of Sydney. He received his Master's in Mathematics from Oxford University. Dr Baker's research to date has been centred around "granular materials," which include sand, snow, soil, and many others (not necessarily beginning with 's'). He aims to apply fundamental knowledge to diverse industries and applications, with recent projects including quality control of pharmaceutical products, energy-saving in the mineral processing industry, and modelling erosion and other environmental processes. As usual, we enter the Empty Space Inbetween every now and then, discussing James' opinion on elitism in academia and how he become known as the man behind the world's worst sandwich.

BIG THINK is back. A mini-series where Ryan and Sam give their thoughts on how science is intertwined with some of the world's most significant cultural, social and environmental problems and how it's affecting these issues in positive and negative ways. This week the lads discuss...has the use of machine learning destroyed the album? Has recommender systems and playlist culture consequently led to the birth of single culture? Has artists' use of social media platforms and their plea to remain relevant in a saturated market led to the downfall of long-play releases such as albums? Ryan and Sam delve into the questions of how adopting machine learning for recommender and curated playlists by large streaming conglomerates such as Spotify may have been the final nail in the coffin for the album within the music world.

Dr Ivo Siekmann is an ecologist, applied mathematician and statistician, specialising in using systems of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) and applying Bayesian MCMC approaches to tackle real-world ecological and biological problems. His work includes the population dynamics of plankton under the influence of marine viruses, modelling invasive species around the UK and beyond and calcium cell signalling. As well as diving into Ivo's work as a scientist, we also take it back to his younger years growing up in the German school system, moving to New Zealand for job opportunities and his yearning for answers to life's big philosophical questions about humanity.

Research news is back my dudes! Ryan and Sam dive into what's making headlines in the world of science and research. Shopping trolleys that detect arterial fibrillation, dolphins using altered tones of voice and pitches to communicate with their young, musical ability and hows it's affected by native language, and new applications that can predict your favourite alcoholic beverage, it's all discussed here!

Alec Brits is a producer, songwriter and content creator who owns the Cabin Recording Studio in Liverpool. Alec has worked with numerous artists around the city and beyond, such as Clean Cut Kid, The Hummingbirds, Mic Lowery, St Catherines Child, I See Rivers, Honey Motel, HOLLOWBODY and more. Alec shares some childhood stories of growing up in South Africa and his journey to Scouseland at the tender age of 17. Alec is also a massive believer in adopting new technologies into his daily workflow and shares the current array of AI and machine learning tools he is using within his creative endeavours. He also shares his opinion on where AI could possibly take the arts going forward, you don't want to miss this one!

Alecs Links:

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@alecbrits

The Cabin Recording Studio: https://www.thecabinrecordings.com/our-story

The lads are back with part three of academic agony aunts answering the burning research questions that people must have answers to! Ryan and Sam dive into the dangers of sentient AI, how to keep your motivation going on bad days, the problems with research jobs at prominent academic institutions, and the biggest shock in the first year of a PhD. As per usual, the lads enter the Empty Space Inbetween every now and then and discuss the problems with research on the social determinants of health, the threat of nuclear war and their time on the Stupid Genius podcast.

In this week's episode, Ryan and Sam give insight into their backstory. They spill the beans on what they were like at school, how they flopped when it came to A-levels and how they managed to secure PhD scholarships achieving miserable exam results. The lads discover things they never knew about each other like Sam taking Mathematics on a whim because his mate was and how Ryans's academic career was saved by an admin assistant at his sixth form college...