I Came For Science

Are you curious about polyamory? If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this episode, Laura discusses scientific and personal aspects of polyamory with Amanda Anastasia Paniagua. Amanda is a graduate student in

There has been a lot of talk this year about sex and gender. In this episode, Laura interviews Dr. Gita Kolluru who studies variation in sexual morphology and behavior across non-human animals. Dr. Kolluru explains the difference between sex and gender. Then, she explains the tremendous variation that occurs in sexual traits in humans and how this variation comes about.

Welcome back to Season 2 of I Came For Science. This episode is a follow-up to Episode 6 from Season 1 about the clearing of Ohio's backlog of sexual assault testing kits. In this episode, Laura interviews forensic nurse, Joey Compton, of Aultman Serenity Program about what survivors of sexual assault and their supporters need to know about sexual assault evidence collection.

In this last episode of Season 1, Laura is interviewed by her former student and current co-host, Natalia, about her winding journey of studying the science of sex and reproduction. They discuss Laura’s lows as she struggled with not feeling like she belonged as well as her highs as she realized her “outsider” status often made her ask questions that no one had thought to ask before. Natalia and Laura discuss how important it is to have people with different lived experiences contribute to scientific knowledge and end by encouraging everyone to come for science!

Imagine if you were sexually assaulted, decided to get evidence collected from your body, and then that evidence sat uninvestigated for decades. In 2010, this was the reality for about 14,000 victims of sexual assault in Ohio alone. In this episode, Laura interviews criminologist Dr. Rachel Lovell of Cleveland State University. They discuss how Ohio cleared the sexual assault test kit backlog over a five year period and how the results have been used to prosecute perpetrators in Cuyahoga County, becoming a role model for other parts of the country. In addition, Dr. Lovell shares how the results of these analyses have resulted in new findings about patterns of sexual assault and new approaches to caring for victims.

Laura talks with her colleague, Dr. Diana Pérez Staples, a research professor at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico, who has conducted research in six different countries on four different continents. Dr. Pérez Staples provides a cross-cultural perspective on the challenges and benefits of being a researcher in developing countries. She then discusses the importance that role models and words have on making aspiring scientists feel welcome or unwelcome in STEM.

This is a powerful one. It is a discussion with your host, Laura Sirot, and her colleague, Eileen Hebets, who studies the reproductive behavior of arachnids. We talk about how our early life experiences influence our research questions, and the work Eileen is doing to support survivors of sexual assault. It demonstrates that one of the reasons it is important to have people with diverse lived experiences in science is that those experiences make them curious about questions that have never been asked.

Please join us for a very special episode. It’s a story about one man’s decision to take the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP. But it is so much more. It is a story of love between a mother and son. It’s a coming out story. It’s a story about how trans-generational trauma can be turned into gratitude, resilience, and hope. It's a story about how the science of sex saves lives.