Inspiration Dissemination

Taylor Azizeh, a first-year Ph.D. student at OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute, joins Matt to discuss how climate change might be driving gray whales to shift their feeding habits along the Pacific Northwest coast. Taylor's research explores the phenomenon of 'prey switching,' where these benthic specialists switch from seafloor to water-column feeding. By combining stable isotope analysis, GPS tracking, and drone photogrammetry, Taylor aims to understand how gray whales adapt to changing prey availability in a warming ocean. Listen in to hear about her journey from Costa Rica to London to OSU, her passion for these majestic animals, and the big-picture questions she seeks to answer. Hosted by Matthew Vaughan.

Erika Stewart, a second year MA student in the School of Literature, Writing and Film, joins Matt to chat about how horror represents itself in video games. Erika's research focuses on an emerging subgenre of games which she coins 'Malewaric' games. These games are capable of hijacking your computer, inducing a deep sense of fear of which Erika contributes to the hypothesis that computers have become an extension of our body. Listen in for a further exploration of horror video games, how Erika's passion for gaming influenced for graduate pathway, and the importance of the grad student union! Hosted by Matthew Vaughan.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus is one of the most infectious viral diseases in the world. FMD virus affects all cloven-hooved animals and there have been outbreaks all over the world except for in North America. While FMD virus doesn’t necessarily cause fatality in animals, it causes severe milk production losses and can leave affected individuals severely weakened and debilitated. This is particularly problematic for people who keep livestock as it can affect their livelihoods and economic welfare. Join us this week as we talk with Cambrey Knapp, a 2nd year PhD student in Comparative Health Science who is studying wildlife-livestock interactions related to FMD virus around Kruger National Park in South Africa. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand.

Katie Minich is a first year Masters student in Applied Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts, with a minor in Interdisciplinary Studies. Katie is coupling her 8 years of birth work experience with research on the sustainability and decolonization of doulas in the healthcare workforce. Hosted by Matthew Vaughan and Lisa Hildebrand.

We chat with Jillien Zukaitis, a first year PhD student in Nutrition, College of Health. Her lab, fondly referred to as the ‘Milk Lab’, studies at all things milk. With a clinical background as a dietitian, Jillien now couples her practical experience with translatable research. Partnering with OHSU, Jillien assesses the composition, nutritional value, and potential health benefits of human milk on the development of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Hosted by Matt Vaughan and Joseph Valencia

What can be learned from anthropologists studying other anthropologists? Danu Yang is a second year master’s student and anthropologist in the Applied Anthropology Graduate Program. Her main subject of study is a collaborative project dedicated to translating anthropological research between Chinese and Portuguese. Danlu is conducting an ethnographic study of the people involved in this translation project. She is herself highly multilingual, speaking Chinese, English, Portuguese, and Spanish.  Danlu is also interested in what motivates anthropologists to study rural China and what is gained when local knowledge is able to be expressed without English as an intermediary. Hosted by Selene Ross and Joseph Valencia.

30 by 30. No, not the critically acclaimed ESPN documentary series — the phrase refers to the Biden Administration’s goal for the US to produce 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power generation by 2030. To support this target, large scale construction projects are planned off the coast of Oregon and the rest of the West Coast. Here to tell us about the potential effects of this planned construction on marine life is our guest this week, Margaret Campbell. She uses theoretical and historical modeling approaches to forecast the impact of wind farm infrastructure on fisheries. Numerous environmental, tribal, and commercial groups have an interest in wind farm placement and Margaret hopes that her research will help these stakeholders respond to a changing coastline. Hosted by Joseph Valencia and Hannah Stuwe.

Do you feel dizzy after reading that title? Me too, after writing it, but this week on the show we did indeed speak to a trainer of the trainers who train trainers of little humans! Meet Maya Johnson, a 3rd year PhD student in the School of Human Development and Family Sciences. For her research, Maya studies early childhood education policy and the childcare system within Oregon, with a pretty applied policy focus. Alongside doing her research, in her capacity as a graduate research assistant at OSU, some of what Maya does is to write trainings and coaching systems for individuals who train early childhood educators (hence the trainer of trainers who train trainers). Tune in to our episode with Maya where we cover a whole range of topics related to early childhood education, such as the HeadStart program, the childcare crises, why we don’t know a whole lot about the education stats of children under the age of 6 in Oregon, and what Maya is doing to hopefully change that problem! Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand

Kayla Fratt is a PhD student in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation sciences, whose research uses scat samples collected from apex predators to better understand their biology and ecology. As if being a graduate student isn't already enough of a full-time job, Kayla has another one; she is one of the founders and trainers of K9 Conservationists, an organization that unites highly trained conservation detection dog teams with researchers to collect scientific data.For her graduate research, Kayla is working with her canine colleagues, Barley & Niffler, to understand island biogeography effects on diet and movement for sea wolves in southeast Alaska and basic natural history of pumas in El Salvador. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Jenna Fryer

Elena Conser is a third year PhD student in the Plankton Ecology Lab within the Department of Integrative Biology. She really, really, loves plankton – marine organisms that are unable to swim against the current and are thus, at the whim and mercy of their environment. To study plankton, Elena employs a cutting-edge technology imaging system to view plankton in their natural environment, something that has not previously been possible in her field. (Disclaimer: this episode was recorded with a backup system so the audio quality is somewhat below the usual). Hosted by Matt Vaughan and Joseph Valencia.