One might think that an undergrad degree in Leisure Studies wouldn’t lead to much more than a couch. That is certainly not the case for Justin Harmon. Sure the years right after graduation were a bit on the lackadaisical side of life, he was working, but he was more focused on the living. It wasn’t until the end of his masters that he found his calling and a way to turn a love of music into a study of culture.

Teaching and filmmaking drive Sheila Schroeder. One is not more important than the other; for Sheila it is an almost symbiotic relationship. Her passion for filmmaking was fortified in graduate school where she she thought she was just going to be a teacher. Then she realized it would take a PhD to reach her final goal.

https://portfolio.du.edu/sschroed/page/75

Brian Zaharatos has is certainly a man of many interests. He has managed to take one of those to the finish line with a Doctorate in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. There is a second point of interest also compelling and keeps him thinking and more than likely he will someday, not to far away, have a second PhD. In  the meantime he’ll keep stuffing young minds with the wonders of applied math.

Here is a link to Brian's Blog  https://bzaharatos.wordpress.com

Today’s journey begins with a father who is a HS biology teacher sharing his love of the natural world with his children. Throw in some art, an adventure with the Peace Corp in Central America and you end in a museum.  Sounds a little like Indiana Jones.

Here’s the link to the lab website  http://spot.colorado.edu/~mccainc/index.htm

Never discount the power of a grandmother and her ability to instill a love of literature into a young boy. That's just one of many themes in the journey of Adam Bradley. Other themes include strong mentors, a love of Rap and Hip-Hop music and finding a way to combine all of this into a wonderful stew that is working to further the discussion of race and inequality in America.

Link to Adam Bradley's website : http://www.adamfbradley.com

There can’t be many PhD journeys that last 35 years from day one of college to final ceremony, but for Joe Loughry it just made sense. He  knew from an early age he wanted to get his PhD, but to get there he needed to put in some time in the real world of computer programming and cyber security.

What do fruit flies and the video game Mass Effect have in common? you might not think very much, but today on the podcast those are major themes. You see fruit flies have been the focus of study for Eric Spana, PhD, in between games of Mass Effect and any number of other video games he loves to play. Then he decided to mash up his love of science and video games and talks about at science fiction conventions. Its a great gig. Academic by day, video game junkie at  night.

There’s nothing quite like a shiny new PhD. The burdens of the academic journey have slid off the shoulders of Chris Haynes, and now he needs to figure out what comes next. The journey was anything but a straight line. He grew up in a family of academics, so it is in his genes. His academic focus started with music, then it was onto medieval literature, and ended with comic books. Not exactly a traditional English Lit kinda guy and its probably not your traditional dissertation. But for Chris, the end of the this journey is just the beginning of another journey allowing him to engage in old conversations, while being the creator of brand new ones.

Dr. Shawn Sapp is the lead scientist in a forensic engineering firm, that means he investigates the causes and origins of accidents. But it’s not really where he expected to end up after finishing his doctorate. To be honest, given his experiences during his PhD it makes sense he would end up here, because his journey can be perhaps be defined with one word; change.

Dr Erin Macdonald’s love of science came from watching Star Trek, specifically Captain Kathryn Janeway. She went to Scotland for her PhD where she put together the building blocks investigators would later use to identify gravitational waves. But you know dreams change. She been working in the aerospace industry of late, but now she wants to spread the word about science and one of the places she does that is comic book and science fiction conventions.

Here’s the link to Erin’s website http://www.erinpmacdonald.com follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/drerinmac