Dr. Barbara Carrapa talks about growing up in Italy, being educated in Europe, and her life-long love of mountains. She is a geologist and the department chair at the University of Arizona in the department of geosciences.

Dr. Jamie Edgin is an associate professor studying cognition and neural systems in the department of psychology at the University of Arizona. Her research includes studying how sleep influences memory and learning in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as down syndrome and autism. In this episode, we talk about how she went from aspiring musician to woman scientist, and why sleep is such an important part of human cognitive health.

Renee Angle is a writer/poet whose work is thought provoking, lyrical, and edgy. We met when we were both teaching at the same charter school - her, English Language Arts, me, Math and Science. Our paths crossed again at U of A, and I am so thrilled to have had this chance to catch up. Her book, WoO - her creative translation of the first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon - is available on Amazon.

Dr. Tammi Walker is a former lawyer who left her D.C. job to get a PhD in psychology. She is a professor in both the law and psychology departments at the University of Arizona, where she studies how universities and colleges handle sexual assault accusations.

Nikolas Glazier Hodge is the director of the Transfer Student Center at the University of Arizona, and is dedicated to fostering healthy and productive transitions for transfer students. She is a self-made techie, applying her skills of organization and management in unique ways throughout her career. She is also involved in several groups who advocate for women, both on campus and in the Tucson community.

I chat with Molly McCloy, a writer and performer who holds an MFA in nonfiction from the New School. Molly is a four-time Moth StorySlam winner, creator/performer of a one woman show, and a frequent storyteller at FST (Female Storytellers) and Odyssey in Tucson, AZ.

Dr. Diane Thompson is a marine geoscientist who uses coral reefs to study climate change and the affects of global warming on ocean ecosystems. We talk about how she fell in love with coral reefs, how corals reproduce, her reef restoration experiments at Biosphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona, and being married to a fellow scientist!

Wendy Moore is an entomologist who studies beetles, in particular, beetles that shoot super-heated chemicals out of their butts! She is an associate professor of entomology at the University of Arizona, and insect systematics curator of the Arizona Insect Collection. Learn more at https://cals.arizona.edu/ento/content/wendy-moore

In this episode, I sit down with Melo Dominguez, a Tucson artist who was inspired by graffiti art and cartoons as a child growing up in a rough neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Mel's difficult childhood didn't stop them from pursuing their dream of being an artist. We talk about their struggles, successes, their connection to their community, and how they bring joy to everything they do. Check out their work and learn about their gallery, Galeria Mitotera, at melodominguez.com.