Bryan and Steve discuss the value of playfulness in academic discussions. They talk about the benefits they’ve observed in having playful conversations that are not aimed at specific objectives or outputs. They talk about how these discussions have led to rich collaborations despite the seemingly wasteful effort spent on discussing topics that are not immediately productive. Enjoy!

Professor Vineeth Dharmapalan (Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa) talks about his recent move from a mostly teaching-focused institution to one with more research focus. He also discusses some of the professional and personal reasons that guided his move, as well as some of the challenges experienced in the process. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in receiving and sending cold emails (emails to people you do not yet know). They discuss what works well and what strategies were not well received. Hopefully this helps you avoid some of the mistakes we've made. Enjoy!

Professor Kristen Parrish (Arizona State University) joins us to talk about challenges with writing letters for other individuals' promotion and tenure (P&T) cases. She talks about challenges not only with writing these letters, but also challenges in considering how they'll be received by a different university audience. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss challenges and lessons learned when wrapping up research projects. They discuss what is often involved at the end of projects, things to consider when closing out a project, and some strategies they've employed to finish projects on a high note. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss their plans for the upcoming summer and how their summer work experience differs from the rest of the academic year.

Bryan discusses his new position as a PhD Program Director and challenges and lessons learned in this administration role. Enjoy!

Bryan and Steve discuss how generative AI is impacting processes for generating and reviewing research manuscripts. They also offer some food for thought for what a future might look like where academics remain relevant in a world with AI. Enjoy!

In this episode, Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in teaching courses that are new to them. They talk about the moments that were especially challenging, the failures they experienced during the process, and a few lessons learned from surviving it. Enjoy!

Fred Sherratt joins us to discuss her experiences in struggling to get academic funding and surviving as a qualitative researchers in a quantitative world. Enjoy!