STEMdentity

If you are a (mostly) normal, functioning adult in a STEM career or school, you’ve probably experienced times like this: you are in a lecture or meeting or talk and you have a question. All of a sudden, you’re getting sweaty. Maybe shaky. You doubt your question. You consider whether you’ve forgotten how to speak words altogether. And the chance to ask your question passes, and you’re left feeling relieved that you didn’t have to speak up but disappointed that you didn’t get to satisfy your curiosity.

Getting nervous to ask questions is surprisingly universal. It might not be in every situation, but chances are, there is at least one situation where you get too nervous to ask your questions. (For me, it’s always those big conference rooms!) In this episode, let’s normalize this feeling and let’s start working through ways to get more comfortable about asking questions. If you’re wondering, chances are, someone else is wondering too. Questions are a wonderful way to engage with your community, so let’s get better at them!

Song of the week: You Are Not Alone by Mavis Staples

Podcast where I learned about this awesome song: Norah Jones is playing along with Mavis Staples

Asking questions is probably not the only place you’re getting hung up at work or school. STEM is a team sport, and your mental health and toolkit for dealing with all of STEM’s ups and downs is a team sport too. I would love to help you get to where you want to be. Schedule a free 30-minute call for us to discuss your top blockers at work and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

• Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
• Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
• Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!

Curiosity. It seems like a hallmark of being a STEM professional and yet it feels like more than ever, curiosity has to take the backburner to emails, meetings, AI summaries, deliverables, reports, due dates, and on and on… So I did it: I intentionally chose to be curious about whatever I wanted for 15 minutes a day for 30 minutes. How did it go? Would I recommend it to the scientists and engineers in my life? (Spoiler alert: I would!)

In fact, if anything, I feel like an even better scientist-engineer (scineer?). The challenge exercised many of the tool we use frequently in STEM in novel and fun ways, and if nothing else, I think I’m at least 30% less boring! So this episode is both a reflection on the challenge and my nudge to you to consider doing your very own curiosity challenge.

Song of the week: Wasted by Maggie Koerner

Re-sparking curiosity is just one way to re-spark your love of your career, and sometimes it takes a team to jump to the next level. I’ve gone through a massive amount of work and would love to help you get to where you want to do. Schedule a free 30-minute call for us to discuss your top blockers at work and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!

Welcome to STEMdentity Journal Club! Every month, I find an amazing peer-reviewed journal article and interview one of its lead authors. We talk about their paper, their work, and their STEM identities.

My guest today is Luca Hargitai, who is a PhD candidate at the University of Bath. We’re discussing her 2025 Psychological Medicine paper, “The role of psychological strengths in positive life outcomes in adults w/ ADHD”. We also talk about how she became interested in psychological research, the joys and importance of finding the right research group for you, and much more!

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

Song of the week: Bad got me good by Gin Wigmore

Want to work with me? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro Work Audit call with you to discuss your top blockers at work and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!

Emails. They probably had a brief moment in the sun as a useful communication tool before they exploded into endless-headed Hydras with no end in sight. Does it need to be this way? In this episode, we figure out your relationship with email and steps towards not letting your inbox run your days. How we spend our days is how we spend our lives, and I sure don’t want my life to be a reply-all email chain!

BTW - I talk about the nervous system briefly in this episode. To really get an awesome discussion of the nervous system from a professional, check out Episode 15 with Tami Schweber!

Emails still got you down? Do you have other work Achilles’ heels you are finally ready to conquer? Let’s talk and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity! Schedule by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

Song of the week: Always be my baby cover by Anderson East (orig: Mariah Carey) (if you’re on Spotify, he has a lovely version on his Spotify Singles album!)

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!

As scientists and engineers, we are trained to tune into our minds. Critical thought and mental output is often the quantities recognized and nurtured throughout our career. But our minds don’t exist in a vacuum: they exist as a part of our body system. This episode with Somatic Coach Tami Schweber is all about tuning back into our bodies and why that might help us in our STEM careers.

Check out Tami’s website: https://theknowingwell.ca/ and sign up for her monthly community sessions here.

Follow Tami on instagram for some daily zen!

Song of the week: Howl at the Moon by MarchFourth

Do you also reject the current STEM culture of overwork and undernourishment physically and mentally but not sure what to do next? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro call with you to talk about what you want your STEM experience to look like and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!

It’s easy to romanticize science as a series of lightning bolts: researchers have brilliant research questions and hypotheses suddenly come to them out of the blue! So if this doesn’t happen to you, you’re bad at research right? Right?

No! There are simple, easy to apply frameworks for every major part of the research process form coming up with research questions to writing up results. Today, let’s dig into how to come up with research questions. Developing research questions is not a mystery: it’s a process.

Grab your ORA template here!

Look up “4 levels of questioning” for more details here: I like the template from Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Song of the week: Now and Eternity by Scratch Massive, Daniel Agust, Maud Geffrey

Want to demystify your work processes?? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro Work Audit call with you to discuss your top blockers at work and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!

Welcome to STEMdentity Journal Club! Every month, I find an amazing peer-reviewed journal article and interview one of its lead authors. We talk about their paper, their work, and their STEM identities.

My guest today is Dr. Audrey Lin, who just wrapped up a postdoctoral researcher position at the American Museum of Natural History. We’re discussing her 2025 PNAS paper, “A legacy of genetic entanglement with wolves shapes modern dogs”. We also talk about her winding path from not being particularly into school at all to getting a Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford and working at the Smithsonian and American Museum of Natural History (what!!).

Check out Dr. Lin’s linktr.ee - https://linktr.ee/undeaddandy!

Additionally, check out her Science article on Woolly dogs: “The history of Coast Salish “woolly dogs” revealed by ancient genomics and Indigenous Knowledge”, Lin et al., 2023.

Song of the week: Dogs Days Are Over by Florence + the Machine

Science isn’t done in a vacuum, and support doesn’t need to be a mystery. I’d love to be a part of your team that helps you bring all of you to the table at work and in life. Let’s chat: Schedule a 30-minute (free!) chat with me by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @ STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @ ExcessSass - I’d love a follow!

Having fun in your STEM job is something that probably seems like a good idea but can get completely lost in the rush of the day-to-day. Even more subversive, much of our time might be spent thinking about when we will be happy: We’ll be happy when we get the job, graduate with the degree, go on the vacation, get the paper published, get the successful experimental result…

Instead of “I’ll be happy when”ing ourselves, can we shift towards “I am happy now” throughout our days? Take a listen!

Song of the week: Good Times Roll by Griz and Big Gigantic

Looking to expand your definition of fun to find your most STEMtastic STEmdentity? I’d love to be a part of your team that helps you bring all of you to the table at work and in life. Let’s chat: Schedule a 30-minute (free!) chat with me by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get science hits and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - it might be a hard name to say three times fast but I’d love a follow!

I’m dropping this quick minisode to invite us all to jump joy first into a creativity challenge: 15 minutes a day. 30 days. Just…explore the thing you’re curious about. Maybe you take an intentional break at work. Maybe you write the things that pop into mind on a sticky note and you do a deep dive at the end of your day. Curiosity and creativity are STEM super powers for us scientists and engineers, but the busyness of our days can stifle those sparks. It doesn’t matter when you find this episode: today is always a good day to start nurturing your curiosity again.

Song of the week: Bishtar Behand by Liraz

Feeling curious about the fact that school taught you almost everything except how to be full of curiosity? I’d love to be a part of your team that helps you bring all of you to the table at work and in life. Let’s chat: Schedule a 30-minute (free!) chat with me by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get pod recaps and some awesome science and engineering updates in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!

Dr. Zitely Tzompa Sosa is the bright light we need in science policy. Trained as an atmospheric chemist, Zitely has navigated several international moves for school and work. Along the way, she found that working in policy is her guiding light for showing up to work as her most authentic self.

Song of the week: The Wild Rover by Lankum

More about Ravi, a true hero of atmospheric chemistry!

Navigating finding yourself in your career doesn’t have to be a solo sport. Would you like to have me in your corner? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro Work Audit call with you to discuss your top blockers at work and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity!

Loving this but listening while on your dog walk/commute/cleaning/etc? Want to have key notes for each episode? Grab them for free here!! Want to get a quick roundup of inspiring science and pod recaps in your inbox every few weeks? Sign up here for our newsletter, Science Hits and Podcast Blips! I promise to keep these short and fun!

If you loved this episode:

1. Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros!
2. Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes!
3. Music by @excess_sass - I’d love a follow!