In this very special episode of the Curiosity Habit, the interviewer becomes the interviewee! Join Kevin Eva as he fulfills of the request made of many Curiosity Habit guests - interviewing Sayra herself. Sayra’s story is both fascinating and highly connected to her research; it describes how her childhood and teenage years in Colombia (and the social and political contexts at that time) brought her closer to her family and influenced her understanding of group connectedness. To get there, Sayra’s journey included going into engineering instead of medicine, coming to Canada for her PhD, learning two new languages (English and qualitative research), and so much more.

If Meredith Young were to describe her program of research to you, she would never distill it down to one keyword - and she wouldn’t do that in talking about her childhood, path to research, or curiosities, either. In this episode, Sayra and Meredith talk about how Meredith’s upbringing and travels highlight why home is not necessarily a geographical location, how curious questions make for great conversations and connections, and how adventuring makes for activating your creative brain, great experiences and memories.

Have you ever seen Derry Girls? If yes, that will give you an idea of what Jenny Johnston’s childhood and teen years were like. In this episode, Sayra and Jenny’s experiences of educating and being educated, what closeness to the earth means to her, and the small advantages of living on a tiny island.

In our newest episode of the Curiosity Habit, Sayra chats with Will Bynum, whose story weaves through his medical schooling to his military service, and how both of these experiences led him to study shame, guilt, and other emotions in medical education. His story is rooted by his role as an “enabler” - someone who acts in service of others to help execute missions. The mission? Addressing and forging solutions to injustice and inequity in primary care.

Coming from a big family (with 41 first cousins!) in rural Nova Scotia, Anna grew up feeling like she was a part of something important. After a big move to New Brunswick, and then on to study in Australia, Anna tells us about how her graduate education changed her perspective and interests, and how now she’s helping tell stories within medical education.

In our newest episode, Sayra sits down with Renee Stalmeijer, and her path (walking and academic!) to her current role as an assistant professor at Maastricht University. In their conversation Renee chats about her childhood full of music, her love of teaching, listening, and mentoring, and how the way we approach education should not be like an ‘animal school’.

Sharing a love of reading biographies of inspiring people, Sayra and Christina St-Onge spend our newest episode discussing how Christina’s childhood of reading these books led her to her career in medical education today. In fact, working in medical education was such a big decision for Christina, she remembers the exact moment she decided she would go into the field - and highlights it in our episode!

In this week’s episode, Sayra is joined by Kevin Eva, Senior Scientist at the Centre of Health Education Scholarship (CHES) and Editor in Chief of Medical Education. Starting from a young age, Kevin has never stuck to one particular interest, hobby, or curiosity. Listen in as he discusses his path into medical education research, and the many hobbies (including racquetball, running, and woodworking) that he’s acquired along the way.

In this episode, Sayra sits down with Jacqueline Torti (CERI’s newest Scientist!) to discuss her path from a small Ontario town interested in physical activity and education, to the big city of Edmonton interested in public health, back home to Ontario again to pursue a career in medical education, combining all of her research expertise and interests. Their conversation spans the different curiosities in Jacqueline’s life, including inspirations from her mother and family members, as well as the curiosities of her two newest family members - Grayson and Bo.

In this week’s episode, Sayra sits down with Maria Mylopoulos to discuss how her love of reading and goal to get her PhD at a young age became realized over time. Their conversation spans across different topics that include the difference between good rejections and bad rejections, scholarly debate with collaborators, and how your ideas can be good ideas that also fit in the world around you.