Today's storyteller is Louise Carroll! Louise is an operational meteorologist based in Australia and also a fellow member of the Homeward Bound program. I was really excited to meet Louise and hear about her work as meteorologist, and the far flung places where her work has taken her. She's worked in Antarctica multiple times, and on remote islands like Willis Island in the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. I had such fun talking to Louise so I hope you enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Louise Carroll on Instagram @lou_carroll01.
Episodes referenced in this episode: #40 Dave Nussbaum
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Book List: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Recorded on 7 May 2022.
Today's storyteller is Dr Courtney Robichaud! Courtney is a wetlands scientist who has primarily researched Phragmites australis - which is a super tall colony forming invasive freshwater plant species. And when I say tall, it's regularly 10-15 feet tall. And Phragmites (aka phrag or roseau) is very good at invading locations and outcompeting native species. It forms these dense colonies which also doesn't really allow for a diverse suite of species to grow in the same area. I was so excited to talk to Courtney because I spend a solid portion of my wetlands scientist career working with phrag, and it was fun to nerd out about the fieldwork and logistics side of it to start. But the biggest thing I wanted to talk about is - what do we do when an invasive species such as phrag is taking over, but also simultaneously holding the wetland together? What do you do? How do you manage that scenario, or do you even manage it at all? It's partially a philosophical question and partly a feasibility question. So we discuss that in length as well, comparing Ontario (Courtney's area) vs the Mississippi River Delta (my area). This was a great conversation and I'm so excited about a wetlands episode. Enjoy!!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Courtney Robichaud on Twitter @cdrobich and her website https://crobichaud.weebly.com/.
Rachel works on the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) in Louisiana: https://www.lacoast.gov/crms/Home.aspx
Book List: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel, Fire Fall by Bethany Frenette
Recorded on 21 November 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Jonathon Valente! Jonathon is a longtime dear friend of mine who does all kinds of interesting bird and wildlife research and so I'm excited to share this conversation with you! We first met at Louisiana State University (LSU) back in I think like 2007, when I was finishing up my bachelor's degree and he was starting his master's degree. I then joined the same research lab to begin my master's degree right after my undergrad graduation, so we were lab mates for a few years as well. This conversation consists mainly of the questions I've always wanted to ask him and never really had the excuse to, like how did you end up in the wildlife field, how did you end up at LSU, what happened next, interspersed with conversations about wildlife, birds, research, etc. Also, there's a brief and hilarious bird interlude around 20 minutes in because what else could you possibly expect when 2 bird people chat on Zoom?!? I hope you enjoy this conversation!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Jonathon Valente on Twitter @jonathonvalente and his website https://www.jonathonvalente.com/.
Article about the 17 year cicada cycle: Brood X Cicadas are Emerging at Last
MAPS Bird Banding Project: https://www.birdpop.org/pages/maps.php
Texas A&M Wildlife Job Board: https://wfscjobs.tamu.edu/job-board/
Book List: The Overstory by Richard Powers, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
Recorded on 11 September 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Clay Tucker! Clay is a tree ring scientist, also known as a dendrochronologist, and his specialty is related to hurricanes and climate change. I could have called this episode "Dendrochronology" but probably most people have no idea what that would mean and I didn't want to detract from this fabulous episode!! So trees grow and add rings every year, so by taking a small core of the tree you get a visual representation of that tree's life, essentially. And you can see the impact of droughts, hurricanes, and disease on the growth of that tree over time. In Clay's research, he's used tree rings from pine trees across the southeastern US to understand the impacts of hurricanes. It's fascinating research and why I asked Clay to be on the podcast! Clay and I are both in Baton Rouge, and know a lot of the same people, and so we talk about that and relationships within science, about how technology in this era allows for collaboration across continents and time zones, about what I call the "Louisiana Quicksand Conundrum", about learning to read the landscape, and of course about trees and wetlands and research. This is such a fun conversation and Clay is great and I hope everyone enjoys it!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Clay Tucker on Twitter @climateclay and his website https://coastalab.wixsite.com/claytucker.
LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources: https://www.lsu.edu/rnr/
LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology: https://lsu.edu/ga/index.php
The documentary about Richard Proenneke that Clay describes as his favorite documentary ever is called "Alone in the Wilderness".
Episodes referenced in this episode: #61 - Ashley Booth
Book List: Rising by Elizabeth Rush, One Man's Wilderness by Sam Keith & Richard Proenneke, Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina
Recorded on 20 September 2021.
Today's storyteller is Jhénelle Williams! Jhénelle is an ocean engineer from Jamaica using nuclear technology to do ocean and environmental science research. If you're wondering how that works and what that even means, don't worry that's the very first thing we talk about! We talk about the types of research they do, how they use nuclear techniques to further their knowledge. They use this technology to research mangroves, sediment, microplastics, sargassum, and air quality research. I found this to be really cool and we've had a lot of people on to talk about stable isotopes but we never talk about HOW the stable isotopes are processed, and this is one of the ways. So that really clicked for me and felt like a missing knowledge link! Jhénelle is awesome, this was a great conversation, and y'all enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Jhénelle on Twitter @IslandGirlFHW.
National Geographic Explorer Program: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/society/our-explorers/?nav_click
Rachel works on the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) in Louisiana: https://www.lacoast.gov/crms/Home.aspx
Rachel's Outdoor Conservation Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/741391-outdoor-conservation-book-club
Book List: Instinct by by TD Jakes, The Dune Series by Frank Herbert, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and others
Recorded on 12 September 2021.
Today's storyteller is Brittaney Spruill! Britt is friend and neighbor and architect and today we talk about pretty much everything! ALSO, surprise because Cedric Johnson is back to guest host this time! If you missed Cedric's episode, it's #128. So listen to that one too if you missed it. Anyway back to this episode! Britt is here today to talk about why she chose architecture (or did it choose her?), what she likes about it, about the types of projects she's worked on, what she'd be doing if not architecture, favorite albums, history and people, and a lot of in between. This episode is long because Cedric, Britt, and I have been good friends for a long time so we just had a lot of fun chatting and talking work and buildings and people and history and music. I hope you enjoy!!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Britt on Twitter @ishapespace.
The student exchange program we talk about is the Southern Regional Education Board's program called the Academic Common Market Program: https://www.sreb.org/academic-common-market
LaHouse: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/family_home/home/lahouse
Habitat for Humanity: https://www.habitat.org/
Book List: The Story of Britain by Roy Strong, The Lost Family by Libby Copeland, Woolly by Ben Mezrich, A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz, 1619 by James Horn, American Nations by Colin Woodard
Episodes referenced in this episode: #128 - Cedric Johnson
Recorded on 19 September 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Jarrod McKenna! Jarrod is a reproductive biologist at Monash University in Australia and today we talk about the Egyptian spiny mouse and studying reproductive biology. The Egyptian spiny mouse is a rare example of menstruation in mammals, especially a small prey sized mammal, as opposed to large mammals with few to no actual predators (such humans and primates). In the lab they can use this mouse as a test subject of sorts or a surrogate for studying human reproductive health, which is part of what Jarrod's research is focused on. So today to sum it up, we talk about the Egyptian spiny mouse, mammal reproductive biology, about conservation and the ethics of whether we SHOULD do certain things; how captive spiny mice populations might be different after 20-40 years in captivity and how that differs from wild populations potentially. It was a very fascinating conversation and I hope you enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Jarrod on Twitter @jarrod_mckenna.
Recorded on 15 August 2021.
Today's storyteller is Lisa Caprelli! She is a children's book author and the creator of the Unicorn Jazz book series, which also launched an Amazon show called The Thing I Do. Today Lisa and I talk about the things that people do, social and emotional intelligence, the importance of people sharing what they do to a young audience, and how her psychology background helps her be a writer and leader. This isn't really a typical STEMM episode BUT I always have said I want to talk to anyone who has anything to share that's even remotely STEMM related, and also talking to Lisa was a lot of fun, so I hope you enjoy it!
Also, I want to give some context to this episode. We recorded this on 28 of August 2021, which was the day before Hurricane Ida made landfall at Grand Isle, LA as a Category 4 hurricane. It devastated southeastern coastal Louisiana. Communities have been damaged, wetlands destroyed (as far as we can tell so far, but it's still early days), houses and businesses wiped out. The list goes on. If you want to help, please check out these local organizations on the ground in the bayou and river parishes regions: www.bayoufund.org, Photographs for Louisiana, and Feed The Second Line.
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Lisa on Twitter @LisaCaprelli and her website https://lisacaprelli.com/.
You can find Unicorn Jazz Presents The Thing I Do streaming on Amazon, the books wherever you buy books, and at their website https://unicornjazz.com/.
Episodes referenced in this episode: The episode where I tell my "How I Became a Field Biologist" story is remixed and expanded in Episode #100 (or in Episode 1, but the remix is better!).
Book List: Good to Great by Jim Collins, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Recorded on 28 August 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Cynthia Awruch! Cynthia is a marine biologist studying sharks of Argentina and Tasmania. She's researching shark physiology and reproduction, how physiology helps conservation, and how marine contaminants negatively impact shark reproduction. Today we talk all about her research, and dive into how physiology does impact shark conservation, which I found very interesting. They figured out a way to use hormones (via blood samples) to understand reproduction and stress, which is great because it's nonlethal and doesn't remove individuals from an already struggling population! We also have a really good conversation about communication and the importance of social sciences in the physical sciences, and about balancing work, research, school, and life. Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Cynthia Awruch on Twitter @ca_awruch and her University of Tasmania website.
Book List: The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, The Ratline by Philippe Sands, East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" by Philippe Sands, The Overstory by Richard Powers
Recorded on 14 August 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Bharathi Boppana! Bharathi is a Research Scientist at the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore. Today we talk about her work there using computational simulations to model wind and pollution in urban areas. Bharathi's journey is so interesting - her background is in engineering, and her PhD is in applied mathematics - and her journey takes her to Singapore where she is now. We talk fluid dynamics, what modeling is, how modeling works, computer programs, her journey in her career, and the type of work she does now. Also, Bharathi and I are both members of Homeward Bound's 5th cohort (known as HB5), which is how I have gotten to know her. And in a fun twist, Bharathi asks me questions about my work and it was rather fun being on the other end of the microphone! Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
Book List: Tapestries of Life by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Becoming by Michelle Obama, The One Device by Brian Merchant, The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates, Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile, My Penguin Year by LIndsay McCrae
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Rachel works on the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) in Louisiana: https://www.lacoast.gov/crms/Home.aspx
Recorded on 3 July 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Karen Joyce! Karen is a geospatial scientist, and today we talk all about drones, remote sensing, geography, and everything in between! Karen wears a lot of hats - she's a lecturer at James Cook University in Australia, she's the cofounder and education director of She Maps (which we'll talk about), and she also runs the drone data repository GeoNadir (which we didn't even get to in this conversation!). She Maps is really brilliant and aiming at diversifying STEM using drones and geospatial tools through programs in schools. Karen tells the story of how it came to be in this episode so I won't give it away but it's such a cool program. Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.
You can find Karen on Twitter @KEJoyce2 and her website https://www.kejoyce.com/.
You can find She Maps on Twitter @shemapsau, their website https://shemaps.com/, and on Facebook.
GeoNadir: https://www.geonadir.com/
Book List: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Episodes referenced in this episode: My friend Tim with the drone is Tim Spruill (Episode 8).
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Recorded on 19 June 2021.
Today's storyteller is Paula Silva! Paula is a water resources engineer at a large international consulting firm. If you're like me, when you think water management, you either think of something like in urban areas (for me, that would be the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board, in particular), or in more natural environments (for me, Mississippi River flows). Water is vital to a lot of things and so I'm excited to share this conversation with y'all. So Paula is here today to talk about what a water resources engineer does, what her job looks like day to day, the kinds of projects she works on, and the favorite parts of her job. We also dive into what drew her to engineering, what it's like working in this field. And towards the end, since I know Paula through Homeward Bound (we're both #TeamHB5), we chat a little about our experiences and favorite parts of the Homeward Bound program. Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.
You can find Paula on Twitter @PaulaSilvaOchoa.
Book List: The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Recorded on 19 June 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Claire Cannon! Claire is a veterinary oncologist based in Melbourne Australia. Today we talk all about cancer in pets, particularly dogs and cats, and I learned so much about the field, research, and types of cancers that impact our pets. Also, did you know that elephants don't get cancer!? Which is awesome and mind boggling, the world is so cool. Okay so we talk about the balance of clinical visits and teaching, about mental health in the veterinary world, about science communication, and about what her day to day job looks like. It's really such a fun conversation and I know I say this a lot but y'all the storytellers teach me so much every week!! Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.
You can find Claire on Twitter @claireymariec and her research is collated on ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0656-6916
Book List: The Yield by Tara June Winch
Recorded on 6 June 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Marga L Rivas! Marga is a marine ecologist based at the University of Almeria in Spain. She's done a lot of work with sea turtles, marine conservation, ocean plastics, remote sensing, and sometimes all these aspects combined. It's all really interesting work so check it out! Marga is also part of Homeward Bound 5 with me, and so it was nice to get to know her better on a one on one basis. So in addition to all the cool marine work we talk about we also talk about the HB experience so far, our favorite parts, and reflect on things we've learned so far. Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.
You can find Marga on Twitter @margaflor13.
Book List: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Episodes referenced in this episode: "my friend who works in Texas with microplastics" is Dr Jeremy Conkle (Episode 110).
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Recorded on 5 June 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Yona Nebel-Jacobsen! Yona is a geochemist based in Melbourne Australia, she works with isotopes, and she teaches me so much cool geology straight away. In this episode we talk about what a geochemist does, if it was the "geo" or the "chem" part that appealed to her, the nonlinear twisty path she took to her current position, and about all things in between. Yona is also part of Homeward Bound in the 4th cohort (I'm in the 5th) and so we talk a bit about our experiences in the HB program too. I love meeting fellow HBers and instant friends and so that's been a fun bonus of this whole podcast project. So it was doubly wonderful to meet Yona, hear her stories, and I hope y'all enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.
You can find Yona on Twitter @Isotope_Yona.
Book List: Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez, Troll Hunting by Ginger Gorman, Unterleuten by Juli Zeh
Episodes referenced in this episode: Isobel Romero-Shaw (Episode 122) who is Team HB6 and also at Monash University in Australia
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Recorded on 29 May 2021.
Today's storyteller is Georget Oraha! Georget is a graduate student at Cal State Fullerton, studying tidal influences on mussels in California. We start out talking about her research and how all that went, especially with how the pandemic has impacted her fieldwork and also her study areas. So we talk about all that, but we also have a really good conversation about finding community in a research lab/field team, which can be rare to find but is so amazing when it all clicks together. Georget is also interested in teaching, and has taught in some undergraduate courses and we talk about teaching, growth, philosophy about communication, and biology education. I know I say this a lot but I learned a lot from Georget and it was a lot of fun to record this so enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.
You can find Georget on Twitter @georgetoraha.
Rachel's Outdoor Conservation Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/741391-outdoor-conservation-book-club
Book List: A Short Guide To Writing About Biology by Jan A. Pechenik, Getting to the Heart of Science Communication by Faith Kearns, Mythos by Stephen Fry, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Recorded on 22 May 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Scott Davidson! Scott is a peat researcher and this podcast episode is all about peat! Peat is, very generally, partially decayed organic matter, and forms the base for ecosystems like peatlands, bogs, and more. Scott's work is focused on how disturbance and climate change will impact resilience of wetland systems, particularly peat lands! Peatlands are a type of wetland, and y'all know I love wetlands and so I had a lot of fun talking about all of this with Scott. We talk about why peatlands are important, how changes in peat can impact climate change (think massive greenhouse gas emissions), about his community science #PeatPicProject, and about the Peatlands ECR Action Team. Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.
You can find Scott on Twitter @ScootJD and his website: https://sjdavidsonecology.com/.
The Peat Pic Project can be found on Scott's website and using the hashtag #PeatPicProject.
PEAT is the Peatlands ECR (Early Career Researcher) Action Team - https://peatecr.com/
Book List: Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty, The Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell, The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin
Recorded on 22 May 2021.
Today's storyteller is Dr Anna Frebel! Anna is an astronomer and stellar archaeologist, working as a professor and researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her work focuses on finding the oldest stars in the universe, and y'all this is some really mind blowing work she's doing. In this episode we learn about metal poor stars, what that means, how one can (roughly) tell the age of a star, what kind of information we learn from old stars, how one navigates in outer space, and about her book "Searching for the Oldest Stars"! This is such a great conversation, Anna is brilliant, and I hope y'all enjoy this. And also, she's #TeamHB6 to my HB5 and we talk a bit about Homeward Bound at the end. Enjoy!
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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.
You can find Anna on Twitter @annafrebel and her MIT website: https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/anna-frebel/. Also you should definitely check out Anna's book "Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe"!
And I love it when women in STEMM have Wikipedia pages (which is why I mentioned it in the episode) SO check it out -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Frebel.
You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.
Recorded on 16 May 2021.