Socializing with Scientists
Socializing with Scientists presents the untold stories of immunologists, neuroscientists, environmental chemists, and more, recounting how their early life built their current life, and sharing what they do now to make the world a better place. And how do they define success, anyway? Listen to find out the surprising secrets of curious people.
https://socializingwithscientists.com/
Our music is called "Discussion," and was composed by Folk Acoustic.
Episodes
13 episodes
Jenna Alley finds the good in parents (she’s a developmental health psychologist)
Jenna was never really interested in school. She loved theater and the arts, but academically, she struggled. She had dyslexia, and "always felt like I was failing...never thought I was very smart," she said.It wasn't until her sop...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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55:50
Shannon Curry is in charge of a spacecraft orbiting Mars (she’s a planetary scientist)
The first time she looked through a telescope, Shannon lost her breath. A self-proclaimed "science camp kid," she learned early that she wanted to do research, and that space would be her subject.
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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36:58
Scott MacIvor wants people to enjoy green spaces in cities (he's an urban ecologist)
When he was a child in Kitchener, Ontario, Scott MacIvor would go on urban walks with his mom. He had a bucket, and was allowed to bring home one piece of nature each day: a snake, or a bumblebee, a caterpillar. He loved examining them all....
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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1:05:37
Heather Mefford hunts down unruly genes (she’s a human geneticist)
When she was a kid in Iowa, Heather didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up. She loved solving problems and adored science and math, and when she went to college, she majored in chemical engineering. Then she had an internship: it so...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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55:34
SUMMER 2025 UPDATE!
The first eight episodes of Socializing with Scientists Season 1 have been a blast! Next Wednesday we'll publish another interview, but this week we're taking a little breather. I wanted to talk about what's coming up, to say thank you to the s...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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6:57
Scott Krayenhoff helps hot cities cool off (he's an urban climatologist)
Scott has always been a deep thinker. Dinner table conversations on his family's homestead on Vancouver Island instilled in him a strong environmental ethic, and a love for math and science pushed him to excel in college.But when a profe...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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1:01:52
Jan Gogarten is searching for the next deadly germ (he’s a wildlife disease ecologist)
Jan was born in Germany, but he grew up in the US: his parents moved after Chernobyl, because their lab Geiger counter showed high radiation levels despite being hundreds of miles from the reactor. His parents were scientists, but a...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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48:05
Cédric Girard-Buttoz learns the language of chimps (he's an evolutionary biologist)
When he was six years old, Cédric wanted to be Tarzan, following monkeys around the forest and studying their behavior.He has pretty much made his dream come true. Cédric Girard-Buttoz has researched lemurs in Madagascar, macaques in Ind...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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1:08:40
Soumya Acharya conjures up clever new medical gadgets (he's a biomedical engineer)
Soumya has always been a tinkerer and inventor. He cobbled together a homemade radio as a 5th grader in northern India, and soon after that he started an electronics club...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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46:47
Desirée Plata wants to keep bad chemicals out of your water (she's an environmental chemist)
When Desirée was little, she'd roam around her grandmother's neighborhood in Maine, "kind of eavesdropping on people," she said. She began to notice a troubling pattern: many of the neighbors, and some of her family members, were suffering from...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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50:15
Lauren Osborne labors to soothe mothers' brains (she's a reproductive psychiatrist)
Lauren Osborne grew up in New York City and rural Vermont; she was born into a family of actors and artists. After college, she worked in book publishing.But once ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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49:42
Louis Bont is trying to save ALL the children (he's a pediatrician)
Louis had an uneventful childhood: Born and raised in Amsterdam, he was a normal kid who liked playing with friends and reading books. But his mother had a strong social justice bent, and she inspired Louis to live a life dedicated to helping o...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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46:34
Michela Mariani digs ancient wildfires (she's a paleoecologist)
As a child, Michela got lost in the mountains of Italy foraging for mushrooms. Adult Michela digs under deep Australian lakes searching for remnants of wildfire and ancient people, while raising her family in England. How does this feisty paleo...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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50:16