Professerror

Steven K. Ayer and Bryan Franz
  • 5.0 (10)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED BIMONTHLY

This podcast is aimed at providing honest experiences about challenges, failures, and possibly a few success stories related to life in academia.

  1. 11/21/2025

    Life After Tenure: What do we do after the game of tenure is over?

    Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in finding professional purpose after tenure. The post-tenure life undoubtedly comes with high levels of freedom, but also lacks direction, which can have unexpected challenges for finding motivation and purpose in the profession.

    1h 3m

  2. 10/24/2025

    a policy? The Policy? Any policy?

    Bryan and Steve discuss challenges with following unclear, conflicting, or unchecked policies in academic environments. They discuss difficulties with understanding these and also discuss strategies they’ve employed to handle these challenging situations in academia.

    57 min

  3. 09/05/2025

    Advisors and Advisees: Setting Expectations

    Bryan and Steve discuss challenges and ramifications of instances of poorly set expectations between graduate students (i.e., advisees) and faculty (i.e., advisors). Hopefully the stories resonate and possibly even give some tips for how to handle these if they relate to your academic situation. Enjoy!

    1h 5m

  4. 07/18/2025

    What if federally-funded research ended?

    Bryan and Steve discuss the hypothetical scenario of federal funding for research suddenly drying up. What might happen at universities? How would faculty react? Who knows if we're right or not, but hopefully it offers food for thought. Enjoy!

    1h 4m

  5. 06/06/2025

    Decoding Faculty Excuses

    Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in receiving (and sometimes making) excuses related to working with others. When is a "yes" a "yes"? When is it really a "no"?

    58 min

  6. 05/02/2025

    Peer Review Problems

    Bryan and Steve discuss their concerns with the peer review process that research papers currently follow and offer some food-for-thought suggestions for changing the process (none of which are likely to actually happen). Despite their grouchy tone, they recognize the value that this process provides for research, so take their thoughts with a grain of salt. Hope you enjoy!

    1h 12m

  7. 04/18/2025

    Sharing Ideas: ♫You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em; know when to disclose ‘em♫

    Bryan and Steve discuss their thoughts on sharing research ideas or not. They talk about risks associated with both sharing and withholding ideas. Enjoy!

    1h 12m

  8. 03/21/2025

    "FOIA'd" with Denise Simmons

    Professor and Associate Dean Denise Simmons of the University of Florida joins us to discuss her experiences with being “FOIA’d” (Freedom of Information Act). This conversation is really eye opening about the processes and emotions that may follow a FOIA request related to a given study. Enjoy!

    1h 9m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

This podcast is aimed at providing honest experiences about challenges, failures, and possibly a few success stories related to life in academia.

Information

  • Creator
    Steven K. Ayer and Bryan Franz
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Steven K. Ayer and Bryan Franz
  • Show Website
    Professerror