Working Scientist

Nature Careers
  • 3.3 (22)
  • CAREERS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
Working Scientist

Working Scientist is the Nature Careers podcast. It is produced by Nature Portfolio, publishers of the international science journal Nature. Working Scientist is a regular free audio show featuring advice and information from global industry experts with a strong focus on supporting early career researchers working in academia and other sectors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    ‘There is life after burnout in academia’

    Kelly Korreck tells Adam Levy how a once-loved career in science gradually left her feeling exhausted, upset, and chronically stressed, with accompanying feelings of imposter syndrome. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic deprived Korreck, an astrophysicist then working on NASA's Parker Solar Probe, of the favourite parts of her job. These included face-to-face mentoring, public engagement and conference travel. ”It really took a toll,” she says. ”There was none of the joy that I experienced previously. I thought it was my fault, that I was an imposter. I had gotten to this level, and I just wasn't good enough.” Desiree Dickerson, a clinical psychologist based in Valencia, Spain, outlines the different stages of burnout, and how the academic culture often encourages researchers to present a ”shiny façade” to the world. Dickerson, who works with academic institutions to develop healthier and more sustainable approaches to research, outlines three different stages of burnout, and how and when to seek help. This episode is the fourth in Mind Matters, an eight-part series on mental health and wellbeing in academia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    27 min

  2. JAN 24

    ‘Do I need to lead this lifestyle to succeed?’ The mental health crises that forced faculty members to change tack

    Hilal Lashuel and Dave Reay join Michelle Kimple to talk about faculty mental health and why it is often overlooked. A heart attack in 2016 forced Lashuel, a neurogenerative diseases researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, to question success in science and how it is defined. The pressure to be an excellent researcher, manager, accountant and mentor can exact a heavy mental toll, he says. Since his heart attack Lashuel has taken steps to reduce his workload and spend more time with his family, but also to lobby for systemic change in academia to better support faculty colleagues who are struggling. Climate scientist Dave Reay describes the mental health problems he experienced as a PhD student and the suicidal thoughts it triggered. Now, as a faculty member at the University of Edinburgh, UK, he is protective of family time, talks openly about the struggles he faced, and champions kindness at work and in his pastoral role as a supervisor. Finally, Michelle Kimple, an endocrinology researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison, describes how junior colleagues react to her openness about her bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This episode is the third in an eight-part series about mental health and wellbeing in academia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    37 min

  3. JAN 17

    How to be a brilliant ally to your neurodivergent lab mate

    Charlotte Roughton says she developed a deep-rooted shame and resentment towards her autism diagnosis, causing her to mask the condition during her biosciences degree at the University of Durham, UK. But socially camouflaging and striving to appear as neurotypical to others led to burnout and poor mental health, she tells Adam Levy. The COVID-19 pandemic, which straddled her Masters and PhD programmes, was a turning point. She cultivated a community via social media, becoming an advocate for neurodiversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Being neurodivergent brings benefits to her role as a biological teaching technician at the University of Newcastle, UK, she says. She offers advice and how and when to disclose an autism diagnosis at work, based on her own experience, and how institutions and lab mates can support neurodivergent colleagues. Endocrinology researcher Michelle Kimple tells a similar story, recounting the relief she felt on receiving a bipolar and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis. She describes how this impacts her role as a faculty member in the department of medicine at the University of Wisconsin Madison. In 2024 Kimple wrote about her experiences in Nature, prompting other neurodiverse scientists to get in touch, and enabling her to mentor and support others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    29 min

  4. JAN 10

    Mind matters: investigating academia’s ‘mental health crisis’

    Why do so many academics struggle to ‘power down’ at the end of a long working day, and what are the longer-term health effects of failing to switch off at evenings and weekends? Desiree Dickerson is a clinical psychologist based in Valencia, Spain, who works with academic institutions to develop healthier and more sustainable approaches to research. She joins Simone Lackner to discuss why poor mental health is often so prevalent in academia, and often described as reaching crisis proportions. Lackner is a multidisciplinary researcher and ambassador for the Researcher Mental Health Observatory (REmO), an international network focussed on wellbeing and mental health within academia. In 2022 she founded The Empathic Scientist, a consultancy which focuses on wellbeing and inclusion in academia. This episode is the first of an eight-part series on mental health and wellbeing in academia. Over the next few weeks Adam Levy will be speaking with a wide range of people who share their own experiences and expertise, including potential solutions to a longstanding problem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    20 min

  5. 10/17/2024

    Four weddings, a funeral, and the Sustainable Development Goal logos

    Graphic designer Jakob Trollbäck remembers a 2014 meeting with film director Richard Curtis and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, then very much a work in progress, coming up in conversation. Curtis, whose movies include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually and the Bridget Jones series, is also a UN Advocate for the SDGs. The meeting in Trollbäck’s New York studio suddenly turned to the 17 goals, with Curtis telling him: “I think this may be our last shot of fixing a lot of the things that’s wrong with the planet. And I also think that these goals are going to fail if we can't make them popular. Do you want to help me?” Trollbäck, founder of The New Division agency, rose to the challenge. Over the course of a year, alongside designer colleague Christina Rüegg-Grässli, he designed the now famous multi-colour palette, individual icons and logo of the SDGs. Their design had to tick three boxes: be accessible, universal and positive. The interconnectedness of the goals leant itself to the overall circular logo type, and the bright colours were key to making the framework interesting and likeable. Some icons were almost instantaneous in their creation — such as the fish that represents SDG 14: Life Below Water — while others needed collaboration with the UN communications team colleagues to get right. For example, Trollbäck remembers SDG 2: Zero Hunger; the initial design had a fork in it, until someone pointed out that two thirds of the of the world’s population don't use forks. The World Economic Forum say 74% of the adults globally are aware of the SDGs. This is the final episode of How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals, a Working Scientist podcast series that profiles scientists whose work addresses one or more of the SDGs. Episodes 13–18 are produced in partnership with Nature Sustainability, and introduced by Monica Contestabile, its chief editor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    39 min

  6. 10/10/2024

    A checklist for delivering the Sustainable Development Goals

    When Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency, sought to change the country’s food systems in 2020, it started by looking at school meals and funding several projects around menus, procurement, and how cafeterias were organised. Breaking down a big goal into smaller component parts and bringing together different interested parties, as Vinnova did, is key to delivering the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says Kate Roll, a political scientist based at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College, London. Roll’s particular focus is the last of the 17 SDGs with its focus on strengthening the means of implementation. Roll calls it an “enabling SDG,” its success ultimately measured when the other 16 “big, wooly, hairy SDG goals,” as she terms them, are achieved. These straddle poverty, hunger, education, gender equity, clean water and energy, among others. Roll explains that one approach to tackling SDG 13’s climate change targets, for example, might be to aim for 100 carbon-neutral cities in Europe by 2030, approaching it from both a transport and energy perspective, but also the built environment, real estate, and people’s behaviour, and bringing together relevant stakeholders, as Vinnova did for its food systems goal. This is the penultimate episode of How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals, a Working Scientist podcast series that profiles scientists whose work addresses one or more of the SDGs. Episodes 13–18 are produced in partnership with Nature Sustainability, and introduced by Monica Contestabile, its chief editor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    36 min

  7. 10/03/2024

    How artificial intelligence can help to keep us safe

    Growing up in the last years of the Cold War motivated Gabriele Jacobs to enter academia and play her part in building peaceful societies.  Jacobs works at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where she researches the role artificial intelligence (AI) can play in public safety and the ethical debate surrounding this. She describes how experiments are being conducted on beaches in the Netherlands to see if AI can be used to predict human behaviour. These experiments also test the ethical, legal and social implications of this use of AI, and question who has the power to choose the definitions used in the algorithms.   Jacobs’ work addresses Sustainable Development Goal Number 16: to promote peaceful and inclusive societies and justice for all.  This is episode 16 of How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals, a Working Scientist series podcast that profiles scientists whose work addresses one or more of the SDGs.   Episodes 13–18 are produced in partnership with Nature Sustainability, and introduced by Monica Contestabile, its chief editor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    31 min

  8. 09/26/2024

    My mission to protect threatened mangroves

    Sigit Sasmito describes how his research at James Cook University in Brisbane, Australia, is helping to protect both peatlands and mangroves across southeast Asia, as part of a drive to meet Sustainable Development Goal 15. The goal, one of 17 agreed by the United Nations in 2015. aims to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. This includes sustainable forest management, combating desertification, and halting biodiversity loss. Indonesia, where Samito grew up, aims to restore 1.2 million hectare of peatlands and 600,000 hectares of mangroves, he tells How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals podcast series. Ultimately these efforts must involve local communities and needs to deliver benefits for them, he says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    25 min
See All (184)

3.3
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

Working Scientist is the Nature Careers podcast. It is produced by Nature Portfolio, publishers of the international science journal Nature. Working Scientist is a regular free audio show featuring advice and information from global industry experts with a strong focus on supporting early career researchers working in academia and other sectors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Nature Careers
  • Years Active
    2007 - 2025
  • Episodes
    184
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Working Scientist

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada