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It’s time to open the listener mailbag to answer your question about the human side of science, and life in the lab! This week: the importance of lunch, blending art with science, and the dream of a lab-based sitcom.
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We get asked all the time about strategies for more effective time management during graduate school. Not surprisingly, some of our most popular past episodes deal with time management. While we have covered a lot of ground over the years on this evergreen topic, there’s a new expert on the scene who seems to know a whole lot about… well, almost everything! Therefore, we welcome to the show the AI chatbot sensation, ChatGPT, to determine if there’s anything this new technology has up its sleeve (?) for helping us be more effective with our time.
Will ChatGPT replace us as podcast hosts moving forward, or does it instead provide word jumbles that sound nice but lack real substance. We put AI to the test for your benefit, this week on this show!
Check out some of our past (AI-free) episodes on time management tips and strategies:
175. Four Research Traps (And How to Avoid Them)
162. Get More Done with LabScrum w/ Dr. Lisa May
158. Five Strategies for Defeating Distractions
059. Simple Tricks for Time Management – The Focus Funnel
015. Simple Tricks for Time Management: The Pomodoro Technique
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Titles are a part of our identity. If you meet a school teacher, computer programmer, or rocket scientist, you will instantly form an impression of what kind of person they are without any additional information.
The bias we impose upon hearing a title can be good or bad, of course. But we all invariably take these mental shortcuts, and it influences how we treat the people we meet.
What’s interesting is that these titles reflect on us, as well. What I call myself impacts what I expect from my work, and how I expect others to treat me in my role.
This week on the show, we talk with a PhD who helps current graduate students as they explore careers outside of academia. And she has some advice on how you can reimagine your graduate title.
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It’s inevitable. At some point in your research career, you’re going to get that sinking feeling.
Your experiments will all fail, your PI will get on your case about finishing that paper, and your graduation date will drift maddeningly out of reach.
So what can you do when your research starts to drag you down?
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The CACTUS Global Mental Health Survey asked valuable questions about stress, performance, and career goals for scientists.
The data revealed plenty of room for improvement, as researchers struggle with harassment, work-life balance, and limited pay.
But the study’s authors also asked more open-ended questions:
Do you have any suggestions for organizations within academia or other related stakeholders on what they can do to ensure a great work environment for researchers?
The received 5,434 ideas from the 13,000 survey respondents.
This week, we’re joined once again by Andrea Hayward, Senior Associate for Global Community Engagement at Cactus Communications.
We unpack the themes she uncovered from those responses, and identify the many ways in which Academia can foster a more supportive research environment.
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