Meet Dr. Alexander Bay, Chair of the Department of History. This history buff uses his studies on a modernizing Japan to help fight diseases today. You see, many of the challenges a modernizing nation faced are paralleled in developing nations today. Turns out, it's much more than making sewers and indoor toilets. It's about fighting ignorance telling people to wash their god damn hands. Also discussed is the power donuts have on writing.

Meet Richa Yeshvekar, plant biologist at University of Leeds. This agricultural scientist wants to help feed people. But along the way, she stumbled upon an interesting question regarding flowers. Most living creatures have a ton of variation within the species. Folks, for example, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. But flowers of a species all look the same! Turns out, they try real hard at making it that way. In this episode, Richa will talk about why. But this research ain't no bed of roses (except when it literally is). She also coordinates a student wellness group on campus. When all else fails, there is always chai.

Meet Dr. Carey Huh, neuroscientist at UCI. She looks at the connections in the brain, and how they might explain amblyopia, also known as lazy eye. Using the latest and greatest in brain imaging, she can SEE neurons firing in REAL TIME. That’s gonna help her develop new therapies to help adults with this condition. As a bonus discussion, we talk about science communication and getting down to what we are all about. You know, good ol’ fashion nihilistic fun. To learn more about Carey, head on over to www.thisgradlife.com/careyhuh

My name is Scott Kilianski, and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine. I study how memories are changed and strengthened while we sleep. I am fascinated by how the brain responds to the outside world, how it changes as we grow, how it makes memories, and what it does while we sleep. Ultimately, I want to understand how our brains take all of the individual experiences we have on a daily basis and extract the countless associations, relationships, rules, and general principles that govern the world around us, which are collectively called "semantic memory". I'm also interested in how we can integrate electronics into our nervous systems to improve all the various functions of the human body including, but not limited to, memory, speed, strength, perception, durability, endurance, and even creativity.

Meet Kendra Walters, who examines the mobility of microbes. These little dudes are an important part of *cue music* the circle of liiiiiife! They eat all the dead stuff, so all the new stuff can grow! But how the heck did they get there? Well, with lots of fun (existentially dreadful) long term studies, Kendra hopes to find out! Listen to how she battles her perfectionism in the face of months long experiments. Spoiler alert, the solution is cheese. The melty-gooey kind.

Meet Jaclyn Beck. She studies the aging process of microglia, which make up the brain's personal immune system defense force. While important, these cells are heavily implicated in Alzheimer's disease. Since age is the biggest risk factor for this disease, she's trying to figure out a way to artificially age these cells. That way, they can be studied more easily. And she gave up a stable NASA job in order to do so! Why yes, I too prefer ice cream when dealing with my own impostor's syndrome.

Say hi to Janielle Vidal. She studies the relationship of copper intake and Alzheimer’s disease. Not only is her research about the gut, her research is also gutsy! Tune in and hear about this high-risk high reward take on studying Alzheimer’s desease!

Meet Alex Jarnot, a PhD student at UC Irvine, studying atmospheric chemistry. His lab has quite the pedigree, the original founder shared the Nobel Prize for discovering the cause of the hole in the ozone layer. True to the original cause, he looks at wildfires and agricultural fires and sees how that smoke interacts with urban pollution. In this episode, he also describes some of the surprising peril that comes with this particular line of work.

Meet Darby Vickers, a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy UC Irvine, who studies ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of education. She's interested in exploring how people learn and how to best learn. She's also a front line fighter against fake news!

Meet Kelli Malott, a PhD candidate in the School of Medicine at UC Irvine, who studies reproductive toxicology. There's also plenty of righteous indignation that comes with advocating for policies that help babies, and hitting bureaucratic brick walls.