S10E3: The Second Postdoc- Vatsal's life in outside his Alma Mater

About this episode

The episode discusses Vatsal's transition in his postdoc journey and the various challenges faced in academia and beyond.

Aditya, Megh, and Vatsal are back to discuss their major life changes in 2025. Vatsal shares his shift from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to fibrosis, the scientific and ethical training needed to work with live human doner tissue, and the challenges navigating the visa system in Canada. We also discuss the challenges of postdoc onboarding, HR in academia (or the lack thereof), 9-5 life after the PhD, 'dry lab privilege vs wet lab reality', the impact of being gym-pilled on intellectual labor, and navigating postdocs in non-English speaking countries. We end with a question- has your PhD given you the training to build a career not just outside Western Academia, but in the Global South?

People in this episode

Hosts: Aditya, Megh

Guest: Vatsal

Topics covered

• postdoc experience
• visa challenges
• scientific training
• HR in academia
• career outside academia
• intellectual labor
• non-English speaking countries

Keywords

• postdoc
• visa system
• Canada
• HR
• intellectual labor
• non-English speaking
• Global South
• scientific training
• fibrosis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Canada, Western Academia, Global South

Books & works: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, fibrosis

More episodes of Desi Academia Podcast

• The “Physics is ded” discourse with Hassaan Saleem · June 8, 2026 · 2h 7m
• S12E2: Making Data Talk with Aman Bhargava · May 2, 2026 · 1h 39m
• S12E1: Learning science masterclass with Dr. Robin Sharma · April 8, 2026 · 2h 46m
• Supplementary Materials 7: 2025 in Tech with Ajay and Harsha · March 21, 2026 · 1h 29m
• S11E3: Studying microbial ecology and soil restoration with Dhruthi · March 16, 2026 · 2h 42m
• S11E2: Mathematics, or, the pursuit of perfection in an imperfect world, with Saurabh · February 22, 2026 · 2h 36m