Standard Deviation S2 E3: The Hidden Curriculum
From Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary by Matthew Zachary Worldwide
May 14, 2026 · 12 min
About this episode
The episode explores the unspoken rules of academic research that affect funding and career stability for scientists.
In 2020, developmental biologist Dr. Crystal Rogers drove the country roads outside Davis, California crying between grant rejections, wondering whether she was about to lose her lab, her career, and the scientific future she had spent years building. She had already done what academia tells young scientists to do. She earned the credentials. She landed a faculty position at UC Davis. She built a lab. Then the real test began. On this episode of Standard Deviation, Dr. Oliver Bogler examines the unspoken rules that determine which scientists survive academic research and which quietly disappear from it. The conversation follows Crystal Rogers and cancer biologist Dr. Michelle Mendoza as they collide with the “Hidden Curriculum” of biomedical science: the unwritten rhetoric, institutional signaling, and grant writing strategies that often decide who receives funding, tenure, and long term stability. Michelle Mendoza entered a tenure track position at the Huntsman Cancer Institute while raising 3 children, navigating a divorce, and trying to secure major NIH funding during COVID. What looked like objective scientific review turned out to depend heavily on persuasion, presentation…
People in this episode
Host: Dr. Oliver Bogler
Guests: Dr. Crystal Rogers, Dr. Michelle Mendoza
Topics covered
- academic research
- funding
- biomedical science
- hidden curriculum
- scientific review
- career challenges
Keywords
- academic research
- funding
- hidden curriculum
- scientific review
- biomedical science
- career challenges
- grant writing
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: UC Davis, Huntsman Cancer Institute, NIH, Life Science Editors Foundation, JEDI program
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