Saturday Morning Lab

On this week's episode I have a deep and thoughtful conversation with Teresa Sellinger, a Physician's Weekly Editor for Formedics. We discuss her early life in the Midwest, her early passion for journalism, transition to communications and marketing, and her rich professional life that led her to a career in medical writing and editing. Teresa's wealth of life experience is inspiring and her personal story is one of fortitude, vulnerability, and just genuine kindness. I learned so much, but I also dug up some old feelings.

On this week's episode, I speak to the visionary Dr. Catharine Young, Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and former Assistant Director of the Cancer Moonshot Program under former President Biden. We discuss her early beginnings in South Africa, and her incredible career path through biomedical research, scientific policy, fellowship at the National Academy of Sciences and current role at Harvard Public Health. We also reflect on health policy and what inspires her during these singular times.

This week, I talk to my long time friend Kristin Luther an industry specialist in extracellular vesicles (EVs). We talk about her broad interest early in life, her foray into medical illustration, PhD years, and ultimate transition into industry. We also talk about the challenges facing EV biology (a topic near and dear to my own heart). Unexpectedly, we have a thoughtful conversation on the nature of vocation, facing challenges, and maintaining one's sense of curiosity-driven optimism.

Hey friends, on this special mini-episode, I celebrate International Women's Day by highlighting Arabic women who despite their historic and perhaps unparalleled heroism, service, scholarship, and preservation of culture and faith in this region are often overlooked, patronized and otherwise misrepresented by international media in general and Western media (and entertainment) in particular. I included a link here to the Arab Women's Organization to learn more about what Arab women are doing to empower one another in this truly singular part of the world.

On this week's episode, I chat with the brilliant and thoughtful Dr. Helen Collins, Assistant Professor of Cardiology at the University of Louisville. We talk about discovering her passion for research, the struggle to find a postdoc position at the height of the recession, moving to the US and establishing her research program exploring mechanisms that underlie female cardiovascular health and resilience.

On this first episode of season 2, I sit down with my colleague and friend, Kenneth Gouin, a brilliant and thoughtful bioinformatics scientist. We discuss his early interest in regenerative medicine, his pivot to bioinformatics, his experience in industry, and the importance of philosophical literacy in research.

On National Neonatal Nurses Week, I sit down with Amanda Williams, a neonatal clinical nurse specialist, content creator, and consultant at Amanda's NICU ED. We talk about her path to a nursing career, the unique calling of working in the neonatal intensive care unit, the challenges and the future of the nursing profession, and much more. Find Amanda's very helpful content on Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube.

My former research intern Jamie Lee stops by my office to record a bonus episode! We talk about her beginnings as a naturalist, a seeker, her "aha" moment for medicine and discovering her passion for research, and her path as a yogi. In our honest conversation, we discuss what resilience looks like for her. She is applying to MD/PhD programs (AMCAS ID: 15756334) this year so MSTP admissions committees take note!

On this episode of Campfire Confessions, I talk about a time when I caused havoc on the UC Irvine campus driving a semi-truck. I also talk about a very pleasant surprise by my research team.

On this second installment of Campfire Confessions, we tell the tale of a recent college graduate desperately looking for a job then faced with a tough decision after a major screw up during his first couple of days. We also give updates on the X (https://x.com/SatMorningLab) and Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/satmorninglab/). As always, you're welcome to reach out to me with stories or guest nominations at saturdaymorninglab@outlook.com.

Happy Summer, friends! I love camping and I love swapping tales around the campfire. That is why I am collecting your work stories this summer to feature them on the podcast. Whether it happened during your PhD, postdoc, or work years, tell me about it, and tell me how it turned out and what it taught you! Email me at SaturdayMorningLab@outlook.com. Please be sure to exclude real names to protect everyone's privacy. Episodes all summer long here at Saturday Morning Lab.

This week, part 2 of my season finale episode with Dr. Denis Noble. We discuss an expanded view of biology, thinking on a systems level and the need to embrace new paradigms of biology. See Dr. Noble's influential books here for more information.

This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with the wise, caring, and and formidable Dr. Mamta Saxena. We discuss her early life in India, her early ambitions in medicine, her detour into home economics, moving to the US, wrangling with years of hard work as a student and mother and achieving academic success in the field of family science and sibling caretaker psychology.