The Happy Scientist
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The Happy Scientist
While education and experience are critical for the working scientist, there is another factor that makes all the difference in the lab: happy people are more productive. Yours is a serious mission, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy carrying out that mission. Your well being impacts both you...
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84 episodi
Have You Ever Heard of the Consciousness Hard Problem?
Extra Episode — Cory Katuna — Have You Ever Heard of the Consciousness Hard Problem?
Today's episode is part of an experiment: introducing best...
How to Stay Sharp in the Lab: Protecting Your Attention Against Distractions
#83 — Can you decide what captures your attention?
Modern society has developed sophisticated means of engaging our attention, often for purpos...
Pain and Suffering. Are Either Necessary to Grow as a Scientist?
Pursuing a career in science often involves challenges and setbacks that are mentally demanding.
While we all grow and learn from these setback...
Objective Introspection to Strengthen Your Scientific Career
#81 — Periodically directing your gaze inward can clarify your current position, past journey, and future aspirations.
In this episode of The Ha...
Why Be a Mentor to Other Scientists?
Ever feel a mix of frustration and nostalgia when you see new faces in the lab, fresh and full of questions?
Are you the kind of person who tak...
How to Effectively Wield Your Ambition
Naked ambition is a powerful characteristic, yet it can easily become overpowering—for you and your colleagues.
This could endanger your work co...
Getting Dead Practical about To-Do Lists II: Overcoming Task Avoidance
#78 — In this episode of The Happy Scientist, we dive into the emotional patterns that hinder the smooth operation of any to-do list system.
The...
Getting Dead Practical about To-Do Lists I: Aligning Lists with Your Work Style
Is your to-do list downstream of your work style, or your work style downstream of your to-do list?
Do you prefer to write down everything you n...
Does Your Science Box You In?
#76 — At the heart of the scientific method lies the idea that perspectives are not static—they evolve, shift, and intersect as we tackle scientific p...
Patience and Getting What You Want. Are They Compatible?
#75 — We're told from a young age that patience is a virtue. But does that hold up to scrutiny?
In some respects, it seems so, given that impati...
What Makes it Onto Your To-do List and Why?
#74 — How we feel about completing certain tasks and the people they involve have a massive impact on whether or not we do those tasks or how quickly...
What Gets You up in the Morning to Do Science? Why Knowing The Reason Matters
#73 — Why do you do science?
Is it your passion, is it to make an impact, is it just the way you make your living, or something else?
What...
Why Keeping Your Options Open Is Holding You Back
#72 — Freedom is not having lots of options—it's choosing between them.
You are free to choose.
Now think about that in the context of yo...
From Scientific Rigor to Mindful Vigor: Tara Nylese's Path to Well-Being
#71 — Tara Nylese was a career scientist and formerly a Regional Market Development Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
She left her Market De...
Urgency. How to Keep it From Ruining Your Day, Project, and Career
#70 — Academia can seem like nothing but deadlines.
Experiments, people, reports, and objectives compete for our immediate attention. Sometimes...
How to Deal With Challenging People In Your Lab (and Beyond)
#69 — Challenging people. You get them everywhere. Your lab—and beyond.
There's the one who block-books instruments for two weeks straight. Ther...
How to Earn Respect In Your Lab, and In Your Field
#68 — Respect is an interesting measure of a career. We all know colleagues we respect personally, or professionally, or intellectually. Sometimes one...
How to Motivate Yourself In Scientific Research
#67 — Staying motivated while doing research is hard! It can be repetitive, with bouts of frequent failure and some complete dead ends.
But you...
What To Do If Your Love of Science Is Fading
#66 — Do you ever think: "I don't love science anymore"?
Many of us have doubts during our scientific career and question whether the passion or...
You, Yes YOU, Need To Learn To Accept Praise
#65 — Do you feel awkward responding when someone genuinely compliments your work? Have you ever had a backhanded compliment or dubious praise? It see...
Catalysts for Advancement In Your Scientific Career
#64 — Catalysts aren't just for chemists anymore! The best practices you bring to the bench can be invaluable tools beyond it.
In this episode...
Focus — Your Lab Superpower
#63 — Discover the art of focus. Dive into its macro and micro applications. Begin with the bigger picture—your career, then ripple inward to your org...
The Most Effective Way to Protect and Expand Your Own Interests
#62 — Looking out for number #1 was fashionable in the 80s. Now it's almost a rude comment. But if you're not looking out for yourself, who is? And wh...
Work and Well-Being in Science
#61 — Join in this episode of The Happy Scientist podcast for a conversation with Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan, Associate Professor at the Catholic Univer...
Dropping Grudges Will Change Your Life. Trust Us.
#60 — Have you been wronged? Are you righteously indignant? Are you that most popular of characters today: a Victim? In this episode, we will give you...
The Importance Of Questioning The Status Quo
#59 — “It’s always been done that way.” Maybe that works for double-entry accounting (which hasn’t changed in a thousand years), but not in the lab. W...
The Importance Of Unlinking Your Identity From Your Work
Rene Descartes famously wrote, “I think therefore I am.” Have you cleverly upgraded that to “I science therefore I am”? It turns out that might not be...
What You Can do to Improve Yourself and Your Science
Remember when you were a wide-eyed child and you dreamed of being the person who would invent some world-changing gizmo? You had lots of ideas back th...
How to Become Senior Managing Editor for Bitesize Bio
In this episode, we interview the Ph.D. pharmacologist and biocurator, who became Senior Managing Editor for Bitesize Bio, Dr. Adam Pawson. How did he...
How to Do Labwork with Minimum Stress
Is your lab a pressure cooker? You’re not a pot roast, so such an environment is not for you. But can you do anything about it? Fortunately, yes! This...
How to Hotwire Your To-do List for Maximum Progress
In this episode, we will offer you a simple test that will clarify the proper priority for any item on your to-do list – or reveal that it shouldn’t b...
There’s No Such Thing As a Comfort Zone
Who was that wise, compassionate, brilliant person who decided for you what is comfortable and what isn’t? Oh, they weren’t so wise, compassionate, or...
What Can Science Learn from Other Disciplines?
Maybe you think there is too much to know about science without having to incorporate other fields. In fact, your own sub-sub-specialty is overwhelmin...
The Risks of Having to Be Right
Unless we’re wrong, having to be right all the time will lead to lots of problems. (See what we did there?) In this episode, we will explore the risky...
I Hate Math (and Organic Chemistry and Applied Physics)
Early on, you discovered you liked science class better than other classes, say composition, or history, or literature. There is nothing wrong with pr...
Things to Love About the Lab
While it’s easy to complain about what’s lacking, it’s productive to focus on what’s going for you, what’s working for you, and what’s supporting you....
Coping With The Parts of Your Job You Hate
If it wasn’t for the tasks, the people, the bureaucracy or the pressure, you would love your job. After all, no other careers have these demands… Hmm,...
How to See Your Blind Spots
And the blind shall see! It’s easy to acknowledge we don’t know everything but it can be hard to admit we don’t know when things get specific. It’s ev...
How to Reason With the Unreasonable
Ah, reason. It can be so comforting. But to the uninitiated it can be quite frightening. In this episode, learn how to spread your hard won reason wit...
Can There Be Freedom In Science?
Freedom has been associated with politics, philosophy, lifestyle, morality, relationships, even guns. But what about science? In this episode, we will...