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Fail-Safe Science

Fail-Safe Science

Written by: failsafescience
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About this listen

Hello! Welcome to the Fail-Safe Science podcast. Fail-Safe Science is a video repository of successful scientists sharing stories about challenges they experienced during graduate school, how they overcame them, and advice they have for current grads. Ultimately, we created this repository to help science graduate students realize that they are not alone in the challenges they face.

To accompany the repository, each week we will be dropping an audio-only podcast version of one of the videos.

Check back each week to listen to the latest featured scientist!

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Episodes
  • Episode 17: Dr. Xyonane Segovia
    Jan 12 2026

    In this episode, we hear from Dr. Xyonane Segovia, an Assistant Teaching Professor at Arizona State University. Her dissertation research focused on malaria, specifically looking at resistance evolution of the malaria parasite. Now, she’s in a position where she teaches various subjects including evolutionary medicine, global health and biology. Here, Xyonane talks about navigating an experiment failure while working on her Ph.D., as well as how she coped with feelings of imposter syndrome throughout graduate school, which included strategies like therapy, medication, exercise, and, as she notes perhaps most of all, talking to other graduate students. Let’s listen!

    • Transcript: Here
    • Scientist Info: Xyonane Segovia
      • Faculty Profile: https://search.asu.edu/profile/1109035
    • Fail-Safe Science Repository: https://risecenter.asu.edu/fail-safe
    • International Postgraduate Mental Health Alliance (MHA): https://www.ispmha.com/
    • Mental Health Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14G5m91FLPY5gZSHUzWXAQ4Jnm4uX9AS0yhypus3gsuQ/edit?usp=sharing
    • Land Acknowledgement Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10lLcxY7OSsuTnXyq_CSC5Wvst8MSMRurisBfX5hK7AI/edit?tab=t.0
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    16 mins
  • Episode 16: Dr. Hong Wang
    Jan 5 2026

    In this episode, we hear from Dr. Hong Wang, a Professor in the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Her PhD research focused on atomic force microscope imaging of protein and DNA complexes, and her current work focuses on single molecule studies of DNA repair. Here, Hong talks about what it was like for her to navigate pregnancy (with twins) while in graduate school, and how she adjusted her research and expectations for herself leading up to the birth, as well as after becoming a new mom. Let’s listen!

    • Transcript: Here
    • Scientist Info: Hong Wang
      • Lab Website: https://hwang.wordpress.ncsu.edu/
      • Faculty Profile: https://physics.sciences.ncsu.edu/people/hwang18/
    • Fail-Safe Science Repository: https://risecenter.asu.edu/fail-safe
    • International Postgraduate Mental Health Alliance (MHA): https://www.ispmha.com/
    • Mental Health Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14G5m91FLPY5gZSHUzWXAQ4Jnm4uX9AS0yhypus3gsuQ/edit?usp=sharing
    • Land Acknowledgement Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10lLcxY7OSsuTnXyq_CSC5Wvst8MSMRurisBfX5hK7AI/edit?tab=t.0
    Show More Show Less
    16 mins
  • Happy Holidays and 2025 Wrap-Up!
    Dec 29 2025

    Hello Fail-Safe Science listeners! This is Olivia Davis- one of the co-founders of Fail-Safe Science. We hope you are all getting some much deserved rest and practicing self-care after a long year. We don’t have a new episode dropping this week, but we still wanted to pop on and check in with you all. In the meantime, if you are looking for mental health resources this holiday season, please check out our show notes. If you’d like to catch up on Fail-Safe Science before our new episodes drop, you can find all of the episodes we’ve released so far on Podbean, or wherever you stream your podcasts. Wishing you Happy Holidays and a wonderful start to the New Year! See you in 2026 with more stories from scientists across the globe. Bye!

    • Transcript: Here
    • Guide for Self-Care during the Holidays: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zqiLVtvO6wPB9K9HMK9udftF-_Nj8WAUGKkBKg8FkxQ/edit?tab=t.0
    • Fail-Safe Science Repository: https://risecenter.asu.edu/fail-safe
    • International Postgraduate Mental Health Alliance (MHA): https://www.ispmha.com/
    • Mental Health Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14G5m91FLPY5gZSHUzWXAQ4Jnm4uX9AS0yhypus3gsuQ/edit?usp=sharing
    • Land Acknowledgement Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10lLcxY7OSsuTnXyq_CSC5Wvst8MSMRurisBfX5hK7AI/edit?tab=t.0
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
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