In this week's episode, hosts Milan Mammen and Chrishma Perera are joined again by Varsha Vasudevan, a PhD candidate in the Health & Rehabilitation Sciences department at Western University, in the Health Promotion stream. Varsha went into depth in her work in a previous episode. Here, she goes more into her life outside her research, expanding on her journey as a Peer Advisor and the services available to help one market their skills in the job market and how peer advising can even empower oneself.

Click on the link to learn about the services offered by the Peer Advising team. Check out Western Connect it you would like to apply to become a Peer Advisor (Western Connect > Job Postings > Western Peer Leader Program > Job ID 126956 (Peer Advisor - Career Education).

Recorded on Tuesday, February 24, 2026 Produced by Evelyn MacKay-Barr and Anika Bushra Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)

In this week's episode, hosts Maris Schneider and Mark Ambrogio talk to Jessica Holmes. Jessica is completing a combined MCISc/PhD in Speech-Language Pathology and Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. Her work focuses on how children respond when hearing the sound of their own voice subtly shifted, and what that reveals about speech development.

Jessica explains how altered auditory feedback is used to study children’s speech adjustments, what it's like to work with children in the lab, and what it’s like to balance clinical training with research.

Recorded on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 Produced by Kuljeet Chohan and Victor Lau Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)

This week, French studies PhD candidate Kaitlyn Gagnon takes hosts Garth Casbourn and Mark Ambrogio into both the literary and theatrical worlds of mid-nineteenth-century France. Her research focus is the short-lived foray of Émile Zola into writing comic works for the stage. We learn about the various pitfalls and opportunities this work afforded him, and how it fit into the broader picture of his life and career.

Follow the links below to learn more about Kaitlyn's research, and about that of her supervisor, Dr. Geneviève De Viveiros.

https://www.instagram.com/zolaspy?igsh=Y3R4MnJrbnpxbDZh&utm_source=qr

https://www.uwo.ca/french/people/faculty/deviveiros.html

Recorded on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 Produced by Garth Casbourn Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)