Voices of Academia
33 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratings*ON A BREAK* Researchers from around the world open up about their mental health within academia. They might laugh, cry, or say things you disagree with. But this is lived experience - not professional advice. It's to reduce stigma and help people feel less alone. Each month, PhD Candidate and host, Emily King, chats with a different guest and releases fortnightly episodes. First - the story of mental ill-health. Second - the tale of recovery, with coping strategies that might help you too! Join us as we talk about all the things you thought you had to hide!
www.voicesofacademia.com
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Episodes
30. Trying to Feel Good Enough | Dr. Jennifer Paxton
May 18, 2022 05:00 - 52 minutes - 48.6 MBDr. Jennifer Paxton acknowledges that her feelings of inadequacy had always been there but were amplified during the transition to motherhood. She opens up about an interaction with an empathetic colleague that shocked her into seeking support. TW/CW: Themes of suicidal ideation A Senior Lecturer in Anatomy, PI of a tissue engineering lab, wife and mother, Jennifer opened up in the last episode about parenting as an academic during COVID-19. This is the second part of her story. If you fi...
29. Parenting as an Academic during COVID-19 | Dr. Jennifer Paxton
May 04, 2022 05:00 - 53 minutes - 49.9 MBSenior Lecturer, PI, wife and mother, Dr. Jennifer Paxton, opened up about feelings of embarrassment, guilt, anger and acceptance in response to professional contacts seeing her home life in online meetings and lessons. She highlighted specific frustrations of being a parent in Academia. She also courageously opened up in the final 15 minutes about her decision making process for having a child. She, like many of us, was putting off major personal milestones because of the pressure of academ...
28. Preventative Care for PMDD | Elana Gloger
April 20, 2022 05:00 - 59 minutes - 56.3 MB5th year Health Psychology PhD Candidate and creator of the Dear Grad Student podcast, Elana Gloger, chats about maintaining wellness - creating space between where you’re at, and your tipping point to becoming unwell. She encourages leaning in to your unique needs and remembering that ‘you’re not other people.’ Elana opened up previously, in episode 27, about how premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) impacted her life and PhD before it was well managed. CW: swearing, sexual references ...
27. Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and a PhD | Elana Gloger
April 06, 2022 05:00 - 1 hour - 61.4 MBEmily chats with Elana Gloger, who opens up about how premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) impacted her life and PhD before it was well managed. TW/CW: Suicidal ideation, swearing This episode covers: - Elana’s favourite, I mean F-A-V-O-U-R-I-T-E video game, her childhood likeness to Angelica from the Rugrats, and being a child of divorce - A description of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and premenstrual exacerbation (PME) - How Elana’s diagnosis of PMDD unfolded - An explana...
27. Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and a PhD
April 06, 2022 05:00 - 1 hour - 61.4 MBEmily chats with Elana Gloger, who opens up about how premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) impacted her life and PhD before it was well managed. TW/CW: Suicidal ideation, swearing This episode covers: - Elana’s favourite, I mean F-A-V-O-U-R-I-T-E video game, her childhood likeness to Angelica from the Rugrats, and being a child of divorce - A description of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and premenstrual exacerbation (PME) - How Elana’s diagnosis of PMDD unfolded - An explana...
26. Challenging Intrusive Thoughts | Dr. Andy Fraass
March 23, 2022 04:00 - 48 minutes - 45.3 MBEmily chats with Dr. Andy Fraass, who opens up about support for anxiety that comes from his wife and daughters, improved sleep hygiene, and challenging intrusive thoughts. Andy opened up previously, in episode 25, about social anxiety, learning he couldn’t trust his own self-perception, and the impacts of academia on family life. This episode covers: - Self-educating about indigenous cultures, science fantasy, and achieving the bucket list goals of professorship and family. - Family s...
25. Being Your Own Worst Critic | Dr. Andy Fraass
March 09, 2022 04:00 - 57 minutes - 48.9 MBEmily chats with Dr. Andy Fraass, who opens up about social anxiety, learning he couldn’t trust his own self-perception, and the impacts of academia on family life. This episode covers: The boy behind the family man, a career stemming from childhood media (Jurassic Park), and single-celled creatures that tell us about climate change and evolution Andy’s family history of mental illness, and academics The increased difficulty of hiding social anxiety with age, exacerbation of symptoms, an...
24. SPECIAL 1YR ANNIVERSARY EPISODE – How To Change The System That Sets Us Up To Fail | Andrea Hayward
February 23, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 81.2 MBTW/CW: Bullying and abuse Emily chats with Andrea Hayward, a Project Manager for the CACTUS Communications ‘Joy and Stress Triggers: A global survey on mental health among researchers.’ They discuss open-ended answers from the survey, highlighting what institutions can do to ease work-related pressures, reduce barriers to seeking help, and encourage personal wellbeing of researchers. Andrea also opens up, for the first time, about experiences she had during her Masters, including being made...
23. Medication and Social Media Support | Seda Battilani
February 09, 2022 04:00 - 58 minutes - 48.3 MBEmily chats with Seda Battilani, who opens up about juggling medication trials with work, disclosing medication use to a supervisor, and social media accounts for people with ADHD. Seda opened up previously, in episode 22, about anxiety disorder, and pursuing an ADHD diagnosis as an international student. This episode covers: YouTube obsessions, choosing someone to share a life with, and the desire to settle in one country long-term Juggling the impact of medication trials with work Dis...
22. Anxiety, ADHD, and Living Abroad | Seda Battilani
January 26, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 65.4 MBEmily chats with Seda Battilani, who was drawn into research in linguistics after learning about the field during her undergrad. She became fascinated by how our communication impacts the way we perceive each other. Seda opens up about early struggles with an anxiety disorder, and the complexities of pursuing an ADHD diagnosis whilst also an international student. This episode covers: Seda’s COVID wedding and a crash course in her research (translanguaging and endangered languages) The im...
21. Person-centred Mentoring | Dr. Kartik Aiyer
December 15, 2021 04:00 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBCW: Academic bullying and abuse Emily chats with Dr. Kartik Aiyer, who opens up about the benefits of a good academic mentor and support network on mental health and productivity. Kartik opened up previously, in episode 20, about the impact a poor Faculty relationship had on his mental health during his PhD. This episode covers: Kartik’s music obsession and the positive relationship with his family The benefits of supportive research group culture on mental health but also productivity ...
20. A Toxic Power Dynamic | Dr. Kartik Aiyer
December 01, 2021 04:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBCW: Academic bullying and abuse Emily chats with Dr. Kartik Aiyer, who opens up about the impact a poor Faculty relationship had on his mental health during his PhD. This episode covers: Kartik’s love of running, books and sports How academia doesn’t appear to be people-focussed How researchers require training in mentoring to get the best out of people Suffering in silence Poor relationships with academic faculty Ineffective bullying/harassment management pathways through universiti...
19. Preventing the Panic Cycle | Dr. Viviana Re
November 17, 2021 04:00 - 49 minutes - 44.8 MBEmily chats with Dr. Viviana Re, who opens up about using therapy, the physical and meditative teachings from yoga, and essential oils to help calm the nervous system and manage panic attacks. Viviana opened up previously, in episode 18, about experiencing panic attacks during her PostDoc and how they restricted her personal and work behaviour. This episode covers: · Living a yoga lifestyle, supportive partners and accepting oneself · Judgement as part of life in academia · Learning ...
18. Panic as a PostDoc | Dr. Viviana Re
November 03, 2021 04:00 - 53 minutes - 49.7 MBEmily chats with Dr. Viviana Re, who opens up about experiencing panic attacks during her PostDoc and how they restricted her personal and work behaviour. This episode touches on: · Vivana’s love of books, the sea and nature in general · Personal growth · Descriptions of anxiety and panic attacks, and how to recognise them · Hiding symptoms at work to avoid being judged harshly · How the unpredictable nature of panic attacks restricted Viviana’s personal and work behaviour · The...
17. Master of your own destiny | Henry Powell-Davies
October 20, 2021 04:00 - 52 minutes - 46.8 MBEmily chats with Henry Powell-Davies, who tried a PhD and decided it wasn’t for him, choosing to exit with a Masters. He discusses what supported him through the isolation, making this decision, and moving on. Henry opened up previously, in episode 16, about the mental health impacts of pandemic isolation, and making the difficult decision to exit his PhD with a Masters. This episode covers: · Breaking habits, #ChemistsWhoCook, skydiving and visiting Australia · How academics seem to l...
16. Exiting a PhD with Masters | Henry Powell-Davies
October 06, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 56.7 MBEmily chats with Henry Powell-Davies, who opens up about how the isolation he experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated lockdowns, led him to question and ultimately redirect his career path. This episode covers: · How Henry’s experiences have made him who he is today · What led Henry to research & the alternative paths he considered · How being visually impaired since birth has impacted Henry’s life, within and outside academia · How disability doesn’t define Henry, ...
15. I will not be silenced | Dr. Clare Griffin
September 22, 2021 05:00 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MBCW: OCD and bipolar disorder Emily chats with Dr. Clare Griffin, who opens up about medical treatments for OCD and bipolar disorder, strongly advocating for her needs and using creative writing as a medium to express experiences of mental illness. Clare is a science historian who opened up previously, in episode 14, about the delay in her diagnoses and how this impacted her academic journey. This episode covers: · A fantastic book series recommendation, and more animal chat · Some of ...
14. Living without Diagnoses | Dr. Clare Griffin
September 08, 2021 05:00 - 38 minutes - 35.8 MBCW: OCD and bipolar disorder Emily chats with Dr. Clare Griffin, who opens up about the delays in her diagnoses of OCD and bipolar disorder, and how the conditions have impacted her academic journey, both before and after treatment. This episode covers: · Clare’s love of video games, running and animals · The common lag time of ~10 years from onset of symptoms to diagnosis of OCD or bipolar disorder · How mental illness is often framed based on how it impacts other people · The dif...
13. Dancing for Freedom | Dr. Malik Boykin
August 25, 2021 05:00 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBTW: Fatal and racist violence in the U.S. Emily chats with Dr. Malik Boykin, who opens up about how dancing, writing hip hop rhymes, and challenging his self-doubt in the mirror keeps him going, with a challenging life and career. Malik opened up previously, in episode 12, about early life experiences and challenges he faces as a Black man and Professor. This episode covers: · Malik’s love of 90s hip hop, and his dreams to perform in Africa, publish a Nature paper, and become a full Eme...
12. Professor under threat | Dr. Malik Boykin
August 11, 2021 05:00 - 46 minutes - 43.4 MBTW: Depression, loss, and racial discrimination Emily chats with Dr. Malik Boykin, who opens up about early life experiences, how they lead him to become a Professor, and some of the challenges he has faced, and continues to face, as a Black man and academic. This episode covers: · Embracing multidimensionality eg. You can be a scientist AND an artist · Formative experiences from Malik’s early life · A drop off in high school engagement and grades after significant loss · Malik’s r...
Taking a break! Back Aug 11 :)
July 16, 2021 02:35 - 2 minutes - 2.93 MBHi everyone! I'm taking a short break from releasing episodes but will be back on August 11. That's just enough time for you to catch up on past episodes ;) Here's a sneak peek of the upcoming episodes with Dr. Malik Boykin. For episode 12 - [Malik] "People who study race have a much better time when there are people of color as Editors of the Journals. But oftentimes you're fighting an uphill battle. And the fact that if an editor doesn't think that this is a valid thing to think about ...
11. Depression as a Warning Sign | Tonja Wright
June 30, 2021 05:00 - 43 minutes - 30.2 MBTW: Depression Emily chats with Tonja Wright, who opens up about how her PhD supervisors supported her when she was depressed, her discovery of the benefits of complementary medicine, and the inspiration for her productivity and wellbeing business. Tonja opened up previously, in episode 10, about the difficult decision to leave her PhD when she was experiencing treatment-resistant depression. This episode covers: Fun podcast recommendations! How did this get made podcast, The deep dive p...
10. Withdrawing from a PhD | Tonja Wright
June 16, 2021 05:00 - 45 minutes - 37.2 MBTW: Depression Emily chats with Tonja Wright, who opens up about treatment-resistant depression, the difficult decision to leave her PhD, and how she is now grateful to have re-evaluated her life’s direction. This discussion includes: How Tonja’s experiences led her to start a business (Design to Transform) that uses evidence-based design to optimise productivity and wellbeing in workplaces A few ‘getting to know you’ questions – The answers to which really help develop an understanding ...
9. Entrepreneurship & volunteering as healing | Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi
June 02, 2021 05:00 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBEmily chats with Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi, who debunks the myth that it’s impossible to leave then return to academia. Nadim discusses the mental health benefits of starting his own business and volunteering for an organisation that made him feel valuable, before deciding to give academia another shot. Nadim opened up previously, in episode 8, about perfectionism, a micromanaging Post-Doc supervisor & leaving academia for a few years. This discussion includes: Debunking the myth that it’s no...
8. Confidence Chasm | Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi
May 19, 2021 05:00 - 29 minutes - 27.7 MBEmily chats with Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi, who opens up about feeling the pressure to be perfect, the detrimental health impacts of a micromanaging Postdoc supervisor & how the deterioration of his confidence led him to leave academia for a few years. CW: Weight gain, civil war, and a death in the family This discussion includes: Laughing about the challenges of switching from architecture to programming The pressure to be perfect affecting ability to complete simple tasks Trial by fire pr...
7. Taking Time Off | Jess Marshall
May 05, 2021 05:00 - 40 minutes - 23.8 MBTW: Sexual assault, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this episode of Voices of Academia, Emily chats with recently-minted Dr. (!!) Jessica Marshall, who touches on taking time off her Ph.D. and the support she received from personal relationships, therapy, and publicly available systems after she experienced sexual assault. Jess opened up previously, in episode 6, about the friendship, partner, family, and identity losses she experienced during her Ph.D. Key topics...
6. Loss during a PhD | Jess Marshall
April 21, 2021 05:00 - 42 minutes - 25.6 MBTW: Divorce, sexual assault and suicidal ideation. In this episode of Voices of Academia, Emily chats with recently-submitted PhD Candidate, Jessica Marshall (@JessicaMarshall), who opens up about the friendship, partner, family and identity losses she experienced during her PhD. This episode touches on the difficulties of finding work-life balance during a PhD, Jess’s difficult experiences with family, health and sexual assault during her degree, the impact these experiences have had on h...
5. Mindfulness: not some 'Buddhist chant' | Daniel Ranson
April 07, 2021 05:00 - 39 minutes - 27.9 MBEmily chats with Ph.D. Research Fellow, Daniel Ranson (@mrdanielranson), who is now a convert to mindfulness as a coping mechanism for anxiety, in addition to therapy, medication, and insight from a mental health practitioner. Dan opened up previously, in episode 4, about perfectionism and OCD tendencies that progressively worsened from his undergraduate degree, onwards. TW: Anxiety and a suicide attempt This episode touches on medication and its side effects, the principles of Cognitive B...
4. Perfectionism & OCD | Daniel Ranson
March 24, 2021 04:00 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBIn this episode of Voices of Academia, Emily chats with PhD Research Fellow, Daniel Ranson (@mrdanielranson), who opens up about perfectionism and OCD tendencies that progressively worsened from his undergraduate degree, onwards. TW: Depression, anxiety, OCD and a suicide attempt. This episode touches on feeling pressured as a first-generation university student, overactive worrying, the two sides to perfectionism, development of OCD tendencies that impacted life, living with anxiety, depr...
Disability & The Power of Acceptance | Syreeta Nolan
March 10, 2021 04:00 - 39 minutes - 29.8 MBIn this episode of Voices of Academia, Emily chats with undergraduate senior, Syreeta Nolan (@nolan_syreeta), about how learning to accept her disability and see it as a capability, not a liability, has shifted her life for the better. This episode touches on self-acceptance, self-care, disability Twitter, seeing a counselor, juggling self-care with emerging opportunities, learning to say no, asking for help, and empowering the next generation to feel like they can make it in academia. *...
Navigating Invisible Disability | Syreeta Nolan
February 24, 2021 04:00 - 33 minutes - 25.8 MBIn this episode of Voices of Academia, Emily chats with undergraduate senior, Syreeta Nolan (@nolan_syreeta), about the mental health impacts of navigating disability within universities. This episode is essentially distilled down into two parts - Entering and progressing in academia after a mental health crisis, and the mental health impacts of trying to be accepted as a person with disabilities within academia. *trigger warning* - there is talk of suicide attempts, medical trauma, and ...
Why an academic mental health podcast? | VoA team
February 10, 2021 04:00 - 37 minutes - 42.8 MBTW: Suicidal ideation In this episode, the Voices of Academia concept and the team are introduced. Academics Dr. Marissa Kate, Dr. Zoe Ayres, and Emily King (PhD loading) open up about why academic mental health advocacy is important to them and why it’s necessary. They also share some of their own wellness suggestions and how you can get involved with the blog or podcast. They also discuss: Some of the challenges of academia, including the pressure to publish Knowing the statistics can...
Launching 2021: Voices of Academia
October 14, 2020 08:34 - 1 minute - 1.17 MBAre you an academic team leader, research assistant, postdoc, student or any other type of researcher? We want to hear from you. Share your experience of mental health and wellness in academia. Help us normalise these conversations, explore different wellness strategies and encourage cultural change. If you're interested in being interviewed, please submit this brief form https://buff.ly/3ls24yT You can find out more about us at https://voicesofacademia.com/ and @academicvoices on Twitte...