Things Of Interest

We take an episode to indulge ourselves in our respective fields of research - biology and physics! We talk a little about our research, what motivates us, ethical practices, the hand-eye coordination needed for experimental sciences, along with our usual diversions and sidetracks (including uploading ourselves into the cloud).

This time we're getting back on the economics train to talk about capitalism, libertarianism, and the murking world of morality and ethics.

In this part: is it better make money, and then donate it, or volunteer your own time instead? Plus: is science a social good? How do we fund it? How to we incentivise it in the right way?

We had such a great conversation we had to separate this episode to three parts! In part one we talk about curating ethical habits, the gig economy, and the value of work. We then pivot a to the minimum wage, welfare, universal basic income, and the like. Lastly, calling out vs calling in. Excuse us as we dabble in discussion around the economy - we're not trained economists so please do email in if we've told any lies.

It's time for Pay Gap Bingo! We debunk all the frequently opined arguments and myths around the pay gap, discuss the intersectional intricacies that affect salary, and go through some possible strategies to tackle the pay gap.

Pap smears, unfortunate experiments, nipples, periods and PMS, naturopathy, pain scales and the nocebo effect. **Content warning** for 50:48 to 58:21 for really terrifying psychosomatic/skin related disorders - listen at your own peril!

In a world of randomware, Russian hackers, and every day phishing, protecting our selves on the internet has never been more critical. In this episode we talk about the easiest ways to protect yourself from most vunerabilities, and what the Riemann hypothesis means for encryption, VPNs and the blockchain.

Today we explore the different sides of fashion, and look to the new year with hope.

How do recent grads get jobs? Plus--we respond to our first voice memo, and take a look back on earlier episodes in light of the recent US election results.

What is intelligence? How do we define it? How do we measure it? Does it even matter? In this episode we cover dealing with the concept of intelligence as a teen, standardised testing, the bullshit that are IQ tests, and Sophia's own personal experiences with autism.

Advertising, authenticity, and why we read/buy/engage in things. We welcome our new data-bloated overlords, or at least we say we do when online.

It's callback hour! This ep we're diving into our teenge years of reading and writing fanfiction, consuming fanart, and living it up in this strange and awesome subculture on the internet. We talk about the power of fanfiction, the voice it lends to its predominantly female and minority authors, and the strange ways it can play with canon, and sometimes, real life.

Does how we consume news make us more open-minded, or less? Is political extremism on the rise internationally? How do we tackle extremist views? Is it even worth tackling at all? This episode was a fascinating discussion on the intersection of media and politics, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

It's the Olympics! The wonderful event where athletes show off their incredible achievements and sports journalists show off their sexism. Does it make sense to gender-segregate sports in 2016? Just how bad is the wage gap in sports? Also: the Paralympics. They are badass and don't get nearly enough attention.

In our second part on Feels, we touch on hysteria, feelings around failure, the emotional toll academia takes on its students, asylums, witchcraft, and why blocking someone who's harassing you on the internet is a silly way to go.

The gendered nature of emotion, emotional labour, and how these assumptions could literally harm you at the doctor's.

Episode six: Where we talk about dating, relationships, and the internet, and Sophia’s life as a long-term single lady can finally be useful rather than a source of angst. Relationships can look many different ways, it’s increasingly legal to not be straight, and basically nobody says the word “spinster” anymore. How great is that?

You want to call out a bad joke, but you don't want to be *that person*. How do we talk about social topics without putting people on the defensive?

This week we geek out about space. We share our thoughts on human travel to mars, being a woman in science, and, of course, the power of storytelling and narrative both real and fictional, and how those narratives can create astronauts.

Do your friends berade you for using too many emoji, not making correct sentences, and using memes as replies too often? We look into the strange world of Tumblr linguistics, and how young girls are shaping the next era of language.