Episode 8: Academic women & family planning Artwork

Brain Matter Chatter (BMC)

Welcome to Brain Matter Chatter (BMC), the #AcademicMentalHealth podcast. Our mission is to raise awareness about issues surrounding mental health in Academia. As graduate students, at various stages, studying neuroscience, our hosts bring a unique experiential and scientific perspective to discussions on mental health and illness. To provide a holistic picture of mental health in academia, we aim to bring a diverse set of guests to BMC. Some of our episodes will serve to highlight the experiences of current graduate students. Others will invoke perspectives from our very own faculty advisors, mental health experts, and special guests who will add professional insights to the discussions. Conversations surrounding mental health can be difficult. With this podcast, we hope to make the conversations easier and more accessible. A podcast platform is personal, on-demand, and varies in degree of engagement; listeners can choose when and where they listen, suggest topics that they want to hear discussed, and even appear on episodes as guests. One episode at a time, we hope to begin planting the seeds for change. There isn’t a single, simple solution to the on-going state of mental health in academia. Cultivating a platform for open conversations about #AcademicMentalHealth is the first step.

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Brain Matter Chatter (BMC)

Episode 8: Academic women & family planning

November 15, 2021 • Brain Matter Chatter ft. Dr. Alex Levine and Dr. Kasey Van Hedger. A SONGS (society of neuroscience graduate students) Production brought to you by Niveen, Hayley, Kyla, Julia, Ruby & Olivia • Season 1 • Episode 8

Academic women & family planning ft. Dr. Kasey Van Hedger & Dr. Alex Levine

In this episode, Niveen (@nivful), Hayley (@hayleyrcshanks) and Kyla (@kylaaalee) chat with Drs. Alex Levine and Kasey Van Hedger, both who completed PhDs in STEM and currently work at the University of Western Ontario in London, ON, Canada. We discuss their experiences in Academia with family planning and get two unique perspectives. Kasey and Alex detail their personal stories of how they got to their positions today, how family planning did, or did not, affect their trajectory, and provide invaluable advice for Professional women, including Academics, who are considering building a family.

Connect with Alex Levine, PhD ↬ Twitter: @AlexTLev / IG: @alextlev

Connect with Kasey Van Hedger, PhD ↬ Twitter: @kvanhedger / IG: @kvanhedger

Mentioned this episode:
↬ BMC ep 6- Anxiety & anger series with Rob Hicks:
- Part I: gender stereotypes - men’s mental health
- Part II: practicing mindfulness
- Part III: becoming a parent in Academia
↬ Dr. Harriet de Wit Lab - research on the physiological, mood-altering & behavioral effects of drugs in healthy humans (Chicago, IL, USA)
↬ Dr. Ingrid Johnsrude Lab - research using psychophysical and neuroimaging methods such as fMRI and EEG to study the neural basis of hearing (Western University, London, ON, CA)
↬ Dr. Penny MacDonald Lab - research on the neural bases of cognitive processes in patients with basal ganglia dysfunction, such as Parkinson’s disease, using functional neuroimaging techniques (Western University, London, ON, CA)
↬ #MomAdemia

Recent episodes can be found at www.songsuwo.ca/brainmatterchatter
↬ Ep 7: Mental Health in South Asian Communities with Ishita Aggarwal

Listen on any podcast platform + follow us on Twitter + Instagram @BrainMatterChat