Best MBL Podcasts (2026)

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Sneak-peek of the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 48:36

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2M ago48:36

48:36

Soon the annual meeting for the Society for Neuroscience starts where 20,000 attendees will be talking all about their work on the brain. This is a sneak peek of that meeting. It's with Dr. John Morrison from the University of California at Davis and Dr. Emilie Marcus from UCLA, who is also the incoming SfN Chair of the public education and communi…

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Science summer: The MBL course 'Physio' 57:19

6M ago57:19

57:19

Summer courses are not exactly science and chilling but some courses do make it possible to combine the two a little. In this podcast Dr. Daria Ivanova, from the University of Geneva, Dr Sam Lord from University of California San Francisco and Dr. Will Ratcliff from Georgia Tech talk about the course and how they experienced it as a participant, as…

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Sneak-peek of the 2024 ISSCR annual meeting 45:51

1y ago45:51

45:51

This podcast was uploaded earlier this year but somehow it was deleted, sorry. So it's not quite a sneak-peek anymore...Whether or not you attended the 2024 annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) or not, you might enjoy this conversation. It's with Dr. Amander Clark from the University of California at Los Angele…

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S01E04. Blurring boundaries 34:28

1y ago34:28

34:28

In this episode of Optical Allusion, host Francine Watson speaks with three first-generation doctoral students — Ángel Bonilla, Zulekha (Zully) Khamisi, and Serena Camacho — about their transformative experiences co-creating a community project with school children in a local classroom. The discussion highlights the profound learning that comes fro…

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S01E03. Love-centered teaching 50:54

1y ago50:54

50:54

In this episode of Optical Illusion, we sit down with Von Phothisane, a passionate high school teacher and football coach in Western Washington, to explore how he integrates Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) and culturally-responsive teaching in one of the most diverse school districts in Washington state. Von shares how he centers his practice on love …

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S01E02. Planning for MBL 36:01

1y ago36:01

36:01

In this episode, we sit down with Natalie Guinasso to explore her transformative approach to Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) and Cultural Responsiveness and Sustaining Education (CRSE) in the classroom. Natalie shares her journey of making learning relevant by giving students a voice and agency in their education. She describes a pivotal classroom mom…

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Sneak-peek of ASHG 2024 53:04

1y ago53:04

53:04

The annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) is about to start. Here's a sneak-peek of the meeting with Dr. Bruce Gelb who is the current president of ASHG, he is also a researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City. My co-host --Dr. Mike Fletcher senior editor at Nature Genetics-- and I, asked Bruce Gelb about …

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S01E01. Outcome through Community 28:42

1y ago28:42

28:42

In this episode of OPTICal allusion, we dive deep into the power of community in the classroom. Join us as Shari McNeil, a passionate first-year teacher, shares how prioritizing connection over outcomes transformed her students' learning experience... and led to better outcomes! Using her experience of fostering relationships with students, familie…

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S01E00. Introduction to a new podcast. 4:29

1y ago4:29

4:29

Donita Torres and Francene Watson are experts in education. They're scholars, researchers, teachers. They're not podcasters! But, they want to talk about education and they want to talk to people who want to also talk about education. The podcast is called OPTICal allusion, where OPTIC stands for Our Partnership, Teaching, Innovation and Change. In…

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Sneak-peek of the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 37:52

1+ y ago37:52

37:52

Hear about some of the presentations at the upcoming 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. This sneak-peek that also is about some of the latest trends in neuroscience is with Yale University researcher Dr. Marina Picciotto, who is also the president of the Society for Neuroscience and Dr Damien Fair from the University of Minnesota.…

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A chat with NSF director Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan 28:59

1+ y ago28:59

28:59

This podcast is with Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan who directs the US National Science Foundation. He talks about his nickname, about AI and data science, about training AI models, about transparency, about the language of collaboration, competitiveness, about talent. He says: "I think what we need as a nation is not only to unleash every ounce of tal…

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Science while parenting, part 1 21:31

1+ y ago21:31

21:31

Can you be a scientist and parent? Of course. But it's not always easy. Dr. Ying Diao is at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in the chemical and biomolecular engineering department. She has a stack of awards, a lab and two children. She talks about her research, for instance a project focused on wearable electronics for plants with which…

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Episode 45 - Occam's Razor 32:27

2y ago32:27

32:27

Episode #45 - Occam's Razor The Simplest Explanation Occam's razor states the simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex. Learning to stop giving away our energy is the simple solution that turns money into career, personal and corporate success. In this feature length episode Arthur Geringas and Phil Johnson apply the philosoph…

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Episode 44 - Spirituality in Business 38:46

2y ago38:46

38:46

Episode #44 - Spirituality In Business The Openness Of A Child And The Wisdom Of A Master The journey to openness, mastery and spirituality requires our ongoing emotional labor. It is very different from physical or intellectual labor. It requires us to practice moving through our fears rather than being controlled by them. When we find ourselves l…

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Here’s some dirt 51:39

2y ago51:39

51:39

This episode is about dirt or, phrased more scientifically, soil. It’s about soil health, soil biodiversity and ecology. It’s a conversation with Dr. Ciska Veen, soil and ecosystems researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and Dr. Wim van der Putten, who heads terrestrial ecology at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology. (Art: J. Jackson; …

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Persistence and success in science 33:02

2y ago33:02

33:02

Jean King, who is the dean of arts and sciences at WPI-Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, talks about what Nobel Laureate Katalin Karikó means to her and about persistence and success in science. (Art: J. Jackson; Music: Towers by sero, licensed from artlist.io)By Vivien Marx

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How to get big projects to soar: Anna Barker, Ellison Institute and former principal deputy director of the US National Cancer Institute 50:29

2y ago50:29

50:29

What good does it do to start a big research project? How do you get it to soar? Dr. Anna Barker has some answers about that from the past, the present and the future. She is chief strategy officer at the Ellison Institute, a think tank and research institute. Before that, she was the principal deputy director of the US National Cancer Institute an…

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Sneak-peek of SfN 2023 33:22

2y ago33:22

33:22

The Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, a big conference in neuroscience, is about to start. This year, it's in Washington. And here is a sneak peek of the meeting for you. Along with editors at Springer Nature, I got the chance to ask a bit about the meeting before it starts shortly. It was a mash up of a press conference of sorts and a wider…

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When housing insecurity gets in the way 47:32

2y ago47:32

47:32

Science and academia need diversity. Easier said than done because, for example, many students face housing insecurity, which keeps them from a focus on their studies. But that's something students are trying to change. I spoke with current and former students at UC Santa Cruz about this. In this episode you will hear from Abbi Cundall, Natalie Cli…

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Lab languages 9:39

2y ago9:39

9:39

Labs and a lab's team members often speak many languages. Science is international. But in a lab environment languages can set people apart. I wrote a story about lab languages for Nature Methods here: https://rdcu.be/doPnv There's a blog post here: https://cellmolbiocommunity.springernature.com/posts/podcast-lab-languages . And here is more from t…

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Episode 42 - Amygdala Hijack 2023 37:49

2+ y ago37:49

37:49

Episode #42 - Amygdala Hijack 2023 Cultivating Wisdom, The MBL Program We don't know what we don't know. Intelligence without wisdom is often quite destructive. Knowledge is not wisdom. The first step in cultivating wisdom is acknowledging the magnitude of what we do not know. The next step is to move out of our "thinking mind," with its chronic ju…

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Athlete-scientists Part 2 24:51

2+ y ago24:51

24:51

Dr. Liz Bradley, who is on the computer science faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder, is an athlete-scientist. She is a mathematician and a former Olympic rower. In this podcast you will hear about her, about sweeping and sculling, about rugby, why it's good to have a notebook, about data analysis and some pitfalls that can happen in data …

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Science and the arts 1:25:29

2+ y ago1:25:29

1:25:29

Science and the arts have much to say to one another. This episode is a conversation between scientists and artists, between scientists who foster the arts through fellowships and residencies and artists active in science and people who live in both worlds: science and the arts. All this makes for interesting and sometimes challenging groups of ide…

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Trees: A conversation with David Neale, University of California, Davis 21:55

2+ y ago21:55

21:55

A conversation with David Neale, professor emeritus of the University of California Davis and director of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation. As a forester and scientist, he works on trees, also the genomics of trees to understand more about their longevity and adaptability to events such as climate change. And he wants to empower the next gen…

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Athlete-scientists Part 1 21:26

3y ago21:26

21:26

University of California San Diego researcher Dr. Gene Yeo is an athlete-scientist. He has completed two Iron Man competitions, a number of half Iron Man competitions and both full and half marathons. He says: "On these long long runs and long bike rides, you know, you get the time to sort of zone out a little bit, right. And it helps you focus on,…

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The push-pull of cells 39:35

3y ago39:35

39:35

Cells push things around and get pushed around, it's all in a day's work. Tracking this, such as by tracking actin and the cytoskeleton, takes microscopy and labels. Lifeact, for example, is a popular, widely used label. This conversation is with the Lifeact developers Dr. Michael Sixt from Institute of Science and Technology Austria and Dr. Roland…

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Episode 41 - We're Just Getting Started 28:26

3y ago28:26

28:26

Episode #41: We're Just Getting Started Organizations are beginning to understand the value and importance of emotional intelligence. This is due in part due to the challenges they are facing. There is a growing demand throughout the workforce to reduce the level of toxicity within organizations. Increasingly executives are willing to challenge the…

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Long-read sequencing: Steven Salzberg, Johns Hopkins University 38:14

3y ago38:14

38:14

Dr. Steven Salzberg is a Johns Hopkins University researcher and director of the Center for Computational Biology at Hopkins. I spoke with him about genomics, about long-read sequencing, about human biology and human diversity, about funding, technology choice, about complete and incomplete genomes, about jobs in bioinformatics. He described his te…

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Long-read sequencing: Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore Technologies. 27:22

3y ago27:22

27:22

When scientists want to know about genes, chances are they use instruments called sequencers. Some of them can generate long-reads, which helps with analyzing genomes. The method of the year according to Nature Methods is: long read-sequencing. For a story I chatted with scientists at companies and in academia about long-read sequencing and did som…

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Long-read sequencing: Jonas Korlach, CSO of Pacific Biosciences 51:58

3y ago51:58

51:58

When scientists want to know about genes, chances are they use instruments called sequencers. There are quite a few companies that make sequencers. These instruments can give a read-out for example of a stretch of DNA or many stretches of DNA, even entire genomes and many genomes. The challenge has been that the instruments deliver--short reads—sho…

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Invisible adversity 57:04

3y ago57:04

57:04

Dr Uri Manor is a researcher at the Salk Institute who studies the dynamics of cells and Aly Putnam is a PhD student at University of Massachusetts in Amherst. They work in different fields and they are at different career stages. What they have in common is that they both have faced and continue to face adversity. They face an adversity of, the mo…

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Sneak-peek of SfN 2022 34:29

3y ago34:29

34:29

Recently, we had the chance to get a sneak-peek of the meeting with the Society for Neuroscience's current leadership and to play a nerdy game with them. They are: Dr. Gina Turrigiano, Brandeis University researcher and current President of the Society for Neuroscience, Dr. Robbie Greene of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, curre…

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Creative grit: the Global South takes on COVID-19, Episode 3 16:34

3y ago16:34

16:34

This is a podcast series with some of the people I spoke with for a story about the creative grit scientists in The Global South apply in the fight against COVID-19. They collaborate, they network, they get creative to get what they need: supplies and strength for their research. In the haste to clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccines some people…

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Speaking for the ocean 22:36

3+ y ago22:36

22:36

A conversation with sailor-scientist Romain Troublé Tara Ocean Foundation. He is executive director of the foundation devoted to the ocean and ocean research. And there's a connection to the French fashion house agnès b. You have perhaps heard of the gut microbiome, the many microbes in our gut that play a large role in maintaining our health. The …

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A model is a model is a ... 32:49

3+ y ago32:49

32:49

Models are important tools: they resemble, they mimic, they imitate something to a greater or lesser extent. How similar models are to the 'real thing' is usually a challenging issue. And it's a big issue with stem-cell derived models of the human embryo. These embryo models, models of the embryo's 8-cell stage, of the blastocyst or of the gastrula…

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Creative grit: the Global South takes on COVID-19, Episode 2 31:44

3+ y ago31:44

31:44

I asked Dr. Leo Poon, who co-directs the Hong Kong University Pasteur Research Pole, if he has a fleet of private jets. He does not. But he wishes he did. He and his team have helped colleagues all over the world on COVID-19. He and his team developed a diagnostic assay quite soon after the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID…

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Ukraine and science, episode 2 19:28

3+ y ago19:28

19:28

How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine affecting scientists? Here is another episode on this with a conversation with Dr. Svitlana Dekina, a researcher at the A.V. Bogatsky Physico-Chemical Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Odessa, Ukraine. She has recently left Ukraine and is now at the European Molecular Biology Laborato…

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Ukraine and science, episode 1 30:10

3+ y ago30:10

30:10

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is affecting scientists in many different ways. Here is a conversation with Dmytro Gospodaryov, a researcher in the department of biochemistry and biotechnology at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University in Ivano-Frankivsk, West Ukraine. I spoke to him shortly after the Russian invasion in Ukraine began. And…

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Creative grit: the Global South takes on COVID-19, Episode 1 41:52

3+ y ago41:52

41:52

Virologist Dr Marycelin Baba from the University of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria is passionate about her work on viruses, She runs a World Health Organization (WHO)-accredited and WHO-sponsored lab where the team has worked, for example, on polio. When COVID-19 emerged, she and her team were prepared and she was called upon to help build capac…

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The CRISPR Children, Episode 4 1:01:58

4y ago1:01:58

1:01:58

Around three years ago, three children were born with genomes edited before their birth. They are supposedly doing ok, sources tell me. But it's hard to know for sure. Germline-genome editing is not permissible in most countries, but it might one day be performed to avoid heritable diseases that are incurable. But the technology needs to be much mo…

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Predicting protein structure, episode 4 53:06

4y ago53:06

53:06

This episode is about AlphaFold and the impact it is having on junior scientists. I spoke with a group of them from different labs at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. I spoke with Dr Isabell Bludau, a postdoctoral fellow and computational biologist in the lab of Dr Matthias Mann, Dr. Bastian Bräuning, a postdoctoral fellow and project grou…

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Predicting protein structure, episode 3 42:32

4y ago42:32

42:32

Biology and AI for predicting protein structure. This is a chat with conversation with some members of the Rost lab at the Technical University of Munich. Dr. Maria Littmann, postdoctoral fellow, and PhD students Konstantin Weissennow and Michael Heinzinger and Dr Burkhard Rost, principal investigator. We talked about AlphaFold, a computational app…

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Predicting protein structure, episode 2 35:34

4y ago35:34

35:34

Protein structure prediction is the Nature Methods Method of the Year for 2021. Here is my feature on that. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-021-01359-1 For the story, I chatted with Helen Berman, co-founder of the Protein Data Bank (PDB), which is home to experimentally determined structural data for over 180,000 proteins. What's next for th…

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Predicting protein structure, episode 1 58:37

4y ago58:37

58:37

Proteins are twirly, curly, dynamic structures. Crucial for life, complicated to study. Predicting protein structure has been tough but it's now easier as AlphaFold enters the scene. That doesn't mean that AlphaFold has solved all challenges, of course. AlphaFold was developed by DeepMind Technologies, a company that was bought by Google in 2014. L…

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The CRISPR Children, Episode 3 46:54

4y ago46:54

46:54

To go along with my investigative story The CRISPR Children in Nature Biotechnology, I am producing a rolling series of podcasts. This episode is a chat with Dr. Eben Kirksey, an anthropologist at Deakin University, which has campuses in and near Melbourne, Australia. He has written a book called The Mutant Project, Inside the Global Race to Geneti…

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The CRISPR Children, Episode 2 22:36

4y ago22:36

22:36

The CRISPR Children is a podcast series about the children whose genomes were edited before their birth in 2018. The podcasts accompany a story I did about these children in Nature Biotechnology by the same name. You can find the story here: https://rdcu.be/cB7Nx The children were born somewhere in China. They came about due to experiments performe…

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The CRISPR children, Episode 1 34:38

4y ago34:38

34:38

The CRISPR Children is a series of podcasts about the children whose genomes were edited before their birth in 2018. The podcasts accompany a story I did about these children in Nature Biotechnology by the same name. You can find the story here: https://rdcu.be/cB7Nx The children were born somewhere in China and the result of experiments performed …

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Ask the crab 19:48

4y ago19:48

19:48

Neuroscientists use models of the brain to study the brain. One of those model types: organoids. One way to get a conversation with a neuroscientist started badly is to ask them about the 'mini-brains' in the dish on their lab bench. It’s not that the blob in the dish doesn’t somehow look like a piece of living tissue that could be a piece of brain…

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Not lost in space Episode #2 41:26

4+ y ago41:26

41:26

This podcast is with Dr. Hongkui Zeng who directs the Allen Institute for Brain Science and Dr. Bolisjka Tasic who directs Molecular Genetics at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. It’s about how spatially resolved transcriptomics, a Nature Methods Method of the Year, can help to understand the brain. I did a story about it here: https://www.nat…

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Episode 98|BBL vs MBL 1:15:52

4+ y ago1:15:52

1:15:52

In this episode the crew discuss the following..Met Gala & Nikki & swollen balls(6:30) Is college the standard? (30:00)S/O Ty & the W(59:00 )Joy Taylor and dem Titties (Lawd😩)--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/councilintheclutch/message