Scientists, a comedian co-host, and a radio mic.
Lab Talk with Laura brings researchers into the WMUA 91.1 FM studio in Amherst, usually with a comedian co-host at the table. The conversations run from prions in yeast and drinking water in intermittent pipe systems to COVID-19 testing and the power imbalances of graduate school.
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Lab Talk with Laura is a science interview show heard on 91.1 FM, WMUA Amherst. Several episodes open with a jingle by Matt Woodland that promises the show 'won't never bore ya.' The usual setup, as Laura describes it, is a studio, a couple of scientists and a comedian co-host. Guests in these episodes range from graduate students to faculty and a college dean, some of them from UMass Amherst. They get room to explain their work plainly, and the talk wanders when it wants to. The prion conversation shows the formula at its best. Tricia Serio, a UMass professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and dean of the College of Natural Science, studies how proteins change their 3D shape and how those shapes are copied and lead to disease. Her collaborator Suzanne, an associate professor of applied mathematics at UC Merced, joins by phone. The discussion runs from yeast, where prions cause no harm, to fatal familial insomnia and chronic wasting disease in elk and deer. Then a guest declares that last one the greatest band name in the world. Other episodes stay closer to the ground. Mimi Alcatan, a PhD candidate in civil and environmental engineering, studies drinking water in intermittent pipe systems in low- and middle-income countries, and Flint comes up along the way. A studio full of STEMSEAS alumni recall standing iceberg watch on a ship's bridge, learning plate tectonics and seeing Iceland's columnar basalts. That prompts a joking case for the basalts near Holyoke, Massachusetts. When the pandemic changed the routine, one episode became a socially distanced phone call with Anna Minkina about COVID-19 test kits, reagent shortages and how a 15-minute test might avoid the temperature cycles of PCR. The show also looks at the culture of science itself. Laura says episode 35 comes after more than two years without a new release, and it gathers interviews from the Second National Conference on Justice in Geoscience. One speaker recounts an advisor who had graduate students spy on each other and leaned on precarious visas, and points to unions and new rules about advising as ways to shift power. Two of the conference's three organizers, Raquel Bryant and Benjamin Kiesling, had been interviewed on episode 12 in 2018, when both were graduate students. A special produced for the Geological Society of America marks ten years of its On to the Future program. In it, Dr. Angel A. Garcia Jr. is a guest and the talk turns to affinity groups meeting at GSA, with comedian Sean Calhoun of Holyoke in the co-host chair. For a first listen, the prion episode has the jokes and the science at full strength. The justice conference episode shows how directly the show can talk about power inside academic research.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants working scientists to explain their research in plain, conversational terms and doesn't mind a joke landing in the middle of a talk about prions or plate tectonics. It also fits someone curious about equity, mentorship and power in geoscience and academic research.
What sets it apart: It is homegrown radio: researchers sit beside a comedian co-host at WMUA, and the talk slides easily from yeast prions to band names. It also gives real airtime to justice and diversity in geoscience, through conference interviews and a special made for the Geological Society of America.
A weekly radio show where Laura Fattaruso and a local comic interview STEM researchers at UMass Amherst. Fun, casual, informative! Online hosting supported by the Emrick Polymer Science Lab at UMass. Laura's research and outreach are funded by the National Science Foundation.
A prion disease inspires a hypothetical band name, and your science curiosity gets permission to laugh.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm geoscience conversation about mentorship, affinity groups, and finding belonging in the field.
Lab Talk with Laura considers diversity in geoscience through the practical work of belonging: mentorship, affinity groups, and the communities that make a field feel less distant. Dr. Angel A. Garcia, Jr.
A conference return that links geoscience inequity to advisors, visas, labor, and institutional power.
After more than two years away, Lab Talk with Laura returns through interviews from the Second National Conference on Justice in Geoscience, asking what meaningful change in the earth sciences would actually take. The episode grounds that question in the organizing work of Dr.
A clear phone conversation about COVID-19 testing, from reagent shortages to copying viral genetic information.
COVID-19 testing is framed here less as a headline and more as a lab workflow problem. In a phone conversation between the Lab Talk host and a University of Washington genomics Ph.D.
A grounded STEM SEAS review of earth science, mentorship, and the reality of life aboard a ship.
STEM SEAS is framed as both a hands-on field classroom and a grounded look at what life at sea can feel like. Raquel Bryant, a PhD student in the Geosciences Department at UMass, speaks from long involvement with the program and from her work as a graduate student mentor. Dr.
A water-focused conversation links research in Tobago and intermittent drinking-water systems to who gets protected.
Lab Talk with Laura gives water research a clear human scale in its 32nd episode, with Marsha Allen discussing work based in Tobago and Mimi Alcatan explaining her study of water quality in intermittent piped drinking water in low- and middle-income countries.
A clear, uneasy conversation about protein shapes, prions, chronic wasting disease, and the species barrier.
Lab Talk with Laura follows protein shape replication into the stranger, more uneasy terrain of prion disease. Tricia Serio explains how proteins can change their 3D shape, how those shapes are copied, and why that process matters when disease enters the picture.
Catastrophe, climate, and deep-time detective work.
Climate action, with laughs and muddy boots.
Mining models, reserves, and judgment.
["David Davis says he nominated himself for the GSA Diversity Committee because there are not many Black people in geology and geosciences.", "Lab Talk with Laura episode 36 brings together host Laura, co-host John Calhoun, guest Angel Garcia Jr., and guest David Davis to connect that committee work to On to the Futures.", "Angel describes moving from OTF student to mentor to chair, and both guests argue that mentoring should be trained, reciprocal, and long-term instead of copied from harsh advisors.", "The episode also covers David's halophile experiments on salt precipitation and Mars biosignatures, plus Angel's push for affinity groups and a technical session in Spanish at GSA."]
Lab Talk with Laura episode 35 covers the Second National Conference on Justice in Geoscience, held August 14-18, 2022, at AGU headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Lab Talk with Laura shifts to a phone interview with Anna Minkina to explain why U.S.
Lab Talk with Laura brings STEM SEAS alumni and staff into the studio to explain how undergraduate research cruises work and why AGU keeps showing up in their stories.
["Lab Talk with Laura episode 32 pairs Marsha Allen's Tobago groundwater research with Mimi Alcatan's intermittent water supply study, all framed by Kim DeShields' co-hosting.", "Marsha says some Tobago sub-catchments produce more than 500 times calculated recharge, and she uses geochemistry, stable isotopes, and age-dating to test how fractured rocks move water north to south.", "Mimi describes two 20-foot PVC pipe loops in Amherst, one continuous and one run Tuesday and Friday for six hours, to compare water quality under scheduled supply.", "The conversation links Trinidad and Tobago's tanks, WASA water schedules, the 2013-2016 Caribbean drought, and climate projections to 2100 with a practical question about how much water small islands can safely store and pump."]
Tricia Serio, Suzanne Cindy, and Ange Buxton explain how prion proteins change shape, form stable aggregates, and contribute to fatal diseases such as CJD.
Lab Talk with Laura's 30th episode combines Laura's interview with UMass geoscience graduate student Caroline Ladlow and five interviews recorded at the 2018 American Geophysical Union conference in Washington, D.C.
Lab Talk with Laura features Sam Marzin, Robin Zolnar, Sanket Sabnas, and Taylor Ortiz discussing OSTEM at UMass Amherst, a queer STEM organization that grew from a small founding group to a meeting of about 40 people.
Lab Talk with Laura features Alina Blanova explaining Bose-Einstein condensates, rubidium atoms, and quantum behavior near nanokelvin temperatures.
Laura interviews participants at a women and non-binary hackathon at UMass Amherst, discussing computer science and the event.
Laura interviews earthquake researchers at the SCEC meeting and discusses their work with studio guests.
Laura interviews earthquake researchers at the Southern California Earthquake Center meeting and discusses the interviews with guests.
Laura interviews two STEM researchers about nanocrystals for LEDs/solar cells and ocean sediment climate reconstruction.
Laura interviews two kinesiology researchers about physical activity, cardiometabolic health, and fall risk in older adults.
Laura interviews two geoscience graduate students about their research and the BRIDGE program at UMass Amherst.
Laura interviews Dr.