Chemistry, queerness and grad school, told by the chemists
Bec and Geraldo are PhD candidates themselves, and they interview LGBTQ+ chemists at many stages, from undergraduates to industry scientists, about their work and the lives around it. The talk is loose and encouraging, and the chemistry, from atomic force microscopy to printing ink, always comes attached to a person's story.
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My Fave Queer Chemist is a conversation show about being LGBTQ+ in chemistry and about the long road of school and research that comes with the field. Bec and Geraldo host. They are PhD candidates themselves, and that shapes everything. Their guests are sometimes a few steps behind them, sometimes right beside them, and sometimes much further along. Ethan Chavarin, a third-year chemistry student at Cal Poly Pomona, gives practical advice about getting into research: make friends in your department, and look for campus fellowships that pair students with mentors and teach how papers get published. Matthew Welmers, of INX Int. Ink Co. and oSTEM, is the guest when ink becomes a tour of an 'invisible industry'. By the end, a chip bag looks like a small piece of engineering, its print reversed and pressed onto an aluminum backing so it never touches the food. The episode with Dr. Brennan Kessenich of the National Park Service gets detailed about atomic force microscopy. It covers measurements below a nanometer and the thin, peelable layers of mica that give a sample a flat surface. The science is specific. It is never the whole point. Dr. Vanessa Ralph, a chemistry education researcher, describes pushback from co-writers, editors, reviewers and conference audiences when she insisted on naming racism and oppression in her work on assessment design. The show's usual warmth has room for that kind of serious conversation. Viktor Belay, a biophysics PhD student at Weill Cornell Medicine, describes a path that began with a double degree in math and physics at American University. In a check-in episode, the hosts turn the microphone on themselves. With their friend Sarah Champagne, they take stock of the third year of graduate school: the bad weeks, and the strange overnight shift that turns a younger student into the person the lab comes to with questions. The Pride Summer 2022 series changed the setup, bringing in guest hosts such as Stephanie Berg, Cassie Chartier and Filipe Cerqueira, with each episode tied to a fundraiser. The causes named include the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, Black and Pink and the Ali Forney Center. The pace stays relaxed throughout, and guests are free to find their point as they talk. The hosts fill the gaps with agreement, laughter and quick moments of shared recognition, and some episodes open with a joke sponsor such as the new year. Each episode ends with an invitation to nominate future guests. It is a warm, generous place to hear who actually does chemistry and how they got there.
Made for: Suits a listener who follows chemistry or academic science and wants to hear LGBTQ+ researchers describe their work, mentors and career paths in their own words, at a relaxed pace.
What sets it apart: It keeps detailed chemistry, from atomic force microscopy to ink printing, in the same conversation as queer identity, mentorship and the ups and downs of graduate school. It has also handed the microphone to guest hosts for a Pride fundraising series.
Chemistry! Queerness! The Trials and Tribulations of Graduate School! MFQC spills the tea on it all. Join Bec and Geraldo twice a month as they interview LGBTQ+ chemists on their research interests and experiences with identity, challenges, and achievements in the chemistry field. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll learn all the ins and outs of queer culture. Follow us on twitter at @MFQCPod or send us an email at [email protected]
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Technical chemistry and candid career talk meet in interviews showing how identity, institutions, and laboratory practice shape one another.
My Fave Queer Chemist treats chemistry as both laboratory work and a lived career. Bec and Geraldo build interviews around how queer chemists arrived at their research, how institutions shape their progress, and what the work actually involves.
Scotch tape gets a cameo beside $600 microscope probes, if that's your kind of chemistry story.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A first undergraduate-student episode that keeps its focus on practical research advice.
My Fave Queer Chemist centers Ethan Chabron, the show's first undergraduate student, and keeps its attention on the practical side of research. It follows his work in Dr.
Matthew Wellmers' path from Rose-Hulman and engine-oil additives to industrial printing ink feels grounded in everyday chemistry.
The episode follows Matthew Wellmers, an analytical chemist at INX, and keeps its focus on the kind of industrial work that usually stays out of sight.
A candid grad-school check-in that turns fatigue and grant writing into something worth hearing.
Sarah Champagne's third-year graduate school check-in has an easy pull because it starts with a rough week and a conference trip that left everyone worn down, then settles into the sharper shift that comes with becoming the older student in the room.
A queer chemistry interview that turns microscopy, mica, and lab improvisation into career texture.
The Pride Summer 2022 conversation gives Dr. Brennan Kesnik room to describe a scientific life driven by too many fascinations at once, and that restless mix becomes the point. Dr.
A Pride episode linking chemistry, queer identity, and frank talk about racism in academia.
My Fave Queer Candidates gives Stephanie Berg the mic for a Pride episode with Dr. Vanessa Ralph, a chemistry PhD who brings critical theory to the work of helping students of color in academia.
Research made practical, patient, and public.
Chemistry with the footnotes left in.
The periodic table, read by a business desk.
Bench-level chromatography questions, answered in full.
Ethan brings undergraduate chemistry into the room.
Matthew starts with ink.
Grad school feels rough today.
Brennan's science gets small in the best way.
Stephanie Berg hosts the Pride Summer 2022 episode.
An interview with a biophysics PhD student about their research and experiences as an LGBTQ+ scientist.
Hosts interview LGBTQ+ chemists about their research and experiences, with a special Pride episode raising funds for an LGBTQ+ center.
Bec and Geraldo host a Pride Summer Finale interview with Dr.