Declan Kunkel: Death Penalty, Political Polarization, and Financial Literacy
Declan Kunkel is a graduate of Yale University and current graduate student at Cambridge.
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1:34:47
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1:34:47
Katya Ivshina: Applied Math PhD @Harvard • Geometric Machine Learning
Katya Ivshina is a PhD student in Applied Mathematics at Harvard studying geometric machine learning
Katya's Instagram: @katya.ivshina
Katya's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KatyaIvshina
YouTube канал Кати на русском: https://www.youtube.com/@ekaterinaivshina
Timestamps:
(0:00) Intro
(1:16) Katya’s research explained at two different levels
(23:25) What excites you about the future of this field?
(29:20) Katya’s journey to doing a PhD at Harvard
(42:20) Cultural differences in the US
(54:22) What do you do outside of research and academics?
(1:03:20) Advice for current and prospective grad students
(1:14:05) Closing question: Topological data analysis explained simply
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1:26:11
Ana Tsai: Fruit Fly Embryos, Immortality and California Strawberries
Ana Tsai is a PhD student in Biology at MIT from Stockton, California.
(0:30) What was your childhood like?
(3:25) Growing up with mixed heritage
(9:50) Smell of freshly picked tomatoes
(11:57) Did you ever imagine becoming a grad student?
(15:18) Researching immortality
(20:24) What do you do on a daily basis, Zelda protein
(24:30) Humans (and fruit flies) are basically a donut
(25:10) Optogenetics
(28:40) Generalizing from fruit flies to other species
(32:00) Setting goals in grad school
(34:20) Teaching and connecting with students
(42:00) Breaking out of bubbles
(51:00) Bees are really cute
(55:00) Potlucks with friends
(57:15) Where do you see yourself going after grad school?
(1:07:00) What would you tell someone who’s thinking about going into research?
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1:11:33
Gun Ahn: Understanding Happiness & Depression
Gun Ahn is a visiting graduate student at MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where he studies pathways in the brain that are important for our understanding of depression. He is the author of several books, including one about why Finland has the reputation as the happiest country in the world.
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1:13:09
Anna Ivanova: Language and Thought in the Brain
Anna Ivanova recently completed a PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT. She studies language and cognition in the brain using tools such as fMRI brain imaging. She is now starting a post-doctoral researcher position at the MIT Quest for Intelligence.
Language models & speech vs. thought: https://theconversation.com/googles-powerful-ai-spotlights-a-human-cognitive-glitch-mistaking-fluent-speech-for-fluent-thought-185099
Language vs. computer code comprehension: https://news.mit.edu/2020/brain-reading-computer-code-1215
Mental health blog post: https://oge.mit.edu/the-breaking-point/
About Modus Mirandi Podcast with Thomas Hikaru Clark
Hi, I'm Thomas Hikaru Clark! I grew up in Tokyo in a multi-cultural family where I learned to be always curious about the world. I've worked at a startup in Rome, been a high school teacher, meditated with Zen Buddhist monks in Japan, volunteered in Russia, and studied rituals in India. I now study language and cognition at MIT. Each episode, I talk with a guest and try to learn something new. There's no consistent theme between episodes, and the episode titles usually don't cover everything we talk about!
Listen to Modus Mirandi Podcast with Thomas Hikaru Clark, The Louis Theroux Podcast and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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