Podcast
Dementia Researcher Blogs
Hosted by Dementia Researcher · EN
Dementia Researcher blogs are written and then narrated by the authors. Through this podcast channel, we share the narrations, so you can listen back where ever you get your podcasts, as well as on our website - careers, research and your science. Brought to you by www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk - everything you need, all in one place.
41episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Report, Out Loud: Listening to Early Career Researchers
3d ago00:23:03Tap to summarizeThis episode works through Listening to Early Career Researchers, the 2022 survey report from UCL and ISTAART PEERs. It captured the views of early career researchers across the world.Work is currently underways to run this same survey again, so we thought this was a good time to recap on the original findings.The discussion follows the data rather than the headlines: why people come into dementia research, what keeps them awake at night, and why so many told us they were considering leaving the field. It ends on a more hopeful note about what it would take to bring people back.A note on how this was made. The audio is an AI generated discussion, produced using Google's NotebookLM from the text of the report. The two voices are synthetic, and the framing, emphasis and phrasing are the model's rather than ours. We have checked it against the source for accuracy, but it is best treated as a way into the report rather than a replacement for reading it. This is a pilot, and we are trying it out to see whether it is worth doing more of. We would genuinely like to know what you think: whether it worked for you, what fell flat, and whether you would like more episodes like this. Do let us know.Reference: Smith, AM., Shaaban, C.E., Bartels, S.L., Welikovitch, L., Brum, W., Folarin, R. (2022). Listening to Early Career Researchers. University College London, ISTAART PIA to Elevate Early Career Researchers.Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Dr Tatiana A. Giovannucci - If I Fall Behind, I'll Fall Into Torpor
4d ago00:08:26Tap to summarizeDr Tatiana A. Giovannucc narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.Tatiana's blog is not what you might expect. It is a speculative fiction, set in a near future where AI-driven energy demands and climate collapse have forced governments to ration heating and power, and academics have been classified as non-essential. The only escape from enforced hibernation, which the world calls "the long sleep", is to prove your research is exceptional enough to warrant the electricity. Tatiana's narrator is hours from her exemption panel interview, performing a protein assay to calm her nerves, and asking herself whether she is "there yet".The neuroscience is real: the history of torpor research, the compounds that could induce it, the brain regions involved.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-if-i-fall-behind-ill-fall-into-torpor/--Dr Tatiana A. Giovannucci is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL's Institute of Neurology, Dementia Research Centre and UK Dementia Research Institute, studying the turnover of proteins relevant to neurodegeneration. She holds an Alzheimer's Association Research Fellowship and is part of a Race Against Dementia team, having completed her PhD at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm before joining UCL in 2022. Originally from Medellín, Colombia, she can usually be found upside down doing acroyoga when not in the lab.Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Beccy Owen - The Trials and Tribulations of Electrophysiology
1w ago00:09:47Tap to summarizeBeccy Owen narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.Electrophysiology has taken up roughly 80% of Beccy's thoughts this past year, so she has written about it. Beccy is a PhD student at the University of Warwick studying how tau drives ion channel dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease, and she uses whole-cell patch-clamp and extracellular field recordings to do it. In this blog she walks through what these techniques actually involve.She writes about crying the first time she got a stable recording, dreaming about pipette tips, and the friend who genuinely wondered if she would have to change projects. The science is serious. The journey to being any good at it is, by Beccy's own account, fairly chaotic.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-the-trials-and-tribulations-of-electrophysiology/--Beccy Owen is a PhD Researcher at the University of Warwick, exploring how tau pathology disrupts neuronal ion channels and brain network activity in Alzheimer’s disease. As part of the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Programme, her work uses electrophysiology to better understand the molecular drivers of neurodegeneration. Originally from the Welsh countryside, Beccy’s passion for dementia research was shaped during her postgraduate studies and through personal experience with a family member living with the condition. She will be sharing her journey, insights, and lessons learned throughout her PhD here on the blog.Find Becky on LinkedIn--Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukThis podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.--Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Dr Sam Moxon - Unexpected Things Dementia Teaches us About Time
2w ago00:04:58Tap to summarizeDr Sam Moxon narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher.We tend to picture dementia as a slow decline measured in months and years, tracked through cognitive scores and longitudinal data. Sam has watched several relatives live with the condition, and from a family seat it looks nothing like a line on a graph. In this blog he writes about his grandfather, who some days could hold a full conversation and other days had no idea who Sam was. Time stopped behaving normally. It folded back on itself when a question got asked again five minutes later, stretched out as his grandfather paused to think, then collapsed entirely after long spells of apparent stability.In this blog Sam asks a question that should matter to every dementia researcher: when we say a therapy slows progression, do we mean more real time with the people we love, or just a graph that looks better? Behind every data point is an experience, and it might look nothing like the trend in our papers.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-unexpected-things-dementia-teaches-us-about-time/--Dr Sam Moxon is a biomaterials Research Fellow at University of Birmingham. His expertise falls on the interface between biology and engineering. His PhD focussed on regenerative medicine and he now works on trying to develop 3D bioprinting techniques with human stem cells, so that we better understand and treat degenerative diseases. He is also the Founder and CEO of Aegis FibreTech. Outside of the lab he hikes through the Lake District and is an expert on all things Disney.--Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukThis podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.--Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Rahul Sidhu - Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking
2w ago00:07:02Tap to summarizeRahul Sidhu narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher.Rahul used to dread public speaking more than data analysis or academic scrutiny. A few years on, he gives talks to full rooms, chairs sessions at international conferences in Toronto and Washington DC, and speaks as a Global Ambassador for the Alzheimer's Association. In this blog he shares the seven things that got him there, from accepting that nobody starts good at this, to building slides that help rather than hinder, to speaking with energy instead of just slowing down. His point throughout is that strong speaking is a trainable skill, not a talent you either have or you don't. The nerves never fully went away. He just learnt to work with them, and so can you.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-overcoming-the-fear-of-public-speaking/--Rahul Sidhu is a PhD student at The University of Sheffield, focusing on the effects of heart disease on dementia in preclinical models of Alzheimer's disease. His research aims to uncover how cardiovascular health influences neurodegenerative conditions, potentially leading to novel therapeutic strategies. Find Rahul on LinkedIn--Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukThis podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.--Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Dr Clíona Farrell - It’s getting (too) hot in here; the climate crisis and brain health
3w ago00:07:09Tap to summarizeDr Clíona Farrell narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.Clíona writes from this year's Hot Brain conference, an annual meeting hosted by UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and The Lancet Neurology that asks what the climate crisis is doing to our brains. She walks through what's already known (air pollution is now a recognised modifiable risk factor for dementia), what's emerging (people with dementia were among the leading causes of excess deaths during the 2022 UK heatwave), and the questions still wide open. She also covers thermoregulation research, the case for saunas and hot-water immersion as protective strategies, and a quietly important methodological point for every lab: stop writing "room temperature" in your methods section. A blog for anyone who has been quietly despairing about the climate and wondering what it has to do with dementia research.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-its-getting-too-hot-in-here-the-climate-crisis-brain-health/----Dr Clíona Farrell is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London. Her work focuses on understanding neuroinflammation in Down syndrome, both prior to, and in response to, Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Clíona completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience in Trinity College, and then worked as a research assistant in the Royal College of Surgeons studying ALS and Parkinson’s disease. She also knows the secret behind scopping the perfect 99 ice-cream cone.--Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukThis podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.--Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Dr Yvonne Couch - The Contradictions & Challenges of the Junior PI
3w ago00:09:53Tap to summarizeDr Yvonne Couch narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.Yvonne reflects on the contradiction at the heart of being a junior PI: you are expected to mentor, lead and invest in the people who join your lab, but you also need them to produce so you can publish, win the next grant and stay employed. Yvonne writes about losing an RA she could not afford to keep, the structural way junior labs train people up only to lose them to bigger, better-resourced ones, and her struggle to define what her job actually is when the criteria keep shifting. She lands on her friend Lorraine's eulogy exercise as a way through it.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-the-contradictions-challenges-of-the-junior-pi/----Dr Yvonne Couch is a Research Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford. Yvonne studies the role of extracellular vesicles and their role in changing the function of the vasculature after stroke, aiming to discover why the prevalence of dementia after stroke is three times higher than the average. It is her passion for problem solving and love of science that drives her, in advancing our knowledge of disease. Yvonne writes about her work, academic life, and careers as she takes a new road into independent research.--Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukThis podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.--Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Dr Toby Williamson - Finding values in research and dementia
3w ago00:15:40Tap to summarizeDr Toby Williamson narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher.In this blog, Toby explores how values shape dementia research, even when we tell ourselves research is neutral. He looks at the tension between biomedical and social models of disability, the limits of evidence-based practice when the evidence base is thin or contested, and the case for values-based practice as a complement to EBP. Drawing on his PhD at the Geller Institute for Ageing and Memory (completed at 62), he reflects on what counts as evidence, what gets funded, and what gets overlooked. He closes with an invitation: as the new editor of the Journal of Dementia Care, he wants to hear from early-career researchers who want to publish their work in front of practitioners.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-finding-values-in-research-and-dementia/--Dr Toby Williamson is Editor of the Journal of Dementia Care and an independent health and social care consultant. He has over 30 years’ experience in adult and older people’s mental health, dementia and mental capacity, with a particular interest in values, rights, lived experience and inclusion. He is a published author and co authored The Dementia Manifesto.Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Dr Becky Carlyle - Building accessible and inclusive research environments
4w ago00:08:42Tap to summarizeDr Becky Carlyle narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.In this blog, Becky writes up what she took from a panel of disabled researchers hosted by her department's Disability Working Group, and turns it into practical guidance for managers and PIs. She covers flexible working, communication that respects privacy, the often-exhausting process of securing accommodations, and the case for designing labs so accessibility is built in from the start rather than bolted on later. Becky shares figures that should give the sector pause, including the gap between the proportion of working-age people with a disability and the share of the STEMM workforce, and argues that accessibility is not a niche concern but a core part of building better science.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-building-accessible-inclusive-research-environments/--Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →
Emily Spencer - Life After the PhD: My Fellowship Application
May 600:06:31Tap to summarizeEmily Spencer narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.With less than five months of PhD funding left, Emily found herself doing the opposite of what felt sensible. Instead of locking in on her analysis, she spent two months preparing a postdoctoral fellowship application. In this blog she writes about the strange shift from career fog to a clearer sense of direction, the reality of using conversation analysis on video recordings of GP consultations involving people with dementia, and why letting go of her data at the end of her PhD started to feel impossible. A useful listen for anyone navigating the awkward gap between thesis submission and whatever comes next.https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-life-after-the-phd-my-fellowship-application/----Emily Spencer is a PhD Student at University College London looking at improving how GPs communicate with people with dementia and their family carers about their future care. Emily previous had a 5 year career break to pursue a career as a musician, and has previously undertaken research on improving the care people with dementia receive from their GP practice, as well as end-of-life and palliative care provision in the community. Emily is also a new mum and will be writing about her experiences navigating motherhood and a research career.--Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukThis podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.--Leave us a Tiphttps://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Transcribe →