Everything STEAM

Parasite Researcher and Science Communicator Mewysocks joined the podcast to talk about parasites and public health!

Love space? You’ve come to the right place. In this episode, we talk cover the timeline of our Sun, the regions of our solar system, and the coolest part, the oceanic worlds that reside in our system like Europa & Ceres!

Climate change is both natural and human caused, but how do we know? In this podcast we brought in the big guns to discuss; what climate change is, the history of climate change, how we collect data from trees, ice, rocks and other means to code models that we can interpret... and then we finish discussing how our society can tackle climate change on a large scale. Rather than just telling you to go ride a bike, buy an electric car or recycle.. Enjoy!

Landslides can occur almost everywhere, but why? In this episode, our returning guest, Sebastian Lobo-Guerrero, (PhD & Geotechnical Engineer) describes what Landslides are, how they occur and what effects it has on the landscape. Oh and of course some really cool remediation and prevention tactics!

Meet Sebastian Lobo-Guerrero;

Sebastian is a 19year Geotechnical Engineer that hails from Bogota, Columbia. In 2020, Sebastian was named as the Civil Engineer of the Year in the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Society of Engineers, and has many esteemed accolades including this the ASCE Lifetime Achievement Award. One that stands out is that he has over 80 published papers and presentations all over the world on Geotechnical Engineering and possesses one of the best personalities I have ever come across.

Meet the man behind the microphone that brings you our content! 

We discuss what big numbers are and why they are so important! Then of course we address very interesting examples of big numbers, such as the amount of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy… the approximate number of grains of sand in a beach and the amount of molecules that are in one singular breath of air. So enjoy an entertaining, practical and fact-packed episode on the big numbers that surround us.

Guest Star:

Matthew Broussard; Matthew Broussard is a disgraced financial analyst forced into stand up comedy. The byproduct of a Cajun chemist and Jewish microbiologist, he holds a degree in computational mathematics that he always manages to bring up (just did it!) and is fully aware of how douchey he looks. His comedy is heady, self-effacing, and weirdly… educational? He's performed on the Tonight Show, Conan, Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle, the Comedy Central Half Hour, and some stuff with MTV2 he doesn’t like to talk about. You can catch him in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The League, The Mindy Project, and alongside Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish in the film Here Today. And last but not least, he is the creator of the webcomic and puzzle app, Monday Punday.

Everything STEAM recognizes the heroes that have pushed the boundaries in diversity, leadership and innovation. Some of these heroes include Lonnie Johnson, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Frederick McKinley Jones & Katherine Johnson! In the episode, we discuss why diversity in STEAM is very important in the pursuit of equity and equality in society at large. Involving real world examples that emphasize the why leadership roles and inclusion is vital to providing an end product that benefits everyone.

Guest Stars:

Jared Green; Jared has a BS in Civil Engineering from Syracuse University and a MS in Civil Engineering - with a Geotechnical focus from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jared is a geotechnical engineer with extensive experience in complex geotechnical projects throughout the New York Metropolitan Area, and Philadelphia. He manages multi-discipline projects that include the monitoring of geotechnical instrumentation; analysis, design and construction inspection.

In 2019, he was inducted into the Academy of Geo-Professionals as a Diplomate of Geotechnical Engineering. He is one of the youngest engineers in the world to have received this certification. And of course, he was selected as one of the 2021 Crain’s New York Notable Black Leaders and Executives.

For involvement, he serves on several industry and non-profit Boards and committees, while actively serving on the Diversity, Equity + Inclusion Corporate Committee for Langan as well as the DE+I Corporate Liaison to the Black Professionals at Langan Employee Resource Group.

Dr. Nosakhere Griffin-EL; Dr. Griffin-EL completed his undergraduate degree in History at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He also holds a Ph.D. in Administrative and Policy Studies from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education. After graduating, he spent 4 years as a lecturer of Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.

Nosakhere is the Co-Founder of the Young Dreamers’ Bookstore and in April of 2018, he co-founded The Dreamocracy Learning Lab, which is an innovative literacy organization that connects dreaming to reading. Through his community based literacy work, Nosakhere received 90 Communities 90 Great Stories Award from WESA 90.5 (Pittsburgh’s local NPR radio station).

Dr. Griffin-EL is regarded as an early childhood literacy expert, children’s book expert, community advocate, and thought leader in literacy innovation.

This episode is packed full of brewing and beer science! We plan to cover steps and science of the brewing process, along with the characteristics of beers you may encounter. 

Guest Stars: 

Lauren Hughes; Lauren is the Head Brewer at Necromancer Brewing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Previously she was the Assistant Head Brewer at Penn Brewery and Assistant Brewer at Rock Bottom Brewery! Her Education involves; Brewing and Malting Science Course Certificate - University of Madison Wisconsin - KU Leuven Certificate in The Science of Brewing - 2020Lauren is also involved in: Vice President, District Pittsburgh Master Brewers Master Brewers Association of the Americas Member of the Pittsburgh Brewery Diversity Council ABD DM of Brass Pedagogy - Indiana University MM French Horn Performance - Indiana University BM French Horn Performance - Florida State University Fun Fact ; Lauren enjoys Longsword Fencing as a hobby! 

Dr. Robert Parker;  Dr. Robert Parker is the Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Robert v.d. Luft Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Education BS Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester, 1994 PhD Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware, 1999 Brewing Experience Homebrewer since 2000 Co-founder (w/ Jason Geouque and Rick Malsch), 30 Bridges Brewing 2018 AIChE Beer Brewing Competition “BJCP Best in Show” and “People’s Choice Award” for Kilted Panther Stout (w/ Jim Schneider and Michelle Pressly) Developed Pitt’s ENGR 1933 - Science, Technology, and Culture of Craft Brewing in 2017

Learn about the four fundamental forces that consist of; Gravity, Electromagnetism, and the Strong Nuclear & Weak Nuclear forces. These forces apply to all of our daily activities, resources, motions…. everything! Without these forces, the universe… although it only consists of 5% visible matter… would be a much different place and arguably have no capability of life. After the hot period of the Big Bang, these forces have been the reason for matter in the cosmos. This podcast takes a simplistic approach to introducing these forces. Enjoy!

Guest Stars:

Dillion Cottril; Dillion holds two degrees from West Virginia University in Physics and Economics, and is currently pursuing a masters in Physics. In reference to Physics, Dillion started the West Virginia University Quantum Technology club, and has worked for Inside Quantum Technology as a market analyst. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games and reading.

Eva Beeching;  Eva graduated with a BS in Computational Physics in May 2021 from Slippery Rock University. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in applied physics and materials science at Northern Arizona University. Eva is also a Researcher at the Center for Materials and Interfaces Research and Applications (MIRA), where she works on gold nanoclusters for biological systems.

Comets, asteroids and ice ages oh my! In the Earth’s 4.6 Billion years in existence, and the time that life has habituated on it (3.7-3.8billion years), there has been six… mass extinctions. In this episode, we plan to cover them all! From the Ordovician all the way to the Holocene that you… yes you, are living in right now. In three fact packed segments, our Host Sam Stanford and Guest Stars Katherine Parsons and Trevor Rempert plan to quickly address how we know these mass extinction events happened, how they happened, how much disappearance they caused, and finally….. how they changed the course of life! History, paleontology, climatology, physics, astronomy, geology and many other topics will be highlighted in the discussion. 

Guest Stars: 

Katherine Parsons; Katherine is a paleo-artist, paleontologist, and geology student graduating in December from Middle Tennessee University and has been working for 4 years at the Earth Experience Museum in Murfreesboro, TN. Katie focuses her studies and work on the late Cretaceous dinosaurs in the Hell Creek Formation and specializes in their fossil reproduction. You can find some of her work on Instagram @katie.digs.dinos.

Trevor Rempert; Trevor is a Master’s student at Case Western Reserve University studying Medical Physiology. Prior to his current education, he received his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University in Biomedical Engineering. In addition to studying medicine, Trevor is an avid avocational paleontologist whose hobby has taken him across the United States in search of fossils. Trevor’s most recent project involves studying the biodiversity of mosasaurs in the Late Cretaceous of Morocco just prior to the K-T extinction.

Everyone questions how life would end every once in a while. Topics such as asteroid impacts, climate catastrophe, AI, viral epidemic and others will highlight the episode. To tackle all these topics, we pulled together our Physics & Engineering college group. Enjoy our interesting presentations and conversations that follow these life-ending possibilities!

Guest Stars:  

Panyapit Uareksit; Pan became an exchange student here in the US during his Junior year of high school and decided to go to college starting at Slippery Rock University. Pan had to be a copycat… but him and I have quite similar degrees and professions. He graduated from Pitt and Slippery Rock like myself with dual degrees in Physics and Engineering. Currently, Panyapit is our Quality Control Manager with the podcast and is working as a Civil Engineer back in his home country, Thailand.  

Wyatt Rosenberger; Wyatt studied physics and mathematics at Slippery Rock University and is now pursuing a masters in data analytics there.  Currently Wyatt is working under contract as an integration analyst for Innovu, Inc.  Like many other people in this episode, I tutored Physics with Wyatt back in Slippery Rock. Wyatt also plans to Co-Host some upcoming episodes with me in the near future, so stay tuned for that.  

Gavin Woodard; Gavin has an undergraduate degree in Physics and a Master’s degree in Data Analytics from Slippery Rock University. As of right now, Gavin is working as a Predictive Analyst in higher education. One fun fact about Gavin is that he used to Host a podcast called Chasing Chocobos and was based on the Final Fantasy franchise.  

Chase Zikmond; Chase earned his physics undergrad and master's in data science at Slippery Rock University. There he was actively the head tutor for mentoring students who struggled with Physics 1, 2 & 3 concepts. Today he is a data manager and analyst at The University of Pittsburgh’s Emergency Medicine Department Myself; I guess I should explain who I am real quick.  

Cody Brant; Cody is our Senior Editor for Woke Talk Podcast! Cody and both served as Physics tutors together at Slippery Rock University, and while I was running the 3D Printing Lab there, he was the one running the planetarium for the department and hosting venues for the University as well as the public.  

David Beam; David graduated in 2020 as a Petroleum Engineer from Slippery Rock University. While in school David was an active member of his fraternity Kappa Sigma, and held leadership rules in a few clubs like the Slippery Rock Physics & Engineering Club.

Fires are popping up everywhere! Our Host Sam Stanford and PhD candidate in the School of Forestry, Gabrielle Ayres will bring you an introduction of Fire Ecology & Fire Management while addressing key terms you may have heard of or are unfamiliar with. Then they discuss how human behavior and Climate change effects the natural landscape and psychological interpretations that led us to where we are today. Then to end out a beautiful and enlightening episode, Gabrielle & Sam touch upon what’s next? In terms of how to adapt, and what will come from forest management.

Meet Gabrielle Ayres:

Gaby is a PhD candidate in the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University. She grew up in nature-rich South Africa, where her interest in ecology emerged. As an ecologist, she tries to expose herself to as many ecosystems as possible. As a result of this, she has travelled to 18 different countries, including parts of Western Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica for her MSc research on rock-lichen interactions.

Now, Gaby is carrying out research on forest response to climate change across the Rocky Mountains in the continental U.S. Her interests lie in fire ecology, dendrochronology (tree-rings), and climate change. In a nutshell, Gaby is an ecological biogeographer with itchy feet, always looking for an adventure and a chance to learn more! 

Everything STEAM took a deep dive into what viruses are and how viruses spread while defining what viral epidemiology is. Following the basic introduction, PhD Jessica Kerr & Public Health Consultant David Wiles address some of the buzz words you may have encountered over the course of the COVID 19 pandemic,  plus mask type efficiency, as well as address viral spread modeling and how that impacts policies!

The last segment will be an outlook for the future. We will discuss the future trends suggested by experts that accounts for Climate Change and human population increase including urban & producer sprawl. To leave on a good note, our Guest Stars will enlighten us on MRNA vaccines and address how they will fight surfacing viruses to come!

Guest Stars:

David Wiles (Co-Host); David graduated from Slippery Rock University in 2020 with a Bachelors in Public Health, and now works as a Community Health Worker with Cornerstone Care in the Clairton, PA (United States) area. David is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and a Certified Community Health Worker.

Jessica Kerr: Jessica Kerr is a part-time PhD student in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and full-time project coordinator for a global network of infectious disease modelers. She has been working in public health and data science research for over five years. Other main facets of her work include engaging students in infectious disease modeling research and increasing diversity in the field of infectious disease modeling.

Everything STEAM discussed past & present examples of female achievements in STEM fields, as well as the importance in having female involvement! The end of the podcast features advice from our Guest Stars for women pursuing STEM careers!

Women in STEM is absolutely paramount to the further success of science, technology, engineering & mathematics. In essence, Women bring features to the forefront of innovations that are crucial such as compassion, detail, multitasking abilities & much more. It is mission critical to have different perspectives in the process of the scientific method. When you have a closed room with a narrow minded approach, a lot of concepts can become neglected by human nature. With a more diverse crowd, the sky is the absolute limit for humanity. As a society we need Women to continue to pour into the STEM fields.

Guest Stars Include:

Evangeline Beeching; Eva graduated with a BS in Computational Physics in May 2021 from Slippery Rock University. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in applied physics and materials science at Northern Arizona University. Eva is also an Researcher at the Center for Materials and Interfaces Research and Applications (MIRA), where she works on gold nanoclusters for biological systems.

Shelby Schreckenberg; Shelby is a student at Missouri University of Science & Technology pursuing a dual bachelor’s in Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering. If that wasn’t cool enough for you, Shelby is also a NASA Intern!

Anna Will;Anna has a bachelors of Science in Chemistry with a focus in biochemistry from Slippery Rock University. Right now, she is a second year student at West Coast University in Los Angeles California pursuing a Doctorate in Pharmacy!

Why did we chose to create content? When will the content will be released moving forward? And what is our tentative outlook? Thank you all for listening to Everything STEAM... and remember... stay curious! 

Mycology is the study of Fungi. Our Host Sam Stanford, and the amazing Guest Stars (See Below) cover; the history of Mycology, taxonomy, functions, benefits and much much more. In segment 2 of the podcast, a talk is given on Psilocybin and its applications for Hypnotherapy. Mycology has so many beautiful applications that could quite possibly shape our future, and with the help of this episode, we hope to spike your curiosity about fungi and pursue them intellectually, physically or the combination of the two. Enjoy!

Our guest stars include: 

Jasper Degenaars; Jasper is a self-taught, extremely knowledgeable, Mycologist and the Chief Education Officer of the Fungi Academy.

Alan Rockefeller; Alan heads mycology research at Mimosa Therapeutics, and is an astounding amateur Mycologist that has been studying and observing mushroom for over 20 years. 

Maria Pusateri; Maria obtained a Bachelors of Science in Biology and Bachelors of Art in Dance at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

Dr. Kent Harries and our Host, as uncover the current status of building materials and building codes, discuss up and coming materials in the industry, and then for the final segment we address how these futuristic materials and building codes can aid in the fight against Climate Change moving forward.

Guest Star: 

Kent Harries is a professor of structural engineering and mechanics at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Harries has over 30 years experience in structural design - especially the use of nonconventional materials in civil infrastructure. He is also deeply involved in codes and standards development, having chaired both national and international code committees. Dr. Harries has been elected a fellow of ASCE, ACI and IIFC and is a licensed professional engineer. As a Canadian, Harries continues to play ice hockey. "All these teeth are mine… and they've been paid for." ~ Kent Harries

We uncover the current situation of plastics and how it became the epidemic of today, the effects that plastics have on our holistic ecosystem, and wrap up with ways in which the consumers (us) can mitigate their plastic footprint without hurting their wallets.

Guest Stars include:

Greg Dayley (Segment 1); Greg is the founder of Pavati Ocean Pickup, which is rightfully the meaning conveyed in the organization’s name. Greg is fighting the war on plastics in our waterways and also runs a cool company called Seabar. Seabar is revolutionizing the way we wash our hair! And finally, Greg stumbled into running the most active hair care account Instagram has with over 3.8 million followers.

Dr. Jeremy Conkle (Segment 2); Jeremy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Chemistry at Longwood University, an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the College of Charleston, a Ph.D. in Oceanography & Coastal Sciences from Louisiana State University and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California Riverside. His research focuses on contaminant presence, fate and impacts in aquatic systems.

Dr. Conkle's current research relates to plastic debris in rivers and coastal settings. This includes work quantifying microplastics in the Mississippi River and their discharge to the Gulf of Mexico. He also studies microplastics in Texas' rivers and bays, along with microplastic consumption by blue crabs.

Maysa Albahri (Segment 3); Maysaa is majoring in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Power Systems at Western Sydney University in Australia! Her intent is to focus on Green & Sustainable energy sources to combat climate change.

Maysaa is an active climate change advocate on social media and is posting daily interactive and enlightening information to the public at large.

Sr. Geotechnical Engineer Sebastian Lobo Guerrero and our Host discuss what is the causation of sinking cities! They point out case studies that are occuring all over the world and explain the engineering and environmental approaches to slow or remediate these sinking cities.

Topics such as asteroid impacts, climate catastrophe, AI, viral epidemic and others will highlight the episode.

Sebastian Lobo Guerrero is a 19 year, Geotechnical Engineer that hails from Bogota, Columbia. In 2020, Sebastian was named as the Civil Engineer of the Year in the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Society of Engineers, and has many esteemed accolades. One that stands out is that he has over 80 published papers and presentations all over the world on Geotechnical Engineering and possesses one of the best personalities I have ever come across.