In this week's episode, hosts Anthony Cruz and Rafaela Platkin are joined by Alex Muth, an MSc student in the Psychology department at Western University. Alex shares an in-depth look at his research on the communication systems of two chickadee species, like did you know birds have accents just like humans?!

He also reflects on his experience at the intersection of psychology and biology, explaining how his curiosity about human behaviour leads him to study animals as a way of exploring those questions from a different perspective.

Click on the link to learn about the Centre for Animals on the Move (the research centre that Alex is a part of) and to watch their recent movie titled Making Peace with Canada Geese.

Recorded on Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 Produced by Ella Siciliano Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)

This is the first episode of the Thinking with the Earth miniseries. In this episode, hosts Chrishma Perera and Garth Casbourn interview Madison Robinson, an MSc student in Biological Sciences, about her research on butterflies and her involvement in collaborative specialization of environment and sustainability at Western University.

From studying the ecology of butterfly populations to contributing to the interdisciplinary program and helping organize the Climate Hope Conference 2026, she shared insights into her research and experiences working at the intersection of ecology and environmental engagement.

Recorded on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 Produced by Milan Mammen Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)

This week, Purvaja Karthikeyan, a PhD candidate from Electrical and Computer Engineering is joined by hosts Mark Ambrogio and Victor Lau. Purvaja is supervised by Dr. Jayshri Sabarinathan, and is focusing on improving optical chip function for eventual deployment into space.. within ultra-small satellites known as CubeSats!

Listen to hear more about Purvaja’s work, and how it contributes to a bigger ecosystem (referencing the ‘nature’ of things and the Western Skylark project).

Here are some links accompanying’s Purvaja’s project, alongside hobbies outside of her research work!

https://space.uwo.ca/research/Missions%20and%20Instruments/Skylark.html

https://www.instagram.com/root_cycle?igsh=cTMxY2J3aHF1eHE0

Recorded on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026 Produced by Milan Mammen Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)