All Your Idols Have Clay Feet

 

Many scientists are inspired by other scientists – people whose work and careers they admire and want to emulate. But sometimes our idols turn out to be flawed as scientists or as people. How do you cope when that happens? Is it a problem to even have idols at all – and what would be the alternative? Plus: We respond to a letter about getting help for your psychological struggles when your classmates work at the counseling center. And should first-time teachers tell their students that they are new?

The Black Goat is hosted by Sanjay Srivastava, Alexa Tullett, and Simine Vazire. Find us on the web at www.theblackgoatpodcast.com, on Twitter at @blackgoatpod, or on Facebook at facebook.com/blackgoatpod/. You can email us at letters@theblackgoatpodcast.com. You can subscribe to us on iTunes.

Our theme music is Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle, available on freemusicarchive.org under a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license.

This is episode 17. It was recorded September 1, 2017.

Big Time

It’s job market season in the United States. What goes in an application? How should you practice and prepare for a job talk? The Q&A after the talk? What happens during the campus interview? How do you get ready for it? What should you wear? What do you do after it’s all done? We share some of our experiences from both sides of the process, including a couple of disaster stories. Also, keeping with the theme, our letter of the week is about whether to apply narrowly or broadly. Plus, for the first time ever we are recording all together in the same place! – and Simine shares her discomfort at the furniture.

Discussed in the episode: “The academic job interview: a mishmash of small but important things” (Sanjay’s blog post on the job market)

The Black Goat is hosted by Sanjay Srivastava, Alexa Tullett, and Simine Vazire. Find us on the web at www.theblackgoatpodcast.com, on Twitter at @blackgoatpod, or on Facebook at facebook.com/blackgoatpod/. You can email us at letters@theblackgoatpodcast.com. You can subscribe to us on iTunes.

Our theme music is Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle, available on freemusicarchive.org under a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license.

This is episode 16. It was recorded August 15, 2017.