To what extent could “coming out” be a useful analogy for the process of coming to identify as Deaf? In episode 44, Laura Mauldin from the University of Connecticut discusses her research into this question as detailed in her open-access article “‘Coming out’ rhetoric in disability studies: Exploring its fit with the Deaf experience” published in the Spring 2018 issue of Disability Studies Quarterly.

Might the chemicals we exhale while watching movies tell us about the emotional stress that we’re experiencing? In episode 41, Jonathan Williams from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany discusses his research analyzing the gasses emitted in cinemas, as described in his article “Proof of concept study: Testing human volatile organic compounds as tools for age classification of films,” published on October 11, 2018 in the journal PLOS One.

While we often associate archaeology with the study of cultures whose eras have long-since come and gone, artifacts from the recent past can tell us about culture as well. Part one of our conversation with P.J. Capelotti from Penn State University Abington concerned terrestrial archaeology. In part two, we talk about his explorations of aeronautical and aerospace archaeology, as chronicled in his recent book Adventures in Archaeology: The Wreck of the Orca II and other Explorations published on September 14, 2018 by the University Press of Florida.

Ordinary objects from the recent past often hold secrets about our cultural history. In episode 38, P.J. Capelotti from Penn State University Abington talks with us about the history, archaeology, and anthropology of exploration as he writes about it in his recent book Adventures in Archaeology: The Wreck of the Orca II and other Explorations published on September 14, 2018 by the University Press of Florida.

While various vertebrates have been taught to learn humans’ concept of “zero,” might too honey bees, even though their brains have thousands of times fewer neurons? In episode 31 Adrian Dyer from RMIT and Monash University in Australia talks with us about his work first teaching bees to count and then extrapolate what they’ve learned to infer zero.

“No matter whether you think you can or can’t,” the saying goes, “you’re right.” Neil Lewis, Jr. from Cornell University talks with us about about his research into what differentiates students who experience difficulty in college as signaling its importance from those that make it mean that completing college is impossible. His article “No pain no gain? Social demographic correlates and identity consequences of interpreting experienced difficulty as importance” was published with Cristina Aelenei and Daphna Oyserman in the January 2017 issue of Contemporary Educational Psychology.

Righting a 200 year old mistake: Armita Manafzadeh from Brown University talks with us about how her simulations of pterosaurs’ range-of-motion demonstrate that the ancient reptiles almost certainly couldn’t have flown like most paleontologists have long thought. Her article, “ROM mapping of ligamentous constraints on avian hip mobility: implications for extinct ornithodirans” was published on May 23, 2018 with Kevin Padian in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B – Biological Science.

Bhart-Anjan Bhullar from Yale University talks with us about how the discovery of a 95 million year old Ichthyornis fossil in 2014 revealed some unexpected insights into the minds, and mouths, of toady’s birds. Subscribe: iTunes | Google Podcast | Google Play | RSS

In celebration of LGBTSTEMDay, talk with Bryce Hughes of Montana State University about his research into the factors that influence the retention of LGBT students in STEM programs. For more information, including materials discussed during this episode, visit ParsingScience.org. Subscribe: iTunes | Google Podcast | Google Play | RSS