Advertise on podcast: Modus Mirandi Podcast with Thomas Hikaru Clark

Declan Kunkel is a graduate of Yale University and current graduate student at Cambridge.

Katya Ivshina is a PhD student in Applied Mathematics at Harvard studying geometric machine learning Katya's Instagram: @katya.ivshina Katya's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KatyaIvshina YouTube канал Кати на русском: https://www.youtube.com/@ekaterinaivshina Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (1:16) Katya’s research explained at two different levels (23:25) What excites you about the future of this field? (29:20) Katya’s journey to doing a PhD at Harvard (42:20) Cultural differences in the US (54:22) What do you do outside of research and academics? (1:03:20) Advice for current and prospective grad students (1:14:05) Closing question: Topological data analysis explained simply

Ana Tsai is a PhD student in Biology at MIT from Stockton, California. (0:30) What was your childhood like? (3:25) Growing up with mixed heritage (9:50) Smell of freshly picked tomatoes (11:57) Did you ever imagine becoming a grad student? (15:18) Researching immortality (20:24) What do you do on a daily basis, Zelda protein (24:30) Humans (and fruit flies) are basically a donut (25:10) Optogenetics (28:40) Generalizing from fruit flies to other species (32:00) Setting goals in grad school (34:20) Teaching and connecting with students (42:00) Breaking out of bubbles (51:00) Bees are really cute (55:00) Potlucks with friends (57:15) Where do you see yourself going after grad school? (1:07:00) What would you tell someone who’s thinking about going into research?

Gun Ahn is a visiting graduate student at MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where he studies pathways in the brain that are important for our understanding of depression. He is the author of several books, including one about why Finland has the reputation as the happiest country in the world.

Anna Ivanova recently completed a PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT. She studies language and cognition in the brain using tools such as fMRI brain imaging. She is now starting a post-doctoral researcher position at the MIT Quest for Intelligence.  Language models & speech vs. thought: https://theconversation.com/googles-powerful-ai-spotlights-a-human-cognitive-glitch-mistaking-fluent-speech-for-fluent-thought-185099  Language vs. computer code comprehension: https://news.mit.edu/2020/brain-reading-computer-code-1215  Mental health blog post: https://oge.mit.edu/the-breaking-point/

Leora Eisenberg is a PhD student in the Department of History at Harvard University. She is a a talented researcher and a lover of languages. She has studied Central Asian Soviet history, Ukrainian language policy, and other fascinating and timely topics. Join us for this wide-ranging and illuminating conversation!

Lily George is my high school classmate and one of my oldest friends. Last year we did a book club and read Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton. In this podcast, we discuss some of the main themes of the book and their relevance in modern life.

Anna Clark is a student at Stanford University, studying Engineering Physics. She is passionate about renewable energy and addressing climate change.

Kat Kajderowicz is a PhD student at MIT interested synthetic biology, aging, neuro, and science communication. Check out her #SynBio journal club (@DnaDeviants on Twitter).

Greta Tuckute is a PhD student in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She uses fMRI scanning and computational models to study how the human brain processes language. In this episode, we discuss some of the recent progress in this exciting field, the similarities between artificial neural networks and the human brain, and future directions for this research.

James Brown-Kinsella is interested in the idea of nonsense in ancient Chinese philosophy. He studied philosophy at Princeton, completed a Masters degree at Peking University, and is currently a graduate student at Cambridge.

Daniel Yamamoto is half Japanese and half British, and spent his childhood in Tokyo and Yokohama before moving to the UK for university. He is currently a graduate student at Cambridge.

Cecily Polonsky joins Modus Mirandi to discuss our shared interests of Russia, languages, teaching, and more. Cecily spent her early childhood in Moscow before moving to Cambridge, England. She studied comparative literature at Princeton and has previously been a teacher in New York City.

Justinas Mickus is a graduate student in Politics and International Studies at Cambridge. He has previously worked in a policy think tank in his home city of Vilnius, Lithuania.

Tez Clark is a PhD student in Philosophy at NYU. She studies epistemology, a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of knowledge.