Mental health is a foundation for STEM professionals, not just a good idea with Dr. Jeff Pierce

Journal Club: Are jet streams just fast and wiggly winds? with Dr. Louis Rivoire

Welcome to STEMdentity Journal Club! Every month, I find an exciting peer-reviewed journal article and interview one of its lead authors. We talk about their paper, their work, and their STEM identities. My guest today is Dr. Louis Rivoire, who is a research scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science. We’re discussing his 2026 Communications Earth & Environment journal article, “Tracking jet streams as Lagrangian objects” [https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-03262-z]. But of course, as always, how people get to where they are in their STEM journeys is just as interesting to me as the paper itself and we dig into Louis’ personal journey! Along with the publication, Louis pulled together an excellent commentary piece intended for broader audiences, “Are Jet Streams Just Fast Winds” [https://communities.springernature.com/posts/what-is-a-jet-stream-anyway], published in Springer Nature Research Communities. If jet streams and Lagrangian objects are a little or a lot foreign to you, this is a great place to start! Song of the week: Stayin Alive by Say Lou Lou [https://youtu.be/DF-jr3yqj0w?si=ZMXOmjzAyMm-eeB8] Want to work with me? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro call with you to discuss mental health and ways you’re feeling stuck at work to start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here [https://calendly.com/annahodshire/intro-work-audit-call] or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity]! If you loved this episode: * Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros! * Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity] & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes! Music by @excess_sass [https://www.instagram.com/excess_sass]- I’d love a follow!

Mentor-mentee relationships in STEM fields with Dr. Jeff Pierce

No matter where you are in your STEM career stage, chances are very high that you are someone’s mentee and you are also someone’s mentor, or you’re about to start mentoring. These relationships can go extremely well - and it’s also really common for them to run into bumps or roadblocks. What can you do when these challenges arise? I’m excited to welcome Dr. Jeff Pierce back onto STEMdentiy for part 2 of our conversation, this time on mentor-mentee relationships. Even though we mostly focus on these working relationships within an academic setting, many of the lessons learned can be applied to many types of STEM careers! And - if you missed part 1, go back one episode and check out our conversation on mental health! We talked in the episode about Individual Development Plans (IDPs). I didn’t find one template I liked the best online, but there are several good options that I recommend you explore! Learn more about Crucial Conversations here. [https://cruciallearning.com/books/] Jeff’s song of the week: Changes, Pts. 1 & 2 by Neil Frances [https://youtu.be/8HM79EG0BF4?si=BpEHUBpMDc-s8crO] My song of the week: Soulful Strut by Young-Hold Unlimited [https://youtu.be/Ygv4RMGwqMs?si=-vkJo432ao9WpY9H] Feeling like you need to put more into your mental health but not sure where to even start? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro call with you to discuss mental health and ways you’re feeling stuck at work to start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here [https://calendly.com/annahodshire/intro-work-audit-call] or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity]! If you loved this episode: * Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros! * Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity] & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes! Music by @excess_sass [https://www.instagram.com/excess_sass]- I’d love a follow!

Mental health is a foundation for STEM professionals, not just a good idea with Dr. Jeff Pierce

Mental health: we all know we should be doing “something” to take care of it, but it’s often easy to put mental on the back burner amidst our busy lives until we’ve forgotten about it for too long and realize that the kitchen is starting to burn down. Someone I really admire for realizing that his kitchen was in full flames, taking accountability and action, and coming out the other side stronger is my graduate advisor, Dr. Jeff Pierce. Jeff has had challenges on and off with mental health but has done major updates over the past few years to keep himself healthy and happy at his job of being a professor in STEM. Jeff is a caring and kind mentor and has been generously sharing his stories of his ongoing mental health journey with students and colleagues alike. I’m so grateful to have him on today and for next week’s part 2 of our conversation on mentor/mentee relationships. Jeff’s song of the week: Love Takes Miles by Cameron Winter [https://youtu.be/U4UFAejSQFA?si=8HnXsTsE-yz2h518] My song of the week: Maggot Brain by Flea [https://youtu.be/I6rB5I7QV1Y?si=Ye_RjCbQpXThp8l4] Feeling like you need to put more into your mental health but not sure where to even start? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro call with you to discuss mental health and ways you’re feeling stuck at work to start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here [https://calendly.com/annahodshire/intro-work-audit-call] or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity]! If you loved this episode: * Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros! * Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity] & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes! * Music by @excess_sass [https://www.instagram.com/excess_sass]- I’d love a follow!

A paper a day: Making reading journal articles fun

You’ve probably heard the advice, “You should be reading a peer-reviewed journal article every day of your life!”...and if you’re like me, you’re thinking things like, “Every day? Like even weekends? And my whole life? That’s a lot of really boring reading!” So I explored reading a journal article (almost) every single day for 30 days (yes, even weekends), but I added in the secret sauce that most people don’t add to their advice: it can be a paper on…anything. I learned about beavers. I learned about reconstructing historical records of bioluminescent milky seas. I learned about albatross names. And it was glorious. So yes, let’s talk about how this advice may not have been working for you in the past and how to instead make this advice your own. Because it turns out there is a lot of magical, fun, creative science lurking under the pile of “must-read” open tabs you have open on your computer. Song of the week: Sushi and Coca-Cola by St. Paul and the Broken Bones [https://youtu.be/ZlR8JwdB8Qk?si=jMw9CTFpWt5FDUXl] Feeling creatively blocked at work? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro call with you to discuss your top issues and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here [https://calendly.com/annahodshire/intro-work-audit-call] or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity]! If you loved this episode: * Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros! * Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity] & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes! Music by @excess_sass [https://www.instagram.com/excess_sass]- I’d love a follow!

Journal Club: Stories in footprints: Tracking animals throughout the world with Dr. Zoe Jewell

Welcome to STEMdentity Journal Club! Every month, I find an exciting peer-reviewed journal article and interview one of its lead authors. We talk about their paper, their work, and their STEM identities. My guest today is Dr. Zoe Jewell, who is Adjunct associate professor at Duke University USA, Associate Academic at University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, and co-founder of the nonprofit WildTrack, Inc. along with her partner Dr. Sky Alibhai. Dr. Jewell has been doing incredible field work all around the world and today we get the behind-the-scenes of her 2026 Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution journal article “A non-invasive footprint technique for accurate identification of cryptic small mammal species: a sengi case study [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2025.1719684/full]”. Check out WildTrack, Inc.’s awesome website: https://www.wildtrack.org/ Get involved with their tracking projects! [https://www.wildtrack.org/get-involved/collect-footprints] Song of the week: Ride on by C.S. Armstrong [https://youtu.be/iK9Nu4JLvTI?si=JUeEG87n-BbqrcPW] Want to work with me? I’d love to do a free, 30-minute intro Work Audit call with you to discuss your top blockers at work and start to come up with actionable steps towards your most STEMtastic STEMdentity. Schedule by clicking here [https://calendly.com/annahodshire/intro-work-audit-call] or DM me on Instagram, @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity]! If you loved this episode: * Give a follow and share with a friend! Let’s build a community of badass, heart-centered STEM pros! * Follow me on Instagram at @STEMdentity [https://www.instagram.com/stemdentity] & feel free to DM me anytime with questions or ideas for future episodes! * Music by @excess_sass [https://www.instagram.com/excess_sass]- I’d love a follow!