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Veritalk

Veritalk

Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Do you have a curious mind? Do you sometimes daydream about having a PhD in literature, science, or history? Go inside the minds of PhDs at Harvard University with the Veritalk podcast. Veritalk is produced at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In each three-episode miniseries of Veritalk, you’ll hear how PhD students from different fields are trying to answer really big questions about the world.
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Top 10 Veritalk Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Veritalk episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Veritalk for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Veritalk episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Veritalk - Monsters Episode 2: Parasites (Re-Release)
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10/21/19 • 18 min

Some monsters live inside us. PhD candidate in Biological Sciences in Public Health Maddy McFarland studies Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite that transforms its shape to sneak inside our cells and makes us sick. The scariest part: Our cells can’t signal that they’re infected until it’s too late.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo Designer: Emily Crowell

Special thanks to the lab of Barbara Burleigh, professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and to the National Institutes of Health, which funds the research of the Burleigh lab.

Originally released in 2018.

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Veritalk - Sensing Episode 3: Flavor on the Brain
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12/16/19 • 18 min

When you taste the subtle flavor of a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, or smell the funk of an aged blue cheese – you don’t just experience those flavors with your taste buds and nose, you experience them with your brain! Neuroscience PhD Jess Kanwal says that our brain’s ability to combine taste and smell is just one example of how our brains are able to mix and match senses – with very interesting results.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special thanks to Jess Kanwal and the PRX Podcast Garage.

Jess Kanwal’s research is funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award, and a National Institutes of Health F31 Grant.

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Veritalk - Displacement Episode 1: The Rohingya
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07/06/18 • 17 min

Almost no outsiders have visited the internally displaced persons camps in Burma where over 140,000 Rohingya Muslims are forced to live. Cresa Pugh, a PhD student in sociology, was able to visit last year. She saw a community in turmoil – but many Burmese people deny that the Rohingya are being persecuted. Cresa asks why marginalized people like the Rohingya are often blamed for their own suffering.

Full transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert
Executive Producer: Ann Hall
Sound Designer: Ian Coss
Logo Designer: Emily Wilson

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Veritalk - Food Episode 2: Veritalk Goes Vegan
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04/25/19 • 18 min

In the last few years, the popularity of "plant-based diets" has exploded. Celebrities from Tom Brady to Beyoncé promote eating less meat. Even Burger King introduced a meatless burger. Nina Gheihman, a PhD candidate in sociology, tells us how vegan cultural entrepreneurs, celebrities, and researchers are changing hearts, minds, and dinner plates. She'll also explain why we might all be eating vegan soon - whether we like it or not.

Full Transcript

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special Thanks to: Graham Ball, Youth Radio Oakland, and Nina Gheihman

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Veritalk - 4.1 Hello, you’ve reached. . . Manila?
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01/24/19 • 17 min

One jetlagged night in Manila leads PhD candidate Justin Stern into the world of business process outsourcing. The first episode in Veritalk's series on the Secret Life of Cities.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo Designer: Emily Crowell

Special thanks: Justin Stern, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Anne Brown, and Graham Ball.

Additional sound recorded by Kevin Luce, whose work you can find at www.freesound.org

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Why isn’t King Kong scaling the Empire State Building right now? Should we worry about Godzilla rising from the depths of the Pacific Ocean? Shane Campbell-Staton, co-host of the podcast The Biology of Superheroes and Harvard PhD ’15 in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, talks about our favorite movie monsters, and some of the biological processes that could make them come to life.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo Designer: Emily Crowell

Special thanks Shane Campbell-Staton and Graham Ball.

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Veritalk - Monsters Episode 1: Mermaids (Re-Release)
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10/14/19 • 16 min

Mermaids: They’re cute, innocent, and great singers, right? Think again! PhD candidate in Celtic Languages and Literatures Greg Darwin explains why you wouldn’t want to meet a mermaid in a dark aquatic alley. He also talks about selkie tales – and legendary creatures that live at the edge of humanity.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo Designer: Emily Crowell

Originally released in 2018

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Veritalk - Food Episode 4: Your Body Isn't Broken
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05/09/19 • 16 min

Can nutrition education solve the obesity epidemic? Hannah Cory asked that question over and over while working as a dietician in a public school system. Now, as a PhD candidate in Population Health Sciences, Hannah’s research seeks to uncover the connection between fat-phobia, racism, and obesity in the US.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special Thanks: Hannah Cory, Rick Sheiber, Julia King, Noah Leavitt, and the PRX Podcast Garage.

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Veritalk - Food Episode 3: Go with Your Gut
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05/02/19 • 18 min

What does it mean to have a "healthy gut?" Is it worth drinking kombucha or taking probiotics? What about that gut-brain connection? PhD candidates Cary Allen-Blevins and Vayu Maini Rekdal explore how "good" bacteria help us to break down our food – from our “first food” (breast milk) to meat and veggies.

Love this episode? There are more stories about Harvard scientists' research into microbes on the podcast Proof, from America's Test Kitchen.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special Thanks to: Cary Allen-Blevins, Vayu Maini Rekdal, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the PRX Podcast Garage.

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After moving to the US from Mauritius, PhD candidate in Romance Languages and Literatures Nikhita Obeegadoo felt homesick. Her experience eating a bowl of dal (spiced lentils) in the US led her to ask questions about food and diaspora, cultural appreciation, and cultural appropriation through a course she designed and taught called "Translate the Menu, Please."

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special thanks to Nikhita Obeegadoo, and the PRX Podcast Garage.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Veritalk have?

Veritalk currently has 22 episodes available.

What topics does Veritalk cover?

The podcast is about Higher Education, Humanities, Literature, Society & Culture, Harvard, History, University, College, Design, Research, Curiosity, Podcasts, Discovery, Science, Phd, Arts and Innovation.

What is the most popular episode on Veritalk?

The episode title 'Monsters Episode 2: Parasites (Re-Release)' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Veritalk?

The average episode length on Veritalk is 18 minutes.

How often are episodes of Veritalk released?

Episodes of Veritalk are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Veritalk?

The first episode of Veritalk was released on Feb 9, 2018.

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