STEMdentity
What happens when you went into STEM to change the world and you find that you’re instead just trying to not drown in emails and meetings?
Welcome to STEMdentity with your host, Dr. Anna Hodshire, PhD. Anna had 5 jobs in 5 years after grad school. This experience along with building up her own support team helped her to go from feeling disconnected from how she thought science was supposed to be to finding her Why and her own unique STEMdentity. We dive into the many pressures that take away your focus, time, and creativity and offers concrete stories, actions, interviews, and tools to help you to grow into your most creative, fun, impactful STEMtastic self. Join us and find your STEMdentity that the world needs.
What we do is challenging. Let’s talk about how to be spectacular.
Recent Episodes
49
Oct. 27, 2026
Finding a non-academic job after graduate school with Dr. Afshan Khaleghi
Finding jobs after graduate school is a huge transition period that isn’t talked about nearly enough. So I’m so grateful that my friend Dr. Afshan Khaleghi was willing to come onto the podcast to talk about her recent experiences - and successes! - in finding a non-academic job after graduate school. We talk about how she navigated how the “real world” views PhDs and how she engineered her way into quickly and easily getting recommended even by strangers for positions. And! If you feel like you
48
Oct. 20, 2026
Journal Club: Understanding Preindustrial Atmospheric Methane Variability with Simple Noise Models
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 Eric Mei, who is a PhD candidate in the department of Atmospheric and Climate Science at University of Washington. We’re digging into his 2026 PNAS paper Multidecadal preindustrial methane variability can be explained by noise in the source–sink imbalance. I’ll admit that meth
47
Oct. 13, 2026
Giving better talks part 5: Panels!
Welcome to a “special edition” of giving better talks: panels! And if you don’t think this applies to you…chances are good that if you stick around in one field long enough, you’re going to be asked to be on a panel or moderate a panel! Whether you’re the moderator or a panelist, there are some elements in common with giving a solo talk along with some unique elements. I find panels (both moderating and speaking) to be a lot of fun and a lot less pressure than solo talks. Let’s talk about how to
46
Oct. 6, 2026
Giving better talks part 4: Come with me, not watch me
It’s another episode on giving better talks! Science talks, conference talks, research talks, defenses of your Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD, or Doctorate of Engineering work….all of these talks have the potential to invite your audience to come along with you and learn or to simply watch you in befuddlement and zone out. Let’s talk about getting better at talking :) Find all episodes for Giving Better Talks here! Song of the week: another Lykke Li double header! Lucky Again by Lykke Li Lucky Agai
45
Sept. 29, 2026
The Couch Hypothesis
This is a follow-up episode from last week’s delightful episode with Dr. Sarah Shaw. After we hit stop record, we fell to chatting about the couches in our lives - the things that somewhat matter but just don’t need to be done right away until the time is right. We all have a lot of couches in our lives. It’s ok to stop worrying about each of them all of the time. Some couches will fade away and others will get finished when you can get to it. Song of the week: another double header! I Follow
44
Sept. 22, 2026
Women in STEM: Balancing an engineering career, family, school, mentoring, and beyond with Dr. Sarah Shaw
My guest today is the kind of woman in STEM that I infinitely appreciate and want to spend my time with. Dr. Sarah Shaw is an engineer, a mentor, a parent, until recently a student, and so many other roles. In short, she has excelled at doing a little bit of everything! She currently works as a Senior Engineer at the Aerospace Corporation and just wrapped up her PhD in Systems Engineering in Spring 2026. She additionally has a MS in Astronautical Engineering a BS in Mechanical Engineering, spent