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
42
Sept. 8, 2026
Getting better at writing part 1: Getting past overwhelm and gaining momentum
Writing. If you're in STEM, you likely have a number of writing tasks, including but not limited to academic journal articles, progress reports, final project reports, whitepapers, proposals, and applications. And it turns out, I love talking about big ideas like writing or getting better at talks or women in STEM in series! So this is the start of a new series, Getting better at writing in STEM. For this inaugural episode, let’s just focus on getting going. You’ve almost certainly been given ad
41
Sept. 1, 2026
Stop comparing yourself: Celebrate your unique "tech stack"
It’s the reminder episode you maybe forgot you needed: STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS BECAUSE YOU ARE AMAZING AS YOU ARE. Your unique set of interests, skills, and talents make you you, and no one else is bringing all of that to the table. Ok, ok, it’s easier said than done but take a listen and let’s walk away with some concrete actions for reminding ourselves to get out of the cycle of negative comparison and into the habit of self-appreciation! Even world-renowned artists like Katsushika
40
Aug. 25, 2026
Women are half the sky. Women are not half the STEM sky
We all know the big picture: women make half the sky but do not make up half the global STEM workforce, especially in engineering and mathematics. Visibility matters: by being able to tell our stories and serve as role models and mentors for each other while receiving steady support from the incredible men that some of us get to work with, I believe that we can make a difference. So I’m using my podcast platform to explicitly highlight incredible women in STEM. Here I talk a little about some of
39
Aug. 18, 2026
Journal Club: What mountain lions teach us about trophic cascades and coexistence
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 Chinmay Sonawane, who is a PhD candidate at Stanford University in the Department of Biology. We’re talking about his 2026 paper “Mammal Community Responses to Increasing Puma Activity in a Suburban Preserve” in the journal Ecology and Evolution. This is such a fascinating stu
38
Aug. 11, 2026
Leaning into our most spectacular neurodivergent selves with Dr. Kimberley Corwin
Robert Frost said “The best way out is always through”, but that doesn’t mean that we need to do anything alone. STEM is a team sport and so is learning to work with your particular skills and strengths, not against them. That feels especially true when moving from fighting nay form of neurodivergence to embracing its superpowers while navigating its challenges. This is why I’m so honored that there are people like Dr. Kimberely Corwin in the world! Dr. Corwin has a late-in life ADHD diagnosis (
37
Aug. 4, 2026
Finding your people in STEM
Ok spoiler alert: if you have a super satisfying, rich social life and you get to hang out with people in all walks of your life - work, hobbies, and anything else that lights you up - this episode might not be the one for you! Don’t worry, I’ll be back next week! And for the rest of us.... I see you. I am you. It’s never been easy for me to just “fit in” with the people I work or go to school with and it’s taken me some time to find my people in my STEM parts of my life. But I have, and I’m so