This is the first episode of the Thinking with the Earth miniseries. In this episode, hosts Chrishma Perera and Garth Casbourn interview Madison Robinson, an MSc student in Biological Sciences, about her research on butterflies and her involvement in collaborative specialization of environment and sustainability at Western University.

From studying the ecology of butterfly populations to contributing to the interdisciplinary program and helping organize the Climate Hope Conference 2026, she shared insights into her research and experiences working at the intersection of ecology and environmental engagement.

Recorded on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 Produced by Milan Mammen Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)

This week, Purvaja Karthikeyan, a PhD candidate from Electrical and Computer Engineering is joined by hosts Mark Ambrogio and Victor Lau. Purvaja is supervised by Dr. Jayshri Sabarinathan, and is focusing on improving optical chip function for eventual deployment into space.. within ultra-small satellites known as CubeSats!

Listen to hear more about Purvaja’s work, and how it contributes to a bigger ecosystem (referencing the ‘nature’ of things and the Western Skylark project).

Here are some links accompanying’s Purvaja’s project, alongside hobbies outside of her research work!

https://space.uwo.ca/research/Missions%20and%20Instruments/Skylark.html

https://www.instagram.com/root_cycle?igsh=cTMxY2J3aHF1eHE0

Recorded on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026 Produced by Milan Mammen Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)

In this week’s episode, hosts Kuljeet Chohan and Rafaela Platkin interview Jake Daigle, a MSc student in bioinformatics, about his research on modelling mutation accumulation (buildup of genetic mistakes) in viruses.

From a bachelor's degree in math to starting a masters in bioinformatics, he discusses insights on his day-to-day life researching mathematical models that can hopefully be applied to the real world. Listen to find out the importance of asking "who cares" when formulating research questions and if you can ever know when you get something "right"?

Recorded on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 Produced by Scott Walters and Milan Mammen Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by WhiteHot)