I chat with Stella and Sasha about the balance between being a Dean, being a researcher, and how the UCL faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social and Historical Sciences have coped during the pandemic. We also chat about department pets.

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Show Notes
With me today are UCL’s Dean of Arts and Humanities, Stella Bruzzi, and the Dean of Social and Historical Sciences, Sasha Roseneil.
We talk about the difficulties of balancing work and life, how research fits into the role of a Dean, the effects of the pandemic on academic life and research, and the joy of being allowed to go out swimming again. We also talk about Pebbles the Warwick campus cat, Indiana Bones UCL’s Archaeology therapy dog and how all departments should have a pet. Sasha talks about her lovely dog, and Stella talks about her two lockdown kittens. We discuss plans for returning to physical university and how important having a holiday is, especially this year.
This is an enlightening and fun episode that hopes to give insight into the inner workings of being a university Dean in a time of great change.

This week I chat with Rachel Taylor and Amanda Melfi, social media and marketing geniuses at Tor. We chat about the importance of author wellbeing, the role of Tor’s social media channels, and how Rachel sent John Scalzi a secret burrito one time.

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Show Notes
I chat to the fabulous people behind the Tor family of twitter accounts Rachel Taylor and Amanda Melfi all about how they try to be fun and engaging on social media on behalf of the Tor family without putting pressure on their authors. We chat about favourite books, hilarious twitter moments, sending John Scalzi secret burritos, and why it’s important to them to make the Tor spaces a safe space for authors and readers alike.
Check out the Shelf Healing Twitter account for debates on what counts as a dragon!

Twitter accounts:
Tor Books
Tor.com
Tor.com Publishing
Nightfire
Tor Teen
Rachel’s account
Amanda’s account

Books, authors, and twitter accounts mentioned in the episode:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke
John Scalzi
The Invisible Life of Addie by V.E. Schwab
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Murderbot by Martha Wells

Twitter accounts
Effin birds
Spark Notes

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Show Notes
This week I chat with award winning author Diana Evans about the therapeutic effects of reading, why we no longer lend books to people, the emotional connection one has with a physical book, and why audiobooks are wonderful creations.

Link to Diana’s website where you can buy all of her books
Link to Diana’s Twitter profile

Diana gives a whole host of wonderful author and book suggestions which are listed below:
Mary Oliver
Mark Doty
Anne Sexton
Ursula le Guin
James Baldwin
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Heaven’s Coast by Mark Doty
In Search of our Mother’s Gardens by Aice Walker
My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead edited by Jeffrey Eugenides
Behold the Dreamers Imbolo Mbue
The Beautiful and The Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald

I chat with Cat and Dan all about how disability and accessibility affect the workplace, jobseekers, and how important it is to include those for whom you are making adjustments in the decision making process.

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Show Notes
A brilliant episode in which myself, Cat Mitchell, and Dan Holloway discuss the role of accessibility in the workplace, how those with disabilities should be included in decision making processes for accesibility, and how the pandemic has affected the accessibility of the workplace. We also chat about our worries of the disabled community being left behind as the country leaves lockdown, and how accessibility needs to be incorporated into many more things including job applications and workplace culture.

We encourage you to engage with us on Twitter about the ideas in insights discussed in the podcast and look forward to hearing from you!

Link to Cat Mitchell’s Twitter
Link to Dan Holloway’s Twitter
Link to Rebecca’s Twitter
Link to Shelf Healing’s Twitter 

I chat with the lovely Dr Xine Yao all about literature, the potential harm to be found in reading, and the sense of entitlement often seen when discussing and reviewing books in an ethnographic space.

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Show Notes
I got  the chance to chat with the lovely Dr Xine Yao all about literature, the potential harm to be found in reading, and the sense of entitlement often seen when discussing and reviewing books in an ethnographic space.
Some seriously fascinating thoughts in this episode alongside great recommendations. So many great ideas and topics covered in our short thirty minutes!

Works and authors mentonined in the podcast:
Works:
Indian in the Cupboard by  Lynne Reid Banks
The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende
So Long A Letter by Mariama Bâ
The Heads of the Coloured People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
An American Marriage by Teyari Jones
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Skim by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

Authors:
Franz Kafka 
Audre Lorde  
Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton)  

I chat with Hugo Award winning author Mary Robinette Kowal all about books, puppetry, voice acting, and the space between author and audience.

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Show Notes
I had a blast chatting to Hugo Award Winning author Mary Robinette Kowal all about her thoughts on bibliotherapy, the therapeutic effects of writing, and the importance of the membership non profit Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America of which Mary Robinette is President. We chatted a lot about the role of the intermediary in storytelling, both through audio with her work as a voice artist and with the visual with her work as a puppeteer. We discuss that distance between author and audience and how it affects our wellbeing. A fabulous chat with a fabulous author, voice actor, and puppeteer!

Link to Mary Robinette Kowal’s website

As promised all the books and authors mentioned in this episode:
John Scalzi
Guy Gavriel Kay
Martha Wells
Jane Austen
The Sun, The Moon, & The Stars by Stephen Brust
Philip K Dick
Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Glamorous Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane Espensen
The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk

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Show Notes
I have a lovely catch up with one of my lovely old colleagues from Sony Mobile in Sweden, Gabriella Bergstedt. We chat about the joy of fika and what it entails. The differences between working in Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland, and how important it is to have certain types of policies and workplace attitudes to create a productive welcoming environment.

We go over Sweden’s parental leave policy and what it means for parents, how well rounded the work benefits are, the wonderful ergonomics accommodations as standard, and how well structured Swedish companies are for encouraging employees back to the workplace after sick leave.

It’s a great episode and one that raises some very important points about companies taking care of employees as standard.