In the second episode of #GlobalGrads, hosts Liam Clifford and Anthony Cruz are joined by Eva Deligiannis — a MSc student in Neuroscience and the PSAC610 Communications Chair. Eva shares her background in research, her journey through activism, and highlights key contemporary developments affecting international students at Western.

Shifting from the personal to the political, the conversation explores Navitas — a private education company whose proposed international student pathway was previously rejected by the Western community. Eva breaks down what Navitas is, how the proposal could impact international student prospects, and how both the union and broader campus community are organising in response.

Tune in for insight on how institutional policy affects our international colleagues and how domestic students can show solidarity.

For updates on the matter, follow @stopcutsatwesternu and the union @PSAC610 on Instagram. You may find additional information on the local's and UWOFA's respective websites.

Recorded on April 8, 2025 Produced by Liam Clifford

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

This week, join us for the 5th episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills.

Hosts Maris Schneider and Anthony Cruz sit down with guest Lisa Zhu, a master’s student in clinical psychology, to explore the psychological impacts of today’s fitness trends that idealize muscularity. Lisa’s research investigates the often-overlooked connection between fitness ideals and food-related behaviours, revealing how disordered eating can be masked as "healthy" habits. She sheds light on how these unrealistic muscular ideals perpetuate harmful perceptions of health, especially among men, whose experiences with body image and disordered eating are frequently ignored. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that challenges conventional ideas of fitness and wellness.

Check out Lisa's Inspiring Minds showcase here!

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of body image and disordered eating.

Recorded on April 8, 2025. Produced by Anthony Cruz. Theme song provided by FreeBeats.io (Produced by White Hot).

Hosts Liam Clifford and Ryan Baxter meet with Rafaela Platkin, a MSc student in Cognitive, Developmental and Brain Sciences Psychology. Her research looks at how engaged children become with different story themes, and how this may influence broader cognitive domains (listening effort, attention, load, etc). She discusses studies with behavioural dual task to measure listening effort through reaction time, gaze and EEG brain activity. The hope is to better understand how children engage with auditory-only narratives and general stimuli and see how their listening effort and/or fatigue are affected. Rafaela talks about how she became charmed by the field of Psychology and her future plans for her PhD, to look at hearing aid users to see whether there is a disproportionate increase in listening effort.

Recorded on April 1, 2025

Produced by Maria Khan

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot