Speaker 1: Happy Pride month. Everybody. June feels like it's the month
Speaker 1: for all the celebration Fride. June teenth is this month. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's black music month. It just feels like June is
Speaker 1: just full of joy, and it feels like it's really summer.
Speaker 1: That's when summer officially starts. Yes, June's that girl.
Speaker 2: It really is the perfect time for celebration, and we're
Speaker 2: continuing the celebration right here on Dope Labs, celebrating all
Speaker 2: of our LGBTQ plus friends and family in stem. Welcome
Speaker 2: to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science,
Speaker 2: pop culture, and a healthy do friendship.
Speaker 1: In the United States and many places around the world,
Speaker 1: June is when we celebrate Pride Month. In the lgbtqia
Speaker 1: plus community.
Speaker 2: So lgbtqia plus encompasses a lot of different identities in
Speaker 2: the queer community. It stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual,
Speaker 2: or ally depending on who you ask. Identity is complicated
Speaker 2: and these words don't mean the same thing to every person.
Speaker 2: The meaning of some of these words have changed over time.
Speaker 2: Queer in the beginning was used to be a slur
Speaker 2: but has been reclaimed today as a way for many
Speaker 2: people to celebrate their sexuality, and we are so excited
Speaker 2: to celebrate Pride Month on the show. Yes, and for
Speaker 2: this lab, we wanted to hear perspectives from queer voices
Speaker 2: in science, so.
Speaker 1: We've reached out and y'all gave us some awesome clips
Speaker 1: on what you're doing.
Speaker 2: And if you've been following Dope Blast for a while,
Speaker 2: you might recognize this type of lab. We took a
Speaker 2: similar approach and we did the Black Scientist since them
Speaker 2: Black History Month back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Yes, visibility in any field, including stem is crucial, and
Speaker 1: this is also a time for us to celebrate, you
Speaker 1: know how far queer rights have come, especially in the
Speaker 1: face of efforts to roll those rights back, and for
Speaker 1: us to take a critical look at what we still
Speaker 1: have left to do. This episode, we're going to hear
Speaker 1: from some queer scientists about their research, passion projects, and
Speaker 1: why they love science.
Speaker 2: We only have thirty minutes and so we couldn't get
Speaker 2: to everybody, but we were so happy to hear from
Speaker 2: so many of you about your work.
Speaker 1: But before we hear from all these brilliant scientists, let's
Speaker 1: rewind a little bit to get some context around Pride
Speaker 1: and why career representation in STEM is so important.
Speaker 2: While there have always been efforts for gay rights, Pride
Speaker 2: Month was sparked by the Stonewall Riots also known as
Speaker 2: the Stonewall Uprisings, and this was in June of nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty nine when police raided the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall
Speaker 2: Inn was a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village in
Speaker 2: New York and at the time, cops will routinely arrest
Speaker 2: queer people for just being outside in public living their lives.
Speaker 1: Very similar to what we saw with Black Lives Matter.
Speaker 1: We saw a space that was considered safe for gay
Speaker 1: and queer people in New York, right, this was their bar,
Speaker 1: and what would have been a minor infraction a liquor
Speaker 1: license charge, becomes people getting abused, beat up, harassed. So
Speaker 1: we see increased police violence to something that is a
Speaker 1: nonviolent offense, which is not a new tactic for the police, right,
Speaker 1: and this isn't the first time that the queer community
Speaker 1: stood up against that type of police violence, but it
Speaker 1: was kind of considered the hairpin drop herd around the world,
Speaker 1: and that everybody kind of getting involved, and the huge
Speaker 1: response to this one event is what led to the
Speaker 1: creation of Pride Month, which we continue to celebrate now.
Speaker 1: All right, So now that we have a little bit
Speaker 1: of history, let's get into the recitation. All right, So
Speaker 1: what do we know? Well, we know that there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of progress in the year since Stonewall, but
Speaker 1: don't get it twisted. There's a long way to go,
Speaker 1: and there's particularly a long way to go in STEM too,
Speaker 1: And we know that STEM as a whole is advanced
Speaker 1: by having diversity of thought, diversity of experience, all of
Speaker 1: these unique characteristics of each person help advance science. The
Speaker 1: things we've seen pop up in our labs with doctors
Speaker 1: Barbara Hofer and Gail Sinatra, our HIV episode with doctor
Speaker 1: Christine Daniels, and our episode about racism and Science with
Speaker 1: doctor Angelo sani is that science is not done in
Speaker 1: a vacuum, right, and people bring their whole selves to science,
Speaker 1: and so the variety of experience also informs what gets
Speaker 1: pursued in the sciences, what's deemed as worthy of research,
Speaker 1: in which communities we prioritize. To make our technology and
Speaker 1: scientific advances work on behalf.
Speaker 2: Of right and to create these environments where you can
Speaker 2: have that type of robust science. You have to have
Speaker 2: people from all different types of backgrounds and representation matters.
Speaker 2: If you can see it, you can be it. So
Speaker 2: that's what we hope to do today, highlighting queer folks
Speaker 2: in STEM. So what do we want to know?
Speaker 1: Well, we want to hear from our LGBTQ plus community
Speaker 1: in STEM, right, we want to know what they're working on.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I would love to hear their experiences, their
Speaker 2: personal experiences about what it's like being in STEM. You
Speaker 2: and I have a unique perspective as black women in
Speaker 2: STEM and our experiences, but it's always good to know
Speaker 2: where other people feel like there are pitfalls that we
Speaker 2: might not be aware of.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, let's jump into the dissections.
Speaker 2: We put a call out to hear from our queer
Speaker 2: friends that are in STEM to find out more about
Speaker 2: the things that you all are loving, the work that
Speaker 2: you're doing, where you are in your career, and the
Speaker 2: things that are important to you. And we got so
Speaker 2: many responses and made it so happy.
Speaker 1: Our first caller is.
Speaker 2: An astronomer who studies tides on stars. We love talking
Speaker 2: about space because there's so much that's always being learned
Speaker 2: every single day. Space in the ocean. I mean, give
Speaker 2: me a break, there's no limit.
Speaker 4: Ktt and zakiya. I'm currently standing in the sand in
Speaker 4: ancestral wee Be Territory on the central California coast under
Speaker 4: the moonlight. My name is Rewa, I use she her pronouns,
Speaker 4: and this fall I will be starting graduate school for astronomy.
Speaker 4: Anyone who's been to the ocean knows about tides, right.
Speaker 4: The water level rises and falls because the Moon's gravity
Speaker 4: pulls on the Earth's ocean, and turns out, tides can
Speaker 4: happen on stars too, especially if that star veers super
Speaker 4: close to a very very dense object like a super
Speaker 4: massive black hole. So that's what I study. I use
Speaker 4: the lux supercomputer at UC Santa Cruz to run simulations
Speaker 4: of tightly disrupted stars, trying to find any telltale fingerprints
Speaker 4: so that we know how to go look for them
Speaker 4: in the wild. I love the feeling of wonder as
Speaker 4: I explore phenomena so much vaster than my imagination can hold.
Speaker 4: And I love the people I work with, people who
Speaker 4: are invested in making stem spaces that are decolonial, feminist,
Speaker 4: anti racist, that we can all participate in as our
Speaker 4: full selves.
Speaker 1: Ooh, you know, when I start thinking about space, it
Speaker 1: makes me feel like we're so small ificant. Yes, and
Speaker 1: Raya is talking about tidal disruptions in space.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, just like how the Moon interacts with the Earth
Speaker 2: and how it pulls its hides in the ocean, that's
Speaker 2: exactly what Raywa is saying is happening with stars. As
Speaker 2: stars get close to a dense object like a black hole,
Speaker 2: they also feel that tidle pull. And you know, that's
Speaker 2: kind of like what happens in the beginning part. But
Speaker 2: if stars get too close to that dense object, too
Speaker 2: close to that black hole, then you have a catastrophic event.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is so cool. I didn't even think about
Speaker 1: tides happening on things other than planets, honestly, but it
Speaker 1: makes sense.
Speaker 2: It does make sense that all of these things should
Speaker 2: have tides. It's a lot going on in space.
Speaker 1: Yes, And you know, anytime I can tie something back
Speaker 1: to some biology, I'm game for it. Did you hear
Speaker 1: her say star fingerprinting?
Speaker 3: I did. I did.
Speaker 1: And so just like our fingerprints are supposed to be,
Speaker 1: you know, unique to us and help you identify individuals,
Speaker 1: Star fingerprinting is a term for identifying and distinguishing between
Speaker 1: the millions of stars in the sky. So astronomers like
Speaker 1: ray Well identify stars color to find out the gas
Speaker 1: is made of and it's temperature, so its own sort
Speaker 1: of finger printing. That's really cool, kind of cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we love space, and we can call back
Speaker 1: to the Starchlla episode where we talked about space and
Speaker 1: just how small we all are when we consider the
Speaker 1: grand scale of you know, just the Earth to the Moon,
Speaker 1: but that's just our little planet and what's orbiting around it.
Speaker 1: Then we start thinking about orbiting around the Sun, and
Speaker 1: that's just our little solar system, and solar system is
Speaker 1: in the galaxy. Girl, it's too much. But we still
Speaker 1: celebrate astronomers because they're able to take all that in.
Speaker 1: And you know another type of scientists I really celebrate.
Speaker 1: But I know it's not for me. What an entomologist.
Speaker 2: Oh that's my friend's worst nightmare. Entomologists study insects.
Speaker 1: It's no for me.
Speaker 3: Dog Listen.
Speaker 2: I have had to rescue my friend a number of
Speaker 2: times from a variety of insects, and I'll be there
Speaker 2: every time. But this is a real fear. Do you
Speaker 2: think you ever could have been an entomologist or what if,
Speaker 2: like your research like veered that direction a little.
Speaker 1: Bit couldn't have. I don't even like when people call
Speaker 1: bacteria bugs. Oh just the worst, Yeah, because they're not
Speaker 1: a but b I don't want to think about them
Speaker 1: having little legs. You know, cilia and flagella. That's fine,
Speaker 1: but little insect legs. No, no, no, So clearly entomology
Speaker 1: is not for you. But our next caller, doctor Perry
Speaker 1: Beasley Hall, is someone who loves bugs.
Speaker 5: Hi. Everyone, my name's doctor Perry Beasley Hall, and I'm
Speaker 5: a researcher at the South Australian Museum and the University
Speaker 5: of Adelaide. Here in Australia, I use she, her or
Speaker 5: they then pronouns. I'm a lesbian biologist and I'm passionate
Speaker 5: about increasing the visibility of LGBTQ people in stem fields.
Speaker 5: At the moment, I'm working on cataloging the biodiversity in
Speaker 5: mini oases of the South Australian Desert also called mound springs.
Speaker 5: But my background is in entomology, the study of insects
Speaker 5: and evolutionary biology. Much of my work focuses on untangling
Speaker 5: the insect tree of Life using DNA. I have a
Speaker 5: particular interest in subterranean or underground insects because of the
Speaker 5: weird adaptations they often have to face the challenges of
Speaker 5: a complete dark environment, cut off from the world. I'm
Speaker 5: passionate about the work I do because I love solving
Speaker 5: evolutionary puzzles and figuring out which species go where when
Speaker 5: it comes to an evolutionary trait. My job allows me
Speaker 5: to turn people into defenders of insects and show them
Speaker 5: some fascinating animals they've never seen before.
Speaker 2: I Ritzekiah, has doctor Beasley Hall turned you into a
Speaker 2: defender of insects. I understand the importance of insects, and
Speaker 2: I defend them away from me, right like that is
Speaker 2: where I am the strongest defender.
Speaker 1: Then go buggy over there, over there, and you know,
Speaker 1: but I do think the work that doctor Beasley Hall
Speaker 1: is doing right now, you know, documenting biodiversity in the
Speaker 1: South Australian desert, that type of work is incredibly important because,
Speaker 1: whether I like it or not, insects are vital to
Speaker 1: our world and many insect populations are going extinct at
Speaker 1: alarming rates.
Speaker 2: Right and we just had a lab all about that
Speaker 2: conversation on biodiversity with doctor raywind Grant, we talked about
Speaker 2: how important data collection is for conservation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and insects are a part of that. But you know,
Speaker 1: what we realize is that there's a huge lack of
Speaker 1: data on insects, and so we're losing them, but we
Speaker 1: don't even know that we're losing them. What did Shannon
Speaker 1: Sharp say, we're losing recipes and so. And I recently
Speaker 1: saw in somebody's yard where they had a sign that
Speaker 1: said don't do those mosquito treatments because they affect other
Speaker 1: flying bugs and other pollinators that are really important. And
Speaker 1: a recent study from the UK show that they had
Speaker 1: a sixty percent drop in flying bugs from two thousand
Speaker 1: and four to twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm like, that sounds good for me as a person outside,
Speaker 1: but I know that's not good for our environment. We
Speaker 1: were already under the biology umbrella, so let's stay under
Speaker 1: there a little bit, but shift to neuroscience, studying the brain.
Speaker 1: Our next caller is Kayla Singleton, a neuroscientist who researches
Speaker 1: Minky's disease.
Speaker 6: Hello, my name is doctor Kayla as Singleton. My pronouncer
Speaker 6: she Her. I'm a black, Samoan and queer developmental neuroscientist
Speaker 6: and I'm a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 6: I'm from grace And Georgia, and my current research focuses
Speaker 6: on understanding how the brain develops in normal and pathological
Speaker 6: conditions by studying rare genetic diseases, specifically Minky's disease. My
Speaker 6: current project is funded by the National Institute of Neurological
Speaker 6: Disorder and Stroke and what it really tries to understand
Speaker 6: is how copper affects brain development, but also how copper
Speaker 6: effects mitochondrial function and metabolic function. Most of the research
Speaker 6: that I do relies on convocal microscopy. It relies on
Speaker 6: using Drosophla or fruitfly, as well as cell lines as
Speaker 6: a model. And one of the reasons that I love
Speaker 6: my research so much is because it has direct implications
Speaker 6: to help the Minky's disease population. Another reason that I
Speaker 6: love my work is because I get to mentor and
Speaker 6: teach and train the next upcoming generation of scientists, and
Speaker 6: I think that that's really wonderful.
Speaker 1: Doctor Singleton's work has implications for people who have mincus
Speaker 1: disease and that leads to the deterioration of the nervous system,
Speaker 1: and that's directly related to copper in the body.
Speaker 2: And the result of that is you'd have sparse or
Speaker 2: kinky hair textures, difficulty gaining weight, weak muscle tone, sagging
Speaker 2: facial features, seizures, developmental delay, and an intellectual disability.
Speaker 1: And all of this is related to copper levels in
Speaker 1: the body. You know, I think we've kind of touched
Speaker 1: on some of these things in LA labs. So when
Speaker 1: we talked about nutrition earlier back in January that lab
Speaker 1: with doctor Lickenstein, and then more recently our episode with
Speaker 1: doctor Buttner where we talked about metals and their importance
Speaker 1: in different developmental stages. Here we're seeing that exact same thing.
Speaker 2: This is such important work that will help a lot
Speaker 2: lot of people that are struggling with this disease.
Speaker 1: Absolutely T T. Let's take a break and when we
Speaker 1: get back we'll hear some more from queer scientists.
Speaker 2: We're back and we're celebrating Pride Month in STEM and
Speaker 2: listening to queer scientists share their research stories and experiences.
Speaker 1: Not only is June Pride month, but it's also Black
Speaker 1: Music Month, and next week we're talking all about it
Speaker 1: with Mark, Anthony Neil and Ninth Wonder. This lab is
Speaker 1: going to be great and I can't wait for you
Speaker 1: guys to listen. Let's get back to today's lab.
Speaker 2: So far we've heard from an astronomer studying tides on stars,
Speaker 2: and entomologists exploring biodiversity in the Australian desert, and a
Speaker 2: neurobiologist who's working to address Minky's disease.
Speaker 1: Our next caller is a biochemist who is studying an
Speaker 1: unstoppable force.
Speaker 7: Aging dope lapse podcast What's Good? So, I am doctor
Speaker 7: Melanie mcrennolds, she her hers. I am originally from Louisville, Mississippi.
Speaker 7: I'm a biochemist. I study the biochemistry of aging, right,
Speaker 7: so the intersection of metabolic decline and really asking those
Speaker 7: questions of how can we age healthier? How can we
Speaker 7: protect the resiliency of my metabolism In particular, I'm an
Speaker 7: NAD scientist. So nicotinamie editing NIE nucleotide. It's a key
Speaker 7: reados regulator. It drives energy production, but it also controls
Speaker 7: a lot of signaling processes.
Speaker 1: So doctor McReynolds might not be working to create the
Speaker 1: Fountain of Youth, but her work is central to finding
Speaker 1: ways for people to have a better quality of life
Speaker 1: as they age. Her work is on NAD, which is
Speaker 1: nicotinamide at need di nucleotide. It's a molecule that supports
Speaker 1: cellular function across a couple of different categories. So think metabolism,
Speaker 1: DNA damage repair, gene expression, stress responses. These are some
Speaker 1: things we've talked about in earlier episodes, and this signaling
Speaker 1: molecule she studies is involved in all of them. When
Speaker 1: we age, our body produces less in AD and it
Speaker 1: also uses more of it, so now we're getting into
Speaker 1: supply and demand. Those declines can lead to a lot
Speaker 1: of diseases associated with getting older, like cancer and cognitive decline.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of hype over the years about
Speaker 1: anti aging supplements, but it's scientists like doctor McReynolds who
Speaker 1: are doing the work to tease apart these really complex
Speaker 1: systems to understand how to help people as they age.
Speaker 2: In the same vein of ensuring the quality of life
Speaker 2: for folks, there are scientists that look at specific diseases
Speaker 2: and do a ton of research on what factors may
Speaker 2: be causing certain groups to have a lower quality of.
Speaker 1: Life, and this is disparities. We've talked about disparities across
Speaker 1: a couple of topics including sleep, housing, healthcare, you name it.
Speaker 2: Our next caller is a med student who hopes to
Speaker 2: help patients with HIV who are also experiencing another serious condition.
Speaker 3: Hi.
Speaker 8: There, my name is Derek Trim. I'm going to be
Speaker 8: a first year medical student of coming out this summer
Speaker 8: and I'm currently doing a research project on patients with
Speaker 8: HIV and a depression commobidity and how different type of
Speaker 8: interventions can hopefully have the house in the future.
Speaker 1: The work that Derek is doing is so important, and
Speaker 1: when you consider what we know, which is that nothing
Speaker 1: happens really in isolation. So a comorbidity is the presence
Speaker 1: of one or more conditions in addition to the primary
Speaker 1: condition you're being treated for. So, in the case is
Speaker 1: that Derek is studying or hoping to help out with,
Speaker 1: the primary condition is HIV and the comorbidity they're interested
Speaker 1: in is depression.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're sick or dealing with an illness that
Speaker 2: can create or exacerbate other things. And of course mental
Speaker 2: health is just as important. As physical health. The work
Speaker 2: that Derek is doing and will probably continue to do
Speaker 2: after they achieve their medical degree is so important. If
Speaker 2: we think back to what doctor Christine Daniels was telling
Speaker 2: us from our HIV episodes, it is very important to
Speaker 2: have resources available to folks that are living with HIV
Speaker 2: in order to ensure that they are having a high
Speaker 2: quality of life.
Speaker 1: One of the things that we've talked about TT is
Speaker 1: the experience that individuals have going through the STEM pipeline
Speaker 1: of training and postdoc training and then being in their fields.
Speaker 1: And we heard from scientists who both have felt confined
Speaker 1: or like they can't be them full selves in their
Speaker 1: field and folks who are studying people having those experiences.
Speaker 2: So we gotta voice memo. I'm a civil engineer named
Speaker 2: Albert who reflected on what it means to be queer
Speaker 2: and working in engineering.
Speaker 9: Hi, this is Albert, and I live in Austin. I
Speaker 9: work in civil engineering slash construction management, so it kind
Speaker 9: of science last math here in Austin.
Speaker 10: And you know, I grew.
Speaker 9: Up being a want to be a tear, but the
Speaker 9: engineering world is as it is. It's very very anti
Speaker 9: feminine energy, if that makes sense. I don't know that's
Speaker 9: going to be like in other types of field, but
Speaker 9: for me, that's how I feel. You have to have
Speaker 9: this masculine approach and how you dress, how you talk,
Speaker 9: how you pretty much carry yourself.
Speaker 10: It's a side of me that I have to.
Speaker 9: Show up at work looking very.
Speaker 10: Masculine, because I do have a side of me that
Speaker 10: I tend to show differently with my friends that are
Speaker 10: in the LGBTQ plus community, but not that I'm.
Speaker 9: Comfortable to show in my workplace for my colleagues and
Speaker 9: the civil and construction work here in Austin. I've always
Speaker 9: wondered how much of a mental toll that takes for me.
Speaker 9: I know some friends that have come out in their workplace,
Speaker 9: but to me, that's something that I have to work
Speaker 9: on and I had to kind of guard my heart
Speaker 9: on that.
Speaker 1: That's such an important point that Albert made about the
Speaker 1: mental toll of hiding a part of yourself and having
Speaker 1: to think about what you feel comfortable or safe telling
Speaker 1: people about, and then you have to kind of consider
Speaker 1: what does it take to kind of box yourself in
Speaker 1: for one part of a day then try to retrieve
Speaker 1: that part of you for the rest of it. Exactly.
Speaker 2: And there are people who never have to think about
Speaker 2: these things. They move through their jobs, through life and
Speaker 2: just are themselves. And there are folks that have to
Speaker 2: constantly be policing themselves, like self policing and correcting and saying, oh,
Speaker 2: let me not say this this way, let me not
Speaker 2: dress this way, let me not talk in this certain way,
Speaker 2: let me not talk about my experiences. Or if somebody says,
Speaker 2: how is your weekend, Oh, I can't tell them what
Speaker 2: I was doing because it is unique to my culture,
Speaker 2: as unique to who I am as a person. And
Speaker 2: you feel like, oh, they may treat me differently. All
Speaker 2: of that psychology, all of those mental gymnastics that you
Speaker 2: have to go through in order to just feel like
Speaker 2: you are fitting in quote unquote and so that people
Speaker 2: won't mistreat you is exhausting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the stem fill has a lot of room to
Speaker 1: grow so that everyone can show up as their full selves.
Speaker 1: One of the people that we heard from works on
Speaker 1: this very issue. Let's turn it over to doctor Barthelmy.
Speaker 11: I'm doctor Raman Barthelmi, and I'm an assistant professor of
Speaker 11: physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah. I am
Speaker 11: a physics education researcher conducting studies on the lives, experiences,
Speaker 11: and careertories of LGBT plus physicists with a strong intersectional
Speaker 11: focus on physicists who also might be people of color
Speaker 11: or women. Currently, I am working on a social network
Speaker 11: analysis project to understand how LGBT plus physicists at the
Speaker 11: intersections of gender and race build and navigate their professional
Speaker 11: networks to successfully launch and continue in their careers. This
Speaker 11: is important knowledge to understand in order to support graduate
Speaker 11: students and building robust and strong networks early in their
Speaker 11: educations in order to find whatever their definition of successes
Speaker 11: within their field. As a physicist, I truly believe that
Speaker 11: this is a science that everybody can learn about and enjoy,
Speaker 11: and I hope that I can improve it in some
Speaker 11: small way.
Speaker 2: I love what doctor Bartholomy had to say, and I
Speaker 2: know that they said that they were going to be
Speaker 2: improving the space in a small way. But those small
Speaker 2: changes make a big difference in a lot of people's lives.
Speaker 2: And just like all of the work that we've heard today,
Speaker 2: these are all advances in spaces that are going to
Speaker 2: have a large impact.
Speaker 1: We've heard from so many wonderful scientists today, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're doing amazing work. They're making the feel better.
Speaker 1: Like why would you want to exclude these folks?
Speaker 2: I know, I mean when you think about what is
Speaker 2: missed out on when people are trying to deny folks
Speaker 2: access to any type of community. But I'm having more
Speaker 2: diverse populations within STEM and in every field. It creates
Speaker 2: better product, it creates more advancements, and it also creates
Speaker 2: an environment where more folks feel like they can be
Speaker 2: a part of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this lapl was all about amplifying queer voices. We
Speaker 1: heard about astronomy, neuroscience, biodiversity, and entomology. I mean we
Speaker 1: heard about it all.
Speaker 2: Right, and that is just a small taste of where
Speaker 2: the queer community has impact. I feel like there are
Speaker 2: so many resources online for you to learn more about
Speaker 2: queer scientists and the work that they're doing. Like there's
Speaker 2: an organization called five hundred Queer Science, and it provides
Speaker 2: lists of queer people who are involved in STEM. But
Speaker 2: then they also have a lot of studies that lets
Speaker 2: you know some of the work that's being done and
Speaker 2: where we still need to make improvements.
Speaker 1: And I think the thing to remember is with organizations
Speaker 1: like five hundred Queer Scientists, or when you get on
Speaker 1: social media like Twitter and Instagram where you're looking at
Speaker 1: hashtag LGBTQ and STEM or LGBT and STEM. All of
Speaker 1: these folks are doing the hard work of making STEM better.
Speaker 1: And for all these people that you see, there are
Speaker 1: people who aren't in these fields today because they were
Speaker 1: hostile or exclusionary or you know, not nurturing folks that
Speaker 1: feel just a little different from them. So I think
Speaker 1: it's important to acknowledge that, and I think the people
Speaker 1: that are still there weren't necessarily nurtured either, So we
Speaker 1: have to really address, you know, the toll. You know
Speaker 1: that everybody's like, oh, be resilient and stay persistent, be persistent, right,
Speaker 1: Like those things have a cost, right, It's not just resilience, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to show up here, exactly, even when I'm tired.
Speaker 1: It is sometimes showing up in places where my whole
Speaker 1: identity in person are not welcome. Exactly.
Speaker 2: The whole idea of being resilient and persisting is something
Speaker 2: that is exclusive to people in marginalized communities. People from
Speaker 2: the majority don't have to be resilient, don't have to
Speaker 2: persist they are allowed to be themselves in every single space,
Speaker 2: and that should be par for the course for everyone.
Speaker 1: We should be able to show up.
Speaker 2: As we are, be who we are, and make the
Speaker 2: impacts that we know that we can make on every
Speaker 2: single space. And as much as we celebrate, you know
Speaker 2: how far we've come and how far things have changed,
Speaker 2: we also have to pay attention to the rollback of
Speaker 2: rights right so that don't say gay Bill in Florida,
Speaker 2: well started in Florida and now spreading to these other states,
Speaker 2: and the potential of New Jersey proposing some build that's
Speaker 2: even worse than the one in Florida.
Speaker 3: Like, there's a lot.
Speaker 1: To pay attention to, and just hope we you know,
Speaker 1: STEM doesn't become a field that's just paying lip service
Speaker 1: right to the marginalized communities.
Speaker 2: Honestly, because sometimes it just is, you know, in vogue
Speaker 2: for folks to say that they stand with the LGBTQIA
Speaker 2: plus community, to put up the flag, to say, oh,
Speaker 2: yes we're inclusive, but then they aren't really actually doing
Speaker 2: the work. So you see the rainbows in June, you
Speaker 2: see different corporations highlighting their queer employees, but then after June,
Speaker 2: it kind of stops, and what we want to show
Speaker 2: is that you have to continue that work outside of
Speaker 2: Pride Month. You have to continue the amplification of queer
Speaker 2: people of queer identities outside of June because they exist
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 3: That's it for LAP sixty six.
Speaker 1: I am so grateful for the people who called in
Speaker 1: and share their story, share their work with us. Do
Speaker 1: you have something you want to share? Do you have
Speaker 1: an idea for a lab? Call us at two zero
Speaker 1: two five six seven seven zero two eight. We really
Speaker 1: want to hear from you, so you can call ortex
Speaker 1: at two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight.
Speaker 2: And don't forget that there is so much more to
Speaker 2: dig into on our website. There'll be a cheat cheat
Speaker 2: for today's lab, additional links and resources in the show notes.
Speaker 2: Plus you can sign up for our newsletter check it
Speaker 2: out at Dope labspodcast dot com. Special thanks to everyone
Speaker 2: that called in. We are so excited about the work
Speaker 2: that you are doing and will be doing in the future.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. You can find us on Twitter
Speaker 2: and Instagram at Dope Labs Podcast.
Speaker 1: TT's on Twitter and Instagram at dr Underscore t Sho.
Speaker 2: And you can find Zakia at z said. So Dope
Speaker 2: Labs is a Spotify original production from Mega Ownmedia Group.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Jenny Ratlimask and Lydia Smith of WaveRunner Studios.
Speaker 1: Our associate producer from Mega Ohmedia is Brianna Garrett.
Speaker 2: Editing in sound design by Rob Smercy, mixing by Hannes Brown.
Speaker 2: Original music composed and produced by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex
Speaker 2: Sugier from Spotify. Executive producer Corin Gilliard and creative producer
Speaker 2: Miguel Contreras.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Shirley Ramos, Jess Borrison, Jasmine Afifikamu, Elolia,
Speaker 1: Till krat Key and Brian Marquis. Executive producers from Mega
Speaker 1: Oh Media Group are us T T show Dia and
Speaker 1: Zakiah Wattley.