Season 2: COVID-19 Research Briefs

The coronavirus pandemic is catalyzing a collaborative zeitgeist among the international research community that’s beyond anything we’ve ever seen. We want to support this effort by giving voice to projects currently underway, viewed through the lens of unprecedented global openness. We’ll tap into both local and international partnerships of passionate researchers to present you with inside stories of open-source science.

Season 2: COVID-19 Research Briefs

Season 2 Episodes

Episode 09: How Much Do We Know About the Origins of SARS-CoV-2?

November 20, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 09 / 01:05:59

On November 11, 2020, we hosted three members of Penn State’s Center for Disease Dynamics, all of whom all of them are deeply involved in ongoing international efforts to piece together a bigger picture of how and why new viruses like SARS-CoV-2 emerge and spill over from other species to our own.

Featured Guests:

Peter Hudson, Maciej Boni, and Sagan Friant

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Episode 08: Inside Penn State’s COVID-19 Response

November 2, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 08 / 00:48:27

On October 26, 2020, we teamed up with the hosts of the Podward State podcast to interview two members of Penn State’s coronavirus task force. Both have spent countless hours since the start of the pandemic doing all they can to help protect students, faculty, staff and local community members.

Featured Guests:

Andrew Read, Catharine Paules, Matt Paolizzi, and Matthew Ogden

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Episode 07: Collecting COVID-19 Data for Action

October 21, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 07 / 00:39:03

On October 19, 2020, we teamed up with the hosts of Podward State — a Penn State student-produced podcast — to interview researchers working on a profoundly collaborative project designed to measure multiple impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents and students in Centre County, PA.

Featured Guests:

Meg Leavy Small, Connie Rogers, Matt Paolizzi, and Matthew Ogden

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Episode 06: Can Lasers Speed Up Coronavirus Detection?

October 6, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 06 / 00:39:41

On August 20, 2020, we spoke to an interdisciplinary team of scientists collaborating at the intersection of physics, engineering, materials science, epidemiology and information technology. Their work holds the promise of new rapid identification diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses through enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Featured Guests:

Mauricio Terrones, Shengxi Huang, Elodie Ghedin, Yin-Ting (Tim) Yeh, and Sharon Huang

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Episode 05: Evolving Through Our Meta-Crisis (Part 2)

September 9, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 05 / 00:54:06

On June 8, 2020, we spoke to Riane Eisler and David Loye, two veteran systems scientists who have collaborated for more than 40 years as both researchers and marriage partners. In this wrap-up of a 2-part conversation, we explore the promise of partnership and perils of domination on the road to conscious social evolution.

Featured Guests:

Riane Eisler and David Loye

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Episode 04: Evolving Through Our Meta-Crisis (Part 1)

August 12, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 04 / 00:57:20

On June 8, 2020, we spoke to Riane Eisler and David Loye, two veteran systems scientists who have collaborated for more than 40 years as both researchers and marriage partners. In this first of a 2-part conversation, we unpack lost insights of Darwin and explore the basics of cultural transformation theory as a tool to evolve society.

Featured Guests:

Riane Eisler and David Loye

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Episode 03: Global Effects of Health Messaging on Perceptions, Anxieties & Behaviors

July 8, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 03 / 00:31:52

Aiming to better understand the efficacy of public health messaging in a pandemic, a team of Penn State researchers designed and deployed an unusually open-ended survey that has been translated into 23 languages and reached more than 73 countries. This episode recorded via Zoom on May 20, 2020.

Featured Guests:

Robert Lennon, Lauren Van Scoy, Cletis Earle, and Russell Branzell

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Episode 02: Open-Source PPE Manufacturing and Sterilization

June 24, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 02 / 00:41:35

In this episode, recorded via Zoom on May 11, 2020, we talked to Penn State personnel about their involvement with the Manufacturing and Sterilization for COVID-19 Project, or MASC. We discussed how University staff and researchers used their resources and expertise to produce and extend the effective life of personal protection equipment needed by medical providers during the pandemic.

Featured Guests:

Moriah Szpara, Timothy Simpson, and Melissa James

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Episode 01: Research, Policy, and Democracy in the Age of COVID-19

May 22, 2020 / Season 02 / Episode 01 / 00:48:43

For this special collaborative episode recorded via Zoom on May 6, 2020, we partnered with the Democracy Works podcast to explore the dynamic and sometimes tense relationship between peer-reviewed scientific research and public policy decision-making and discuss how these tensions have been brought to the forefront by the coronavirus pandemic.

Featured Guests:

Taylor Scott, Michael Berkman, and Jenna Spinelle

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Season 2 Intro: Inside Stories of Open-Source Science

May 15, 2020 / Season 02 / Intro / 00:08:38

In this brief “special announcement” episode, Symbiotic Podcast host Cole Hons lays out the new direction and format for Season 2, a series of COVID-19 Research Briefs that explore radically open and transparent efforts currently underway worldwide to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

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