Hello ebc listerns–

We are in the midst of summer 2026–the flora and fauna have awakened, the air is warm, and we are in peak farmers market season! Whatever you are getting into this summer, we hope you are relishing this beautiful time of year and perhaps you wanna listen to today’s episode as you tan on the beach or as you walk through your favorite trail, listener's choice…

In this episode, we provide updates on our latest research progress as well as what we are working on outside of the lab. More specifically, Avery discusses their process and feelings of pushing towards defending–including dissertation writing, manuscript preparation, and securing a post-doc. Yassine provides his perspectives on attending scientific conferences and incorporating new ideas into ongoing projects.

Our confusion today begs the question of who is really in control… us or the bees?

Moreover, we are announcing a new structure to the podcast! We are going to assign ourselves “homework” on any topic in science at the end of an episode, for which we will then do some research for a discussion in the following episode. The first assignment: “Should we use AI in science?” Dun, dun duuuun. Come back next episode to listen to our findings.

We hope you enjoy the episode–stay educated and seek confusion!

-A&Y