{"podcast":{"title":"STEMcast - McGill iGEM","slug":"stemcast-mcgill-igem-6511088","podcast_index_feed_id":6511088,"rss_url":"https://media.rss.com/stemcast/feed.xml","website_url":"https://www.stemcast.ca/","image_url":"https://media.rss.com/stemcast/podcast_cover_20260602_020643_bbc4d832871b50cf43a6b3de50be74c1.png","author":"STEMcast","episode_count":31,"summary":"STEMcast is a McGill iGEM podcast that serves to highlight the connections between the largely varying subfields of STEM. We interview guest speakers from a diverse range of fields, bringing listeners into the loop on STEM research in biotech, AI, medicine, environment, math and much more! Contact us at: igem@mcgilleus.ca","last_synced_at":"2026-07-26T18:17:03.968496+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stemcast-mcgill-igem-6511088"},"episode":{"title":"STEMcast Episode 39 | “Curiosity is Edgework”: Channeling our Curiosity in Research with Profs. Dani Basset and Perry Zurn","slug":"stemcast-episode-39-curiosity-is-edgework-channeling-our-curiosity-in-research-with-profs-dani-basset-and-perry-zurn","published_at":"2026-01-09T12:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stemcast-mcgill-igem-6511088/stemcast-episode-39-curiosity-is-edgework-channeling-our-curiosity-in-research-with-profs-dani-basset-and-perry-zurn","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stemcast-mcgill-igem-6511088","url":"https://rss.com/podcasts/stemcast/2430756","audio_url":"https://content.rss.com/episodes/14010/2430756/stemcast/2026_01_05_15_17_27_c5ac851b-85cb-48be-a263-da1adf07f5b9.mp3","summary":"Welcome back to STEMCast: Beyond the Lab! In our most interdisciplinary episode to date, we invited Professors Perry Zurn (Department of Philosophy at the American University) and Dani Basset (Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania) to discuss their individual research careers and their most prominent topic of collaboration: curiosity. Join us as we learn everything from mathematical models of curiosity to social dilemmas that could benefit from them! In this episode, we cover: (01:38) Dani’s scientific curiosities (4:15) Perry’s scientific curiosities (7:24) How did you both start working together? (9:31) Defining curiosity: a type of edge work? (16:19) How does living in an information-dense age affect how we channel our curiosity? (18:49) Differences in collective curiosity and inequity in scientific research (24:00) Curiosity archetypes that will help us tackle ethical dilemmas (29:37) Mathematics of network modeling and its pitfalls (32:19) Fuzzy nodes and marbles (not) in the brain! (42:21) Questions that you guys are looking forward to working on in the future Further reading Read more about Prof. Dani Bassett Read more about Prof. Perry Zurn Book: Curious Minds: The Power of Connection Episode host and producer: Sabrina Du and Isabelle Guo Contact: igem@mcgill.ca","meta_description":"Welcome back to STEMCast: Beyond the Lab! In our most interdisciplinary episode to date, we invited Professors Perry Zurn (Department of Philosophy at the…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2797,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/stemcast-mcgill-igem-6511088/episodes/stemcast-episode-39-curiosity-is-edgework-channeling-our-curiosity-in-research-with-profs-dani-basset-and-perry-zurn/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stemcast-mcgill-igem-6511088/stemcast-episode-39-curiosity-is-edgework-channeling-our-curiosity-in-research-with-profs-dani-basset-and-perry-zurn.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}