Two UGA graduate students take us inside their world of science! Kaelynn Parker (Cellular Biology) and Grace Woods Vick (Infectious Diseases) share what it’s really like working in the lab, traveling abroad, and chasing their passion for research.

This episode leans into the “people” side of People, Parasites & Plagues.

Our guest is Dr. Erik C. Ness, Professor and Director of the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at UGA. While his past work explored how education policy is implemented across states, his latest research takes on a timely challenge: how misinformation and “alternative facts,” especially in the age of AI, shape public policy.

Today we’re joined by Dr. Melinda Brindley, a molecular virologist at the UGA Department of Infectious Diseases. Her research explores how enveloped viruses enter host cells and replicate. Understanding this process could lead to new ways of developing treatments for viral infections.

We're ending this season with another Book Club! Our hosts are joined today by Production Assistant Syd Weigand to discuss the novels they've read about malaria, tuberculosis, and new guinea tapeworms.

This week we're joined by Dr. Douglas Paton, Assistant Professor of the UGA Department of Infectious Diseases. We've covered malaria before- but not like this! Tune in to hear about his groundbreaking work on an incredible new way to treat the disease.

Today's guest is a special one; he's travelled all the way from Australia to chat with us! Dr. Stephen Turner, Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, joins us in the studio to discuss his research on T cells, his journey into science, and some great immune system analogies.

Today we're talking to Dr. Mark Ruder, the Director of SCWDS and Professor of Wildlife Heath here at UGA. Tune in to hear about the origins of the Southern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study and Dr. Ruder's fascinating work with diseases in whitetail deer!