Carolina Guidolin is a PhD student the Translational Sensory Circadian Neuroscience laboratory (Max Planck Institute) and TUM in Germany. Her research interest is focused on understanding light sensitivity, particularly the effect the menstrual cycle has on this. Carolina has a passion for communicating science to a wide audience and ensuring it is accessible to the public through podcasting. Read about how Carolina used her Circadian Mental Health Network ECR funding to support her Light O'Clock podcast.
In February, I was awarded with the ECR grant from the Circadian Mental Health Network (CMHN) for my science communication podcast Light O’Clock. In this podcast, I chat with researcher guests on circadian rhythms, light and sleep, and we break down these scientific topics into accessible content for the wider public. At the time of receiving the grant I had just concluded recording Season 1 of the podcast, and through the CMHN support I could proceed with the planning, recording and release of Season 2 of the podcast, which is coming out today, on Tuesday 3 September 2024. In this season, we explore the relationship between circadian rhythms and mental and physical wellbeing (https://www.tscnlab.org/podcast).
The first thing I did after receiving the grant was to purchase professional audio equipment to record further episodes. In Season 2 of Light O’Clock, I introduced sound effects to support the story telling in the episodes, and so having professional equipment to record was a key requirement. Moreover, the new audio equipment allows me to be more flexible in where I record the episodes, as I can easily transport the microphones in case I am meeting my guest somewhere in person, or in case my guests need to lend a microphone.
After recording the episodes and sound effects, I worked together with the professional sound engineer Ingo Bednarek to integrate all the audio tracks and turn the recordings into a nice and compelling science story! It was very exciting to learn more about how to produce good sound effects and how to use the microphones functionalities to obtain the result I wanted, as well as receiving feedback and learning from Ingo.
For each of the five episodes of Season 2, I spoke with international guests who are active researchers in the field of circadian rhythms and how light impacts our health. Since my guests are spread around the World (and time zones!), all episodes were recorded on Riverside.fm, a specialized podcast platform which I could also access thanks to the CMHN grant.
In Season 1 of Light O’Clock, we discuss the biological basics of how light influences our body clocks and health. In Season 2, I was able to explore these concepts further in the context of physical and mental wellbeing. In Episode 1, we took a deep dive into the early studies in chronobiology with Prof. Orie Shafer from Indiana University, and understanding what studies on the common fruit fly can teach us about the human biological clock. Then, in Episode 2, I spoke with Dr. Renske Lok from Stanford University about the interplay between sleep and circadian rhythms. I felt like this was a particularly important topic to discuss because, when talking to friends and family that are not in this field, I have noticed that the two get often (and understandably) confused. In Episode 3, we delved deep into what chronotype is and how to measure it with Dr. Anna M. Biller from the Technical University of Munich. This topic was prompted by listeners’ questions, which we collected and answered at the end of Season 1 in a “Q&A episode”. Since I felt like the topic needed more time, I then chose to dedicate a whole episode to it in Season 2. In the last two episodes of Season 2, we discussed circadian synchrony and the physical health consequences of circadian disruption with Dr. Laura Kervezee from Leiden University Medical Center, as well as exploring the complex but fascinating relationship between mental health, psychiatric disorders and circadian rhythms with Prof. Daniel Smith, who is the CMHN lead and based at the University of Edinburgh.
While I was recording Season 2, I was also lucky enough to be invited to the “Psychology & Brain 2024” conference in Hamburg, Germany, were I was awarded a science communication prize and I presented the Light O’Clock project to a broad audience. This was a great experience to spread the word about the podcast and receive some feedback!
The new episodes will be released every other Tuesday, starting September 3rd, and will be available on all major podcast platforms (such as Spotify and Apple podcasts). Thanks to the CHMN funding, Light O’Clock is also planning future seasons that will continue to explore the relationship between circadian rhythms, light and health in various contexts, including clinical settings. In the meantime, we are creating some visual content related to the episodes and sharing it on Instagram (@lightoclockpodcast), in order to create a listeners’ community on this platform which could give us feedback on what topics they would like us to cover in the future.
I am really grateful for the support of the CMHN for this project, and for being given the chance to improve my science communication skills as part of my scientific career. I am also extremely grateful for my colleagues at the Translational Sensory & Circadian Neuroscience Unit that support me in various aspects of the podcast, from creating the show notes to curating the social media accounts, and to my supervisor Prof. Manuel Spitschan for the scientific support.
Blog by Carolina Guidolin
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