A few minutes where I catch you up on the craziness around me. Nothing bad, mostly good… Thanks for your time. Hope you enjoy it.
Tag: #talkingtuesday
Talking Tuesday: Spanish Interview on Flu Edition
Back in 2010, when I was working at the health department, a reporter from 1030AM in DC asked to do an interview with me about influenza. It was the beginning of the 2010-2011 season, and the whole “EpiGate” fiasco hadn’t happened. So the bosses allowed me to do the interview with her. (Also, they didn’t have many people who spoke Spanish.) So I sat down and talked to her over the phone for about half an hour. We talked about influenza surveillance, the disease, and even some virology. It was actually a really good interview. I felt very at ease.
Listening to it now, I can hear some grammatical mistakes here and there from me trying to translate my knowledge of influenza — which I learned in English — into what I’m saying in Spanish. Spanish has a lot of conventions that need to be followed, and I was a bit rusty. Since then, I’ve made an effort to speak and write it to as many people as I can. It would be ridiculous, in my opinion, to not be able to speak it fluently one day when I think in Spanish and when everyone in my dreams speaks Spanish. (Yeah, it’s weird.) Also, it’s my first language, and I hope to pass it on to any eventual Big Fat Baby Ren.
So here it is, 28 minutes of me talking about influenza in Spanish. (If you don’t understand Spanish, then you’ll just have to wait until the next Talking Tuesday.)
As always, you can download the episode by clicking here. Or you can subscribe to all episodes on iTunes.
Talking Tuesday: Catch-Up Edition
So, yeah, it’s been a while. We haven’t chatted since the great blizzard of 2016 back in January, when I talked to you about impostor syndrome and anti-vaccine shenanigans along with some friends. So here it is, a “catch-up” edition of the Talking Tuesday. I’ll continue to try and be more proactive about recording these.
If you prefer to download the episode, just click here. Or you can subscribe to the podcasts on iTunes here.
Talking Tuesday: Hello from Barranquilla!
A few minutes where I tell you about my first impressions of Barranquilla, Colombia. It appears that traffic signs are merely suggestions.
As always, you can download the episode by clicking here.
Talking Tuesday: Hello, Summer!
Ah, summer is finally here, and I can relax for just a little bit before I am sent off to a far away land to do some epidemiological stuff. Let me tell you all about it in about five minutes time. As always, you can download the episode here, or subscribe to it on iTunes here.
Talking Tuesday: Checking In
Yes, I know that it’s not Friday and that I haven’t been keeping up with the podcast. Here’s why… You can download the podcast by clicking here.
Talking Tuesday: I’m Back!
Five minutes in which I tell you about my friend who’s back from West Africa, about my tongue ailment, and about some monkeys I met in Honduras. As always, you can download the episode by clicking here.
Talking Tuesday: Election Hangover and Planning a Thesis
Yeah, so I totally forgot to publish a Talking Tuesday last week, and I apologize for that. This week, you get about 7 minutes of me telling you that I’m sorry, something about my thesis, and plans for a new episode of “Driving Mrs. De.” Maybe that should be a podcast all its own?
Anyway, enjoy, and we’ll talk again soon.
As always, you can download the full episode by clicking here.
Talking Tuesday: Jetlagged On Ebola
I’m jetlagged from the trip to Korea, and I’m feeling a little silly. So I recorded this podcast with a lot of complaints over the craziness going on about Ebola. When an elected US Senator tells us that you can get Ebola at a cocktail party, you have to ask yourself two questions: What kind of cocktail parties does he attend? And exactly what science and virology book he read this from?
I don’t think he read anything about it, personally.
Anyway, listen to my rant. Or don’t. I won’t hold it against you if you don’t.
You can download it by clicking here, if you’re so inclined. I promise to get back on schedule next week, maybe.
Talking Tuesday, Korea Edition: Smoking Causes Cancer (On Average)
Greetings and salutations form the wonderful city of Seoul, Korea. It’s the Korea without the labor camps and despotic dictator-for-life, maybe. (Most dictators are for life, I hear.)
Here are 4 minutes of me giving you a quick thought about causality and how smoking causes cancer. I was sitting in a courtyard at one of Seoul’s palaces and recorded this. A friend and colleague back home said that there was a discussion in a class on whether we, epidemiologists, can say that “smoking causes cancer” or if we should instead say that “smoking increases your risk of lung and other cancers”. She and I agree that we should say that smoking causes cancer, period, when talking about smoking to the public. If you throw in words like “chances” or “probability” or even “risk”, the message gets confused. Individuals within the population start asking for their specific risk, or they think that other things they do minimize the risk. (Some people have told me that they won’t get lung cancer from smoking because they run marathons.)
So that’s the very quick Talking Tuesday for this week. I’ll be back home next week. All my pictures here in Korea are being uploaded to Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/epi_ren/sets/72157648495180885/
You can download this episode by clicking here.
