Rising to the Challenge

Rising to the Challenge is a podcast series discussing the challenges that people with chronic and invisible illnesses face during their STEM educations. These are a resource for people with chronic physical and mental health issues planning a future in STEM, as well as a resource for allies looking to understand the challenges of living with these difficult conditions.

Episode 1: Chronic Anxiety

This first episode focuses on chronic anxiety and how to handle it in school, a challenge many people with invisible illnesses will face in their quest for a STEM career. The featured guest is Jessica Reyna, a physics student researching binary star systems. We discuss her research, the onset of her anxiety, and ways to deal with and ease her anxiety in school.

Episode 2: Coming Back From a Break

This second episode focuses on returning to college after a long break, a challenge many people with invisible illnesses will face in their quest for a STEM career. The featured guest is Martin Fernandez, a physics student who has research projects in star systems and photovoltaics. We discuss his research, what reasons he took a break after high school, what brought him into STEM, and how his break affected his college experience.

Thanks to Podington Bear for the music, which is not my own and was modified for the purposes of this podcast, found at this URL: freemusicarchive.org/music/Podingto…lls/TinySpoons. The music is owned by © Chad Crouch. The license is available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode.