Well Said

Sarah Birken, an assistant professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, focuses her research on applying lessons learned from academic studies to clinical practice, especially in cancer care. When she wants to share something with the world, her first instinct is to write an academic paper. But an academic paper didn’t seem like the most effective way to share her experiences as a woman in academia. She pitched the idea of starting a podcast to tell her story and to help other women share theirs. When the idea was approved, Birken had a realization. “I just volunteered to do something that I have no idea how to do,” she said. With the help of Whitney Robinson and other women across campus, Birken launched AcaDames earlier this year, a podcast which discusses the experiences of women in academia. On this week’s episode of Well Said, Birken shares with us how this idea developed and explains the challenges she and her team overcame in taking AcaDames from an idea to iTunes.