About the show
Marginally Significant is a podcast discussing life in academia, issues with scientific research, and current events. Marginally Significant is hosted by Andrew Smith, Twila Wingrove, Andrew Monroe, and Chris Holden. These four psychologists were all trained at research-focused institutions, but now teach at a comprehensive university. Their unique experiences and shifting roles within their university allow them to see academic life from a particular perspective—a perspective that, although shared by many researchers, teachers, and academics, is often not represented by academics from elite universities. Listen to Marginally Significant to hear their opinions and insights, let them know when you agree or disagree, and contribute to the diversity of perspectives about scientific research and teaching in higher education.
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Episodes
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Read the F*!&ing Syllabus
April 7th, 2019 | 49 mins 57 secs
Don’t email us with questions about this episode until you’ve read the syllabus! Students often ask questions that could easily be answered if they read the syllabus. In this episode we talk about whether it is a realistic expectation that our students read the syllabus before asking questions, what information we put in a syllabus, whether our policies sometimes deviate from what the syllabus states, and if the syllabus does—or at least should—act as a contract between the professor and the students.
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Teaching Students that Nothing Replicates
March 30th, 2019 | 26 mins 57 secs
How do we teach students about the replication crisis in a way that is honest but also doesn’t completely undermine their trust in psychological science? In this episode, we describe what we’ve done in the past and discuss possible strategies we can use in the future.
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I Feel Triggered.
March 23rd, 2019 | 37 mins 35 secs
In this episode, we discuss our experiences with teaching about political, religious, and other potentially sensitive topics in our classes. We talk about ways that we’ve handled these topics in the past, issues that have come up, and give suggestions about how to mitigate potential problems.
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Publish Less & it’s Time for MTurk to Die
March 16th, 2019 | 1 hr 32 mins
Monroe rants about why we should publish fewer papers and then tries to convince everyone to stop using MTurk.
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Introductions and Life at a Comprehensive University
March 7th, 2019 | 1 hr 31 mins
In part 1 of this episode we discuss why we started this podcast (and a bit about why we were hesitant to start the podcast). We talk about some topics we might cover in future episodes. In part 2, we describe what it is like to be at a comprehensive university that has a focus on both teaching and research.