After a very busy and big year, sisters Aleena and Janine return from their hiatus for a shorter episode to say hi… and bye… for now… Listen in to hear what they’ve been up to this year, their biggest lessons learned through five years working on Sister Doctor Squared, and what’s next for both of them. Of course there are some final inner square moments to share and one more important thing we can all learn from David Bowie… hint: life is full of ch ch ch ch changes…
Mastering of this episode, intro, outro, and Bowie-inspired music by Adrian Diery.
Biggest thing we learned in 5 years of Sister Doctor Squared:
Aleena makes sure we all know how much time she devoted to audio editing and using audio editing software. On a serious note, she talks about how she thinks effective science communication needs to be personal: what has resonated most with audiences was when we brought in our authentic selves with authentic, unplanned banter, as we discussed the ins and outs of scientific research. Aleena couldn’t have done this sort of podcast with anyone else (awww). Both sisters agree they got better over time at podcasting, but were always learning! They needed to start before they felt ready.
Janine describes how podcasting takes waaaayyyyy more time than you think and it’s hard to keep at it when it’s not your day job, and you love your day job. She has found podcasting super fun and is keen to do more (watch this space…). Janine is in awe of Aleena’s understanding of, and appreciation for, the scientific method and insisting on only the highest quality standards in all that she does (awwww). Doing a creative project together has been such a blast and was a nice anchor point over the past 5 years whenever things were challenging outside the podcast IRL. Finally, Janine reminds us that everything ends, sometimes earlier than planned, but everything ends.
Personal highlights for the year?
Janine: (1) travelling to Japan with her son; (2) ticking ‘playing with capybara’ off the bucket list; (3) watching her son finish primary school; (4) being invited to speak at the Australian Senate Inquiry into perimenopause and menopause following her truly awful experience of surgical menopause (read the excellent and well-overdue recommendations that resulted here; see also this news coverage from the event); and (5) meeting someone wonderful after only 2 days of online dating. His profile mentioned liking nerdy facts like the symbiosis between zooxanthellae and coral!!!
Aleena: (1) travelling to Sri Lanka for the 2024 International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) Conference; (2) getting engaged to her partner!; and (3) participating in Spencer Tunick’s live nude installation, ‘Rising Tide’, at Brisbane’s Story Bridge, along with ~5,500 others (check out more here!).
What brought out our inner square?
When she was trying to research the purchase of a new mobile phone, Janine kept getting overwhelmed by the amount of information to consider. Her partner created an Excel spreadsheet to help her make the decision – Excel spreadsheets are Janine’s love language ❤️. This spreadsheet even included the cost per year for each phone, as determined by the number of years of security updates planned for the device. This means Janine can hopefully push this phone for more than 5 years (listen back to Episode 6 to hear Janine’s previous rant around extending lifespan of phone by looking after the phone battery).
Aleena went down the rabbit hole of reading the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Christmas Issues, a novel edition of the BMJ published each year that contains legitimate peer-reviewed research, but of the fun and sometimes silly variety! Check out gems such as:
- Cheers not tears: champagne corks and eye injury
- Bug in a mug: are hospital coffee machines transmitting pathogens?
- Effect of a doctor working during the festive period on population health: natural experiment using 60 years of Doctor Who episodes (the TARDIS study)
- Association of health benefits and harms of Christmas dessert ingredients in recipes from The Great British Bake Off
- Quantifying the benefits of inefficient walking: Monty Python inspired laboratory based experimental study, which was inspired by the hilarious Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks skit.
What’s next?
Aleena will continue her research and consulting work in maternal and perinatal health and perinatal loss. Aleena posts a lot about this sort of thing at Bluesky, and (increasingly less) on X. You can also connect with Aleena on LinkedIn.
Janine will continue her tutoring and learning advising business, in addition to her ongoing role in higher education. You can connect with Janine on LinkedIn and on Facebook. Janine might also try to wrangle Aleena to come back and do more Sister Doctor Squared when time permits in the future…
What can we all learn from David Bowie?
Janine read an article featuring Brett Morgan – he created the incredible film, Moonage Daydream (you can hear the gals chat about this in Episode 26). She thought one particular idea was pertinent as we wrap up the podcast for now… Morgan talked about Bowie’s song “Changes” and about the fact that Bowie embraced and even sought change constantly throughout his life. Bowie was constantly changing persona, had so many different musical eras, was always reinventing himself and his music. Morgan said “Bowie embraced change because it resonated with his philosophy of life which was rooted in transience, chaos and fragmentation, and trying to make an adventure out of life’”.
It’s time for Aleena and Janine to say goodbye for now as we move on to their next adventures.
Thank you
As we say goodbye for now, but maybe not forever, we extend a huge thank you to everyone who’s engaged with this podcast and been a part of our community of squares. Thank you also to Adrian Diery for many years of advice, audio mastering, and creating the random audio things we asked for! It has been an absolute blast.
Stay square out there!
Looking for more? Don’t forget that you can still tune into The Inner Square Spotify playlist for some excellent tunes!
Sister Doctor Squared 