With everything that is going on at the moment, I thought it would be a good time to resurrect the PhD Playlist and brighten everyone’s day with some new music. This delightful idea from Millie Stanton sees us delve into the headphones of a different PhD student at the Norwich Research Park each week. We ask them to share three songs in a desert island disc-style game; one song that captures their project (expect some very tenuous links), one song that captures their life as a PhD student and a final motivational song because – let’s face it – we all need it.
To kick things off, Josh Joyce is giving us an insight into his wondrous world of plants, pests and playlists.
I hope everyone is doing okay and looking after themselves in this strange and difficult time. Stay safe, stay sane,
Mel x
Josh is a 2nd year PhD Student in the Hogenhout Lab. His project involves exploring how plants defend themselves against aphid pests and how aphids are still able to colonise certain plants despite these defences. Although in the Crop Genetics department, Josh has never grown a crop plant but still likes to think his work will help reduce crop losses to pest attack in the future.
Twitter: @JoshJoyce5 #FollowForFollowBack
The Project Song – The Grind Date, De La Soul
I struggled to find many songs relatable to my project but this gem has stuck with me since experiment no. 1 at the JIC. People often laugh at how I spend weeks at the microscope with no data to show for it because my aphids were ‘stressed’. Getting the data can become a real grind. So, despite this song being horribly out of context, I find it says enough. Plus, this song always helps wake me up for the daily ‘grind’.
Honourable mention to Jonwayne on These Words Are Everything. Jonwayne is the only person who I have ever heard shout out aphids in his bars but unfortunately, I have no idea what he is trying to say there so I couldn’t make it my project song.
The PhD Life Song – Small Worlds, Mac Miller
If you know me, you know I am a huge Mac fan and he never fails to sum things up better than I could. Here, he describes it all from not knowing what you want, feeling like you need to do better, thinking too much and getting it wrong 9/10 times. I feel all this matches the daily confusion I experience within the PhD. But a couple of lyrics stick with me:
- “I don’t wanna keep you waiting, I hope I never keep you waiting
For all the times I promise data by ‘next week’ knowing I can’t get it that quick and then keep people waiting even though I could have just been honest.
- “Oh, I been a fool, but that’s cool, that’s what human beings do, keep your eyes to the sky, never glued to your shoes”
As a reminder that making mistakes is fine and that we should all keep our heads up.
The Motivational Song – Let Me Blow Ya Mind, Eve & Gwen Stefani
This was too easy. Before my first external presentation, I slapped this on, had a dance in my room and decided that I was ready to blow the mind of everyone in the audience. To be honest, I was a nervous wreck, had no idea what I said and they could have all been asleep but at least I felt good for a whole 3 minutes 50 seconds before the presentation.
Another honourable mention to Snoop Dogg for his ‘I wanna thank me’ speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfF3bThOW0Q) which he then went on to make into not only a song, but a whole album. At times, you just gotta appreciate all you’ve achieved and use that as motivation like Uncle Snoop.
Head over to Spotify to step into the archives of the PhD playlist and discover some proper bops to get you motivated for a day at the desk (….or elsewhere).
The PhD playlist is the brainchild of Millie Stanton (follow her on twitter @milliestanton for some sweet science and music masterpieces) and has been continued by Melissa Davie @melissajd_ (follow me for very irregular retweets of cute dogs and natural products science).
Hit me up if you want to be featured! melissa.davie@jic.ac.uk