Snacks4theBrain!

Hey there, ya’ll, and welcome to episode number 57 of Snacks4theBrain! This is a very special episode for me, as its number coincides with the precise number of years I have been on the planet, and I accomplished that number just a few weeks ago, on May 25th. That aside, I am extraordinarily pleased to share with you the 20 minutes or so I spent with the Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Matrix Biology, Dr. Billy Hudson.

Dr. Hudson is a very busy man. That’s why I was so embarrassed when Amanda called me from my “non-office” (I don’t have a desk there, much less an office–I usually use the tiny conference room for any work I do physically at the CSO office) to tell me he was there for the interview. Me? I was sitting in his office at B-3102 Vanderbilt Medical Center North wondering why he wasn’t there. Remind me to tell you about finding his office in the first place sometime!

Anyway, I power-walked through the labyrinthine corridors to the CSO offices in Light Hall only to find that another meeting had been scheduled in the conference room. Punting (a skill at which I’m fairly adept), I suggested coffee in the VUMC Cafeteria. I’ve interviewed folks at Panera, Fido, and in other places but never there, so I’m hoping the audio is as good as the interview felt.

Over my French Roast coffee and Dr. H’s decaff, we chatted for a bit about his research, his career beginnings, and his outreach project, “Aspirnauts,” through which he is working with 4-11th graders in his “very, very” rural hometown in Arkansas.

After our chat concluded, I asked him what kind of music he likes; and it turns out he doesn’t get much time to listen to music, but his wife being a classical musician, that’s some of his favorite style. He grew up listening to country music, so I split the difference, the show opens with a nice classical piece from Magnatune.com and closes with a country song–well, a folk song I think Dr. Hudson will like, a bit of shameless self-promotion for my CD, available for sale at CDBaby and at iTunes (search Scott Merrick).

Cheers ’til next time! Oh, I will be in Atlanta in two weeks for the annual ISTE National Educational Computing Conference. Can you guess the content for Snacks58? Hehehehehee. Listen up here, or click Links and use the PodcastPicklePlayer!