EPISODE 5 OF DTP

The speaker is excited to be back on the podcast after a month-long break. They apologize for the hiatus and thank their listeners for their support. They discuss their recent activities, such as vlogging and academic struggles with their PhD. They mention their progress with Western blotting and their goal of publishing papers. They also mention their personal life, which mainly consists of YouTube and the podcast. They express their desire to improve the podcast's production quality and potentially pursue podcasting full-time in the future. cutting for Spotify hello everybody hi welcome to another episode of discover the podcast with myself Dolly Harkishe I hope you guys are doing so well let me get my headphones because I really want to hear what's going on here but in the meantime thank you so much for joining me I know it's been quite some time but we'll get into it shortly I'm just happy to be back and I hope you guys are happy to have me back and to everyone who's watching on YouTube thank you so much for coming back to watch another podcast I really do appreciate it anybody on Spotify I miss you guys so so so so much you have no idea you know you guys have no idea how much I miss you like it's been a long time but let me get my headphones and then we'll get into everything that's been going on the past I think it's probably been a month at this point I don't know but I think it's been a month okay we are back we're live we're live baby hi everybody hi everyone on you hello Spotify listeners and so happy I'm sorry about the excitement I know on podcast especially the solo podcast that I usually listen to the podcasters are usually so poised like they're so relaxed they know what they're doing they're not being too loud they're not too excited they just like very very very like I know what I'm doing I need to chill so I'm just very excited that's why this is happening but anyway welcome to another episode of discover the podcast this should be episode two if I'm not mistaken ah it's so good to be back it's so so so good to be back you have no idea but I'm sure you you probably do have some idea so let's just get into it you guys I don't even know how the last episode did I haven't checked my Spotify for podcasters in such a long time literally I've been a full-time full-time vlogger I haven't been doing any podcast but I hope my people on YouTube can see me just fine hope everything is in frame but yeah that's just some of the things that I need to deal with on my end as I am someone who records on their own but how have I been first of all how long has it been let me see I think you know we can kind of get into the specifics we have internet connection we have everything we need it's been a while it's been like something like a month or three weeks it could be three weeks it's never been a month I think the entirety of April I may have only posted one episode but we will find out as soon as we're done loading right here it's also been such hell okay it's been how this PhD has been kicking my ass I have been struggling I signed up for the gym as you guys know I did mention it in the podcast two podcasts or the last podcast I'm not sure okay last time I saw you guys I was going to the gym okay now we're getting somewhere now I kind of see where I left you guys I didn't affiliate for the gym this month unfortunately because I just felt like I don't have the time that episode I posted was on the 4th of April which is like we're not on the 9th of May so it has kind of been an entire month shocking I never thought I'd see the day and we got a total of 11 plays I'm so sorry to all 11 of you guys that I came on here I posted episodes 4 and just disappeared for an entire month I really had a lot going on in my life I honestly cannot lie to you guys but yeah we got 11 likes not 11 likes child you can tell I've been vlogging we got 11 views on Spotify which is awesome awesome let's just quickly head on over to YouTube and see how many views the last episode got just you know for control I guess this is what we do in this house the last episode got 55 views one month ago okay I don't know y'all don't but that's good I mean considering this is a podcast I'm studying off like podcast podcast or something man I hope you guys can hear me podcasts are like so hard to grow so I'm gonna give myself a little bit of grace so yeah we got 55 views I think there's an option to check how many views total for a podcast in general and that is the owner I'd have to go you know we'll talk about that in the next episode that's okay let me just go back to the show notes how have I been struggling I have been struggling I had to be a thug so many times in that like emotionally I was just suffering oh my god I'm trying to remember where I was at academically the last episode that I posted I think I was probably doing I definitely was not on this objective that I'm currently on I'm currently doing Western blotting which is a protein determining the effect of whatever drug you're using on protein expression because protein expression determines no this is not the place for that okay yeah but you know we check in put an expression right now I I don't I don't want to go into detail cuz I'm finding it very hard to say in layman's terms so we're just gonna leave it at that but right now I am doing Western blotting which is like a far cry from where I was on the 4th of April like I just the beginning of the year I was at such like I had not make made any progress at all at that point compared to where I am now it's just great progress we're struggling but the progress is definitely there like I am struggling you guys I've been doing Western blotting since the beginning of April and it's the beginning of May oh that's not bad it's been like a month but like the amount of times I've done this experiment does not correlate with the results that I have not like at all but I guess we're still optimizing so that's okay yeah I mean I mean I've been suffering mostly the things that have been going on in my life are academic outside of my academics personal life like what is personal life my personal life is really just YouTube and this podcast I guess I don't really have anything else I've been hanging out with my housemates so much fun I love them just want to put it out there I love them loads okay like I have nothing good I'm not in a relationship so there's nothing to tell about that I know but I've been great you know it's funny because I go on my YouTube channel and talk about how horrible life is and I come on this podcast I'm like oh I've been great I guess it's just a matter of perspective like coming on here gives me such perspective I think of my life like it's like I step outside of my life and I look at it from a second like from from an outside view and I can tell that oh it actually hasn't been so bad with vlogging on YouTube it's like every day I'm going through what I'm going through and I'm filming it and I'm watching it back and I can clearly tell that okay like as the days go something is like you know I'm feeling the emotions in real time but right now I'm looking back I am being very introspective or retrospective and I can tell that actually it wasn't too bad so that's how I've been where have I been I've been in the lab I've been grinding I've been trying to finish this PhD I've been working on my review paper I'm actually trying to publish a review paper as soon as as soon as I get one protein expression like as soon as I get one other protein that I'm sending my supervisors my review paper that I've been working on that's just all I'm waiting for I'm waiting to get that one other protein to give me that confidence kick and then I'm sending it through to them like you know let's publish you guys we're here you know as you can see Western blotting is moving very swiftly now I mean by then it will be moving swiftly so Western blotting is moving very swiftly now so I have this review paper let's publish you know you know I want to graduate with at least and you know please I'm saying this because I trust you guys and because this is a safe space I want to graduate with at least two published papers or one published paper and one submitted for review like you know I don't know if you understand because usually when you publish when you graduate for PhD they read out your biography or whatever the case may be and then they say how many conferences you've attended and where you like presented the work so far I haven't presented at any conferences but I'm hoping that changes by the end of the year they also say how many papers you've published from the work so two papers fingers crossed and two presentations at the least you guys at the least I'll take one paper actually as long as I have something published so yes that's that on that yeah I've been in the lab I've been if you're watching on YouTube head on over to spotify the audio on the bomb as like this is a YouTube mic where is my this is a YouTube mic and this is the spotify mic so I would suggest that you head on over to Spotify because as you can see oh yeah I forgot this is how I do it I'm sure the audio is much better now sorry about that okay let me just let me just plug this in for a while I'm so sorry about this y'all okay yeah much better that's where I've been I've been in the lab I've been trying my best child I've been trying my best I've been working hard you know pushing making sure that by the end by by the time I tend to take and afford to buy a car and I'm a doctor and all of that good stuff that's just that is the the MO that is the MO my tripod is struggling but anyway and what about the podcast you're probably asking yourself Tony what about the I think that today's at the podcast is going to be shut but that's okay so this is the introductory podcast this is me saying hey I'm back you know come back y'all wake up the podcast is back I also made myself a cappuccino mmm yeah the podcast we're still on we're still on we're still doing six episodes for the first season I feel like we really need to do that because I really need to get my life in order in terms of this podcast like I need to buy a camera I need to fix up my space like the background needs to be presentable because I don't know if you guys realize but this this might just be my future I don't know I don't know hey I may just decide after graduating that I want to be a full-time podcaster so I do need to put in the effort and like if you do I need to get a jingle I need to get an intro I need to get an outro you know I need to I don't know if you guys noticed in the previous podcast that there used to be a pause in the middle of the we're not gonna have that today today's just welcome back babe there used to be a pause because that's usually where the airs are gonna go so when I do get the sponsorships that's where the airs are gonna go so yeah that's that's what that is I expect at least one other podcast from here so right after this one we're going to have another one and then we're going to close the season off properly like decent human beings you know I'm not gonna leave you guys hanging so and then that's the other set about the podcast future plans about the podcast I still need to sit down and I still need to write it out I also need to determine if my life really is that busy or if I'm just too busy stressing out because it seems to me like all I'm busy doing is stressing out okay last night yesterday yeah last night horrible day at the lab ended up crying because it's like what the fuck is this like what's going on hello open the door open the door what's going on so I ended up crying and I got here around 7 p.m. oh yeah that's another thing I realized that oh maybe I've just really like gotten used to the routine now because I do get back pretty late I get back I go there I try to go like 9 a.m. but usually I get there around 10 or by 10 o'clock I'm at least I have my micropipettes in my hands and I'm trying to do something but yeah 10 o'clock and I get back around 9 do I think if I went there around 8 a.m. I would knock off sooner probably probably but it's just not possible because I have to do my hair and stuff so I don't think it will be possible could I wake up earlier there's just so many possibilities but I don't know you guys like it's not I could wake up at 5 a.m. but I'm probably only gonna do that for a week it's really hard to build routine I have so much going on but yeah I do knock off a bit late these days so around 7 I got back here and I was like you know what I'm just gonna sleep so that's that I went to bed at 7 p.m. and I woke up this morning at 7 a.m. I don't know how many is that 12 hours yeah but that was a long time that's what made me realize that wait a minute I do have the time and as I was doing that I realized that I've been watching an entire season of the circle I've been watching and I've been watching another show on Netflix like I've been actually actively watching Netflix what does that tell you that I do have time like I have time I have time to record this podcast I have time to do a lot of stuff so that's why I'm back I'm back I don't have a jingle yet I don't have an intro I don't have an outro yet but I do plan on getting those probably in the second season I'll have all of that okay so far we're up to schedule with what we I had planned on talking about a lot has happened you guys I don't know what happened there's an actor who passed on quite recently South African actor I think maybe we should just start there I'm trying to see if I can log on to Twitter I do know him I've seen him in a few shows but I don't quite remember his name but may God rest his soul like rest in peace I think I did like him as an actor but I just don't remember his name I mean he's so rest in peace what else has happened in the country since I've been away hmm that just changed the mood to be quite somber yeah that guy passed on another one that I don't know at the time I felt like was a big deal for me and what's his name again no ways come on the guy who he was a former box I've heard an oath NBA play I'm not sure but the one who wrote the OJ Simpson also passed away that's who I'm looking for shocking that's something that happened the Met Gala I guess yeah but it's been quite said that's what happened I feel like I shouldn't have gotten into that but may their souls rest in peace so sad another thing that I wanted to talk about today is the 2024 elections that are happening in a few days guys on the 29th of May in 20 days we're going to fucking vote for the same government or you can it's like next week Monday and then that other week Monday 20 okay sorry sorry you guys it's not the 20th it's the 29th so it's in two weeks basically two weeks from now on a Wednesday I hope you're registered to vote if you're not registered to vote I don't know hey I'm very disappointed in you but it's okay I I get it I guess I mean I didn't vote five years ago in the last elections and I did qualify so maybe you know maybe you'll vote in the next one if you did register to vote who what are we gonna do what are we gonna vote for who the hell are we going to vote for hmm cuz I know I'm just gonna tell you guys personally about me and let's I just hope that we don't use politics to divide us like you don't if you know what I mean this is just my personal opinion you are entitled to vote for whoever you want to entitled to vote to you know your vote is your secret I'm gonna share my secret on here I guess that's that's my thing okay so the other day I was listening I was like you know thinking about elections you know sometimes you're just living math and then it hits you like where is my degree oh where's my ID yeah I was just chilling I'm like oh my god who am I gonna vote for so I went on YouTube and I watched this thing maybe you might watch it as well if you're interested something called elections 2024 it's hosted by the SABC it's basically like different members of these political parties go on there and they answer questions from audience members you know about different stuff like I remember the EFF I only watched one so I'm not even educated to really talk on this but I'm gonna just talk about it just a little bit so I for instance the EFF was asked apparently so don't quote me go do your own research but apparently if you're not going to do your own research I'm going to give you this information at least so that you know so the EFF is planning on doing this thing called a an African passport like a passport that enables you to go anywhere in Africa or something like open borders within Africa but not really open as in people can just move in and out of the country with no regulation so that's what I thought in the beginning when they when someone asked the question about the open borders I thought they meant that like people from all over Africa can just come in and out of a country without any regulation no that's actually not what they meant so I'm glad I got that charity what they mean is that you know I guess it has something to do with building Africa's economy so it will just make things easier in that regard but not that people will move in and out so when I first heard this I was like oh my god I am definitely not voting for the EFF what are you guys proposing what is this because my entire life leading up to that moment my plan was I'm going to vote for the EFF okay I'm not gonna lie to you last year 2023 I joined University politics and I joined the ANC, SASCO so but I always knew that I was just gonna do it for a while I think I joined SASCO because I felt like joining EFF would be a bit much like you know people judge you when you do it but also even you judge yourself so I was just too scared to go straight into EFF I was like oh my god what are people gonna say you know they're known for being very radical so I didn't want people to see me as someone who's too radical so I decided let me just go over to SASCO get a little warm-up but I remember telling the other members that and the next day I'm switching to EFF but this year I didn't join because I also realized that my studies were starting to take a little bit of a backseat like I would take on days where we would have SASCO Wednesday I would wonder like okay for instance SASCO Wednesday used to clash with presentation on us presentations we used to have Wednesday on us presentations so during the presentation I'd be thinking I'm missing SASCO Wednesday and someone who is very academic academic who's very focused on who prioritizes their academics I felt like that was not right I felt like I had to choose one so this day I decided you know what no more of that but just everything leading up to this moment I was set on voting for the EFF because I just felt like Julius is the new age of politics and you can like you can disagree with me on this like I'm saying let's not let those divide us you can disagree on me with me on this but I just felt like you know someone my age voting for the ANC it does not make sense like it does not it does not make I don't I don't blame someone older for voting for the ANC I get it but for me it doesn't even now it doesn't make sense like I don't know what would have to happen for me on that ballot for me to end up checking the ANC I don't know it's just not going to happen okay so I thought okay I'm going to vote for the EFF that's why I'm saying you guys need to watch elections 2024 on YouTube if you want to make an informed decision I'm gonna do it I will watch one episode but I might watch a second one okay so I watched that episode that before they explained the whole EFF order open border system thing that I still don't understand but I have a bit of an idea I was like oh my god I am NOT voting for I was so anti EFF I was like oh my god what other parties out there so I found out that these like these parties and then these individuals who are running for office I guess I'm just going to use American terms because that's what Trevor Noah taught me so there's parties who are running for office and there's individuals who are running for office I don't know the individuals let's do a research before you get there and you see Moosimai Mani like he's cute and vote for him because I'm someone who would vote for Moosimai Mani Moosimai Mani because he's cute okay and that's not how you're supposed to do politics that's not how yeah no so yeah people individual people and then these parties and I also found out that they are these parties like this so interesting you guys I don't know why these political parties like the ANC which do not belong to a single one person like it's a it's a joint thing and these political parties like the EFF which belongs to Julia Smiley do you understand like I'm just wondering in the future like will Julius be president of the EFF and will someone else ever be president of the EFF after him like while he's still alive or like what's gonna happen because it's literally his political party so this is gonna be president forever of his political party that's interesting like that's something I would like to know and will his kids inherit the party or will it eventually turn into an ANC in the sense that there's a party for the people anyone can be a president and all of that I don't know but I would love I cannot wait to see what 20 years from now the EFF is I am so I'm a big fan of Julius in that I've never seen someone in my years of being on earth okay sorry I've never seen someone set up a political party but there's been so many maybe they haven't been so impactful but they've been so many there's been so many former ANC members who went and started their own parties but for some reason I see Julius I'm like no one has ever done this before he's the first one to do it I don't know maybe he's just a person who is in my like my vision or my lane of sight I guess because everyone else it doesn't count like y'all don't count you count obviously in the in the real sense but I don't see it and I'm you know maybe I'll see it one day but anyway as I was watching elections 2024 I'm like okay the EFF is out Julius, Jess, Jess, Jess who are we voting for and I come across this man from Action Essay that was the only person on that stage who had their life and they're like they had everything together they were not arguing like that man was just so he knew what he was saying he answered the questions so fluently like in that moment I was like okay I'm voting for Action Essay you know because I thought maybe that was I mean it has been the only episode I've watched so far but I my thought was that's before I understood that whole EFF passport thing my thought was if this is going to be the only episode that I'm going to watch that is going to inform the decision that I make on the 29th of May then I'm voting for Action Essay and that was the first time I ever heard of Action Essay but I was convinced there's so many political parties you guys there is I just hope you guys are not like me and you're not going to vote for a party because it sounds nice like the name is cute or the Musumai Mani you know no that's not true and Musumai Mani has his own political party as well so if that's someone that you're interested if you align with you with his values then definitely vote for that for now I'm gonna say I'm gonna go back to those episodes of elections 2024 watch a few more because I do want to make an informed decision I don't want to just vote for the EFF because I don't want to vote for ANC like no guys let's not do that let's move as a country let's move as a people let's listen to what these people are trying to are promising us even if it's lies I mean it's not lies per se it's the vision that they have so it's not that they're lying to us they're just saying this is my vision this is what I want to do will they be able to do it probably not like probably not in the time and space that they set out to do okay the ANC has been in power for so long so so so long they've changed a lot of things we might not we might not actually not want to agree with it they've changed a lot of things they've changed the legislation one president has made things this way realize that it doesn't work the next president changed it like it's not that they're not doing anything they're doing a lot but it's an entire country mm-hmm I'm sorry it's an entire country you know you can't fix everything all at once but also that's why we have provincial government so there's going to be three things that you're going to need to vote I've heard is it three and this is all information coming from tick-tock and Instagram so definitely do go ahead and do your own research but you're going to vote in the national poll you're going to vote in the provincial and I think there's a third one so national I don't want to share my votes my votes my secret for me okay because I'm really embarrassed I'm really embarrassed but I don't think I'm voting for the ANC I feel like I should be part of the movement the change that I should be part of a new South Africa and the new South Africa is not a South Africa led by the ANC and if you're you have different views that's okay that's why we all have a right to freedom of speech you know you can have your own opinion that's all okay let me just tell you something about me just so you know a little bit and you judge me less when I got here when I got to university the first political party that I actually joined was DA and do with that what you will okay do with that what you will I feel like it shows a lot of growth I don't know what pushed me to want to join the DA but oh DASL as the university one is called I joined DASL I think I signed the they give you these forms that you use you join with and then they tell you that you pay the 10 rand I've never paid the 10 rand joined DASL got added to the whatsapp group never went to the miss to their meetings you know I don't have time but I really wanted to take part in politics so I did that I actually had these two guys that I knew I'm gonna call them friends but I think we only really became friends when I affiliated when I signed those forms yeah the name was I forgot their names damn it was right at the tip of my tongue but yeah first I joined DASL when I was probably doing my third year first year second year third year I was like what the fuck am I doing I need to join a political party oh my god and I still need to join one okay I need to join a political party for real yeah so first DASL then SASCO you know I don't know I I feel like now it's really too late for me to still be partaking in university politics I feel like I just need to grow up and eventually join or some things out at least vote the least I can do is vote you know and it's my first election yeah so I'm looking forward to that I wonder if there any voting campaigns going around like just wondering hey okay yeah I haven't watched the news in a while also so I don't really know what exactly is going on we are on 30 minutes so yeah oh shit we had lost the YouTube people for a while but they're back now that's about it guys that's about it for me for this episode I'm just gonna keep it short and sweet I don't know how long this episode usually are I think you're probably around 18 minutes or so short and sweet thank you so much for listening I really do appreciate you I'm finally back on Spotify I'm a podcaster again we're not on Apple podcast sorry sorry sorry sorry to everyone who's like get on Apple podcast not yet okay I'm still trying to get my life together so trying to change this environment I'm trying to change for visuals I'm trying to change a lot of stuff but hopefully in the new year or the next coming six months I don't know I really don't know oh I hope I can cut some few things out okay guys I need you to understand that this is this is real life so if you hear any weird sounds this is real life okay just keep that in mind but thank you so much for listening to discover the podcast remember that episodes come out on Thursdays this episode is gonna come out on Thursday on Spotify I'm gonna try to go back to doing the bi-weekly uploads but you know we'll talk in the next episode the next episode we'll iron a few things out properly and see what we can do with that and on YouTube we still post on Saturdays at 11 a.m. so I'll see you guys there happy Saturday if this is your Saturday and happy birthday to you on Spotify okay I love you guys so much thank you so much for listening cue the outro that should be the intro