Smooth Brain Society

In this episode of Voices from the Field, we speak with Dr Kiran Aftab, a medical doctor and neuroscience researcher whose work connects Pakistan and the UK. Kiran discusses her research using portable MRI and artificial intelligence to investigate neurological conditions, alongside the challenges of developing neuroscience research in settings where access to conventional brain imaging and research infrastructure may be limited.
We explore the potential of portable neuroimaging, the use of AI in dementia research, and the importance of ensuring that datasets represent populations beyond those traditionally included in biomedical research. Kiran also reflects on the practical challenges of conducting research in Pakistan, building local research capacity, and developing collaborations that can help address inequalities in access to neuroscience and healthcare.
From the opportunities offered by emerging technologies to the limitations of applying research findings across different populations, this conversation considers how neuroscience can become more inclusive, representative and equitable.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Dr. Kiran Aftab and episode overview
04:03 Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan
06:37 MRI and Portable MRIs
13:28 Portable MRI Research in Pakistan
26:45 Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience
29:41 Dr. Aftab's Aims for Research in Pakistan
38:26 Dream Research Project and Current Work
Voices from the Field is a special series from the Smooth Brain Society, supported by the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) through its Spark Grant. The series explores culturally responsive research and what cross-cultural psychology looks like in practice. The views expressed by guests are their own.

In this episode of Voices from the Field, we speak with Dr Veena Easvaradoss, a clinical psychologist and researcher from Chennai, India, about the ways culture and gender shape everyday life.
We discuss her research with women who roll bidis (a tobacco product) in their homes, exploring gendered work, economic opportunity, health risks and an intervention designed to help workers move towards alternative livelihoods. We then turn to parenting in India, looking at how cultural values, urbanisation and changing family structures shape parenting practices and why psychological theories developed in one cultural context may not always translate neatly to another.
Part of Voices from the Field: International Conversations on Cross-Cultural Research Practice, supported by the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) SPARK Grant.
Topics: Gender and work • Bidi workers • Women’s livelihoods • Occupational health • Alternative livelihoods • Indian parenting • Family and culture • Cross-cultural psychology • Cultural adaptation • Gender roles • Socioeconomic inequality
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the episode and guest
00:44 Dr. Easvaradoss Shares Her Origin Story
03:13 Women in the workplace: The Indian Context
09:54 The Bidi industry and its gendered nature
16:57 Interventions to help bidi rollers
33:13 Policy, welfare and Future
35:25 Parenting Styles in India
48:03 Dream Research and Wrap up
#CrossCulturalPsychology #CulturalPsychology #India #GenderAndPsychology

What can researchers around the world learn from Māori approaches to knowledge, language and community?
In this episode of Voices from the Field, we speak with Dr Awanui Te Huia (Ngāti Maniapoto) about te reo Māori, identity, colonisation and Kaupapa Māori research.
Awanui shares how language shapes identity and belonging, why culturally responsive research requires genuine relationships with communities, and how Māori approaches can challenge conventional ideas about psychology, wellbeing and research.
We also discuss language revitalisation, researcher positionality, community-led research, and what it means to create research that is accountable to the people it seeks to serve.
Part of Voices from the Field: International Conversations on Cross-Cultural Research Practice, supported by the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) SPARK Grant
Topics: Māori psychology • Kaupapa Māori • te reo Māori • Indigenous research • language revitalisation • identity • colonisation • research ethics • cultural psychology • neurodiversity
#CrossCulturalPsychology #KaupapaMāori #MāoriPsychology #IndigenousResearch #TeReoMāori #SmoothBrainSociety

What does it actually mean to decolonise research?

For the first episode of Voices from the Field, we go to Greenland to speak with Inuk anthropologist, educator and Indigenous rights advocate Qivioq Nivi Løvstrøm about research, identity and disability rights in Greenland.

Qivioq takes us into the realities of conducting research in Greenland, exploring what decolonisation can mean beyond theory, what it looks like in practice and why research cannot be separated from the historical and political structures in which it takes place.

We also explore the power of language. Qivioq discusses teaching historical methods in Kalaallisut, challenging colonial narratives of Greenland's past, and how the words we use to describe disability can shape how people understand themselves and their place in society.

We finish by imagining a different academic system built around genuine collaboration, Indigenous knowledge and international networks rather than tokenistic inclusion.

Supported by the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP).

We all have a story about who we are. But where does that story come from?
In this episode of the Smooth Brain Society, Sahir and Beth sit down with developmental psychologist Dr. Sean Marshall, of the University of Melbourne, to explore narrative identity, which are the stories we build around the experiences that shape our lives.
We discuss how narrative identity develops from childhood, how our memories and interpretations of significant events can change over time, and why the meaning we give to our experiences may be linked to mental health and wellbeing.
Sean also shares insights from the Growing Memories Project, a longitudinal study exploring how the ways parents talk with their children about the past can influence language, memory and later autobiographical storytelling.
So, how much of who we are is contained in the stories we tell about ourselves?
In this episode:
 🧠 Narrative identity
 💭 Autobiographical reasoning
 🕰️ Memory and mental time travel
 🔄 Turning points and redemption narratives
 👨‍👩‍👧 Childhood, parenting and storytelling
 ❤️ Narrative identity and mental health
Listen now and start thinking about your own life story a little differently.
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