Hi there—welcome to Small Talk with Myself, a podcast for PhD students and early-career academics. I’m your host, Zuduo Zheng. I’m an award-winning researcher and educator, and also a university professor, which basically means I get paid to ask questions and occasionally pretend I know the answers. I try to support you by sharing my experiences, or, sometimes, by openly exposing my ignorance. By the end of each episode, I hope you’ll feel a bit smarter, a bit happier, or, at the very least, entertained by my accent.
I make this podcast in my free time, and everything is shared for free—in the true spirit of open science and reproducible research. For more information about my research, please visit: http://www.connectedandautonomoustransport.com/ (http://www.connectedandautonomoustransport.com/)
This episode is a little different.
Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Junyi for the IEEE ITS Podcast. We talked about all sorts of things, including my academic journey, reflections on my research, reproducibility and research practices, and how AI is changing research.
I really enjoyed our conversation. Before I knew it, we'd been talking for over an hour and a half! That's one of my problems—I tend to talk too much when I feel comfortable. 🙂
The IEEE ITS Podcast team has kindly given me permission to share the interview here as well.
So, here you go! Hope you find it interesting—or at least a good way to kill some time.
Enjoy!
23 Aug 2026
How to find a good mentor
What if the 30-year-old you could borrow the experience and wisdom of the 60-year-old you?
To me, that is one of the greatest gifts a good mentor can offer.
In the latest episode of Small Talk with Myself, I reflect on what makes a truly good mentor, some common misconceptions about mentorship, how to find the right mentor, why prestige doesn’t necessarily make someone a great mentor—and why some of our best mentors may be people we’ve never even met.
12 Jul 2026
How to know what you want and why you want it
This episode explores a deceptively simple question:
Do you really know what you want—and why you want it?
Academia makes it very easy to stay busy: papers, grants, promotions, awards, emails, meetings, and endless deadlines. But being busy and moving in the right direction are not necessarily the same thing.
In this episode, I share two strategies that have deeply influenced how I think about my career and life.
Along the way, I talk about The Shawshank Redemption, Stephen Covey, Jeff Bezos, why I started this podcast—and one question I keep coming back to:
Are you spending your time, or investing it in the life and future you truly want?
I hope you enjoy the episode.
P.S. The Substack post introducing the PRAM framework is available here: #40. Regret Minimization Framework - by Do Thi Dieu Thuong.
13 Jun 2026
How to become a good PhD student
This time, I share my personal take on what it means to be a good PhD student—five lessons shaped by my own journey, mistakes, setbacks, and growth along the way.
The episode explores topics such as resilience, managing criticism, developing independence, making the most of your PhD years, and preparing yourself for opportunities before they arrive.
Of course, these are simply my own reflections rather than universal truths. Every PhD journey is different. But I hope some of these lessons resonate with current PhD students, aspiring researchers, and perhaps even those of us who completed our PhDs long ago.
7 May 2026
How to become a good collaborator
What makes someone a great collaborator?
In this episode of Small Talk with Myself, I share some practical—and occasionally painful—lessons about collaboration from academia and professional life. Inspired by a recent small talk I gave at the Australasian Transport Research Forum ECP/R forum, this episode explores the habits that make people genuinely enjoyable to work with… and the behaviours that quietly destroy collaborations.
Along the way, there’s also a lesson from The Godfather, a Nobel Prize breakup between Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, and a reminder that academia is much smaller than it looks.
If you’re an early-career academic, researcher, or professional trying to build strong collaborations without losing your sanity, this episode is for you.
9 Apr 2026
Small Talk with Prof David Hensher
What does it take to build a truly distinguished academic career—and what advice really matters for those just starting out?
In this episode, Professor David Hensher shares the lessons, insights, and hard-earned wisdom from his remarkable journey—speaking candidly about what it means to grow, succeed, and make an impact in academia.
What struck me most in this conversation was his generosity—not just in sharing ideas, but in his genuine commitment to supporting early-career researchers.
This was one of those conversations that stays with you. Thought-provoking, honest, and incredibly inspiring.
And if you’re looking for practical takeaways—you’ll find plenty. In fact, I started applying one of his strategies immediately after we finished recording.
Curious what it was?
Make sure you listen all the way to the end.
26 Mar 2026
How to become a good PhD supervisor (Part II: Dos and Don’ts)
This is Part 2 of how to become a good PhD supervisor.
I'll share 4 dos. 3 don’ts.
And one uncomfortable truth about PhD supervision most people avoid talking about.
12 Mar 2026
How to become a good PhD supervisor (Part I - The What, the Why, and the Who)
In this new episode, I explore a question that many academics eventually face:What does it really take to supervise PhD students well?
If you have ever wondered:
What type of supervisor you are—or want to become
How to select PhD students carefully and avoid unpleasant surprises later
then you may find this episode useful.
25 Feb 2026
Small Talk With Prof Markos Papageorgiou
In this episode, Professor Markos Papageorgiou reflects on his distinguished career and candidly shares his experiences, advice, and wisdom with PhD students and early-career academics.
To learn more about Professor Papageorgiou’s remarkable career and achievements, please see the recent feature on him in IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine.
11 Feb 2026
How to work with international students
This episode — this conversation — comes from a personal place. My experience as someone who once sat on the international student side of the table… and now sits on the supervisor side.
I make this podcast in my free time, and everything is shared for free—in the true spirit of open science and reproducible research. If you suspect this isn’t a complete waste of my evenings and weekends, I’d love your support: share it with your network, leave a comment, and drop a rating. It might even help me convince my wife and kids. Thank you!
28 Jan 2026
7 habits for achieving excellence in academia (Part III)
Habit 6: Self-care is self-improvement;
Habit 7: Build a thick skin for failure and embarrassment — and stop comparing, stop over-thinking.
Plus some embarrassing stories.
13 Jan 2026
Episode 2: 7 habits for achieving excellence in academia – Part II
This episode covers three habits:
Habit 3: Discipline executes. Consistency transforms.
Habit 4: Stay positive, stay confident, and don’t quit.
Habit 5: Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.
31 Dec 2025
7 habits for achieving excellence in academia (Part I)
7 habits for achieving excellence in academia.
Part I: the first two habits.
31 Dec 2025
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