Bouncing Back: The Personal Resilience Science Insights Podcast · Life Management Science Labs

Dr. Lakshmi Ramachandran: Thriving Through Challenges | Bouncing Back #54

·52 min·3 clips

Lakshmi says infertility became the biggest challenge after her PhD and pharma success.

1. Bouncing Back: The Personal Resilience Science Insights Podcast centers this conversation on life purpose and thriving through purposeful challenges. 2. Host Joanna speaks with Dr. Lakshmi Ramachandran, a scientist turned coach and speaker who was named among Singapore's 40 over 40. 3. The episode asks how purpose, resilience, and core values can help someone keep moving through career change, motherhood, and uncertainty. 4. Lakshmi says she decided at about age 15 that she wanted science, not medicine, and later earned a PhD in cell and molecular biology in the U.S. in 2006. 5. She describes working in a cancer institute, then moving into a big pharma drug-discovery role that felt meaningful and rewarding. 6. She explains that infertility became a major turning point and that she stepped away from her career to give time to starting a family. 7. Lakshmi says she later conceived her first child and also helped create a cookbook memoir based on her and her co-author's graduate-student life in the U.S. 8. She describes relocating to Singapore, living with her husband under the same roof for the first time, and then having a second child. 9. Her career shifted through several transitions before she recognized a purpose in coaching and speaking. 10. Lakshmi defines purpose as the reason someone wakes up in the morning and says it does not need to be larger than life. 11. She uses her mother learning Sanskrit during the pandemic as an example of purposeful life at any age and stage. 12. She says purpose becomes a resilience anchor because it is the “why” that helps someone get up and get going again. 13. Lakshmi says resilience does not mean hiding emotions and emphasizes acknowledging sadness, grief, and stress when they happen. 14. She mentions learning from past obstacles and telling herself that difficult phases are transient. 15. The episode contrasts the older VUCA model with BANI, which Lakshmi expands as brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible. 16. She recommends reframing brittle into buoyant, so the response becomes floating rather than breaking. 17. The conversation is a calm, reflective interview with practical examples from family life, STEM, and personal setbacks. 18. Joanna asks direct follow-up questions and Lakshmi answers with personal stories, definitions, and concrete habits. 19. People balancing STEM ambition with family responsibilities will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a fast motivational speech rather than a reflective interview may skip it.

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