Meet Trash Panda Ashlee
Ashlee is a doctoral student in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations, where she studies how advertising shapes our mental and physical well-being.
A self-proclaimed recovered shopaholic, Ashlee spends her days researching the powerful ways ads influence what we buy, what we value, and how we see ourselves. Her work focuses on beauty culture, consumer products, health communication, and the social norms that drive consumption.
After years of chasing the next purchase, product, or trend, Ashlee became fascinated by a simple question: Why do we buy so much stuff in the first place?
On Trash(ed), she brings her expertise in advertising and behavior change to conversations about waste, consumer culture, and sustainability. She's especially interested in how shifting social norms can create a less wasteful future.
Let’s get trashy
Meet Trash Panda Daryl
Ashlee is a doctoral student in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations, where she studies how advertising shapes our mental and physical well-being.
A self-proclaimed recovered shopaholic, Ashlee spends her days researching the powerful ways ads influence what we buy, what we value, and how we see ourselves. Her work focuses on beauty culture, consumer products, health communication, and the social norms that drive consumption.
After years of chasing the next purchase, product, or trend, Ashlee became fascinated by a simple question: Why do we buy so much stuff in the first place?
On Trash(ed), she brings her expertise in advertising and behavior change to conversations about waste, consumer culture, and sustainability. She's especially interested in how shifting social norms can create a less wasteful future.
Let’s get trashy
Meet Trash Panda Kasia
Kasia is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Texas at Austin, where she runs an undergraduate research lab as a part of the Freshman Research Initiative. Her lab focuses on bioprospecting for plastic degrading microbes and enzymes.
Plastic degradation as a topic of research came to Kasia organically- seeking to understand how plants and microbes “talk” to the world around them, and how they change when they encounter synthetic substances lead her to think further about the way materials degrade in the environment.
Kasia uses plastic-eating insects, carnivorous plants, and marine microplastics to harvest plastic-degrading microbes for further study.
On Trash(ed), she brings her experience with “finding a cure” for plastics on earth, along with an endless barrage of questions for her co-hosts, guests, and the world at large when discussing our trashy lives.