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title: Science Podcasting Research

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# Science Podcasting Research

## Grace's Research

### **["Lessons I’ve learnt from creating a scientific podcast"](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02096-4) by Katherine Bassil, published in Nature’s Career Column**

Inspiration to create a podcast came from her interdisciplinary interests in neuroethics, her goal to learn the perspectives of her peers/members of her department, and to reach people who didn’t know where to begin 
> *Identify audience (people without background), opportunity to hear from others, opportunity to combine science with societal applications*
>
Offers advice for scientists starting a podcast (could be applied to “student experts” as well)
- Find something novel within your interests 
> Research other podcasts, ask yourself what isn’t yet discussed

Define your goals:
- What is the primary aim of the podcast?
-  What is your big picture message?
- Who is your audience?
- Logistical: how long should it be? One segment or two?

Identify a topic before deciding on an interview guest 

Create a script and prepare carefully but be sure to leave some room for spontaneity (especially if interviewing a guest)

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### **[“Four Things I Learned by Starting a Science Podcast”](https://incubator.rockefeller.edu/four-things-i-learned-by-starting-a-science-podcast/) by John Borgi, personal blog**

- If this is your first time making a podcast, it will likely be technically imperfect and that’s ok
> Use the resources around you to get help, listen to podcasts that you enjoy/respect to get a sense of what you want your finished product to sound like

- Scientists and other field experts are generally excited to talk about their work, but may not be used to making the content accessible 
> Especially if your interview expert is outside of your field of expertise, spend some time researching their work before drafting the script.

- For non-scientific listeners, it can be intimidating to listen to a podcast with a lot of jargon  

- Thinking in terms of a scientific publication (the dominant narrative structure within science disciplines) can help you craft an interesting story. Consider including information from each. Although your instinct may be to focus on the big picture topics, thoughtfully incorporating the “day-to-day” of science can be grounding, exciting, and help put the discoveries into context. Here, he uses the example of The Martian which largely chronicles the daily chores of a scientist on Mars.

> Does this tidbit, question, or point fit best into an Introduction, Methods, Results, or Discussion section? 

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### **Notes from an interview with Carl Zimmer, science writer for the New York Times**

*How do you connect with a reader emotionally while also providing adequate scientific background?*

- The beginning is important-- connect with your audience early
- Consider starting with imagery that can captivate your audience’s attention. With a podcast you have the opportunity to use multiple sensory inputs to bring your listener in… use verbal imagery but also incorporate sounds 
- Details matter but they fit into a big picture, keep your narrative motivated by the big picture 
- Frame your story within the passions of the scientist you’re interviewing/the scientist who did the work. 
> If you are having a hard time connecting with the work or finding the emotional core of your story, find out what motivates their passion early on and capture that within your retelling. 


*How do you keep a story from becoming too complicated?* 

- Approach your story visually. Start by mapping big ideas out on paper in boxes, and connecting them with arrows. From there, turn your story into a linear narrative: 
> How long do I want to spend on each big idea/box? What order do these ideas need to go in?
>
*What is the value of incorporating historical context?* 

- Share the history of a scientific idea to understand why a new discovery is exciting/interesting. Put a new finding into conversation with old ideas in the field. 
- Can help you understand the importance of any new finding. Is this really novel?

*Help listeners become better scientists through your podcast.*

> Develop a sense of curiosity by taking listeners through a process of discovery. We saw this so we thought… we had this result so we wondered… we noticed something unexpected so then we tried…

Look for connections and bring your own ideas, thoughts, and experiences to the narrative. 

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### **Thoughts from Nature’s Education Column**

Think specifically about your medium. 
> In a podcast, listeners can’t decide what they will and won’t engage with in the same way that you can skim through a document. Everything that you say needs to be relevant to the main goal. Be particularly thoughtful about including detail. Are there resources you can link to in the episode notes for audience members who want to learn more? Is this necessary to tell the story? Will this detail help a listener connect-- is it accessible?

Show respect for your audience.

> Making complicated ideas accessible doesn’t necessarily mean “dumbing things down.” Rather, it involves streamlining and careful thought. What is the big takeaway and which details are necessary to understand that takeaway? Use simple language. For any jargon that you want to include give yourself two options: is it worth taking the extra time/space to explain this word or is there a more accessible way I could say this? 

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### Additional thoughts

- Use questions as scaffolds and to orient the audience 
- Present experiments in terms of expected results
- Incorporate a narrative arc in a structure that all people are familiar with (hook, conflict, resolution)
- Be thoughtful about the tone of your podcast. 
>  Many people approach science with an emotional lens depending on their backgrounds/experiences. If you’ve always felt confident and capable when it comes to your scientific courses, you’re probably already excited to listen to something new. If you’ve often struggled or felt isolated by your scientific education, it might be harder to engage.

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### Reflections from students

- Podcasts enable you to listen and learn while you might be otherwise occupied
- Opportunity to incorporate other sounds to make something delightful/easy to listen to in a way text cannot
- Room for listeners to make their own personal visualizations, imaginations… internal visualizations can be guided by the narrator but not controlled
- Gives you access to a more casual kind of interaction with experts
- Some podcasts choose a style that avoids arguing a particular point (*considering multiple sides, telling a narrative, bringing on experts with strong and oppositional ideas*)... meant to evoke thought and development of personal views (m*ore so than other mediums, maybe more common or accessible through a podcast*) 
- Listening can be a private, intimate experience of connection
- Listeners have more flexibility (*perhaps lower investment?*) in choosing an episode or topic (*this might be relevant when thinking about audience*) Each word demands attention! Limited ability to skim… if you tune out, hard to get back into the storyline… fluff or filler is noticeable and distracting
- Storytelling is necessarily central and storytelling fosters community

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### **Commonly Used Science Podcast Formats (with examples)**

Interview with an Expert 
- [In Defense of Plants](https://www.indefenseofplants.com/podcast)
- [Brave New Planet](https://www.bravenewplanet.org/)
- [Ologies](https://www.alieward.com/ologies)
 
Conversation between hosts/producers exploring a topic
- [RadioLab](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab)
- [Stuff You Should Know](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/)

Investigative/storytelling 
- [Invisibilia ](https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia)










