Cara Santa Maria is an Emmy award-winning journalist who studied and taught neuroscience and psychology before deciding that her primary interest was in communicating about science. She was born and raised in Texas, but now lives in Los Angeles. She told me that she has found a terrific community of scientists, communicators, and other creative people even though she describes some of the people in her chosen home are “vapid.”

Here is a quote from Cara’s bio page:

She is a regular contributor to “TechKnow” on Al Jazeera America and reports on local issues for “SoCal Connected” on KCET. Cara also hosts a weekly science podcast called “Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria” and cohosts the popular “Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” podcast.

Previously, Cara worked as a cohost and producer of Pivot TV’s nightly live television show, “TakePart Live.” Before that, she was the Senior Science Correspondent for The Huffington Post and costarred in “Hacking the Planet” and “The Truth About Twisters” on The Weather Channel.

Cara has made appearances on BBC America, CBS, CNN, Current TV, Fox, Fox News, G4tv, Nat Geo WILD, Science Channel, SundanceTV, and the Travel Channel. She is also a regular contributor to The Young Turks.

Suzy Baker suggested that I begin following Cara’s Talk Nerdy podcast if I wanted to learn how to reach a younger audience of people interested in science and technology. I’ve been listening for several months now and have been both fascinated and informed by her stellar lineup of weekly guests.

Aside: It’s probably worth noting that the Talk Nerdy podcast often includes the kinds of expletives that I used to hear from my sailors. This chat, like her network television appearances does not. End Aside.

She and her guests frequently discuss their concerns about climate change but nuclear energy is not often mentioned. Even as science communicators, they rarely bring it up as a potential technological tool in the battle to reduce the waste products from energy production that are major contributors to the increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration that worry them. That situation is one of the primary reasons that I wanted to talk with Cara for the Atomic Show.

The other major attraction was the fact that she is a media professional who has formally studied psychology and demonstrates a good understanding of human motivations, fears, and decision processes.

As an added bonus making her an excellent guest, she pays careful attention to geopolitics, understands the importance of energy the way any self-respecting Texan/Californian should, and thinks critically complex issues and root causes that don’t always reveal themselves without a lot of research and digging.

I think you will enjoy this show. Let Cara and me know, one way or another, what you think about our approach to problem solving.