Fancy Scientist with Dr. Stephanie Manka

As a wildlife biologist, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is:

“What can I do to help animals?”

Well this episode is all about that exact topic. And guess what? It’s probably not what you think it is. 

Want a clue? It happens every year, but we mostly pay attention to it every four years here in the US. It’s also super easy to do, although there are real barriers for many Americans (which I go over how to help overcome).

It’s…

VOTING!

Most people don’t realize it, but wildlife is always on the ballot. 

It’s 2020, an election year for us in the USA. And not just any election year, a very, very important one – certainly the most important one in my lifetime. 

In this episode, I talk about:

• The connection between voting and wildlife
• Why local offices matter
• The best way to vote in this year’s election
• How increasing voter turnout affects wildlife
• How you can help others vote
• Ways you can amplify your voice, get out the vote, and what it’s like to participate

For the full show notes of all of the resources mentioned, click this link: https://stephanieschuttler.com/want-to-help-animals-do-this-one-thing/

Want to learn more about wildlife biology, being a scientist, and conservation? Here’s how:

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to learn about the coolest animals and get my tips about careers in wildlife biology, science communication, and more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7KlOYUv8lxU3MG4sfxaLzA?view_as=subscriber 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

I am so excited – My book on wildlife biology careers is finally available on pre-order for Kindle. The paperback version will be out next month. 

For the past year, I’ve been writing a book on wildlife biology careers from everything that I’ve learned over the past 17 years in my career. It’s jammed packed with information about my personal journey and advice for you on how to go about getting a job in this field.

This is a short and sweet episode about the five major takeaways you’ll get from this book. I promise it’s like no other book out there. During this podcast, I explain why.

I also offer two additional bonuses – one of which is a free ticket to my masterclass on resumes, CVs, and cover letters. This will be a 90 minute webinar teaching you how to write compelling cover letters and create resumes that stand out. 

You’ll get this masterclass for free if you preorder the Kindle eBook or if you prefer the paperback version, you’ll get it if you order in the first week. Just save the receipt and I will have a form to sign up for it soon!

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Conservation is all about trying to protect and save plants, animals, and other organisms from going extinct. We do this work because we love nature, and it’s tough to read stories about people or organizations poaching wildlife, destroying primary rainforests, or plastics encompassing our oceans. 

In other words, conservation can get you down. 

It’s hard not to get affected by the gloom and doom, and many conservation organizations even use this tactic to get people to care. But it can backfire and make people feel even more hopeless about the planet. 

Additionally, for those of us who work in conservation, science is a tough field, and having an optimistic attitudes is really not how a lot of scientists tend to be. 

So what’s an aspiring scientists supposed to do? 

In this podcast, I interview Dr. Ashley Scarlett AKA Dr. Scarlett Smash, to talk about this and her solution: mindful conservation. Ashley is an environmental science/marine conservation scientist and yogi practitioner on a journey of self-care. She has a new podcast: The Guide to Mindful Conservation: Dancing in Pink Hiking Boots.

The Guide to Mindful Conservation is a podcast is for professionals in the conservation practitioners or citizen scientists. Ashley believes that “connecting conservation and holistic healing to provoke and awaken a wholeness in one’s self…leads to sustainable happiness and efficiency.”

Specifically, we talk about:

How being in conservation or science can affect one's mental health

Some of the crazy things scientists do that aren't kind or helpful in conservation

• Why we need to work together
• What is mindfulness?
• What is mindful conservation?
• The mindful conservation conference
• How nature can help you heal
• How you can start healing yourself
• and MORE!

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

If you’ve listened to previous episodes of the podcast (like # and #), you know how important communication to the public is for science and conservation. Many scientists are on Twitter, Instagram, and even Tik Tok now, but hardly anyone I know uses Pinterest for science communication and conservation. 

This is a mistake! Lots of people don’t even think about Pinterest when it comes to choosing social media platforms for communicating science and conservation messages, but it’s one of the best out there, just behind YouTube. 

Pinterest is extremely effective for reaching new audiences with the content you are already creating. It is better than Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I get approximately 120,000 monthly views from my Pinterest page as opposed to my Twitter and Instagram feeds, which reach over 6,000 and 4,000 respectively.

For my website traffic for all of 2020 so far, over 15% comes directly from Pinterest, only second to a Google search. For my 3rd most viewed post on my website, 95+% of the traffic is from Pinterest.

But it’s not just about the numbers. Pinterest is great for many reasons. In this podcast, I’ll go over:

• What is Pinterest
• Why Pinterest is more evergreen than other social media platforms
• Why Pinterest will let you reach new and different audiences
• Why people may be more likely to read your Pinterest posts
• How to use Pinterest
• Tips to make your Pinterest page successful
• Easy and free tools to make pins
• and MORE!

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

On this episode, I interviewed Dr. Chris Cloney, a combustible dust fire and explosion researcher who created a six-figure online business from his blog. 

My podcast tends to focus on wildlife and conservation, so why am I interviewing an explosion researcher? Because Chris is amazing at science communication and all of the principles behind Dust Safety Science, GradBlogger, and now the Self Tenure Community can help you spread messages of conservation and even make a living from them. 

Successful messaging and education are the key to conservation. We cannot separate all wildlife from humans, and even if we could, our impact on the planet (e.g. climate change) would still affect wildlife populations. So much of conservation is about changing human behaviors. 

More specifically, we’ll talk about:

• How Chris makes tens of thousands of dollars each month with one of his blogs 
• How to turn your blog into a business
• Science communication in general
• Blogging vs social media
• What to blog about
• Overcoming publishing nerves
• Handling negative comments from the Internet
• and MORE!

Full show notes here: https://stephanieschuttler.com/starting-a-scicomm-business-with-chris-cloney/

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Within the past decade, there have been several prominent issues where the public has showed distrust in science and the scientists behind the studies: climate change, evolution, vaccines, and now COVID-19 and wearing masks.

This week on the podcast, I talk about what science actually is. We’re taught in school that science is about memorizing facts or taxonomic names (at least in biology). But science is really about asking and answering questions!

These questions, and the studies attempting to answer them aren’t done in isolation. As a scientist, it’s incredibly difficult to fabricate data or come up to erroneous conclusions and get away with it. Science is full of checks and balances, and while it is always evolving, there are definitely well-studied areas of research where the results are clear and there is a consensus among scientists. 

But this is only half the work. Or maybe even less than half. Without the public understanding the science, our work doesn’t mean much. For example, we have lots of studies and climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change at an accelerated rate, yet if the public and government officials don’t trust those studies or the scientists, we won’t be able to implement changes to mitigate the impacts. Therefore science communication is of utmost importance.

In the second half of this podcast, I transition into how scientists are communicating their research and how I am shifting to a new career entirely dedicated to science communication. 

Most scientists think you can only work as a science communicator for an organization, but I’m sharing how I’m doing it with my blog. Next week, I talk to Chris Cloney, who has made an entire business out of science communication. 

In this podcast, I:

• Take you through what it’s like to conduct a scientific study
• How scientists check each other’s work
• How studies are published in journal
• Why scientists are communicating their science
• How scientists can be communicators
• My transition into a career in science communication and how you can do the same. 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Full show notes here: https://stephanieschuttler.com/what-science-is-really-like-and-careers-in-science-communication/

In today’s episode, I interview wildlife biologist and YouTuber Kristina Lynn on what it’s like to be a wildlife biologist and her success going viral on YouTube. She offers lots of great career tips and fun stories.  

Kristina has a degree in ecology, animal behavior, and evolution. Her research includes many projects on understanding and assessing the influence of human development on wildlife species. Some of her current and past study species include grey wolf, cougars, Canada lynx, grizzly bear, and black bear.

Her research experience spans from California to the Bolivian Amazon to up north in western Canada. She has worked for the state and federal government, and in animal sanctuaries.

Kristina is passionate about conservation and encourages an eco-friendly lifestyle on her YouTube channel. She has a lot of videos for advice on careers in wildlife biology and even shows you what a day in the life is like. 

Full show notes here with all of links to Kristina's YouTube and social media: https://stephanieschuttler.com/15-career-and-youtube-advice-with-wildlife-biologist-kristina-lynn/

This is a bonus episode! I recorded a webinar on Monday night to talk about my new Confusion to Clarity beta group. I realized that I had a Zoom audio file too and thought it would be a good addition to the podcast because even if you don't join my group, it has valuable advice for those interested in careers in wildlife biology.

When I looked for jobs after my PhD, I found out I was overqualified, yet not specialized enough for some of the jobs I wanted most.

My network didn’t help. In four cases, I did not get jobs that I interviewed for despite knowing working with someone on the hiring committee another candidate had more experience or a skill I did not have.

I LOVED my PhD research on elephants, but when I graduated, I found out there were very few jobs I was qualified for.

The secret to success in wildlife biology careers is to reverse engineer them.

In this episode, I go over 7 steps that I believe are essential for you to become competitive and find happiness. Enjoy!

Every day in the summer summer around dusk, I would look up above and see bats flying above my yard. I love bats, but so many people don’t. But bats are SO COOL!

In this episode I talk with my friend and bat biologist Lisa Gatens of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. She’s been studying bats for about 20 years. In this interview, she tells us some amazing bat facts as well as tips on how to live alongside and help out bats. 

Specifically we go over…

• Fun bat facts
• Bat moms are bad ass
• Tequila!
• Vampire bats
• Bat diversity
• Why bats are important
• What bats do for people
• How to attract bats to your yard
• Why do bats need our help?
• What should you do if you have a bat in your house
• Bats and disease
• Bats and COVID-19
• Bats are cute
• And MORE!

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Full show notes: https://stephanieschuttler.com/bats-are-the-best-bat-fun-with-bat-biologist-lisa-gatens/

Elephants are sought after for their ivory, which comes from their tusks. In most countries, it is illegal, but this has’t stopped people from killing them. 

Elephant poaching was at its highest ever within the past two decades. But some studies are reporting that poaching decreased. 

However, a new study contradicts this overall narrative; that poaching has decreased for elephants. Previous studies didn’t account for missing data and when you look at the geographic regions, it’s a lot more complicated. 

In this episode, I talk about what’s really going on with elephants and poaching. I studied forest elephants for my Ph.D., so this is a topic near and dear to my heart.

In this podcast, I’ll cover:

• The 3 species of elephant and their different threats
• Poaching in Africa
• How species designations affect the conservation of African elephants
•  Is poaching really decreasing?
• Why do studies show conflicting results?
• What you can do to help the conservation of elephants

Full show notes here: https://stephanieschuttler.com/has-poaching-decreased-for-elephants/

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7KlOYUv8lxU3MG4sfxaLzA?