Let's Talk SciComm

Ever had someone you care about listen to you talk about your work and ask, "so what?". It stings, but what if it's actually a gift? In this short episode, Jen and Michael reframe that deflating moment as one of the most useful questions you'll ever be asked: the very thing every funder, editor and audience member is quietly wondering anyway. They talk through how to answer it well: distinguishing why your work matters in your field from why it matters to the person in front of you, using the "five whys" to dig down to something they genuinely care about, and turning all those answers into a handful of ready-made hooks for different people and situations.

You can find more great advice here:

• The Message Box. The signature (and free) science communication tool whose whole crux is the "So what? Why should your audience care?" question, with a different version built for each audience you want to reach.

• Research contribution vs significance. A clear, recent piece from the wonderful Pat Thomson framing significance as the "so what?" of your work, warning against both the vague non-answer ("it's important because mental health matters") and underselling what you've done.

This week we were thrilled to be joined by the wonderful Alanta Colley - Naarm/ Melbourne-based comedian, science communicator and storyteller, and living proof that the path into science communication is rarely a straight line. With a background in international public health, Alanta spent two years doing public health work in rural eastern Uganda, coordinating HIV education, setting up mosquito-net micro-businesses and running sanitation campaigns. Along the way, she collected a few unwanted souvenirs in the form of several parasites. Rather than quietly moving on, she turned the experience into her first solo show, Parasites Lost, which sold out its entire run at the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. She's since written and toured a string of solo shows: Days of Our Hives on beekeeping, On the Origin of Faeces on the gut microbiome, and Trick or Treatment on the evidence behind alternative medicine, performing across Australia, New Zealand and for the Gates Foundation in Seattle, and she's the co-founder of Sci Fight, Melbourne's long-running science comedy debate series.

Join us for a fabulous chat about non-linear careers, what public health work in Uganda taught Alanta about listening and testing your assumptions, the delicate art of balancing "funny" with "too much information", why failure is one of the most powerful tools in both comedy and science communication, and her advice for anyone whose knees knock at the very thought of public speaking.

You can follow Alanta and find out more about her work here: 

• Alanta on the Shirtloads of Science podcast: shirtloadsofscience.libsyn.com

• Instagram: @alanta_colley and @sci_fight_science_comedy

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanta-colley-2a018843/

Preparing for your thesis oral defence (the viva, the oral exam, whatever it's called in your neck of the woods) and quietly dreading it? In this short episode, Jen and Michael reframe the whole experience: your defence isn't an interrogation, it's a conversation between engaged and curious colleagues welcoming you into the field, not with adversaries who are hunting for holes. They share practical ways to prepare - knowing your discussion section inside out, planning honest and non-defensive answers to the questions you're dreading, and being upfront that every piece of research has its limitations. And with AI making it more important than ever to show you can talk candidly about your own work, they suspect oral defences are only going to become more common.

You can find more great advice here:

• How to survive a thesis defence A classic, practical guide: you know your work better than anyone, the examiners aren't out to get you, and a pause to think is your friend.

• The dreaded doctoral defense From The Thesis Whisperer, Australia's best-known PhD blog, on reframing the defence and preparing for the questions you're dreading.

• How to present an effective and successful viva voce A thorough, recently updated guide making the same core point Jen and Michael do: the viva is a conversation, not an interrogation, and the common questions are entirely predictable.

• The viva. From the UK's researcher-development body, which frames the viva as a chance to discuss your work with experienced experts and recommends a calm, non-confrontational approach to any criticism.

This week we were absolutely delighted (and, we'll admit, a little starstruck) to sit down with Dr Kit Prendergast: native bee researcher, taxonomist, conservation biologist, science communicator and performing artist, better known to many as Bee Babette. Kit came to science through a blend of the arts and the sciences, and that mix of creativity and rigour has come to define her career. She fell for native bees back in 2016, drawn in by macro photography and bee hotels, and went on to complete her PhD at Curtin University as a Forrest Research Scholar studying native bee biodiversity, urban pollination networks, and the genuinely contentious question of how introduced European honeybees affect our native species. Since then she's been remarkably prolific: more than 80 peer-reviewed papers, two brand-new bee species described (one named after her beloved dog, Zephyr), an award-winning science circus comedy show called The Birds & the Bees, a book, a swag of outreach awards, and a real knack for throwing out the rulebook on how scientists engage the public.

Join us for a fabulous conversation about falling in love with native bees, the trouble with "bee washing", why species names matter far more than you'd think, combining acrobatics with science on stage, and Kit's advice to be unapologetically your true self.

You can follow Kit and find out more about her work here: 

• Everything Bee Babette on Patreon: patreon.com/cw/TheBeeBabette

• Kit's Forrest Research profile: forrestresearch.org.au/profiles/dr-kit-prendergast

• YouTube: The Bee Babette

• Instagram: @dr.beebabette

• LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/dr-kit-prendergast-7b9250135

• Facebook: Kit Prendergast, The Buzz on Wild Bees, and Creating a Haven for Native Bees

Perfectionism isn't all bad — it usually means you care deeply about your work. The trouble starts when it tips into paralysis and nothing ever makes it out into the world. In this short episode, Jen and Michael share how they've learned to hit publish anyway: separating high standards from a fear of being judged, asking what you'd tell a friend in the same boat, gathering people who'll remind you your work is good enough, and using deadlines to get comfortable with "that'll do." 

Their verdict? Done is better than perfect (and salted caramel ice cream might just be the exception that proves nothing else can be perfect).

You can find more great advice here: 

• How to escape perfectionism as an excellent researcher The crucial difference between striving for excellence and chasing perfection.

• Identifying and overcoming perfectionism in academic writers Why high standards help, perfectionism doesn't, and "done is good enough" more often than we think.

• How would you treat a friend? A simple, research-backed exercise built on exactly Michael's question: what would you say to a friend, and can you say it to yourself?

We're kicking off Season 20 with a guest whose career path we found completely fascinating. Forrest Shaw is a stand-up comedian and writer whose comedy career began after a decade working as a marine and environmental biologist in his hometown of Miami, Florida - a career that saw him study everything from manatees and sea turtles to seagrass meadows, coral reefs and water quality. So it's safe to say he knows his way around the ocean. Then he made the kind of career pivot a lot of scientists quietly daydream about: he moved into stand-up, and has absolutely thrived, performing at some of the biggest comedy festivals in the world: Netflix Is A Joke Fest, Just For Laughs in Montreal, Moontower, Clusterfest and Bridgetown among them, and releasing his debut special, Poor Decisions, on Amazon. Most recently he brought his science-based comedy show The Ocean Hates You! (all about pollution, overfishing, climate change, sharks, and why talking about the ocean doesn't have to feel like going to a funeral), to the Adelaide Fringe.

Join us for a joyful conversation about ten years in marine science, the leap into stand-up, and why making people laugh might be one of the most powerful ways to make them care.

You can learn more about Forrest’s work here:

Forrest's website: forrestshaw.net

Instagram: @forrestshaw and @theoceanhatesyou

Facebook: @forrestshawcomedian and @theoceanhatesyou

Staring down a big deadline and suddenly overcome by the urge to tidy your desk, reorganise your bookshelf, or look up random facts? You're in good company. In this short episode, Jen and Michael (both fresh from some very big deadlines of their own) share how they get unstuck: treating procrastination as an emotional issue rather than a time-management one, being kind to yourself when you've (once again) left it late, holding onto the basics like sleep and good food, and remembering that progress always beats perfection.

You can find more great advice here: 

Procrastination is an emotional problem, Fast Company - why the fix is managing your feelings, not your calendar.

Why we procrastinate and what to do about it, APA's Speaking of Psychology podcast - a researcher on the surprising role of self-compassion.

Emotion regulation and procrastination, Solving Procrastination - practical, evidence-based strategies for getting started.

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/nu8h

This week we were thrilled to be joined by the wonderful Molly Patton - founder, sci-comm lead and producer at Miscible, a Melbourne-based science communication studio that has quickly made a name for itself for the way it turns complex research into visually striking, deeply engaging stories. Molly's path here is a fascinating one: a former biomaterials postgrad, she walked away from academia after watching the same three problems crop up again and again: no time, no funding, and no shared language to explain why the work actually mattered. With a dual background in science and the arts (photography in particular), she's spent the last nine years leading creative teams to help researchers communicate work that is, in her words, "easy to understand and impossible to ignore" - translation work that has supported nearly $200 million in research funding in just the past four years.

Join us for a fabulous conversation about why science and the arts were never meant to be separate, science communication as a profession in its own right, the art of a great grant application, and Molly's lovely reminder to be human first and scientist second.

You can follow Molly and learn more about her work here: 

Molly on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mollypatton

Miscible on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/miscible-co

Molly's Substack: mollykpatton.substack.com

And, since he got a mention, Molly's very photogenic dog Kodak: @kodak_the_bluemerle

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/z58h

Been invited to talk about your research on the radio? Congratulations, and welcome to the world of "wild listeners." In this short episode, Jen and Michael explain why radio is unlike almost any other communication opportunity you'll get: your audience hasn't tuned in specifically for you, and they're very likely driving, cooking, or wrangling a toddler while you talk. Michael shares his practical tips for cutting through - short soundbites, signposting ("this matters for three reasons"), and a bit of repetition to help distracted listeners follow you. Jen, who has been talking about science on the radio for twenty years, makes the case that radio is fundamentally about human connection, not perfection: bring your whole self, be willing to stumble, smile while you speak, and prepare by talking out loud about your work rather than clinging to a script.

You can find more great advice here: 

• Top tips for media work: a guide for scientists, Science Media Centre - a practical checklist for broadcast interviews, including what to ask before you say yes.

• What makes a great radio interview, COMPASS - a radio producer's perspective on what makes a scientist a great guest.

• TV and radio media tips, AAAS -  the nuts and bolts, including just how short a soundbite really needs to be.

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/q58h

This week we were thrilled to chat with the wonderfully interdisciplinary Dr Paul Mason: anthropologist, neuroscientist, medical researcher, and inventor of a dung beetle board game. Paul cheerfully describes his own CV as looking "like a pizza with the lot" (with, somehow, even the pineapple on there). Paul is also a musician, dancer and capoeira practitioner who began his studies wanting to get into brain research, before realising he was far more interested in understanding the brain in context. That curiosity took him from laboratory internships at the Howard Florey Institute (and beyond) into a PhD in anthropology, and out into the world doing fieldwork with arts communities in Indonesia and Brazil, infectious disease patients in Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, and conservation education at Taronga Zoo.

In our wide-ranging conversation, Paul shares why he believes good science communication actually makes for good science, and how creative formats can carry serious ideas to the people who need them most. We talk about his award-winning children's book about tuberculosis (translated into thirty languages and distributed free in four countries) his dung beetle board game Hexcrement, and the surprising social magic of gathering people around a table to play. Paul also offers his best advice for researchers who want real-world impact: put in the work to ask good, well-structured questions, and always make it easy for people to help you - because kindness begets kindness, and communities of shared practice are where change begins.

You can follow Paul and learn more about his work here: 

• https://paul.sobriquet.net/

• Fresh Produce Bioactives: freshproducebioactives.com.au

• Insta: @freshproducebioactives and @sociocerebral

• Hexcrement, via Aelytra Conservation: aelytra.com

• Paul's tuberculosis children's book: https://paul.sobriquet.net/publications/

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/k58h