“What kind of crossover things can you do to take (science) to them?”

— Dr. Becky Smethurst

 

Making science more accessible to everyone. That’s the mission of this week’s guest on The Videocraft Show Presented By Video Husky.

 

Dr. Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist and junior research fellow at the University of Oxford in England. Her studies focus primarily on galaxies, supermassive black holes, and their interactions with each other. 

 

She’s also found a second life educating viewers about science on YouTube. Dr. Becky makes videos with the aim of tackling our biggest questions about space, astronomy, and more in a way that’s fun and easy to understand. 

 

Dr. Becky authored and published her first book Space: 10 Things You Should Know with Penguin Random House in 2020. She’s also won numerous awards, including most recently the Mary Somerville Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics as well as the Caroline Herschel Prize for Lectureship in 2020.

In this episode, Dr. Becky speaks with host Jon Santiago about:

• The importance of curiosity in her career as a scientist (and where it comes from)
• The years of practice it took for her to become comfortable with presenting ideas
• How creating videos as a YouTuber fits into her career as a scientist
• Her approach to reaching and engaging new audiences
• How she thinks about internet fame and responsibility as a creator with a platform

And much more...

 

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Relevant Links

• Dr. Becky on YouTube
• Dr. Becky on Instagram
• Dr. Becky’s book - "Space: The 10 Things You Should Know"
• Sixty Symbols YouTube channel
• DeepSkyVideos YouTube channel

 

Chapters

• (00:00) Intro
• (03:14) Start of conversation with Dr. Becky
• (04:03) Her relatability and how she makes being a scientist very normal
• (05:50) Logic and creativity in science and content creation
• (08:26) Being comfortable with uncertainty as a scientist
• (09:40) Her first memory of being fascinated with space
• (12:16) Where she got her curiosity growing up
• (14:34) How she started her career as an astrophysicist
• (17:44) Growing up in an all-girls school
• (19:14) How she is challenging scientist stereotypes
• (21:01) Her background in talking in front of an audience
• (28:00) How she started making content on YouTube
• (34:19) Her "Day in the life of an astrophysicist" video / Thinking of video ideas to expand her audience
• (37:46) Balancing her career and her YouTube channel
• (39:55) Her creative approach when making YouTube videos
• (44:20) Dealing with inappropriate comments on her YouTube videos
• (47:16) Conspiracy theories and false information on YouTube
• (50:18) What it's like to have microfame
• (53:21) Influencing vs. Inspiring
• (57:51) Advice Dr. Becky would give her younger self

 

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Production Credits

• Producer: Nikki Vicente
• Editor: Ingrid Sarayba 
• Graphics: Paolo Lopez