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In recent years there has been a lot of talk about public trust in science – how much there is, in what ways, whether we deserve it or not. In this episode, we discuss an article by historian and philosopher Rachel Ankeny that asks whether “trust” is even the right concept to be talking about. What does it mean to trust an abstraction like “science”? When people argue about trust in science, are they even talking about the same thing – the findings, the people, the process, or something else? And we discuss Ankeny’s proposed alternative: that instead of the public’s trust, scientists should be seeking out engagement. What would an engagement model looks like? How would engagement benefit the public? How would it benefit science? And what about people who just wouldn’t want to engage? Plus: We answer a letter from someone who likes, but doesn’t love, teaching, and wants to know if that’s good enough for academia.
Our theme music is Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle, available on freemusicarchive.org under a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license. Our logo was created by Jude Weaver.
This is episode 77. It was recorded on March 26, 2020.
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Sometimes, to do right by their students, good teachers have to break the rules. In this episode, I talk with Melinda Anderson, author of Becoming a Teacher, about the times when doing the right thing means bucking the system.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jennifer Gonzalez, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Can we knowingly fool ourselves? In episode 86 of Parsing Science we talk with Darwin Guevarra from Michigan State University about his research exploring how placebos sometimes have the power to reduce neural markers of emotional distress, even in cases in which people are told told that they’re only taking a placebo rather than an active drug.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Parsing Science: The unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researchers themselves., which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
How many times have you said “I wish I had known!” or “Why didn’t they teach us this in school?”
If you’re a graduate student, you’ve probably said it a lot.
For some reason, from the moment you write your first application to the moment you get your hood and mortarboard, you’ll be re-learning what thousands of students have learned before you.
You’ll be treading a well-worn path, but for some reason, you won’t get a map.
Why don’t successful graduates take the time to help their successors along? Well, partly because they immediately get busy on the next stage of their career.
And partly because they may feel they’ve barely escaped the gauntlet of graduate school intact. “What advice could I give?” they muse. “I almost didn’t make it myself!”
Tales from the Beyond
Luckily, a few successful graduates DO speak to us from the other side. Sure, they may not have had a storybook experience, but their scars were won honestly and they have advice for their peers-in-training.
This week, we learn from Evelyne Deplazes, PhD, Chancellor’s Research Fellow and Adjunct Research Fellow at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Curtin University (Perth).
Dr. Deplazes’ article “How to PhD: 10 Tips from Hindsight” shares her insights from earning a PhD in Computational Biophysics from the University of Western Australia.
Dr. Deplazes paints the outlines of a map that other graduates students can use on their own journeys!
Just remember, you’re not traveling alone. Leave a comment below or send us an email to join the conversation.
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Stopping the decimation of rainforests is unquestionably important to slowing climate change. But simply protecting forests often excludes and disenfranchises local communities. This week we’re talking about a different way of addressing this problem — a pairing of ecology with healthcare.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Utah Public Radio, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
In a world currently facing an unparalleled health crisis, the need for clear science communication has never been greater. Explaining complex ideas in a concise manner does not come naturally to everyone, but there are some simple rules you can follow.
In the opening episode of this six-part series about science communication, Pakinam Amer discusses the craft of clear storytelling and science writing with seasoned communicators and journalists.
Siri Carpenter, editor of The Craft of Science Writing, a selection of resouces from science writing platform The Open Notebook, explains how science journalism and science communication differ, but share important characteristics, including “a search for some kind of truth, driven by curiosity and sometimes the desire to right some wrong.”
But how do you structure a story so readers are hooked from the start, explain complicated ideas, avoid jargon, check facts? “There are so many skills that go into good science writing,” Carpenter says. “It takes time and practice to get better, learning from mistakes, and from feedback.”
Islam Hussein, a virologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells Amer why he took to the video platform YouTube in 2014 to tackle pseudoscience after a hand-held device was wrongly touted as a tool to detect viral infections in his native Egypt.
“There was a lot of interaction between me and the public. Some of it was good. Some of it was not, in the form of insults and threats,” he says.
With the help of his son, he rigged up a home studio in his basement to create more multimedia content, using his wife and colleagues to get feedback before getting it live. “When I hit record I want to make sure I am saying something useful and accurate,” he says.
Hussein now regularly appears on the TV to explain the emerging science behind COVID-19.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nature Careers, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Jill DeTemple is my guest today. She’s an associate professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University.
She uses a technique called reflective structured dialogue to enable students to express their perspectives on contentious moral and religious issues. This technique was created by the non-profit organization Essential Partners in the 1980s after a series of abortion clinic shootings in Boston. It comes out of family therapy and we talk about the technique in the interview.
Among the courses she teaches at SMU are “Social Scientific Approaches to the study of religion” “Problems in the philosophy of religion, and ‘Religious literacy.” She also teaches a course on LatinX identities called “Identity and the Sacred in the Southwest” at the Taos, New Mexico campus of SMU.
Jill and her colleagues are working on a book called The Listening Revolution: Teaching for Engagement and Curiosity. To learn more about her work, you can email her at [email protected].
Also, Heterodox Academy members can use the coupon code PROMO10 on the payment page to receive 10% off registration for any Essential Partners workshop. A complete list of upcoming workshops can be found here.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Heterodox Academy, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
