Let's Talk SciComm

This week we were delighted (and a little bit starstruck) to be joined by Dr Kylie Soanes: conservation biologist, urban ecologist and self-described “friendly neighbourhood wildlife scientist”. Kylie’s work takes the question of how nature and people can live alongside one another and turns it into real, visible change: building rope bridges so gliders can cross busy highways, 3D-printing nesting hollows for powerful owls, and adding floating wetlands to city rivers. She collaborates with councils, community groups, engineers and architects, writes for the likes of The Guardian, The Conversation and Australian Geographic, and has built a wonderful audience of nearly 29,000 people on Instagram with her trademark warmth and wit (and the occasional Jane Austen reference in a peer-reviewed journal). A research fellow in urban biodiversity at the University of Melbourne, she is, by her own admission, probably running late to her next meeting because she got distracted by a cool bird.Join us for a fabulous conversation about why conservation belongs in cities and not just “out there”, how to fill the information vacuum before nonsense does, why storytelling and evidence-based hope beat battering people with data, and Kylie’s lovely reminder that reach is a verb - you have to go to where the people are.You can follow Kylie and find out more about her work here:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-29/kylie-soanes-urban-nature-conservation-biodiversity/105315332 https://www.instagram.com/drkyliesoanes/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylie-soanes-40975a90/https://kyliesoanes.com/

Been asked to introduce a speaker: at a conference, on a panel, or at an event big or small,  and want to get it right? In this short episode, Jen and Michael share how to do that job well, starting with a reminder of what it’s actually for: warming up the room for the speaker, not showcasing yourself. They talk through the things that make all the difference - speaking to the person beforehand (and checking how to pronounce their name and their pronouns), finding one warm, human detail that no bio would give you, resisting the urge to read out a long list of accolades, and setting a calm, generous tone that the speaker can step straight into.You can find more great advice here:Introducing a speaker? Here are 5 tips: On brevity, genuine enthusiasm, and striking the right balance between personal and professional.How to introduce a speaker (with examples): Practical, example-led advice on opening with a hook and telling a story rather than reading a bio aloud.Chairing sessions: A researcher-focused guide to introducing speakers warmly and chairing a session effectively. Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/77vh

This week we were delighted to be joined by the wonderful Aśka (pronounced 'Ash-ka'; she/they): award-winning comics maker, visual storyteller, science communicator and former quantum physicist, whose career is a glorious collision of two worlds that rarely meet. Before the drawing board, Aśka earned a first-class honours degree in physics (complete with a university medal) and spent several years in quantum optics labs across Australia, Germany and Denmark, work she describes as tickling atoms until they give up their secrets and glow fluorescent green. Somewhere along the way she swapped the lab for the page, and has since published more than a dozen books and graphic novels, spent seven years touring Western Australia as a travelling science presenter with Scitech, and now teaches students of all ages how to "write with pictures". Their latest young adult graphic novel, The Friendship Paradox, draws all these threads together in the story of Dash, who tries to use the laws of physics to make sense of other people. It’s a stunning book about science, but even more about friendship, difference and self-acceptance.Join us for a wonderful conversation about the leap from quantum optics to comics, why pictures sit unfairly at the bottom of our communication hierarchy, what years on the road taught Aśka about making science feel personal, and her lovely advice to pick up a concept and roll it around in your hands until you find a surprising new way in.You can connect with Aśka and learn more about their work here: Aśka's website: askastorytelling.comThe Friendship Paradox (Allen & Unwin): https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/A%C5%9Bka-Friendship-Paradox-9781761181689, a teaser of the bookThe Cosmic Adventures of Alice and Bob: a free middle-grade comic Aśka co-created about research and searching in scienceQublings – Quantum Siblings, an award-winning comic about quantum entanglement: askastorytelling.com/short-comicsAśka's blog post on science communication through pictures: askastorytelling.com/musingsNon-fiction middle-grade books Aśka has illustrated: Behind the Screens and How to Save the Whole Blinkin' PlanetInstagram: @askastorytellingFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/askastorytelling/Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/c7vh

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.Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/w7vh

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.comInstagram: @alanta_colley and @sci_fight_science_comedyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alanta-colley-2a018843/Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/b7vh