Episodes
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It's the final episode of Research Comms! To mark this momentous moment, Peter takes a trip through six years of archives to explore a topic that has featured prominently throughout the series: Storytelling.
With insights from past guests, including Dame Uta Frith, Kat Arney, Will Storr and Jessica Fox, the podcast unpacks why stories have such a hold on our brains and how we can harness that power to craft compelling narratives about research.
It also digs into the darker side of storytelling - looking at how stories and rumours can help spread misinformation and mistrust. And looks at how certain narratives can shape public attitudes to emerging technologies like AI.
This is the last episode of Research Comms in its current form but we'll be back later this year with a brand new podcast dedicated to the art and science of communicating research. Watch this space!
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The Psychology of Curiosity, George Loewenstein The Ketchup Conundrum, Malcolm Gladwell The Global AI Narratives Project First Create the Media - Kat Arney The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr -
Despite the alarming statistic that 1 in 3 people born today will develop dementia in their lifetime, research into the neurodegenerative disease has historically been underfunded compared with other areas of medical research such as cancer.
In this episode of Research Comms, host Peter Barker explores the reasons behind that with Lucy Wilson, Director of Communications and Engagement at the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI), who offers optimistic insight into how the tide is turning.
Lucy outlines how the DRI, founded in 2017, was created to address the knowledge gap and boost the dementia research workforce across multiple UK universities. In doing so, the institute has brought together researchers from across diverse disciplines, collectively enabling a better understanding of dementia and the brain.
This 'hub and spoke' model is not without its comms challenges, and Lucy shares her insights into how her team and their key initiatives help foster a shared sense of the DRI's purpose.
If you're a listener of the podcast, we'd love to connect!
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Show links:
UK Dementia Research Institute
The Montessori Child
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Missing episodes?
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Sensemaking is a powerful communications tool that provides a framework for understanding the world in which we live and shaping the stories that we tell. In this episode of Research Comms, Peter is joined by Liz Neeley and Ambika Kamath, the founding members of science communications collective Liminal, to unpack sensemaking and its potential for navigating complicated issues facing society today.
🤝 Connect with us
Liz and Ambika share their vision for Liminal as a collective model that brings together professionals across disciplines to transform how research is understood and shared through more impactful and contextualised communication.If you're a listener of the podcast we'd love to connect!
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Liminal
Wrigley Storymakers Program
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It's no secret that video can be one of the most powerful ways of sharing research with audiences online. But creating a successful strategy that will get your videos seen by the right people isn't always so straightforward. One research organisation that has achieved huge levels of public engagement with its own video content is the Institute for New Economic Thinking, or INET. This New York based, nonprofit think tank funds economic research that ‘challenges conventional wisdom and advances ideas to better serve society’. And its incredible library of videos that showcase and elevate those ideas have reached millions of people around the world.
In this episode of Research Comms, Peter talks to Matthew Kulvicki, INET's Director of Video, about what has made the institute's approach to video such a success. 🤝 Connect with us If you're a listener of the podcast we'd love to connect!
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✍️ Take part Orinoco Research Comms survey 🔗 Show linksInstitute for New Economic Thinking
INET YouTube Channel
📕 Book of the monthSidney Lumey, Making Movies
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Over the past few decades, the evidence to show that climate change is happening, that it’s caused by human activities, and that we need to take urgent action to limit its impact, has gathered at an overhelming rate.
That’s changing, thanks in large part to the work of organisations like the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication In this episode of Research Comms, Peter chats with YPCCC Project Manager, Eric Fine, about his organisation's work to understand public attitudes to climate change, the ‘spiral of silence’ that can happen when we make assumptions about people's beliefs, the 'SASSY' public opinion survey, the power of segmentation for crafting tailored messages, and how to find optimism at at time when reality can seem so bleak.
But research into the best way to communicate that message has lagged behind.
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Take Part Orinoco Research Comms survey Show links Yale Program on Climate Change Communication SASSY survey Climate silence: pluralistic ignorance as a barrier to climate change discussion by Nathaniel Geiger and Janet Swim -
Generative-AI tools, like ChatGPT, are increasingly embedded in the day-to-day work of research communicators. At the University of Cambridge the senior comms team has published a set of AI guidelines, created in consultation with staff across the university.
In this episode of Research Comms, members of the working group that put the guidelines together - Amy Mollett, Barney Brown and William Kerslake - talk about their feelings towards AI, the good and the bad, why they felt they needed to create guidelines for its use, and how the University of Cambridge is currently using AI tools to communicate research.
Links:
Research Comms newsletter on substack University of Cambridge Generative-AI Guidelines Research Communications Survey Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro Generative AI is already widespread in the public sector | Alan Turing Institute -
In this episode, host Peter Barker reflects on the unique archive of over fifty Research Comms episodes to bring together insights from those conversations around the theme of trust.
Whether we’re discussing vaccine hesitancy, climate scepticism, young people’s engagement with science and scientists or the rise of conspiracy theorists, all of these topics are, at their core, issues of trust. Recognising how essential trust is to public engagement, how can the wider research community earn the trust of the public?
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Athena Dinar is Deputy Head of Communications at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) where she’s spent over two decades conveying the captivating magic of Antarctica and the vital research scientists carry out there.
In this episode of Research Comms, Athena speaks with us about the shifting narratives surrounding the climate crisis and how digital media has transformed the communications landscape, as well as unpacking BAS’s endeavours to reduce its own carbon footprint while striving towards solutions to preserve the southernmost continent, as well as the wider world.
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Professor Mark Reed is a Professor and Research Centre Director at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) as well as the founder and Chief Executive of Fast Track Impact, an organisation that provides researchers with evidence-based tools and training to empower them to use their work to change the world for good.
In this episode of Research Comms, Mark helps us define ‘impact’ in the context of research, explains the strategies, methods and tools he encourages researchers to employ when assessing the impact of their work, and highlights the importance of empathy when it comes to designing research and maximising its benefits for the good of wider society.
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Sarah McLusky is a Research-Adjacent Trainer and Consultant who works with universities in communications and engagement, education and curriculum enhancement, training STEM ambassadors and organising large scale outreach events, as well as hosting the recently-launched Research Adjacent podcast, among others.
In this episode of Research Comms, we shine a light on the army of professionals who make communications in research and innovation happen in the burgeoning space within the sector known as ‘research-adjacent’. We unpack exactly what the term means, why it’s important and how to achieve greater recognition for those professionals, as well as best practices for evaluating the success of research-adjacent endeavours.
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Celestine Cheong is Head of External Communications at the UK Atomic Energy Authority. In this episode of Research Comms she talks about the work of UKAEA to push for the delivery of sustainable fusion energy, about the challenges of communicating science that is at times, very complex, and about managing public expectations around the development of technologies that have the potential to transform society.
LINKS
UK Atomic Energy Authority
News article on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory breakthrough
https://www.newsweek.com/energy-saving-tokamak-heat-barrier-solves-achilles-heel-nuclear-fusion-1784256
An animation explaining fusion energy
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Sophie McIvor is the Director of Communications and Engagement at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. She has been in the role since the Institute opened in 2015 and is spearheading its new strategy focused on public engagement with AI.
In this episode of Research Comms we discuss why the public needs to be engaging with emerging technologies like AI, how people have more power than they think when it comes to influencing the progression of such technologies, and the importance of participatory research.
LINKS
https://www.turing.ac.uk/
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In March 2022 the British Science Association published a report examining the attitudes of young people in the UK to science. In this episode of the Research Comms podcast, the BSA’s outgoing Chief Executive, Katherine Mathieson, talks about the reports findings, speculating on why young people do not feel sufficiently engaged with science, the impact of the Covid pandemic on their appetite for science, and why now is a golden opportunity for us to rework young people’s relationship with science.
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It's been more than two years since the Covid pandemic took hold. And although it may have more surprises in store for us, there is hope that the worst has passed.
So now seems a good time to start thinking about what lessons we can learn from the experience to better prepare us for future pandemics and public health crises.
How we communicate the science, risk and recommendations is one of the most critical things to get right.
Glen Nowak spent 14 years working at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) where he was director of media relations and director of communications for its National Immunization Program.
Today he is a professor of advertising and public relations at Grady College, where he also manages their new Center for Health and Risk Communication.
In this episode we talk about:
- Glen's take on how well organisations like the CDC have done over the past two years
- the core concepts that underpin crisis communications
- the importance of documenting research during crises
- the special challenges of a virus with unexpected longevity and messaging around the inevitable unknowns
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In this episode of Research Comms, Laura Hannan shares the wisdom that she’s gleaned from 15 years of experience on Linkedin and gives her top tips on how communicators can make the most out of the platform to grow their network and drive engagement with their organisation’s research.
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In this episode of Research Comms Amy Mollett talks about the exciting early days of blogs and twitter, of her social media work at LSE, of the digital services team in Parliament. Tips for getting started, maintaining digital wellbeing and tracking what’s important abound.
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In this episode of Research Comms, Suzanne Fisher-Murray talks about the differences between communicating research in the development sector and academia, the power of radio for sharing stories and influencing behaviour, what truly participatory communications look like and the value of creating personas for strategic communication with communities that care.
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Managing Director of the Texas Innovation Center, Ashley Jennings, talks about the thriving innovation and startup scene in Austin (and across Texas) and how the innovation center is helping transform great ideas into valuable products.
A big part of that is training founders in how to tell their stories in a compelling way, to raise awareness, generate interest in their technology or product, and to build relationships of trust with funders and future customers. -
Matt Russo is an astrophysicist, musician and sonification specialist. He teaches physics at the University of Toronto and has toured schools with sonifications that bring parts of the universe to life. He founded the sci-art project SYSTEM sounds, through which he works with NASA to sonify data collected in and about the cosmos.
In this episode of Research Comms Matt Russo talks about what sonification is, the skills required to create sonifications, his work engaging students with data about the universe through sonification, and the musical solar systems that Pythagoras and Kepler were looking for.
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Tom is science editor for the digital news magazine UnHerd. His writing has featured in The Guardian, Telegraph, New Scientist and BuzzFeed. He covers an array of subjects, mostly science, but he also delves into politics, foreign affairs, sport, culture wars - pretty much anything that piques his interest. He's won two statistical excellence in journalism awards from the Royal Statistical Society, but he's not stopping there. He wants all journalists and consumers of news to share his appreciation for numbers and to learn how to use them.
In this episode of Research Comms Tom Chivers talks about the media during the pandemic, about the pre-requisites for journalism and the tension between attracting a readership and writing serious news stories and he discusses his book How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)
Presented by Peter Barker
Produced by Orinoco Communications
www.orinococomms.com
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LINKS
Tom’s website
Tom’s work on UnHerd
How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Stats in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)
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