[Music]
[Applause]
every one so how do you know what’s real
does that seem like a pretty obvious
question and given the title of my talk
do you think I’m just gonna say science
well I would argue that it’s less
important to know all the facts then
this is to be able to share ideas the
facts will come along with that process
in order to ignite a movement a
scientific idea sharing millions of
others n I decided to march for science
but also often asked the question why
would you march for science I do think a
lot about this because it was a good
question
what kind of March for science bring us
marching for social issues makes more
immediate sense because the direct
impact that social problems have on
people’s lives scientists themselves
worried that this March might politicize
science but here’s the thing science has
never really been free from
politicization because of the power
provides one of our first champions of
evidence-based reason Galileo was
himself a victim of political
suppression he was sharing ideas of the
universe that the reigning power saw
threatening at the time he was punished
dearly for it controlling our
perceptions of reality is very
convenient for political groups to
manipulate our opinions in order to
achieve their agenda in fact if you can
think of any oppressive political regime
or social structure in history you can
always find some manipulation of facts
within it and if you need to ask
yourself who has the power just answer
the question who controls the knowledge
the only way to resist this gradual
creep of mass delusion is to be properly
armed with tools to figure out nonsense
we could be headed off a metaphorical
cliff whether we choose to believe in it
or not and science provides us an
efficient method of discovering facts in
order to learn how to avoid the cliff
but it doesn’t necessarily help us with
that
central component of communicating the
facts so that everyone can avoid the
cliff the most powerful tools we can
imagine our meaningless if no one knows
how to use them those same tools could
be weapons only if you know how to use
them you want an example don’t Eve you
know how to code with computers so not
only is it good to advocate for science
it’s morally necessary for a
well-functioning society and yet we shy
away from these conversations because
some are on the along the progression of
the internet more people than ever have
wrapped up their understanding of the
world into their personal identities
verifying evidence on the Internet is
actually extremely difficult because you
can find false or conflicting
information about anything to verify
your preconceived notions finding
company who never challenge your beliefs
is also easy online and tribalism is
rampant you can imagine your real
community with a diversity of opinions
8bd all going onto the internet and
segregating into similar opinions and
digital communities as an older
millennial I grew up watching these
dynamics developed getting my first
computer and middle school and having my
first conversations online shortly after
it turns out for most of my life I was
not good at this I came from blue-collar
roots and I can’t say that understanding
the world was a major topic of
conversation in my family growing up
like most families it didn’t make sense
to do because getting by and enjoying
what we had in front of us was most
important my parents got their nightly
news from the television and that was
enough I was lucky that they encouraged
my passions they exposed me to science
as a kid and I took it in like a sponge
zoos museums Magic School Bus Discovery
World I remember growing up thinking
this is the good stuff that everyone
would want to know I mean why wouldn’t
they as we speak as we speak stars are
exploding and their guts are being
condensed into planets containing the
elements that make up your bodies your
very bodies oh just happened again and
if you can tell science education became
a huge passion for me
and I spent a lot of time in college
doing science education and then I
learned a lot about sharing facts but if
I’m being honest with you I never got
much beyond simply sharing the facts
direct education is extremely important
but it only reaches those who are
interested in listening to you I never
asked questions about why people should
listen to me or what I could learn from
them even coming from a family who
doesn’t have too much of a scientific
background I didn’t think too much about
how someone might perceive someone
telling them what should be important to
them so what I would chime in was
something like well actually I shouldn’t
have been surprised when my comments
weren’t exactly appreciated as an adult
I saw my own lecture in attitude clash
with my family during those classic
social media comments and dinner table
conversations we’ve all had that
Thanksgiving to this day I have a family
member who grew up two doors away from
me who helped raise me who fed me
biscuits and gravy on Saturday mornings
who probably wouldn’t talk to me today
because of words I’ve used to them I’ll
forever got saying you don’t know what
you’re talking about to someone that I
loved because it really happened is we
don’t know how to talk with each other I
didn’t get too much of this reality
check in academia either I spent eight
years in research institutions during my
master’s degree and afterwards as a
research specialist and I was hard
pressed to find people who disagreed
with me on any of the hot-button
scientific issues I mean sure the
science community argues over various
hypotheses and the interpretation of
results but overall people in scientific
circles share similar values and take
for granted the process of knowing
what’s real we just share the facts and
hope people appreciate them because
we’ve done the work they haven’t let’s
also be frank feeling like you have all
the answers can make you unwilling to
engage with someone who’s challenging
you that you think knows less than you
if you don’t think it’s worth your time
it’s important for me to say there are
those in academia who are actively
challenging this commute
an issue in fact I think we could learn
a lot from people who study culture in
communication but let’s recap the state
of things the science community has a
communication challenge in front of us
we want to discuss reality but aren’t
effectively doing so outside of the
choir then you have those who don’t have
time or aren’t interested in
communicating at all and finally there
are those who have political motives to
the way they treat scientific facts as
societal rifts grew and grew through the
echo chambers of the internet over the
last presidential election something
just felt necessary about this moment to
finally say enough is enough we need to
re-energize the public conversation
about science that we saw when we landed
people on the moon because if we lose
those fundamental principles of knowing
that our founding fathers valued so
highly we lose our foundation of
democracy the science community may not
have caused this problem we’re gonna
need to seriously re-evaluate our
approach if we’re gonna help solve it
this is why it was time to march for
science with the fire of all these
thoughts in my mind I joined the March
for science organization team in
Milwaukee found them online actually I
was excited to see that they were hoping
to tackle these very issues that I’d
been struggling with we had a lot of
conversations about what a march for
science would look like whether we
realized it or not we decided to
implement ideas that scholars of
communication have known about for a
long time we were going to tell people
what to think or why our way was better
we were simply going to welcome everyone
to celebrate science and encourage
people from all backgrounds to find a
piece of science that belongs to them
something we can agree upon is a
starting point to get our conversations
going again this would be a welcoming
celebration because we all stand a
benefit from scientific achievements
knowledge is empowering and we can all
unite around that fact we had no enemies
we weren’t against any institution we
sought to be the movement of PRO we just
wanted to stand together be nerds and
get excited about science and we had a
few approaches to achieve these goals we
wrote articles to feature local
scientists to try and break through the
jargon and make their work more
approachable we invited speakers to the
march from a diverse background of life
experiences in science to a lot of the
public to better relate with them to
show that scientists are part of our
community they’re our neighbors and
since many of them are paid with tax
dollars they serve the public and the
work contributes towards the greater
good we also strategize ways we could
bring people from every ideological
background into the fold and reach out
to those who might see us as threatening
we networked with the outer suburbs and
the inner cities we made a painstaking
effort for inclusivity to make a
political statement without having a
partisan one in our messaging we made
clear that partisan identities are
irrelevant to the fact that science
moves this planet forward it’s all
around us it’s this it’s everything that
you can look at in this room right now
there are scientific achievements
everywhere and finally we had a policy
not to shy away from people who
challenged us in doing this I learned a
lot about navigating these conversations
and it was one of my most reflective
experiences we had one particular
challenger leading up to the March that
I’ll call Tim and Tim was not happy with
us use some colorful language on social
media she had to let us know Tim made
clear that he saw what we were doing is
threatening what he believed in we
thought about ignoring Tim but we
decided to engage him we asked questions
like okay why are you feeling that way
what matters to you and how can we
address your concerns we wanted to let
him know that not only did we have
nothing against him we wanted to welcome
him to the March and try to find
something we both agreed upon in science
and we could celebrate together I don’t
think he expected that he stopped
replying after too long but then on the
day of the March there was Tim he
approached our team as the guy we’d been
interacting with on social media and he
told us I really do support science I
just thought you’d be biased
Thanks drop being biased Tim marched
alongside us and thousands of other
people that day
for him at least a common denominator
was found between Tim and a bunch of
nerds he’d have no interest in speaking
to otherwise and I get what you’re
thinking right now it may seem a little
unbelievable but this really did happen
but no no no no no this is not the magic
bullet to solve all of society’s
problems it’s true some people will
never talk to you and plenty of people
didn’t but by at least leaving the table
open we engaged more people than we
would have ever otherwise wouldn’t have
reached him if we didn’t try through
continuing that effort we can pull the
average of society towards more
reasonable and approachable discourse
more people interested in discussing
facts we founded the Milwaukee area
science advocates to be that continuing
force to help keep these important
conversations about science alive and
well and we’ve drawn some lessons for
ourselves from the March and for this
science move it as we continue forward
the most important lesson is not for
those who have unscientific beliefs
people like me who are interested in
sharing scientific ideas most critical
is that the science community has to
start getting themselves out there you
have to and have the difficult
conversations with the public not just
at the annual symposium or the usual
science venues but at the local Town
Hall in the newspaper with elected
officials and just out with your
neighbors in the community I know it’s
tough I know it’s a thick barrier to
break and it may not always end well and
maybe you don’t think it’s your job to
be your own advocate but in a society
where the public appreciation of science
is dwindling those who think it’s not
their job may soon be out of one they
don’t speak out and we need you so
please get on to the public share ideas
when you do this it must be done with
compassion the scientific process
doesn’t have a heart but scientists have
a heart so science communication needs a
heart we have to have the humility that
none of us are above taking the time to
truly understand someone who disagrees
with us let’s give less lectures and ask
more questions let’s always have
something to learn
what matters to them as a person what
are they perceiving about me or what am
i perceiving about them that could be
totally wrong remember that no one is
there lists of facts and beliefs ideas
exist outside of an individual and you
might be right but you can be right in
the wrong ways avoid ignorant straw
man’s and leave the insults at home that
gets us nowhere
Alan Watts said if a person believes the
earth is flat you’re not gonna talk him
out of that he can look out the window
and see that it’s flat the only way
you’re gonna convince him that it isn’t
is to say okay let’s go and find the
edge so practice something that I’ve
learned is called steel Manning you
heard of this instead of the classic
straw man where you mischaracterize an
argument in order to make it easy to win
maybe talk past each other maybe you
make things up but you don’t realize
you’re making things up try to form the
best version the most reasonable version
of an argument you disagree with state
it back to the person you disagree with
and see if they agree with your summary
of their idea if not ask genuine
questions try to get it right in their
eyes see how well your ideas hold up
against that version it’s crazy but you
might even find you were wrong and why
should we do this we need to find ways
to have discussions without assuming bad
intentions and work through
disagreements with a spirit of goodwill
or how are we gonna mend these ribs
we have to talk to each other so how do
you know what’s real you don’t really we
only have tools to discover what’s true
and methods of communicating what we’ve
learned we can make that joint discovery
beautiful instead of uncomfortable
because science is humbling it exposes
us to what we don’t know it makes idiots
of us all being comfortable with that
fact can be our d polarizer and our
unifying force as we join together
towards further knowing this needs to be
the movement of science so let’s find
the edge together thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
every one so how do you know what’s real
does that seem like a pretty obvious
question and given the title of my talk
do you think I’m just gonna say science
well I would argue that it’s less
important to know all the facts then
this is to be able to share ideas the
facts will come along with that process
in order to ignite a movement a
scientific idea sharing millions of
others n I decided to march for science
but also often asked the question why
would you march for science I do think a
lot about this because it was a good
question
what kind of March for science bring us
marching for social issues makes more
immediate sense because the direct
impact that social problems have on
people’s lives scientists themselves
worried that this March might politicize
science but here’s the thing science has
never really been free from
politicization because of the power
provides one of our first champions of
evidence-based reason Galileo was
himself a victim of political
suppression he was sharing ideas of the
universe that the reigning power saw
threatening at the time he was punished
dearly for it controlling our
perceptions of reality is very
convenient for political groups to
manipulate our opinions in order to
achieve their agenda in fact if you can
think of any oppressive political regime
or social structure in history you can
always find some manipulation of facts
within it and if you need to ask
yourself who has the power just answer
the question who controls the knowledge
the only way to resist this gradual
creep of mass delusion is to be properly
armed with tools to figure out nonsense
we could be headed off a metaphorical
cliff whether we choose to believe in it
or not and science provides us an
efficient method of discovering facts in
order to learn how to avoid the cliff
but it doesn’t necessarily help us with
that
central component of communicating the
facts so that everyone can avoid the
cliff the most powerful tools we can
imagine our meaningless if no one knows
how to use them those same tools could
be weapons only if you know how to use
them you want an example don’t Eve you
know how to code with computers so not
only is it good to advocate for science
it’s morally necessary for a
well-functioning society and yet we shy
away from these conversations because
some are on the along the progression of
the internet more people than ever have
wrapped up their understanding of the
world into their personal identities
verifying evidence on the Internet is
actually extremely difficult because you
can find false or conflicting
information about anything to verify
your preconceived notions finding
company who never challenge your beliefs
is also easy online and tribalism is
rampant you can imagine your real
community with a diversity of opinions
8bd all going onto the internet and
segregating into similar opinions and
digital communities as an older
millennial I grew up watching these
dynamics developed getting my first
computer and middle school and having my
first conversations online shortly after
it turns out for most of my life I was
not good at this I came from blue-collar
roots and I can’t say that understanding
the world was a major topic of
conversation in my family growing up
like most families it didn’t make sense
to do because getting by and enjoying
what we had in front of us was most
important my parents got their nightly
news from the television and that was
enough I was lucky that they encouraged
my passions they exposed me to science
as a kid and I took it in like a sponge
zoos museums Magic School Bus Discovery
World I remember growing up thinking
this is the good stuff that everyone
would want to know I mean why wouldn’t
they as we speak as we speak stars are
exploding and their guts are being
condensed into planets containing the
elements that make up your bodies your
very bodies oh just happened again and
if you can tell science education became
a huge passion for me
and I spent a lot of time in college
doing science education and then I
learned a lot about sharing facts but if
I’m being honest with you I never got
much beyond simply sharing the facts
direct education is extremely important
but it only reaches those who are
interested in listening to you I never
asked questions about why people should
listen to me or what I could learn from
them even coming from a family who
doesn’t have too much of a scientific
background I didn’t think too much about
how someone might perceive someone
telling them what should be important to
them so what I would chime in was
something like well actually I shouldn’t
have been surprised when my comments
weren’t exactly appreciated as an adult
I saw my own lecture in attitude clash
with my family during those classic
social media comments and dinner table
conversations we’ve all had that
Thanksgiving to this day I have a family
member who grew up two doors away from
me who helped raise me who fed me
biscuits and gravy on Saturday mornings
who probably wouldn’t talk to me today
because of words I’ve used to them I’ll
forever got saying you don’t know what
you’re talking about to someone that I
loved because it really happened is we
don’t know how to talk with each other I
didn’t get too much of this reality
check in academia either I spent eight
years in research institutions during my
master’s degree and afterwards as a
research specialist and I was hard
pressed to find people who disagreed
with me on any of the hot-button
scientific issues I mean sure the
science community argues over various
hypotheses and the interpretation of
results but overall people in scientific
circles share similar values and take
for granted the process of knowing
what’s real we just share the facts and
hope people appreciate them because
we’ve done the work they haven’t let’s
also be frank feeling like you have all
the answers can make you unwilling to
engage with someone who’s challenging
you that you think knows less than you
if you don’t think it’s worth your time
it’s important for me to say there are
those in academia who are actively
challenging this commute
an issue in fact I think we could learn
a lot from people who study culture in
communication but let’s recap the state
of things the science community has a
communication challenge in front of us
we want to discuss reality but aren’t
effectively doing so outside of the
choir then you have those who don’t have
time or aren’t interested in
communicating at all and finally there
are those who have political motives to
the way they treat scientific facts as
societal rifts grew and grew through the
echo chambers of the internet over the
last presidential election something
just felt necessary about this moment to
finally say enough is enough we need to
re-energize the public conversation
about science that we saw when we landed
people on the moon because if we lose
those fundamental principles of knowing
that our founding fathers valued so
highly we lose our foundation of
democracy the science community may not
have caused this problem we’re gonna
need to seriously re-evaluate our
approach if we’re gonna help solve it
this is why it was time to march for
science with the fire of all these
thoughts in my mind I joined the March
for science organization team in
Milwaukee found them online actually I
was excited to see that they were hoping
to tackle these very issues that I’d
been struggling with we had a lot of
conversations about what a march for
science would look like whether we
realized it or not we decided to
implement ideas that scholars of
communication have known about for a
long time we were going to tell people
what to think or why our way was better
we were simply going to welcome everyone
to celebrate science and encourage
people from all backgrounds to find a
piece of science that belongs to them
something we can agree upon is a
starting point to get our conversations
going again this would be a welcoming
celebration because we all stand a
benefit from scientific achievements
knowledge is empowering and we can all
unite around that fact we had no enemies
we weren’t against any institution we
sought to be the movement of PRO we just
wanted to stand together be nerds and
get excited about science and we had a
few approaches to achieve these goals we
wrote articles to feature local
scientists to try and break through the
jargon and make their work more
approachable we invited speakers to the
march from a diverse background of life
experiences in science to a lot of the
public to better relate with them to
show that scientists are part of our
community they’re our neighbors and
since many of them are paid with tax
dollars they serve the public and the
work contributes towards the greater
good we also strategize ways we could
bring people from every ideological
background into the fold and reach out
to those who might see us as threatening
we networked with the outer suburbs and
the inner cities we made a painstaking
effort for inclusivity to make a
political statement without having a
partisan one in our messaging we made
clear that partisan identities are
irrelevant to the fact that science
moves this planet forward it’s all
around us it’s this it’s everything that
you can look at in this room right now
there are scientific achievements
everywhere and finally we had a policy
not to shy away from people who
challenged us in doing this I learned a
lot about navigating these conversations
and it was one of my most reflective
experiences we had one particular
challenger leading up to the March that
I’ll call Tim and Tim was not happy with
us use some colorful language on social
media she had to let us know Tim made
clear that he saw what we were doing is
threatening what he believed in we
thought about ignoring Tim but we
decided to engage him we asked questions
like okay why are you feeling that way
what matters to you and how can we
address your concerns we wanted to let
him know that not only did we have
nothing against him we wanted to welcome
him to the March and try to find
something we both agreed upon in science
and we could celebrate together I don’t
think he expected that he stopped
replying after too long but then on the
day of the March there was Tim he
approached our team as the guy we’d been
interacting with on social media and he
told us I really do support science I
just thought you’d be biased
Thanks drop being biased Tim marched
alongside us and thousands of other
people that day
for him at least a common denominator
was found between Tim and a bunch of
nerds he’d have no interest in speaking
to otherwise and I get what you’re
thinking right now it may seem a little
unbelievable but this really did happen
but no no no no no this is not the magic
bullet to solve all of society’s
problems it’s true some people will
never talk to you and plenty of people
didn’t but by at least leaving the table
open we engaged more people than we
would have ever otherwise wouldn’t have
reached him if we didn’t try through
continuing that effort we can pull the
average of society towards more
reasonable and approachable discourse
more people interested in discussing
facts we founded the Milwaukee area
science advocates to be that continuing
force to help keep these important
conversations about science alive and
well and we’ve drawn some lessons for
ourselves from the March and for this
science move it as we continue forward
the most important lesson is not for
those who have unscientific beliefs
people like me who are interested in
sharing scientific ideas most critical
is that the science community has to
start getting themselves out there you
have to and have the difficult
conversations with the public not just
at the annual symposium or the usual
science venues but at the local Town
Hall in the newspaper with elected
officials and just out with your
neighbors in the community I know it’s
tough I know it’s a thick barrier to
break and it may not always end well and
maybe you don’t think it’s your job to
be your own advocate but in a society
where the public appreciation of science
is dwindling those who think it’s not
their job may soon be out of one they
don’t speak out and we need you so
please get on to the public share ideas
when you do this it must be done with
compassion the scientific process
doesn’t have a heart but scientists have
a heart so science communication needs a
heart we have to have the humility that
none of us are above taking the time to
truly understand someone who disagrees
with us let’s give less lectures and ask
more questions let’s always have
something to learn
what matters to them as a person what
are they perceiving about me or what am
i perceiving about them that could be
totally wrong remember that no one is
there lists of facts and beliefs ideas
exist outside of an individual and you
might be right but you can be right in
the wrong ways avoid ignorant straw
man’s and leave the insults at home that
gets us nowhere
Alan Watts said if a person believes the
earth is flat you’re not gonna talk him
out of that he can look out the window
and see that it’s flat the only way
you’re gonna convince him that it isn’t
is to say okay let’s go and find the
edge so practice something that I’ve
learned is called steel Manning you
heard of this instead of the classic
straw man where you mischaracterize an
argument in order to make it easy to win
maybe talk past each other maybe you
make things up but you don’t realize
you’re making things up try to form the
best version the most reasonable version
of an argument you disagree with state
it back to the person you disagree with
and see if they agree with your summary
of their idea if not ask genuine
questions try to get it right in their
eyes see how well your ideas hold up
against that version it’s crazy but you
might even find you were wrong and why
should we do this we need to find ways
to have discussions without assuming bad
intentions and work through
disagreements with a spirit of goodwill
or how are we gonna mend these ribs
we have to talk to each other so how do
you know what’s real you don’t really we
only have tools to discover what’s true
and methods of communicating what we’ve
learned we can make that joint discovery
beautiful instead of uncomfortable
because science is humbling it exposes
us to what we don’t know it makes idiots
of us all being comfortable with that
fact can be our d polarizer and our
unifying force as we join together
towards further knowing this needs to be
the movement of science so let’s find
the edge together thank you
[Applause]
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