Podcasts are Cool Now, Right?

Science Communication

Science can be shared with many different audiences across various platforms. Since I have recently deleted all of my social media in an attempt to become more productive and improve my mental health, I do not have as many mediums to look at and pick from. I have chosen two podcasts and one YouTube channel as my three examples of science communication that I found interesting. 


In Defense of Plants Podcast - https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/7jaeh-5b63a/In-Defense-of-Plants-Podcast

The first podcast that I listened to has episodes about different kinds of plants and many other things related to plants. For example, one episode I listened to was about botanical gardens and propagation. The episodes in this podcast are pretty long, but I did find them fairly engaging. Something that stood out to me about this podcast was the different guest speakers and their discussions. There are many episodes with speakers from different plant-related professions and specialties. I thought it was really cool to hear their different perspectives and personal experiences. I think this podcast would be really easy for people to understand that are already interested in or educated about plants. However, I do not think it would be that easy for others to understand since they discuss different topics without explaining what they are first. Although I could not find an actual transcript for this podcast, I did notice that they provided a fairly detailed description for each of their episodes. This podcast would be accessible to blind people but not to deaf people. Someone that relies on transcripts or other visual aids to understand media definitely would not find this podcast very accessible. They would only be able to read the description or summary of the podcast rather than being able to determine what is being said and who is saying it. 


Ant Lab - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWxiO_Br1awgEjy79VItspQ 

I found a YouTube channel from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and NC State. This channel consists of many different science and insect videos. I will provide the link to a specific video that I found really interesting. This video shows up-close footage of a trap-jaw ant vs a human's finger in slow motion. It was amazing to see such a small organism so clearly and observe what happened each time they attempted to bite someone. I thought this video was pretty engaging and easy to understand. I really liked how the individual in the video compared each thing being shown to something everyone has probably seen or experienced before. For example, he compared the weight of an ant's single mandible to the weight of a single grain of salt. This video is definitely more accessible with the captions turned on. I think this video would have been more accessible for deaf or hard of hearing people if the producers of this video would have included captions in their video. Then, regardless of the settings, everyone would be able to access the information. However, if you turn the caption setting on for YouTube, there are captions available. 


The Science Hour - https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/ys6n4-36f60/The-Science-Hour-Podcast 

This podcast by the BBC World Service has some really interesting episodes regarding different scientific topics. Some episodes are about weather and natural disasters while others are related to COVID-19. It's really interesting to hear different perspectives on these topics that are happening around the world. One thing I liked about this podcast was how they publish new episodes so often and regularly. If this is a podcast that interests you, you could follow them and have a new episode to listen to every week. Similar to the other podcasts I listened to, I could not find an actual transcript but did notice the detailed descriptions provided with each episode. A full transcript for each episode would make this much more accessible for many people. 

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My Science Communication Project

I will be creating a podcast for my science communication project, titled Sourdough Science with Sav. My podcast will consist of five episodes, each with audio and transcripts available. Since I have not created a podcast myself before, I am still learning how to use the Podbean app. I hope to be able to find a way to easily include a transcript, but if I do not figure out how to do that in a separate place, I may just put the transcript in the description of the episode. Since I will not be able to include any visual representations of the data within my podcast, I will be posting those on my blog and discussing them in my podcast. I will be providing a link to these posts on my blog in the description of each episode and encouraging listeners to check it out! 


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My Outline

Episode #1: Process, Growth & Results

My first episode will explain the process of creating the sourdough starters, if and how they grew, what kind of phenotypes were observed, and what happened to them in the end. I will explain how I made my first two starters, when and how often I fed them, what they looked like, how they smelled, and if they ever showed any signs of rising. Then I will do the same thing for the second set of starters I made. Finally, I will explain what happened in the end that led to me disposing of my starters rather than submitting samples for sequencing. I will be recording audio of these explanations and then providing a transcript. 

Episode #2: Apples & Applesauce - History, Origin, & Cultural Uses

My second episode will be focused on my starters. I will be discussing the types of fruit used, the type of flour used, the history and origin of the fruit used, the cultures that use this fruit, and the types of bread that are most popular in these areas. I will be talking about the history and origin of apples and applesauce, the cultures that use apples near Kazakhstan in Central Asia, the flour I purchased from Target, and the three specific types of bread that are popular in this area. These types of bread include Baursak, Tohax, and Shelpek. Once again, I will be recording audio of this information and publishing it on my podcast with an accompanying transcript to make it more accessible to a larger, more diverse audience. 

Episode #3: Rising Rate Experiment

In Episode 3, I will be describing and explaining the rising rate experiment. I will explain why I did not use my own starters and share some information about the starters I did use. Then I will describe the graphs that I created and discuss the conclusions that my partner and I gathered from doing this experiment. Since I will not be able to provide visual representation of these graphs in my podcast, I am going to provide a link in the description of the episode and encourage the listeners to use that link to access the graphs I made a few weeks ago after completing the experiment. I will be creating an audio recording of these topics and then providing a transcript to allow more accessibility. 

Episode #4: Experimental Questions 

In Episode 4, I will be discussing the experimental questions that I want to answer using the data from this semester and last semester. I am going to share the three questions I proposed at the beginning, discuss how I revised them, and explain how I will be using the data to answer my questions. Below are my three experimental questions: 

1. Do any control starters and experimental starters grown by the same person have different microbial compositions, and which, if any, environmental factors may have influenced them? 

2. Are there any distinct differences in microbial compositions of experimental starters that contain fresh apples vs those containing applesauce, or are they similar? 

3. Did the age of the sourdough starters have an impact on the diversity or abundance of microorganisms present within the samples, and were there any changes in phenotypic characteristics as they aged? 

I am particularly interested in trying to determine how environmental factors may have impacted the microbial compositions of the starters from this semester. We will have more data and more factors to consider for the samples submitted this semester which is really exciting!

This information will be in an audio recording on my podcast, and I will be providing a transcript with the episode to make it more accessible. 

Episode #5: 

Episode 5 will be focused on my conclusions. While we do not have any conclusions yet since the data is not back, I do have a plan for when I am able to analyze that data. I am planning to create more graphs using this data to support my conclusions. I will be creating a new post on my blog for these graphs and their descriptions. Then I will explain my graphs and conclusions in the audio and transcript on my podcast. I will provide a link to this blog post in the episode description. Within the audio and transcript, I will encourage my listeners to visit this link to my blog post so that they can take advantage of these visual aids I am providing. 

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Citations 

In Defense of Plants Podcast
https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/7jaeh-5b63a/In-Defense-of-Plants-Podcast

Ant Lab Channel 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWxiO_Br1awgEjy79VItspQ

Trap-Jaw Ant Vs Finger Video 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2okI6ZszQY

The Science Hour Podcast
https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/ys6n4-36f60/The-Science-Hour-Podcast 

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