Tell Me a Story

Via Alex, WNYC's Radiolab podcast features a wonderful commencement address by Robert Krulwich to the Caltech class of 2008, making the case for the importance of telling stories about science to the general public.

This fits in wonderfully with what I said last week about science popularization. He comes at it from a different angle (and make an explicit connection to the evolution/ creationism debate, which I was avoiding), but it's the same basic argument.

And, as a bonus, he has a good NPR voice, suitable for helping get a slightly fussy infant to go to sleep...

More like this

Over my ear phones I hear Ira Glass tell the audience of This American Life about Radiolab, a show produced by WNYC (New York's NPR). Then a couple of days later while perusing down Ouroboros I see this: In case you missed it on the air, you can hear the Mortality episode of WNYC's clever and…
I mentioned on Twitter that I was thinking of proposing a Science Online program item about the professionalization of blogging, throwing in a link to post from a couple months ago. That included a link to this SlideShare: Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science…
Season 3 of New York Public Radio's RadioLab is coming soon, in May 2007. Seasons one and two are available on-line, at WNYC. Have you heard? It isn't Talk of the Nation -- Science Friday, with Ira Flatow. But it is co-hosted by NPR Science Correspondent Robert Krulwich. He hosts with…
In the Spring of 2010, evangelical Bible scholar Bruce Waltke, in speaking about the overwhelming evidence for evolution, said “To deny that reality will make us a cult, some odd group that is not really interacting with the real world.” In response to this, Ken Ham, president of Kentucky’s…

I was at that commencement address by Robert Krulwich to the Caltech class of 2008. Caltech's my alma mater; I live about 5 miles away; I'm a big fan of Robert Krulwich. It was one of the best talks on any subject that I've ever heard anywhere. And my Caltech colleagues, and their sometimes non-scientific families, seemed to overwhelmingly agree.