Hi, Fancy Comma newsletter readers!
This week’s newsletter is both in audio and text format. I am starting a new part-time job this week, and life amidst trying to not work too much is still quite chaotic. (Do you prefer audio or text newsletters? Feel free to reply to this newsletter and let me know.)
This month, I wanted to tell you about my goal of giving back to my local community in 2025. This goal was, in part, inspired by watching Pope Francis speak at Christmas mass (which I have enjoyed watching for the past few years). He talked about service as a theme for the next year, and, having just spent Christmas Day volunteering at a community dinner for the less fortunate, it seemed like a good extension of my interests and activities.
So, I signed up to volunteer at a food pantry this week. I also told the director of the pantry that I can help them with my marketing skills, so I tried my hand at making them some marketing collateral. It was great to relate to people on a personal level, and it was also fun to use my marketing skills to give back!
I also recently traveled to the state capitol to meet my Democratic lawmakers. While national politics often captures my attention, the state legislature is much more focused on things that impact my community. While I felt a bit out of place as someone who has worked in the federal legislature, my skills and interests applied to this different policy setting extremely well. The state legislature has the same overall “vibe” as Congress — chaotic, full of important people, and always busy.
Weirdly, I was at the Oklahoma State Capitol the same day as some anti-renewable energy protestors when I visited for a meet-and-greet for my elected representatives. You can read about that day here at Heatmap. What are the chances that I, a scientist, encounter anti-green energy protestors? They were not protesting renewable energy itself, for the most part, but rather, its impact on their lives and communities, such as noise pollution.
One person I talked to told me windmill shadows cause seizures, which is rare, but true (for people with photosensitive epilepsy). The protestors were also the government seizing their land to put windmills on it. The main thing I took away from this experience was that is a clear role for scientists in helping move forward evidence-based policies that actually help people.
In the end, I went out of my comfort zone to go into my local community, and despite my mental block about where I would fit in as a scientist and science communicator, it turned out that my efforts were not only needed but appreciated, and brought me closer to my community.
Oh, yeah, I am also a local journalist now. Read my most recent story, interviewing a scientist who influenced my own neuroscience research in grad school, at NonDoc, a local Oklahoma publication. Journalism is very much a service profession. I hope to work on more science journalism stories in my local community. I will keep you posted!
Are you doing anything to serve your community? Feel free to reply to this email or hit me up in the comments. I’d love to know what you are doing and in what way it is enriching your life. If you’re not, and need something to do, I highly recommend it!
What we’ve been reading and talking about this month
This month, on the Fancy Comma blog, we wrote about informational interviewing to get into science policy. We also blogged about hiring us for science-based political communications and answered your frequently asked questions about working in Congress and doing so specifically as a scientist.
On our YouTube, I was lucky to interview Lindsay Ejoh, a neuroscientist and PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania with a social media following of 80K, and Dr. Kristin Hook, who ran against Chip Roy for US Congress in Texas's 21st district.
For Ivory Embassy, Sheeva blogged about what is called the “science of science” which studies how we do science and ways incentive structures are aligned.
That’s all for this month, Fancy Comma newsletter readers. See you next month! If you liked this newsletter, please share it.
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