Let's Talk SciComm

Have you got a group project coming up? Maybe you’ve had some bad experiences of working in a team before and you’re wondering how to make it better this time? Drop everything for 5 minutes and tune in. 

In this week’s episode, Jen and Michael share their top tips on how to work harmoniously and productively in a group. 

You can find more great advice here:

• https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/resources/communicating-in...

Have you lost your motivation? Do you need to get lots of things done, but you’re finding it hard to get started? Wondering how to get your mojo back?

Stop for five minutes and tune into this week’s episode of ‘Listen To This If….’ for Jen and Michael’s advice on how to rediscover your motivation. 

You can find more great advice here:

• https://jamesclear.com/motivation 

• https://www.ifocusandwrite.com/post/how-to-get-your-m...

Are you graduating soon, or have you recently graduated? Are you looking for ways to get ahead in your career? 

Take a five-minute break to listen to Jen and Michael’s top tips on how to kickstart your career.

You can find more great advice here:

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/networking-tips-early-career-scientists-lessons-from-science-tpfke/ 

• https://conductscience.com/10-networking-tips-to-kickstart-your-graduate-career/

• https://...

Is your writing too formal? Too boring? Or too hard to read? Have you been given the feedback that you need to make your writing more conversational?

Take five minutes to tune into Jen and Michael’s top tips on how to make your writing easier to read. 

You can find more great advice here:

• https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-conversationally

• https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/developing-people-and-skills/mrc/the-secrets-o...

It's that time of year when many of us are feeling overwhelmed by our to-do lists. If you have a big task on your list that you’re struggling to make headway with, it’s time for your 5-minute Friday pep talk. 

Join Jen and Michael for their top tips on how to manage a sense of overwhelm and get stuff done! 

You can find more great advice here:

• https://www.calm.com/blog/what-to-do-when-you-feel-overwhelmed

• https://www.nytimes.com/20...

Got a talk coming up? Worried your powerpoint slides are boring? Think your audience might get distracted or even doze off while you’re talking? 

Stop for 5 minutes and tune into Jen and Michael’s top tips on how to improve your Powerpoint slides. 

You can find more great advice here:

• https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/how-to-avoid-death-by-powerpoint

• https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/design-tips

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I...

Keen to start a new habit? Maybe you want to exercise regularly, read more papers or get more writing done? Well, if you’ve got 5 minutes, Jen and Michael are back with a new season of Listen To This If….

This week they’re giving you a quick Friday pep talk with their top tips on how to get started with a new habit. Listen now! 

You can find more great advice here:

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-does-it-really...

Three years later and we couldn’t be more excited to be sharing Episode 100 of Let’s Talk SciComm with you. We are so proud to still be creating this podcast and couldn’t be more grateful to YOU, our fabulous listeners, for continuing to support us. 

To celebrate reaching episode 100 and the end of Season 13, Jen and Michael decided to turn the spotlight inwards and ask each other some of our favourite quick-fire questions, with a f...

It’s hard to believe this is the 99th episode of Let’s Talk SciComm! 

As you can imagine, we are very excited to still be producing our podcast three years and 99 episodes later. To celebrate, we invited the rest of our fabulous teaching team - Dr Catriona Nguyen-Robertson, Dr Linden Ashcroft and Dr Graham Phillips back to the podcast. The five of us spend half an hour reflecting on the highs and lows of our science communication ex...

This week we had a fascinating conversation with speech pathologist and science communicator Dr Georgie Johnson. Georgie is a clinical researcher with an interest in childhood stuttering treatment and addressing the psychological impact of stuttering for children. Georgie completed her PhD in 2024 investigating management of stuttering during the school years. Part of this program of research was a treatment trial of an interventio...

This week we had the most wonderful conversation with wildlife scientist, woman in STEMM/STEAM, science communicator, author and vessel operator, Dr Vanessa Pirotta. You’re going to love hearing Vanessa’s infectious enthusiasm for all things science and science communication. 

Vanessa’s research uses innovative technologies for wildlife conservation. Vanessa works collaboratively across both marine and terrestrial environments mergi...

This week we are lucky enough to chat with Linh Do, an incredible sustainability leader, educator, and climate justice advocate based in Melbourne, Australia. As Director of the Wattle Fellowship at the University of Melbourne, she cultivates the next generation of sustainability leaders through an innovative year-long program. With over a decade of experience across advocacy, media, and social enterprise sectors, Linh has worked g...

This week we had the wonderful pleasure of catching up with one of our very own alumni! Rachael Vorwerk studied science communication with us many years ago and has gone on to forge an incredible career in the field. Rachael is a science communicator and freelance consultant who has been published in The Conversation, Cosmos Magazine and Eingana. She has helped scientists to share their research in BBC World News, The Independent, ...

This week it is a huge honour for us to speak with our long-time scicomm colleague Nancy Longnecker who is Emerita Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago. She has collaborated in the production of communication resources and assessment of their effectiveness in work that is often multidisciplinary and cross-cultural. In a career spanning four decades, Nancy has produced both physical and virtual resources, in...

Welcome to Season 13 of Let’s Talk SciComm. We’re so thrilled to be kicking off another season as we head towards our 100th episode! 

You NEED to listen to this.

Upcoming presentation got your palms sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy? Don’t worry, forget mum’s spaghetti, because we’re not going to let you miss your shot. Tune in to this week’s episode of ‘Listen to This If…’ where Jen and Michael give you all the tips and tricks to turn those shaky hands into a killer mic drop. 

Doomscrolling getting in your way? Don’t worry! Jen and Michael have some great tips to break the scrolling cycle and get you back to your task. In this week’s episode of Listen to This If, we’re discussing addictive algorithms and what strategies you can employ to get off your phone and  back on track!

Over the word count on an assignment? It can be stressful trying to trim the writing you’ve put so much effort into.