Crafting Fascinating Stories of the Stars with Kimberly Arcand, Ph.D.

When Science Speaks

This week's episode features Kimberly Arcand, Ph.D., Visualization Scientist and Emerging Technology Lead at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

We discuss a range of topics related to effective storytelling about the abstract topics of space and the cosmos.

You'll hear about:

What makes a story compelling and how Kim goes about crafting hers

What Kim means by the ethics of storytelling and speaking to audiences with intention

Some of the favorite stories Kim tells about her work to general audiences

Why it's important to make talks a "two-way street" - more of a dialogue than simply a presentation that's received by the audience with little interaction

What Kim means by the “little presents” she gets from interacting with her audience

How Kim encourages audience questions and makes her listeners feel comfortable asking them

How Kim makes the abstract topics that are the focus of her work not merely understandable but also engaging and relatable to non-experts

Resources from the episode:

TED talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kTMr5LqIBQ

Books

https://www.amazon.com/sk=kimberly+arcand&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

https://www.kimarcand.com/media

https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2020/sonify/