Media and Public Engagement Overview

As the Carswell Chair for the Public Understanding of Astronomy in Canada, I gave 115 radio and TV interviews on any astronomy topic from cosmology to the stranded astronauts on the ISS for Global News, CTV, Newstalk 1010, The Breakfast Television, the Last Show with David Cooper, the BBC, and NPR.

I have been an astronomy presenter for the Discovery channel show, Killers of the Cosmos where I did 6 short segments. My TED talk Searching for microscopic aliens" has 1.8 Million views.

In 2020, I wrote and recorded a 10 lecture series for The Great Courses & The Teaching Company partnered with Amazon Audible Originals called Searching for Extraterrestrial life. My next course with The Great Courses called "Experiencing James Webb: Invisible Galaxies Unveiled" is coming out March 2026.

Filming Discovery Channel Show "Killers of the Cosmos"


Sample Television Interviews


I discusses on CTV the recent annoucement by Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan of Cambridge of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) on K2-18b planet. I a sign of life?

I talk with Mel on Breakfast Television to discuss NASA’s DART mission. A test of a planetary defence mission and the spacecraft’s successful collision with an asteroid


Sample Radio Interviews


10 min Radio spot with David Cooper on DART mission

Halloween Fireballs


Writing


Earlier Public Outreach

At St. Andrews, I participated in the outreach program GeoBus by visiting a local high school and running a program on the detection of Life on Mars and the burden of scientific proof. In developing this Mars activity, I encouraged students to see that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and give them the tools to properly assess scientific claims they hear about in the media. Also with GeoBus, I made this one minute video on the detection of biosignatures on other planets.

I am the co-host with Dr. Sarah Ballard of a podcast called “Self-care with Drs. Sarah” where we discuss the importance of prioritizing caring for yourself so that you can bring your full engagement and be the most effective person you can be. Subscribe here on iTunes or listen on Sound Cloud.

I have written for Science in the News, a scientific outreach organization dedicated to presenting current scientific results to the public without jargon. The articles can be found here: Can Humans Play Red Rover; A Tale of Two Worlds; and Are We Alone? I also participated in Standing up for Science, a workshop at MIT for how to effectively communicate science with the media and the public, and the Ask for Evidence Boot Camp, a pre-launch campaign workshop to encourage everyone to ask for evidence behind claims in the media, advertising, and policy.

In February of 2019, I was a guest on the SAGAN net program "Ask an Astrobiologist" discussing both science and career paths:

I'm also interested in science and education policy and how scientists can better communicate our findings to the public on politically relevant issues. In 2014, I helped launch with two other graduate students a outlet for Harvard science graduate students to write about science policy on a blog called PolicyLab. I served as a senior editor and the communications director.