Why you should get on a podcast
My number one piece of advice for researchers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to communicate for impact in 2025: get on a podcast. Why?
1. Human connection: The long-form conversation format gives you space to share about your work in an engaging and human way. You have room to fully unpack your ideas and connect with the audience on a personal level.
2. Targeted communication: Podcasts attract loyal listeners with specific interests in niche areas. By going on shows that are relevant to your work, you're speaking to people who likely already have some affinity for what you do, as opposed to putting your efforts into communication for "everyone" (the "everyone" audience doesn't exist, trust me).
3. Growing in popularity: The global podcast audience is huge and growing. As Nick Gaunt, Ph.D. points out in a recent blog post (‘Why every scientist should be on a podcast’), close to 600 million people listen to podcasts.
4. Podcasts are fun: Thoughtful conversation can be hard to come by these days. Sitting down for a meaningful chat and respectful exchange of ideas with a podcast host can be an enriching and motivating experience.
This year, I was fortunate to be featured on three podcasts, sharing my thoughts about science communication and human connection. Big thanks to the hosts who brought me onto their shows and made the conversations so engaging.
For the Let's Talk SciComm Podcast, I spoke with Associate Professor Jen Martin and Michael Wheeler about how to get into the business of science communication.
I chatted with Sheeva Azma about humanising science and what I've learned about building a business as an independent communications specialist for the Fancy Comma, LLC podcast.
I had a long chat with Chris Pahlow about what makes for a good science communication training programme and how research organisations can work with science communicators to build science communication skills for their teams (and much more) for the Amplifying Research podcast (due for release in early 2025).
I’m looking forward to more podcasts in 2025!
If you're a podcast host, or someone who's been a podcast guest, what else do you think makes podcasts such a powerful medium? Let me know in the comments!
