Publish and podcast: Learning from Future Cities, a science communication podcast led by early career researchers

Stephen R. Elser, Jason Sauer and Tessa Martinez, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, Mathieu Feagan, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, Alysha Helmrich, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, Robert Hobbins and Robert Lloyd, Urban Studies Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, Vivian Hobbins, Grand Canyon University, Yeowon Kim, Urban Systems Lab, The New School, New York City, NY, Samuel Markolf, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California - Merced, Merced, CA, Marissa Matsler, Environmental Protection Agency, Bernice Rosenzweig, Environmental Science, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY

Background/Question/Methods
32% of Americans say that they listen to podcasts each month and 74% of those listeners say that they listen to podcasts to learn something new. These statistics suggest that podcasts present a tremendous opportunity for scientists to reach a large audience of listeners to communicate their research and scientific ideas. Publishing in eclectic journals behind paywalls is not going to have larger scale impacts on society, and right now we need to do more as scientists to inspire other people to push for the sorts of changes that need to happen in order to combat climate change and promote resilience in our communities. Now, more than ever, scientists must leave the ivory tower and engage with non-scientists across different forms of media. In this presentation, we will share details, lessons, and tips to succeed from our own science communication experiences via Future Cities, a monthly podcast led by early career scientists that aims to increase awareness of, and to catalyze action on, urban resilience. In this talk, we hope to inspire other scientists in the Ecological Society of America to pursue their own science communication efforts, whether it be a podcast or something else entirely.
Results/Conclusions
In September of 2017, we launched Future Cities with no podcasting experience. Since then we have published ~50 episodes covering an array of topics about urban resilience including urban ecological infrastructure, green gentrification, biomimicry. We have hosted more than 70 guests, including scientists, community leaders, city officials, industry professionals, and more. These episodes have been entirely produced by early career scientists - from undergraduates to postdocs - providing a valuable outlet for our team to develop science communication skills and to pursue stories and perspectives that they might not otherwise be able to do in their research. We also have reached a much larger audience with these ideas and perspectives than we would if we were only pursuing traditional academic outlets like journal publications or conference presentations – our podcast has been listened to more than 30,000 times all across the world. We found that some of the keys to our success have been to follow our passions, to spread out duties across the team, to publish on a regular schedule, and to say yes to emergent opportunities. For us, podcasting has been a fruitful way to share stories, practice science communication, and to reach a larger audience.