Drag performers, like Pattie Gonia and Kyne, are using social media to bring science communication to a wider audience.
PATTIE GONIA: When I did drag for the first time in the outdoors, I put on 6-inch high-heeled boots. I started strutting down the trails. And I fell in love with nature in a whole new way. I saw how queer nature was. I saw how much science was out there.
And before we get to that, I'm here with SciFri producer Kathleen Davis and community manager Kyle Marian Viterbo, who are going to tell us how this segment came together. What's up?D PETERSCHMIDT: So how did the story come up on y'all's radar? KATHLEEN DAVIS: It surprised me a little bit how much of an overlap there was between the mission of Public Radio and the mission of these queens, where, as part of a Public Radio science show, we strive to bring information and education to people for free. And that's really what these queens are doing, too.
There's a wild world of science-savvy drag-draped communicators out there, and two prominent voices join me today. Kyne, a mathematician based in Kitchener, Ontario, and Pattie Gonia, environmental activist and educator, based in Bend, Oregon.IRA FLATOW: Nice to have you. Kyne, let me start with you. Drag is a very visual medium, which makes it a bit tricky for us on radio. But I want you both to describe for our audience how you mix science and drag.
IRA FLATOW: It sounds like you were as surprised by your own work as everybody else was at how successful it was. And it's so fun to get to take a lot of abstract subjects and bring them to people in new ways and creative ways to reach a whole new population of people, too. We need to think about who the narrator are between science subjects. Also, who are the new communities to reach to bring into the climate movement, to bring into this amazing scientific knowledge that's out there?PATTIE GONIA: That is a great question. I feel like I'm learning more about that every single day.
IRA FLATOW: I watched your math TikTok pieces and thoroughly enjoyed your math teaching skills. Because although you are singing and you're changing outfits, I can see that you take these math lessons very seriously. PATTIE GONIA: Yeah. We believe that we need to stop the siloed conversations of planet inclusion and adventure, and really start getting people into the outdoors in many different ways outside of the definition of quote, unquote, outdoors-y that we've known, and really embrace the outdoors. Because if we can fall in love with the planet, then we can better fight for it, right? Because we fight for what we love.
But the people that comment on my videos are all kinds of ages. I get teachers who are showing my lessons to classrooms of grade 4 students. I get people who are long out of school, in their 30s, 40s, 50s, saying that I've reignited a love for math. PATTIE GONIA: I think you'd be amazed. I have a lot of 50, 60, 70-year-old people who follow me. When I do group hikes and take the community offline in real life, I have people of all different ages. I have people bring their grandparents out, and their grandparents are bigger fans than even they are. It is surreal and so beautiful.
And when it all comes down to it, what really matters is what's in your brain. And if you work hard and you study, then you can achieve what you want.PATTIE GONIA: Yeah. So much of what Kyne said really resonates with me. I feel like, at the end of the day, I just want everyone to know that they can pursue whatever subject that they want, especially sciences, especially if they are queer, especially if they have a unique identity that they want to intersect with their passions.
PATTIE GONIA: It's hard to not think of my childhood without thinking about the TVs that we rolled into classrooms-- into the science classrooms-- and see Bill Nye on the screen. And I think I just really fell in love with how such an abstract subject of science, or math, for example, could be so beautifully entertaining as well.
PATTIE GONIA: Yeah, for sure. I mean, there are so many barriers for entry to the outdoors. You have to have thousands of dollars of gear. There are so many barriers of entry to academia and being able to read through thousands of pages of paper, probably maybe not even in your first language. IRA FLATOW: Last question for both of you. What do you see as the future of science communication? And by that, I mean, do you see more room for creative personalities like yourselves?
So when I think about the future of science, I think it looks queer as hell. I think it looks full of BIPOC people. I think it looks full of people who are passionate about just sticking their talent and their special skills and their identities and applying it to the field of science, and hopefully making a future where all of us feel more welcome and where we can really truly be grounded. And the one thing that unites us all is this planet. And it's time to fight for her.
DIANA PLASKER: I didn't really know much about phosphorus before this book. There's so much of it around the world. It's really hard to mine. And when we do, there's a lot of unintended consequences. But we've learned a lot about how it affects the world and how to do things better.
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