Science, Humanity, Alan Alda, and the Quest for Story

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Morris A. Grubbs, PhD Assistant Dean, The Graduate School

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Society of Postdoctoral Scholars & The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

University of Kentucky

Dr. Kathi Kern, Alda, and me.

Center for Communicating Science Summer Institute June 5-9, 2011 Dr. Kathi Kern, Alda, and me.

Center for Communicating Science Summer Institute June 5-9, 2011 Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science

Highlights of the Summer Institute

Numerous Improv Exercises in Groups (e.g., Gibberish, The Mirror, Passing Imaginary Objects, The Many Whos I Am)

Distilling the Message

Before: “I study the effects of plant secondary compounds on herbivory.” After: “Have you ever wondered why certain plants taste really bitter? It’s because they produce these bitter compounds to protect their leaves from being eaten. This explains why certain plants are eaten more than others.”

Talking About Our Research on a Morning TV Show

Alan Alda! Who is Alan Alda anyway? Set in South Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953), M*A*S*H was one of the highest- rated shows in U.S. television history.

M*A*S*H (acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) American war comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from 1972-1983. Alan Alda stared as Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, Captain and Chief Surgeon.

“The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES. When you’re improvising, this means you are required to agree with whatever your partner has created. So if we’re improvising and I say, “Freeze, I have a gun,” and you say, “That’s not a gun. It’s your finger. You’re pointing your finger at me,” our improvised scene has ground to a halt. But if I say, “Freeze, I have a gun!” and you say, “The gun I gave you for Christmas! You bastard!” then we have started a scene because we have AGREED that my finger is in fact a Christmas gun.” – Tina Fey

Bill Murray Stephen Colbert Viola Spolin (1906-1994) and her son, Paul Sills (1927-2008)

“Play touches and stimulates vitality, awakening the whole person—mind, body, intelligence and creativity.” --Viola Spolin Chapter 3: The Head and Heart of Communication

Empathy and Theory of Mind

“The interplay of the emotional and the rational, I believe, is happening in the other person’s mind when we try to explain something difficult, like science, or something that just difficult to absorb, like bad medical news. . . . Being truly connected to the other person happens when we see them in a way that’s both emotional and rational, especially if we include listening with our eyes: looking for clues in the face, in gestures—in all the nonverbal signs of a state of mind. It’s complete and total listening.” (23-24) Chapter 17: Emotion Makes it Memorable

Alda’s origin story as a science communications teacher and advocate:

“In an emergency operation in the middle of night, a doctor had to cut out about a yard of my intestine to save my life. He realized he had to perform what’s called an “end-to-end anastomosis,” but he didn’t use that term when he told me what he had to do. Instead, he leaned in, made eye contact, and said, cut out the bad part and sew the two good ends together.” I have never heard a clearer, more accurate description of something with such a frighteningly fancy name.” (161) Chapter 13: Working Alone on Building Empathy

On reading literary fiction:

“What’s harder for me is the suggestion a number of people have made that a good way to increase one’s empathy is by reading fiction—not potboilers, but good, solid, literary fiction, with depth and sensitivity. And studies have shown that reading literary fiction improves Theory of Mind, as well. This sounds like it ought to work, but I’m impatient reading fiction.” (122-123)

Where Science and Story Meet BY ROBERT BURTON, M.D. ILLUSTRATION BY GÉRARD DUBOIS NAUTILUS, APRIL 22, 2013

“Science is in the business of making up stories called hypotheses and testing them, then trying its best to make up better ones. Thought-experiments can be compared to storytelling exercises using well-known characters. What would Sherlock Holmes do if he found a body suspended in a tree with a note strapped to its ankle? What would a light ray being bounced between two mirrors look like to an observer sitting on a train? What do the lines on the nautilus shell mean? Once done with their story, scientists go to the lab to test it; writers call editors to see if they will buy it. People and science are like bread and butter. We are hard-wired to need stories; science has storytelling buried deep in its nature.” Distilling does not mean “dumbing down” Rather, it places the focus on the meaning of your research, not the process. We must learn to fight against the curse of knowledge

When you know something so well, it’s difficult to imagine what it’s like not to know it.

Random House, 2007 Appeal to logic and emotion

Don’t be afraid to show your passion or to get personal. Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science

From my notes during Alda’s talk at the Summer Institute in 2011

Three stages of love: Lust and infatuation and then commitment

What matters is attraction (tone, body language, the look on your face).

To communicate well with the public, 1. We must get that first attractive moment 2. Emotion doesn’t hurt. Get them infatuated. Passion is all—this passion ought to come out in the telling, clear and vivid but not dumbed down. 3. Commitment involves listening and observing. Listening is not only at the heart of the commitment; there needs also to be a willingness to be changed by the listening. How to Present Your Research to Novice Audiences to Engage Them, Help Them Learn, & Make an Impact

. Find the core ideas. . Make the human connection; engage your listener in your story; then introduce complexity gradually. . Build a case for why your research matters. . Minimize or eliminate academic jargon. . Avoid the abstract; use examples, anecdotes, analogies to appeal to the senses. . Use narrative cues to help the audience follow your narrative. . Use impactful images to support your central finding/assertion. . Be conversational and expressive; be human. . Build a story – what’s surprising, exciting, difficult, upsetting, mysterious?