0:00:08.8 –> 0:00:11.496 Hello and welcome to Science et al podcast, 0:00:11.5 –> 0:00:12.852 but everything science sponsored 0:00:12.852 –> 0:00:14.88 by the Yale School of Medicine. 0:00:14.88 –> 0:00:16.57 I’m your host, Daniel Barron. 0:00:16.57 –> 0:00:18.64 And in this episode I’m 0:00:18.64 –> 0:00:20.296 speaking with Robert Bazell. 0:00:20.3 –> 0:00:23.6 Robert or Bob as he asked me to call him, 0:00:23.6 –> 0:00:25.25 worked his NBC’s chief science 0:00:25.25 –> 0:00:26.57 correspondent for 38 years. 0:00:26.57 –> 0:00:28.88 In that capacity, Bob and many awards, 0:00:28.88 –> 0:00:30.2 including five Emmy Awards, 0:00:30.2 –> 0:00:32.53 the Peabody Award, and the DuPont Award. 0:00:32.53 –> 0:00:34.205 He also authored a bestselling 0:00:34.205 –> 0:00:35.48 book called her two, 0:00:35.48 –> 0:00:37.13 The Making of a revolutionary 0:00:37.13 –> 0:00:38.45 treatment for breast Cancer, 0:00:38.45 –> 0:00:41.719 which was adapted as a TV film. 0:00:41.72 –> 0:00:44.138 Now Bob is supposedly formally retired, 0:00:44.14 –> 0:00:46.258 even though he’s quite busy at 0:00:46.258 –> 0:00:47.67 yells Department of Molecular 0:00:47.736 –> 0:00:49.8 Cellular and Developmental Biology, 0:00:49.8 –> 0:00:52.225 where he spends his time mentoring 0:00:52.225 –> 0:00:53.482 aspiring journalist scientists. 0:00:53.482 –> 0:00:56.038 An anyone who wants to communicate 0:00:56.038 –> 0:00:57.878 more effectively with the public, 0:00:57.88 –> 0:00:58.696 including myself. 0:00:58.696 –> 0:01:00.736 I ran into Bob’s Science 0:01:00.736 –> 0:01:02.36 journalism panel at Yale, 0:01:02.36 –> 0:01:05.064 where he was one of the primary panelists. 0:01:05.07 –> 0:01:07.443 I had never met him in person 0:01:07.443 –> 0:01:08.8 and didn’t recognize him, 1 0:01:08.8 –> 0:01:11.12 but instantly recognized his voice. 0:01:11.12 –> 0:01:12.94 And after the panel discussion, 0:01:12.94 –> 0:01:14.75 I Googled Bob and reviewed 0:01:14.75 –> 0:01:16.198 some of his videos, 0:01:16.2 –> 0:01:18.015 some of which I still 0:01:18.015 –> 0:01:19.467 remembered from decades before. 0:01:19.47 –> 0:01:21.966 It was kind of strange to see him 0:01:21.966 –> 0:01:24.513 with Bill Clinton and a lot of 0:01:24.513 –> 0:01:26.363 the AIDS and cancer treatments 0:01:26.436 –> 0:01:28.536 and the Human Genome Project. 0:01:28.54 –> 0:01:30.718 It was really, it was really. 0:01:30.72 –> 0:01:32.172 It was really fascinating. 0:01:32.172 –> 0:01:33.987 Bob’s had an enormous impact, 0:01:33.99 –> 0:01:36.854 only that I and I suppose many of 0:01:36.854 –> 0:01:39.768 listeners think about and appreciate science. 0:01:39.77 –> 0:01:42.632 It was a real honor to speak with Bob 0:01:42.632 –> 0:01:45.765 about his work and to see from his eyes at, 0:01:45.77 –> 0:01:46.342 you know, 0:01:46.342 –> 0:01:48.344 the 10,000 foot view how he views 0:01:48.344 –> 0:01:50.063 science and how science meshes 0:01:50.063 –> 0:01:51.778 with politics and public policy, 0:01:51.78 –> 0:01:53.99 social movements and with the 0:01:53.99 –> 0:01:55.316 scientific community itself. 0:01:55.32 –> 0:01:56.284 So here we go. 0:01:56.284 –> 0:01:57.007 Thanks again to 0:02:06.64 –> 0:02:09.363 Well, thank you for coming and for 0:02:09.363 –> 0:02:12.25 letting me pick your brain yet again. 0:02:12.25 –> 0:02:14.661 It was really interesting so I 0:02:14.661 –> 0:02:17.067 had not really met you formally, 0:02:17.07 –> 0:02:19.758 but I first I could say heard your 0:02:19.758 –> 0:02:22.45 voice from the back of a lecture 2 0:02:22.45 –> 0:02:24.996 Hall during a panel discussion with 0:02:24.996 –> 0:02:27.088 Carl Zimmer Anneliese Sanders, 0:02:27.09 –> 0:02:29.53 an I recognized your voice. 0:02:29.53 –> 0:02:30.898 Really quite quickly actually. 0:02:30.898 –> 0:02:33.032 So I was like, oh, wow, 0:02:33.032 –> 0:02:36.972 I know this guy and so after that I just 0:02:36.972 –> 0:02:40.164 I did what I think by your definition 0:02:40.26 –> 0:02:43.617 would be a not quite a deep dive but. 0:02:43.62 –> 0:02:45.948 Dipping my toe in the finger 0:02:45.948 –> 0:02:48.259 of your huge body of work. 0:02:48.26 –> 0:02:50.59 And obviously you’ve reported on 0:02:50.59 –> 0:02:53.629 far more than 4000 stories and I 0:02:53.629 –> 0:02:56.149 was able to go on to NBC’s website 0:02:56.237 –> 0:02:58.778 and watch some of the videos that 0:02:58.778 –> 0:03:01.418 you had made like some of the 0:03:01.418 –> 0:03:03.74 reporting you did for the TV. 0:03:03.74 –> 0:03:04.13 By 0:03:04.13 –> 0:03:07.226 the way, if you want to see videos 0:03:07.226 –> 0:03:10.332 from history, you can open the 0:03:10.332 –> 0:03:12.664 Yale Library and Vanderbilt. 0:03:12.67 –> 0:03:14.91 Library has an archive of every television 0:03:14.91 –> 0:03:17.008 show that’s been produced since 1968, 0:03:17.01 –> 0:03:20.348 and you go live stream it. I had no idea, 0:03:20.348 –> 0:03:22.358 so you can watch just everything. 0:03:22.36 –> 0:03:23.688 You can watch everything. 0:03:23.69 –> 0:03:25.695 Well, let’s pick a moment in 0:03:25.695 –> 0:03:27.363 history that’s kind of scary. 0:03:27.363 –> 0:03:28.029 Actually, there’s 0:03:28.03 –> 0:03:30.71 a lot of junk on television. There’s a 0:03:30.71 –> 0:03:33.707 lot of junk, but it also is for me. 0:03:33.71 –> 0:03:35.375 It’s been a very useful 3 0:03:35.375 –> 0:03:36.374 tool for undergraduates, 0:03:36.38 –> 0:03:38.718 because if I’m teaching a course on, 0:03:38.72 –> 0:03:40.73 say, the history of HIV AIDS, 0:03:40.73 –> 0:03:42.56 which I’m doing now, or. 0:03:42.56 –> 0:03:45.593 Events in public health that I take it back, 0:03:45.6 –> 0:03:48.547 take them back and show them these. 0:03:48.55 –> 0:03:50.934 Videos ’cause I wouldn’t have access to them. 0:03:50.94 –> 0:03:53.324 NBC owns them, but I can show it, 0:03:53.33 –> 0:03:56.066 show it to them and they are absolutely 0:03:56.066 –> 0:03:58.426 fascinated to hear the inside story of. 0:03:58.43 –> 0:04:00.495 How this happened and then to see 0:04:00.495 –> 0:04:02.344 the people that they’re not just 0:04:02.344 –> 0:04:04.451 reading about it in an article or 0:04:04.513 –> 0:04:06.494 at a Journal article or a popular 0:04:06.5 –> 0:04:08.3 article, many of whom you interviewed? 0:04:08.3 –> 0:04:10.39 Yeah, why didn’t they see me interviewing 0:04:10.39 –> 0:04:12.478 them and then I can tell them 0:04:12.48 –> 0:04:13.676 what they’re really like. 0:04:13.676 –> 0:04:15.47 This person was a decent person. 0:04:15.47 –> 0:04:17.87 This one is not one of the videos, 0:04:17.87 –> 0:04:20.552 so there are 480 videos on the NBC website, 0:04:20.56 –> 0:04:22.95 so this is 10 to what I did.