Episode 159: Science Evangelist

“Your voice is precious, and you should protect it, and you should do everything in your power to make sure it gets heard. ”

— Ainissa Ramirez

ainissa ramirez

Ainissa Ramirez has loved science since the age of four. But her dreams of becoming a scientist were almost squelched when she got to college. When she graduated she vowed to make other people's journeys through science better than her own.

Today, she's helping thousands of people understand and appreciate how the world around them works - and maybe even go into science themselves. In this episode we talk about the influence her grandmother had on Ainissa’s life, the ups and downs of her career, leaving academia to go out on her own, and some of the amazing (often untold) stories in her new book, The Alchemy of Us.

She also has some solid advice for other women scientists who may be finding their workplaces...challenging.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

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Further reading:

The Alchemy of Us by Ainissa Ramirez

STEM Education Needs a Course Correction by Ainissa Ramirez in Scientific American - this is where I first read about the airport bathroom story we talk about at the top of the show.

Black Images Matter: How Cameras Helped, and Sometimes Harmed, Black People by Ainissa Ramirez in Scientific American.

Episode 158: Caring in a Crisis

“I feel elderlies are being neglected. It’s just a good feeling to do my part, and I’m really worried when I get to be that age – who’s going to be there for us?”

— Susie Rivera

“I’m not worried about [going to work] because I believe that in a crisis, not doing anything is not an option...I am not a part of the problem. I am part of the solution. ”

— Maria Colville

Photo by sam thomas/iStock / Getty Images

A lot of us have been able to work from home during lockdown these last few months. One group of workers that hasn't is paid caregivers - aides, mainly women, who are paid by the hour to help elderly, frail and disabled people accomplish some of the tasks of daily living.

In this show we meet two women who have been doing care work for three decades - Susie Rivera in Texas and Maria Colville in Massachusetts. Their job is one of the fastest growing in the U.S. But it pays poorly and a lot of people don't see its importance...until they need that care themselves. Some clients are grateful and gracious, others less so.

Each woman feels called to her role. As Maria puts it, "The opportunity to make an impact in someone else's life," is its own reward.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Episode 157: More Than Power Poses

“You hear this word empowerment associated with the kind of Lean In style of feminism...This idea that if we could just be a little more assertive, if we would stand up for ourselves, then we would be paid equally, we would reach positions of power.”

— Ruth Whippman

In this show I’m handing you over to Lauren Schiller, host of Inflection Point, for a summer swap episode. Some of you are already Inflection Point fans but if you don’t know it, there is lots to discover. Lauren created the show and has been hosting it for five years now. She has talked to a fabulous array of guests.

She produced this episode on the difference between ‘empowerment’ and actual power with writer Ruth Whippman in 2018, and I wanted to air it because it’s thought provoking, funny and smart (would I offer you anything less?) I also share Ruth’s outsider view of life in the U.S.

You can access a transcript of the show on the original episode page.

lauren schiller (l) and ruth whippman in the inflection point studio

Episode 156: An Immigrant's Tale

“I adapted pretty quickly...this is my new circumstance and I have to figure out how to go forward from here. Obviously I look back, but I can’t be tied to that because it’s going to weigh me down. ”

— Fernanda Santos

Fernanda at work, covering a march for climate change in phoenix

Fernanda Santos moved to the U.S. from Brazil to go to graduate school, but ended up staying and forging a career in journalism. Her work is a thread throughout this episode (she was an early believer in the mantra ‘never work for free’), but this story is also about life and its unexpected twists, and how Fernanda’s immigrant experience -and journalist training - helped when she was forced to confront a future she never expected.

Fernanda, Mike and Flora in June 2017

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Fernanda, Flora and Clint in December 2019

Fernanda’s articles: Check out her website to read all about her work, but I loved these three pieces about her life since 2017.

Who Will Wear My Dead Husband’s Clothes?

I Felt Safe in America. Until El Paso.

What Do You Say When Someone Loses Their Job?

Episode 155: Firefighter

“It’s not all about the brave fireman striding through the smoke to throw the damsel in distress over his shoulder and stride off into the sunset. There are lots of skills that make a good firefighter.”

— Stephanie Looi

Image via stocksy

“I feel like everybody needs to have that moment in their life where something you did, not something your kid did, made you so proud it made your chest tight. And that’s that pride that comes from serving your community.”

— Kassie Stevens

Stephanie looi

Some of us have two jobs: one that pays us, one that sustains us in another way. In this episode we meet two women who volunteer as firefighters. Stephanie Looi and Kassie Stevens have faced challenges in their roles, but each feels lucky to be doing something so important for their communities.

Kassie stevens with stepson riley

Stephanie just went through Australia's devastating fire season and had to make decisions she never thought she would. Kassie faces incredulous reactions when she shows up to a call, and sometimes hostility as well. But they both say it's a privilege to serve - and to inspire other women.

This show is about being a firefighter, but it’s also about the satisfaction that comes from volunteering, and helping other people.

It’s thanks to Kassie’s fiancé Shaun Pryor that I found out about her work in the first place.

Shaun, Kassie, and Riley

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Episode 154: Straight Talk + Empathy: Women, Men, and Leadership in Crisis

“Some of the emerging women leaders are offering a new tone and some really inspiring leadership, and I think that’s just a wonderful thing to keep in mind as we all go to our voting booths in the next few years.”

— Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Photo credit: Evgeni Tcherkasski

“If you look at Merkel’s style, it’s very tough, short, concise, fact-based communication, very different not just from Trump but Andrew Cuomo, who spends an hour a day talking to us about his mum and recipes for pasta.”

— Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

avivah wittenberg-cox

You’ve probably seen some of the stories: women leaders around the world are “stepping up to show the world how to manage a messy patch for our human family.” I’m quoting one of this week’s guests, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, from her Forbes piece on women leaders’ success during the pandemic. She and other writers on this topic make the same point: when you look at countries with the best coronavirus outcomes so far, they often have one thing in common - a woman at the top.

tomas chamorro-premuzic

In this week’s show I meet up - online, of course - with Avivah and another former guest, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

We discuss the leadership styles we’re seeing during this global crisis, why Andrew Cuomo can chat about recipes on TV where Jacinda Ardern probably couldn’t, and whether today’s successful female leaders will change anything for women in the future.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Further reading: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic’s piece, also in Forbes, on whether female leaders might be better at managing the pandemic.

I also reference this Washington Post article by Zoe Marks during the episode.

The Pandemic Has Revealed the Weakness of Strongmen by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic.