SciComm Speaker Series: Matt Richtel
Coffee and refreshments will be provided beginning at 9:30 a.m. Ricthel will be available to sign books and bookplates immediately following the talk. The LSI's SciComm Speaker Series highlights the importance of disseminating scientific findings beyond the walls of the academy and effectively communicating the impact of publicly-funded research. This annual event provides world-leading science writers and communicators with an opportunity to share their experiences with faculty, staff and students, while also tapping into U-M's vast scientific research community. This year's speaker is best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Matt Richtel.
In 2019, Richtel's book about the immune system, An Elegant Defense, hit shelves. Richtel steeped the book in deep science, but covered all that deep science in frosting: story, anecdote and humor. When the book came out, the New York Times published an excerpt. What chapter did they choose? The one that asked: Should you pick your nose?
Richtel had asked the question as a way of exploring whether our urge to probe our noses is actually a way for evolution to sneak some outside information to our immune systems. While we may not have a definitive answer to that question, after more than two decades at the New York Times and as author of several best-of-the-year science books, Richtel does know the answer to this: How do you make science information palatable? What does it take to educate the public? There are two answers: One is story. The second is existential crisis. When Covid hit, the public started paying attention to science as never before. But this talk about the former—how to turn science into a story that people are eager to consume and that they will remember.
Over the course of this conversation, Richtel will offer specific examples of how he has married complicated science with compelling stories without sacrificing the sanctity and complexity of the research and scholarship. He will also tackle a number of specific, key issues around the marriage of science and storytelling: ethics, the role of the scientist/scholar, the relationship between scientist and journalist and how to improve it; the responsibility of media to understand how to read science, and accurately calibrate its weight. Plus, all the questions you want to ask!
Speaker
Matt Richtel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, lauded speaker and bestselling author. He writes about technology, its impact on society, and how it changes the way we work, play and relate to each other. In 2010 he won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his series of articles on the hazardous use of cell phones, computers and other devices while driving. Richtel lives in San Francisco with his wife and their two children. He is an avid tennis player, a recreational athlete, a prideful maker of guacamole for parties and a periodic (and not good) songwriter. He grew up in Boulder, Colorado, the son of two avid readers, attended Boulder High School, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.