Lynn Chiu, PhD

(blog) On interviewing scientists

(outgoing wiki-links under construction)

Tomorrow, I will be interviewing the authors of [Evolution Evolving], a new book written by a subset of scholars involved in the [Extended Evolutionary Synthesis] research program for their "meet the author" videos (that will be put on their website). The filming will take place at the [KLI].

On Monday, I'll be interviewing anthropologists [Ayo Wahlberg] at the University of Copenhagen (visiting scholar at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna this month) and [Veronika Siegl] at the University of Vienna for the English [Rudolphina Research Magazine] of UniVienna.

While preparing for these two interviews, I find myself drawing on my focus and strength as a philosopher of biology and a science communicator. I'd like to share how I am prepping for these interviews. Next week, I'll write another post reflecting on how it went.

Here is the email I sent Wahlberg and Siegl.

First of all, as you may notice, the influence from philosophy is the way I emphasize how questions and answers are framed by concepts that allow us to make sense of them (highlighted part of the text). I want to know what these framing devices are and what they do.

Secondly, the scicommer side comes through by asking for personal stories (that of the interviewees or the interviewers) and simple, straightforward take-home messages.

Finally, as an institutional scicommer, I ask questions that are grounded in the needs of the university's research magazine: to address the central theme of the "Semester Question" (each semester's articles are guided by a big question) and to stick very close to "published facts."

The main goal of the article is to understand the way you frame your research and to explain some of the core findings. We would like to stay close to the general theme of the Semester Question: Can Health be Fair to all? (aka Health and (in)justice). We would like to focus on Dr. Wahlberg’s work on selective reproduction and China’s state regulation of birth rates through assistive reproductive technologies (the dramatic shift from one to three child policy within the same living generations, the conversion from abortion centers to fertility centers) and Dr. Siegl’s recent book on the commercial market of surrogacy in Ukraine/Russia.

I’ll start with some general questions about your work and I’m sure a general theme will emerge, but what I currently have in mind is this: how can we frame the “problem” of falling fertility rates across the globe and what do your findings say about the state vs market solutions to this “problem”? By extension, we might need to ask to whom this is a problem… to the individual who desires a family? To the state that desires a better demographic distribution? What about the planet and the call for curbing global population growth?

General questions:

  1. Self-introduction: your background and the main thread that drives your research regarding assistive reproductive technologies.
  2. What are your most recent publications on this? How do they fit into your big question? What are the main messages/findings from them?
  3. How do you frame the problem of “falling global birth rates”? What are the concepts you use that can be helpful for others thinking about this subject?
  4. Can you explain to us one of your key concepts or frameworks? What is it and why is it important?
  5. Can you give an example of where exploitations, injustice, discrimination tend to lurk and the forces that created them?
  6. What is an interview (with your subjects) that personally struck you? What is their story and how did it shape your outlook or research direction?
  7. For the student interested in learning more about this field, a glimpse: Personally, how did you, as a trained anthropologist, cross linguistic and cultural as well as political barriers to obtain these interviews? Did your training prepare you enough to do this field work? Did you have to figure new ways to approach the subjects yourself?
  8. If there’s a central take-home framing concept or message you think our readers need to know, could you share them in a concise way? This is the type of message that they can easily convey to their grandparents, etc.

Turning to the videos for the book, here's how I designed the questions that should fit each interview into 5 minutes (max 10).

Each interview will ask three kinds of questions. Here's the email I sent the interviewees:

Goals and purpose: The purpose of these videos is promotional. These videos introduce our potential readership to the authors, their backgrounds, and provide the 5Ws of the book: what the book is about, who should read it, why they should read it, etc. We will also use this opportunity to have each author talk about a key concept or argument from the book with an example.

Format: Each video will start with a short self-introduction (I am… and I am a… at …), a short story of how you got interested in evolutionary biology and the personal key events that made you question the standard way of thinking. Then I will ask you a few questions that bring out a theoretical issue, a concept, and an illustrative example.

I distributed 5 W-questions to the authors: who should read the book, why they should read the book, what is the book about, how did you come up with the title, how is the book structured

These answers can generate sound bites that can be edited into other promo materials.

I then ask each author a question about one thing from the book: questions inspired by the blurb, the chapter titles, the structure, the motivating debates, the implications.

And then I ask each of them to talk passionately about an example that illustrates a core concept related to their main theses, ideally an example that's been mentioned in the book but also part of their own research. In this case, these concern cultural inheritance, extragenetic inheritance, plasticity, alternative sources of adaptive evolution, niche construction.

Once again, the dual influence of philosopher and scicommer comes into play. I am concerned about core concepts as a philosopher, concerned about "speaking from the heart" about their stories and examples as a scicommer, and concerned about the special needs and interests of the project as a whole as an institutional communicator, which is to promote the book and explain to the audience the 5Ws.

But to make this entire exercise even more interesting for me and to the authors (who have to, unfortunately, give these interviews the day after the US election results came out... ), I created 5 personas that I will introduce to the authors as their imaginary audience. Maybe this will help train their minds on the audience instead of the camera.

These personas were generated by Co-Pilot then heavily edited by me:

Name: Maria - Age: 25 - Gender: Female - Profession: Political Aid - Background: Maria recently started working as a political aid and is responsible for preparing briefs for city government officials. She reads the latest best sellers to stay informed and articulate complex ideas to her colleagues and constituents.

Name: Ethan - Age: 35 - Gender: Male - Profession: High School Biology Teacher - Background: Ethan loves teaching and is always looking for new ways to engage his students. He reads extensively to bring fresh perspectives and up-to-date information into his classroom.

Name: Jordan - Age: 42 - Gender: Male - Profession: Father of Three Young Children - Background: Jordan is a dedicated father who wants to stay informed about science to answer his children’s curious questions. He finds popular science books accessible and helpful in explaining complex topics in a way that his kids can understand.

Name: Ming-Li - Age: 30 - Gender: Female - Profession: Entrepreneur - Background: Ming-Li majored in Business Administration. She runs a tech startup and believes that understanding evolutionary biology can provide insights into human behavior. She reads popular science books to gain a broader perspective.

Name: Ben - Age: 60 - Gender: Male - Profession: Retired Engineer - Background: Ben now has more time to indulge in his interests. He is a practicing Buddhist and is inspired by the Dali Lama's continuous engagement with scientists. He enjoys reading about science to keep his mind active and stay informed.

I'll report how the interviews went next week!

Some cool references:

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