COVID-19 Exhibition: virtual + physical
Posted: April 4, 2022 Filed under: Exhibit Development, Interactive, Museums, Research, Storytelling, Writing Leave a commentFor the past year, I’ve been honored to work with folks from Seattle and King County on an exhibition about communities rallying together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition started online, as a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the South Seattle Emerald. It will take physical form in the foundation’s Discovery Center in June 2022.
As ever, my job as exhibit developer is humbling, and all praise is due to the folks whose stories are featured here––I hope we’ve done you justice. Thank you for sharing your stories, and most of all, thank you for doing the sometimes impossible-seeming work of leading community through collective trauma.
Many thanks, all, and more information soon.
Screenplays OF SCIENCE (ence, ence, ence)
Posted: January 11, 2021 Filed under: Exhibit Development, Interactive, Production, Research, Science, Screenwriting, Television, Writing Leave a commentScience communicators write screenplays? Heck yeah I do: the kind you see in museum exhibitions and planetariums (planetaria, if you’re nerdy).
I’m stoked and honored to be working on one about human space flight for a NASA grant, working with the Bell Museum and brilliant full-dome producers at Morehead Planetarium. Hoping it will be the kind of film that makes every kid who sees it want to work for NASA.
Every kid?
Well why not, I ask you.
And hey, wow: Victoria the T. rex, the video I wrote and directed for immersive, in-exhibition viewing, has won three awards! 🏆 🏆 🏆 See a sample from it (minus narration) at my instagram page, linked below. Cinematography, animation, and production by the incredibly talented folks at Animism Studio:
Reviews for Consider the Platypus
Posted: January 29, 2020 Filed under: Art, Books, Dolphins, Museums, Nonfiction, Research, Science, Storytelling, Writing Leave a commentHonored and humbled by response to my first book, Consider the Platypus: Evolution through Biology’s Most Baffling Beasts, available now wherever books are sold:
- Wall Street Journal – “What to Give” nature books gift guide
- American Scientist – Science Book Gift Guide
- Minnesota Book Awards – Finalist in General Nonfiction
- Ars Tecnica – Science and tech book review
- Queensland Reviewers Collective – book review
“Victoria the T. rex” now open in AZ
Posted: January 29, 2020 Filed under: Exhibit Development, Interactive, Museums, Research, Science, Screenwriting, Writing Leave a comment“Victoria” is a newly discovered T. rex specimen, the second largest and most complete known to science (after Sue, at the Field Museum). I had the great honor of working alongside some of the world’s leading paleontologists to develop a touring exhibition around Victoria’s pristine fossil remains, complete with “Become Victoria” interactives and a fully immersive Cretaceous-era diorama come to life. Best of all, the entire experience builds directly upon the most cutting-edge T. rex science. (We’re talking forward stance and feathers, people.)
[EDIT] And that’s not all! This November, 2020, I was utterly chuffed to learn that the film I wrote and directed for in-exhibition has won three awards! Much credit is due to the incredible, unrivaled work of Animism Studio with whom collaboration was a career-topping thrill.
The exhibition, Victoria the T. Rex, is open now at the Arizona Science Center. Colossal thanks to the entire top-notch team, including Dr. Dave Hone, Dr. Heinrich Mallison, IMG, NGX Interactive, Stacy Sidman, and Khalil Williams. Check out the suuuuper flashy trailer for the exhibition below:
If All Water Were Blood
Posted: January 5, 2019 Filed under: Art, Books, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Writing 2 CommentsI’m honored to finally have this piece in print, after having read and kneaded and baked it for years now. Thank you yet again to the powerful people of Paper Darts.
Consider the Platypus
Posted: January 5, 2019 Filed under: Books, Nonfiction, Science, Writing | Tags: Books, scicomm Leave a comment…Is the actual, updated name of my aforementioned and forthcoming illustrated nonfiction book for adults and curious kids. Sneak peeks soon! Stay tuned.
Broadcast Know-It-All
Posted: July 9, 2017 Filed under: Comedy, Dolphins, Interactive, Performance, Podcast, Production, Radio, Science, Speaking | Tags: audio, education, humor, radio, scicomm, Science Leave a commentReady your ears to get SCHOOLED, folks, ’cause I’m playing Fact Checker on Season 3 of the Tell Me Something I Don’t Know Podcast (starring Freakonomic’s Stephen Dubner)!
First Minneapolis episode: “Three Sheets to the Wind” with special guest John Moe. They named they episode after one of my facts! And about all the drunk talk featured in the episode.
Second Minneapolis episode: “Creature Comforts” with special guest Krista Tippet. That one has a lot of sex talk.
Woman on the Street, Hot Seat
Posted: April 14, 2017 Filed under: Comedy, Dolphins, Interactive, Performance, Production, Science, Television Leave a commentI finally gathered up some of my science talking and slapped it into a highlights reel. While the video’s still private, I share it with you now, via THIS “EXCLUSIVE” LINK (and below).
More footage upon request. AMA 4ever.
How to Be a Dolphin (Not a Hippie)
Posted: July 6, 2016 Filed under: Dolphins, Nonfiction, Science, Writing Leave a commentMy latest for Nautil.us. It was only a matter of time.
Science Comedy & Regular Comedy
Posted: May 25, 2016 Filed under: Comedy, Interview, Performance, Production, Radio, Research, Science, Speaking, Storytelling | Tags: Podcast, Regret Labs Leave a commentStorytelling is a thing that I do, and here’s a video of a recent gig. The story I tell is not scientific––OR IS IT…?
It is also my pleasure to introduce Regret Labs, a Science/Comedy podcast to which my fellow comedians Levi Weinhagen and Aric McKeown invited me because they needed a little more science for their not-so-much-science.
This is the kind of podcast where people talk over each other sometimes. Into it? Not into it? Drop a comment on the site to let us know.
Mandford
Maggie Ryan Sandford 