Welcome to a brand-new Beyond the Thesis with Papa PhD experience – the “Papa PhD Gold” format, where we dive into a past episode of the show to explore the intersection of science, communication, and personal growth as a researcher. In this episode, we are joined by Elodie Chabrol, a passionate advocate for science communication and a scientist who emphasizes the importance of stepping back to view the “big picture” in research. Elodie and David Mendes discuss how engaging in science communication can transform a scientist’s approach to their work and career, from applying for grants to improving public engagement skills. Elodie Chabrol has a PhD in Neurogenetics and is the international director for the Pint of Science festival. She is also a freelance science communicator involved in different freelance projects like training, moderations and podcasts. Elodie’s mission is to make science accessible to everyone, everywhere show the human side of it. Key take-home messages: The Value of Seeing the Big Picture: Elodie shares her insights on how often getting lost in the intricate details of your research, you may neglect the overall context of your work and shares how science communication events encourage scientists to reassess their research from a broader perspective, gaining renewed clarity and purpose. Science Communication as a Learning Tool: By attending events outside your domain, you can gain fresh perspectives and discover innovative ways to communicate your research, as exemplified by Elodie’s transformative experience at a physics scicomm event. Benefits of Science Communication for Researchers: Engaging with lay audiences helps scientists hone their skills in turning complex information into accessible narratives. Feedback from public presentations can lead to new insights and strengthen academic skills like grant and paper writing. Experiences from Pint of Science: Elodie shares feedback from scientists who found value in communicating at Pint of Science events, illustrating how taking part in such initiatives can reignite our passion for our own research. Why Listen? Whether you’re grappling with the challenge of detailing your research for non-experts or looking to refine how you share your scientific journey, this episode provides valuable strategies to incorporate science communication into your professional toolkit. Unlock the benefits of enhanced communication for career growth and personal satisfaction. Connect with Us: Have thoughts about this episode? Want to recommend a guest for us to interview? Share your voice with us! Visit speakpipe.com/papaphd to leave a voice note. We value every piece of feedback and look forward to featuring some in future episodes. Tune In: Don’t miss this insightful conversation aimed at helping you redefine your path Beyond the Thesis. Subscribe to Papa PhD on your favorite podcast platform, and join us next week for another inspiring episode! This episode’s links: Website: www.elodiechabrol.com/ Twitter: @eloscicomm Episode Transcript Elodie Chabrol: Sometimes in research, we’re losing sight of what we’re doing because we are so buried into very deep details on very tiny things that sometimes we are forgetting the big picture. Doing that kind of things brings you back to seeing the big pictures help you it’s also helping you finding cool ways of explaining your research, which is never lost because when you’re gonna apply for a grant, when you’re gonna maybe, apply for a job, apply for whatever, you have to explain the project you want to do and the people in front of you are never gonna be in your domain exactly. David Mendes: Welcome to Beyond the Thesis with Papa PhD, your weekly inspiration for post PhD career development. With me, David Mendes. Elodie Chabrol: When I was watching my lab meetings and I was watching my lab mates presenting their research, most of the times I didn’t understand because they didn’t give me any context. They were just like jumping hard into details. And I was like, what, wait, what what’s happening? And I was completely losing the plot of what they were doing. And this is also a way to discover, like, stuff in your domain in a very cool way. So I would say it’s inspiration on how to do, it’s relaxing, to watch in a cool way science in your domain but usually what I, often advise for your for for researchers or for scientists is to go to events that are not their domain because then they’re going to learn things. If you go to your domain, you might not learn anything. So I I think it’s the the best criticism I got from someone. She was a researcher. She went to, an A Pint of Science Evening and then she came to me and she was like, well, I didn’t learn anything. And I was like, okay, cool. It means it was, simple enough. Then she was like, it was too simple. I was like, cool. Perfect. So because it wasn’t for you to learn something, it was maybe for you to learn a way of presenting, but not for you to learn anything becaus
