We had a come-to-reality moment and concluded that what the world needs right now is not another scicomm podcast episode from us. So, we are pausing what would be our next season of Meteor, indefinitely.

We have several reasons for this decision, which we discuss in this brief episode:

• Our most reliable, trusted communities are tighter in scope and focus, and we’re especially prioritizing spending time sustaining those connections right now.
• We do not want to just join the pundit discourse about what’s happening in the world. Talking about the state of scicomm via the podcast just doesn’t feel like concrete action.
• A support course or coaching process around social justice and collective action would probably help us all, but the two of us don’t need to create that. Many, many valuable resources to this effect already exist.
• Social change and reciprocal communities/relationships require that we embrace knowing that the work takes all kinds of efforts and people doing all kinds of roles. (And that we divest from the toxic notion that we must, as one person, do all the roles.) In other words: we feel like we need to fill other roles than “podcaster” right now.

The book Bethann mentions in this episode is Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Now workbook (socialchangemap.com). It helps identify lots of social change roles, emphasizes how important it is that people fill all sorts of roles, and underscores that we should not try to fill every role on our own.

Take good care, fellow scicomm folks!

Thanks for your support over the past 4 years! If you’d like to connect, you can reach us on social media (BlueSky, LinkedIn, various Slack communities, etc.) or at www.meteorscicomm.org.

As we both hit our 40s, we’re embracing the “lost all our f*cks” part of aging. That means we’re crying, we’re snacking, and we’re eye-balling this season’s wrap-up questions from a little different angle.

So, join us as we consider:

• Do mid-career scicomm pros need an assistant? What would we have someone do, do we want to spend our personal money on that, and the like?
• What are our favorite tools for managing groups and group projects? Including some maybe-uncommon ways of using Google Drive plus Bethann’s secret, vintage comms weapon.
• How can we convince people they are an expert and it’s okay to act like one? (Or, should you just tell ‘em they need therapy!?)
• What are we looking forward to, and how completely are we committed to being feisty this year?

Then, we ask you to dig in for yourself: what’s something you’re looking forward to, personally or professionally?

Thanks for listening! We’re hoping for a community potluck 🥗🍛: Connect with us on social media (BlueSky, LinkedIn, Twitter, various Slack communities, etc.) or at www.meteorscicomm.org.

P.S. If you missed it, we’re going to try something new next season — guests!!! Deets here if you want to join. And, if anyone listening reading has funding to help us compensate guests, please let us know!

Doesn’t “in it together” mean…scicomm groups? Isn’t that obvious?

Well…actually. Scicomm community is not the only community or type of relationship that helps us be good, beyond-beginner scicommers.

So, we talk this week about OTHER spaces and relationships that serve us as whole humans:

• Not everyone needs a big network to thrive. “You don’t have to have twenty best friends in public.”
• Scicomm isn’t the be-all, end-all.
• What we say no to gives us space to be people, not scicomm robots. (Find Bethann’s No-buddy blog post here: https://www.commnatural.com/post/get-yourself-a-no-buddy)

Then, we ask you to dig in for yourself: what’s a non-scicomm community or relationship that helps you feel like a full person?

Thanks for listening! We’re hoping for a community potluck 🥗🍛: Connect with us on social media (BlueSky, LinkedIn, Twitter, various Slack communities, etc.) or at www.meteorscicomm.org.

P.S. If you missed it, we’re going to try something new next season — guests!!! Deets here if you want to join. And, if anyone listening reading has funding to help us compensate guests, please let us know!