SciPop is a series of interactive talks and events open to the public at Love Library, that explore the intersection of science and pop culture. Experts share their research through the filter of pop culture on topics from the Chemistry of Harry Potter to Zombies and Brain Science. Dan Claes, a professor and the Department Chair of the University of Nebraska’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has given a number of these talks, recruited speakers, and helps facilitate the SciPop program. Also joining the show on the other side of the microphone is Elsbeth Magilton, Tech Refactored executive producer and executive director of the Nebraska space, cyber, and telecommunications law program. She gave a SciPop talk in 2019 that went all the way from Nebraska to Las Vegas to the SXSW festival.
SciPop is a series of interactive talks and events open to the public at Love Library, that explore the intersection of science and pop culture. Experts share their research through the filter of pop culture on topics from the Chemistry of Harry Potter to Zombies and Brain Science. Dan Claes, a professor and the Department Chair of the University of Nebraska’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has given a number of these talks, recruited speakers, and helps facilitate the SciPop program. Also joining the show on the other side of the microphone is Elsbeth Magilton, Tech Refactored executive producer and executive director of the Nebraska space, cyber, and telecommunications law program. She gave a SciPop talk in 2019 that went all the way from Nebraska to Las Vegas to the SXSW festival.
Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and has not been thoroughly reviewed for completeness or accuracy.
[00:00:00] Gus Herwitz: This is Tech Refactored. I'm your host, Gus Herwitz, the Menard Director of the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center at the University of Nebraska. Today's episode is special for a few reasons. We're currently sitting in a glass walled study room at the University of Nebraska's main library, Love Library.
Recording live as students look on it is fitting that we're in Love library this evening because today's episode is all about communicating complex information from physics to the law, to the public in a way that is both entertaining as well as accurate. Enter the idea of SciPop, a series of interactive talks and events open to the public at the library that explore the intersection of science and pop.
In these talks, experts share their research through the filter of pop culture on topics from the chemistry of Harry Potter to Zombies and Brain Science. Joining me today is Dan Clays a professor and the department chair of the [00:01:00] University's Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Claes has given a number of these talks, recruited speakers for them, and helps to facilitate other community engagement events for the SciPop.
Also joining me on this side of the microphone today is Elsbeth Magilton, our very own executive producer and the executive director of our governance and technology and space cyber and telecommunications law programs. She is given SciPop talks of her own. She gave one in 2019 that went all the way from Nebraska to Las Vegas to the South by Southwest Festival.
Dan, Elsbeth, uh, thank you for joining us today. Glad to be glad to be here. So, let's just start, uh, Dan, what is SciPop?
[00:01:42] Dan Claes: The program was an inspired one that was created by Ke Dears. She's an associate professor with the university libraries here, Rebecca Liem, Associate professor of the Department of Chemistry, and Rochelle Burkes, who at the time was a postdoc at, in the chemistry [00:02:00] department at.
Um, they had each independently I think, had ideas for some sort of pop inspired series of lectures at the university, but it was when they met once together at some workshop that they discovered their shared interest in not only science and science communication. Science fiction and fantasy books and comics and movies led them to start to work together to find the time to do it, and crystallized their idea into what became SciPop.
SciPop is described as the intersection between popular culture and science. It's. Been realized initially as a series of public lectures free to the public in which the presenter is supposed to be tying the science they're interested in, [00:03:00] into things from popular culture. So inspirations coming from movie.
From television series and books and comics, the requirement was that the subject be tied to popular culture and that the presenters include some interactive feature for the audience to participate in. You need to engage them along the way. And other than that, it was open. Uh, initially they were weekly presentations made, I think every Wednesday evening of a February.
[00:03:35] Gus Herwitz: So I, I, I love the basic origin story of SciPop that you just gave us. For listeners who might wonder, what do academics do when they get together at conferences? Well, we're, we're a bunch of nerds. So yeah, we do a bunch of conference stuff. We present our papers and talk about research and stuff like that, but we also get together and share our interests and passions.
Oftentimes there's pop culture in there, [00:04:00] and oftentimes there's science or whatever our research is, and, uh, we, we talk about this stuff and bring it together and that this is a organic story of the creation. So how, how did the SciPop program, uh, you, you've described the, the first, the impetus for it and kind of the original structure for it.
How did it get started? What institutional support and home did it have and how did it grow?
[00:04:26] Dan Claes: So I, I talked about the, the creators who met by happenstance. They, and you'll notice when I rattled off some of the names, chemistry was dominant. So we had a professor from chemistry and at the, at University of Nebraska and a and a post-doc in chemistry from Don.
So when they first thought of doing it, their list of potential speakers were mainly dominated by the chemist. They knew that included Mark Gree, who had just, I think at the time, published a [00:05:00] book on- called reaction, the chemistry of in the movies or something like that. That was clearly a prime example of the sort of thing they wanted to showcase.
And um, Rebecca had already had success in creating an honors class for undergraduates on the chemistry of Harry Potter that would lend itself pretty neatly into a series of talks inspired by those. Rochelle had already been active in a number of cons and had strong interests in. Lot of comic book inspired stuff, but she had, I think, a very clever topic to cover that first year, and that was how to survive a zombie apocalypse through chemistry.
[00:05:54] Gus Herwitz: I, I learned a whole lot of that, I have to say, from, uh, a [00:06:00] certain series of movie. Might not be quite as effective, I guess, as using chemistry, but, uh, I, I understand, uh, Woody Harrelson does have some ideas about this.
[00:06:11] Dan Claes: Rochelle's was, was, uh, I think riffed off of The Walking Dead, of course. Right. That was number one show at the time in an excellent comic book.
Oh, in an excellent comic book. Absolutely. They got, they got some buy-in and help from the Nebraska local section of the American Chemical Society, and they partnered with the Department of Education and Human Services to put the program together. And being from the libraries, kiyomi was able to secure and reserve rooms where, that first year, all of the programs could be shown.
[00:06:49] Gus Herwitz: So you, the focus early on, uh, was I, It's right there. The name Cy Pop Science, Chemistry focused, Elsbeth bringing you in, uh, [00:07:00] uh, you gave a Cy Pop talk, but you're a lawyer. Um, can you riff a little on your involvement and kind of the, the expansion and the scope of the, uh, series?
[00:07:13] Elsbeth Magilton: Yeah, so I didn't do a my side pop talk until 2019, which, so it had already been around for a number of, I think at least a year or two by then.
And you, like you said, was really. Science focused. Right? There hadn't been many folks from the humanities that had come in and made those same ties. And I was actually, and I'll talk a little bit more at my talk later, but I was actually seeing a talk that Dan gave with my comic book club on the physics of the Flash.
And we were all super excited to do this. And I was sitting there and I was really enjoying it. And I thought afterwards, like I was just tricked into enjoying physics, right? I'm, I'm a lawyer, Physics not normally a subject. That, that I feel like I engage with easily. Right. And I, I really enjoyed it. I thought that's fun.
I was like, I wish I could talk to people about space law that [00:08:00] way, which is what I do work in and teach them. I always joke that we're the boring part of space, right? Like the engineers get to make cool, interesting things. The sciences are doing all these fun, interesting things in space, and we're down here on earth talking about contracts.
And so I thought, well, how can I use pop culture to do this? And so I mentioned it and they were willing to take me on and thought this was an interesting idea. It was still very stem adjacent, obviously, cuz I'm talking about space and for and for my topic area. Star Trek, just l itself so nicely. And they were so excited and so supportive about the idea of, again, it's complex issues, whether that's science or whether that's policy and international law that you can teach.
Through things that people relate to and understand and enjoy, and so they wanna sit there and engage with the material because you have this wonderful open door.
[00:08:46] Gus Herwitz: So this then brings me to the next question, not as ELLs Beth just said, you, you tricked her into enjoying not just attending, but enjoying a lecture on physics.
Why do you think these are such an [00:09:00] engaging, and to the extent, actually I'll ask, do you think they are an effective way to engage people, uh, on topics that they, uh, might not otherwise be interested in or receptive to? And if so, why do you think that's an effective way to do?
[00:09:14] Dan Claes: So, of course, but that was my strategy all along
It worked. Um, and, and I'm always looking, as an educator, I'm always looking for opportunities to hook somebody. Any excuse I can find to try to. discuss physics with, with the general public. I, I, I jump at, I think the sheer popularity. The names like pop of the themes of the talks. They're inspired by Star Trek and Star Wars Breaking Bad The Marble in DC Comic book Universes and cinematic universes television series.
There was even a, a tie in to, to [00:10:00] the popular CSI franchise fans of all of those media. Love to talk about them and you know, they will be happy to talk about almost any facet of those programs. And the science. Well, the science in a lot of the ones that we talk about, it's built in. But, and there certainly are fans that are fans of, for example, Star Trek because of the science, but there are a lot more that are fans.
Despite the science, they are intrigued enough to follow this suspension of disbelief, right? They know that some of the scientific premises may be outlandish, but they're willing to forget about that, and it just, Enjoy the show, and yet I think every one of them is still sort of a little suspicious or questions a little bit [00:11:00] of, is that real or how truthful or accurate is that?
And, and the, the chance to find out, uh, is intriguing. If it's a, if it's a series or a show or a movie or something, you. , someone who's even gonna talk about the science of it is interesting enough to come and that that's the hook of course. And I think that's why this Cy Pop series is successful. So there's,
[00:11:28] Gus Herwitz: there's a bit of a puzzle in here for me, which is, Most much of popular culture science fiction is perhaps heavy on the fiction, uh, and light on the science.
Uh, Star Trek is notorious for techno babble, self steel, ceiling, stem bolts, pars sexes, distances of time or units of time, more, uh, distance, who quite knows time, travel all, all. Stuff that is narratively [00:12:00] useful, but perhaps scientifically suspect and is merely a, uh, a tool to, uh, advance a, a story more than a accurate reflection of the science.
So my, my question is, how do you balance the, the fun? Of these universes with the accuracy of the science and in particular, how do you avoid robbing the universes of their fun by explaining away kind of the mystery that allows the the phone booth to be larger on the inside. So
[00:12:35] Dan Claes: to, to be fair, the kind of movies that I would watch late night growing.
Or the b movies from the fifties and sixties that, that were picked up by local stations to show late at night. And since then, and, and the comic books I grew up as well in, in the sixties were not as scientifically literate or accurate or [00:13:00] precise. Didn't matter to me. But since as readers. We have all become more educated and the viewers and readers of all of those media have as well.
And that has forced the creators of that media to strive for at least the semblance of, of accuracy. So the Star Trek franchise actually does consult. scientists and engineers so that there is some basis of credibility for what they're trying to do on the screen. Comic book writers sometimes will consult with scientists as well, and like in Breaking Bad, they wanted to make sure they got the chemistry right, so they would check with chemistry chemists to do that even on the Big Bang.
There are fans of the show who are scientists and [00:14:00] offer themselves as consultants that the re the writers actually rely on so that if Sheldon's gonna spout something, they wanna make sure he doesn't sound stupid to the people that know a little science that having that. Since I grew up in a more simplistic era and I wasn't, I wasn't embarrassed by or ashamed by, or confused by or critical of what in retrospect looks like pretty poor science.
I, I think because of that suspension of belief that we're all willing to. for the enjoyment of watching a show or reading a book. We all we need is that little veneer of science to satisfy us. There's
[00:14:46] Elsbeth Magilton: also a really interesting, like cross-pollination of inspiration there, right? Like I, I can't tell you the amount of students that I talk to daily who were inspired as kids by science fiction.
Who then were like, I wanna work in the subject area. [00:15:00] You know, I, I wanna be a physicist, or I wanna be a space lawyer, or I want to go do what the people on this show are doing. And so even though they think there's a recognition that it's fiction and that that's not really what those careers are like, it still was this jumping off point, which I think is really valuable and something that we can capitalize on when we're trying to educate them on these types of issues.
I also. I just love all these like fun facts stories, right? Like when the first flip phone was designed, it actually opened the other direction, like it opened down. And the test markets they gave it to, nobody could use it because they off kept protecting. They were Captain Kirk and they'd flip it open like he flips open his communicator and they changed the design of the phone, Right?
Because everyone was seeing themselves and this communicator device. Right. Which I think is a really cool, interesting story. People have talked about, and I don't even know if this is true, maybe someone out there who's listening can fact check me. Uh, but interest in a lot of automatic doors we're inspired by Star Trek, right?
And this idea. Of some of these things that would use sensors to do services for us, such as open our doors. And [00:16:00] so there is sort of that crosspollination to where I think it, it flows back and forth by people who are interested in creativity and interested in ideas and those sorts of shows and ideas speak to them because they tell us maybe not what's impossible, but what's not yet possible that we can be curious about and excited by.
[00:16:17] Gus Herwitz: And I, I think that you're, you're hitting on something so important just to spark of creativity that's. Buried in any science fiction, science, fantasy universe, and is makes them so compelling to, uh, uh, the events of these works. That's the same thing that drives so many scientists and researchers. It's curiosity, wanting to know how things work, um, and.
Part. Part of the great thing about so much science fiction is we have these extended universes where it's a compelling story and it's not just one movie or one comic book or one story, but an entire universe that keeps expanding and growing [00:17:00] as people keep thirsting for more knowledge about it. Last, uh, question before we, uh, take a break.
We have touched on the institutional support in the early stages of US program. Dan, I, I know there have been other communities that have been involved with this program, all a, the science Olympiad that you mentioned, the ecs, Nebraska chapter and the Nebraska, I think you said, Uh, the dhhs, Department of Health and Human Services, How.
This program filtered out into the community. And what other, uh, parts of the community has it touched and have you been able to, uh, interact with as a result of it? So we've,
[00:17:41] Dan Claes: we've had partnerships with Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum. They host the concluding activities for, uh, week long Nebraska Science Festival every year.
And Cy. plans, activities for the [00:18:00] final day of that week, and we put on a performance of, for the grand finale for the whole thing, so that that includes activities for kids to get involved with hands on things, presentations like the SciPi talks that are here in Love Library every year and, and then it's promoted by the museum and it's promoted.
You know, schools across the state, so that's one place we've been involved with. The Lincoln Children's Museum has sponsored Cy Pop activities and days. One was before the 2017 total solar eclipse. They had a pre eclipse party that also had activity set up for kids to play with, and then a number of the CY Pop talks scheduled throughout the day.
Kids and their parents to go to Ali is that OSHA Lifelong Learning Institute that people 50 and over older can take classes for things that always [00:19:00] interested them, and Cy Pop is able to provide an expansion of the talks that are presented here in the library, a series of at least a few lessons to make sort of a mini.
Of science from the popular culture that that have been pretty popular. Yeah. The Science Olympia ads had their national tournament here. 2015, and we included for breaks from the competitive activities that participants came for a series all day long of every half hour from nine to three or something like that.
We had a cy Pop talk that they could pop into and and enjoy. Those are a lot of examples. The, the university has long had a speaker's bureau, a program for providing an interface for the public that is looking for speakers for special events and faculty that have interesting talks that that might interest them.
[00:20:00] And I mean, that's how I got started with Cy Pop talks because I had a couple. Sleeper Bureaus talk on comic book Physics 1 0 1, and he had asked the, actually, the second year of the program, so that was 2015. I think if I could put together something in anticipation of a movie that was to come out that year that everyone was excited about.
Although, truth be told, it turned out to. A real dud. It was great disappointment. That was the Fantastic four movie, but didn't matter. The talk I had given before was about the science in the origin, in the comic book about the Fantastic Four, and I was happy to expand that into a talk. It went well enough that the next year she said, Oh, , Dawn of Justice, Superman versus Batman is coming out this year.
you wanna talk about the science of that? So that was [00:21:00] a talk I hadn't thought about doing, but I prepared and, and actually ever since I've done that, now every year I've made a new talk. What that did was expand my repertoire of talks available for the speakers bureau. And then I was, I think, pre pandemic at 12 or 15 talks a.
At civic organizations and clubs and schools and so on that I give. So that was also a thing that sort of expanded something I was doing onto the side, into something that, uh, probably takes more time than I originally expected it to. But it's been a lot
[00:21:38] Gus Herwitz: of fun. Okay. Well we are, uh, speaking with Dan Plays and ELLs, Beth Magilton.
We are going to take a brief break and then, uh, we will be back to hear a bit more about perhaps some of those specific talk topics.
[00:21:52] Dan Claes: Momentum it's building at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. With game changing work in precision agriculture, [00:22:00] nanoscience and digital humanities. We're unlocking mysteries in brain research, solving the impossible with remote surgery using robots, and we're creating bold futures with world leading research in early childhood education.
We don't slow down and we are not letting up. We are
[00:22:20] Gus Herwitz: Nebraska and we are back talking, uh, with, uh, Dan Clay and Elizabeth Magilton about Cy Pop discussions of science in popular culture. Dan, you, uh, before the break had mentioned the, the many talks that you have given. I assume that you aren't giving the same talk over and over 12 times a year.
Can you give us just. Quick hit list. That's a terrible term, but quick top hits. That's the right term of the topics that you've spoken about. I talk about
[00:22:51] Dan Claes: the origin story of Superman and what his powers can tell us about [00:23:00] the nature of his home planet crypto. That's one talk I talk about. We always see the whole jumping or superman jumping.
and we never focus on what they jump off of. Physics would tell us to be able to reach the distances and the heights they do, they often will damage what was left behind. So I have a talk about takeoffs and landings. I have the talk that I referenced earlier was the. Radioactive origins of Marvel comics.
So many of the superheroes had their origin stories in some radioactive event, more recently, I've talked about the other worldly elements that often are found in the comic books or the super new materials. That they exploit. And [00:24:00] is there anything in real life or real science like that? I had a talk on the multiverse a few years ago.
The latest talk that I gave was about the science of time travel. I.
[00:24:13] Gus Herwitz: So there are so many good and interesting topics there. Uh, I, I love just the general framing that some of those have of the, either the real world consequences of if this were possible, what would it mean had to happen. And also the idea you, you started with the, uh, Superman and using.
What's being revealed to us through the character as a research lens to study something else. That that is a, I think a, a truly scientific approach to inquiry that just has layers to it that I think is, uh, wonderful. Can you, I'm going to ask you the impossible question. Can you pick a favorite child, uh, a specific one, these talks that you really, uh, like giving to give us a bit of [00:25:00] a, uh, taste.
[00:25:02] Dan Claes: Well, I'm, I'm not gonna cop out and be like a parent that, although I will say that when I'm researching and preparing a talk, I really get into it and I'm always excited that this is gonna be my best talk yet. But looking back over the, I dunno, seven years, I guess now that I've been doing this Cy Pop talks, I.
I think the multiverse one might be my favorite, and it's because it was, it was a year or two before into the spider verse, but I already wanted to talk about the multiverse because it was so important to the comic book universe in both DC and Marble. It gave me an opportunity to talk. The general theory of Relativity, and this was immediately after the LIGO experiment released their observation [00:26:00] of the merger of two black holes, so it was on everybody's mind.
So it's nice to tie those things together. I also could talk about, I'm a high energy physicist who has worked at Firm Lab and currently works at cern, and I could tie. Experimental analysis that aren't that that, that we've done Looking to see if there's any evidence of microscopic dimensions in addition to the ones we had have it and know about.
And that was also kind of fun because just a year or two earlier, the Amman movie showed him trapped in the quantum realm, which was basically. Micro dementia. So it, it, it tied together at one time a bunch of stuff that was Oh, and, and it was just proceeding when Marvel started to give hints that [00:27:00] they were gonna take the movies into exploring the multiverse, which is still imminent.
But, so it was a nice nexus of things that had just happened or about to happen and, and, and it was a nice time to talk about those.
[00:27:14] Elsbeth Magilton: Can I jump in to ask what popular culture did you reference in the time Travel Talk?
[00:27:20] Gus Herwitz: So in
[00:27:20] Dan Claes: the time travel talk, I mostly talk, talked about comic book events, Superman or the Silver Surfer or Doctor Solar.
They claim by flying faster than the speed of light, they can break the time barrier. Uh, I talk about that in the talk or that's one of the things I talk about in that talk
[00:27:43] Elsbeth Magilton: spoilers. But I'm gonna assume that doesn't work. .
[00:27:46] Gus Herwitz: No,
[00:27:47] Dan Claes: it doesn't work that
[00:27:48] Gus Herwitz: way. But, but it works the other way. You need to go the other way around.
That's not
[00:27:51] Dan Claes: right, . You can't fly around the earth real fast and reverse it. That doesn't work either. But, um, flying close to the speed of light, you do. [00:28:00] passage of time for you will slow. So it's possible to effectively go into the future by slowing your own aging down, just returning to your point of origin.
And little time has passed for you and a lot of times pass for those you left behind that. That is absolutely true.
[00:28:16] Gus Herwitz: Perhaps. Subtle irony with the interest in the multiverse topic. I, I could be wrong about this, but it's my understanding, or at least my intuition, that the, the reason the multiverse topic or concept is so popular is because Brian Green really popularized it, and he of Brian Green, of course, is one of the great popular physics writers who, and, and science communicators.
I think, I could be wrong about this, but he's really the person who put the idea of the multiverse into the popular conscience in a way that I expect drove it into a lot of works of fiction. So now you're using those works of fiction and their [00:29:00] explorations of the multiverse and bringing that back to the, uh, actual science, which is I guess, completing a circle in a really interesting sort of,
Yeah.
[00:29:09] Dan Claes: Although actually 70 years ago, other dimensions, uh, and other worlds and other dimensions were explored in the comic books. Mm-hmm. , but the, the term multiverse is much more recent. That's right. Is
[00:29:23] Gus Herwitz: there a, as you're working on these topics, how, how do you think about what makes a good topic to explore in a Cy Pop?
[00:29:34] Dan Claes: U Usually I will look for some event or occurrence in a recent movie that people probably watched and said, Ah, could that really happen? That that's usually the thing I'll look for. So when I've seen them or I'm reading a comic book or something, if I see something that. [00:30:00] Generate those sorts of questions.
That's my launch point, but I also have to make sure it's something that I understand the physics of and can work out beforehand so that I can talk about it knowledgeably. So it's gotta be a confluence of those two
[00:30:18] Gus Herwitz: things. And on on that second point, when you're structuring the talk, how do you approach structuring it?
Do you have. Real world physics concepts that you want to explore? Or do you want to explain something, uh, that's happening in the, the fictional universe? Do you have a approach that you take in terms of your purpose?
[00:30:40] Dan Claes: Sometimes I'm, it's true. I'm, I'm looking for something to hook the audience, and there are of course things like special relativity or general relativity or quantum mechanics that, although those.
Terms are [00:31:00] part of everybody's common everyday usage. Their understanding of them conceptually is often wrong because even in popular science books, there's often an oversimplification to the point of genuine air. They're just a catalog of things that I've often thought about. I'd like to take, be able to take the.
To explain to people in terms they understand that they'd appreciate the science more. So when I see something in a story or TV show or movie or comic book that utilizes that physics idea. Then I go, ah, this is where we can talk about it.
[00:31:44] Gus Herwitz: So, to, to use the great pedagogical phrase, you, you look for the teachable moments.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, in, in the, uh, popular culture. Um, Elsbeth, we, we have to turn to you because you have had a chance to give, uh, uh, some of these talks and just on, on a [00:32:00] remarkable trajectory. Can you tell us a, a bit about the talks that you've given and how they happened and where they've taken. .
[00:32:08] Elsbeth Magilton: Yeah. So, you know, after I saw some dance talks and watched some of the other videos and started to kind of fall in love with this general concept, um, and like I said, I had so many students that I would talk to all the time who were in love with culture learn.
I thought they're onto something here. This is a fun way to teach people and I, you know, am a lawyer and I'm really interested in how people think about how we regulate what we do in space. Parti. and when I started thinking about, okay, how do I tie sort of my interests, which are these large international agreements or these one on ones?
So a, a multilateral agreement between many states or a bilateral agreement between individual states and how that plays out in space. Where is that in pop culture? And it, it's all over Star Trek. Right. And Roddenberry, as I started thinking about, this is almost a comparative. Experience, Right? [00:33:00] Comparing the real universe or real world to what was created in the Star Trek universe and, and approached it as this comparative law exercise.
There is this love letter to international law from Roddenberry between, you know, where the United Federation treaties were signed in the Star Trek universe of San Francisco. Well, that's where all of our un treaties were signed. A lot of the ideals that we see in the Outer Space Treaty are also mirrored in some of the prime directive language and other ideals that are outlined in many, many episodes of Star Trek.
And so it just. Came together itself. And I just kept getting more and more excited about it as I was putting it together. Cuz I, I, I do feel like the message of Star Trek is one of, of hope and of cooperation and of peace. And I think that's what a lot of people who are interested in the politics of space bring to the table, which is, This interest of this is a frontier where we can still have this really peaceful resolution and this collaborative approach to how we do things.
Um, but internationally we're seeing kind of a shift away from those large [00:34:00] international projects and, and more country to country cooperation when there is cooperation. And so I thought this was kind of a poignant time to start thinking about that.
[00:34:09] Gus Herwitz: So we're, we're kind of shifting from a original series Next Gen World to more of a Deep Space Nine World
[00:34:15] Elsbeth Magilton: admittedly admitted.
You know, I was raised on Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and then as an adult have gone back and watch and watched some of the original series. But admittedly, and definitely people who have come to my talks have have noticed the difference in, in the, the episodes I'm typically drawing from. Uh, what was fun is that I, I did the talk here at Love Library.
It was so cold. It was in the middle of February. It was like negative 14 degrees fair. I mean, it was awful. I walked into the library thinking, no one's coming to this. It's February. It's so cold. I had a full house. I was floored by how motivated people were to come to, I mean, it was a blizzard when we left.
It was awful, and it was just really exciting to see people excited [00:35:00] about learning and coming to a lecture at night at the library. You know, it was just really, Um, inspiring. It gave me the same feeling I get sometimes when I watch Star Trek, right? This inspiring of like, Oh, humanity is pulling together.
We're, we're all excited about curiosity and we're all excited about learning. And, and I thought, well, maybe I'll give this talk again at some other events. And so they record all the side pop talks, and I will give a shout out to that at the un L'S library website. If you just go to the University of Nebraska and look for the library system, you can search.
Cy Pop and find a recording, I think of almost every single talk that's been given in the entire series. Uh, and so when mine went up, whatever language was in the description and in the title, Must have hit some good notes with the Google alerts that the good folks at CBS Entertainment have. Uh, so CBS, the, the broadcast station puts on a sponsored Star Trek convention every year in Las Vegas and has a track for educators to come in and talk about how they use Star Trek in the classroom.
And Star Trek fans love that, right? The [00:36:00] idea that the show that they love is being, In education classrooms and in higher education for research, I think really excites fans, right? To know that what they love is relevant and what they love has purpose and meaning beyond just the show they like. And so they invited me to come out to Las Vegas.
Uh, I joked, my husband and I were very excited and then he said it was in August. It was very hot, but we had a wonderful time. It was a really great experience and something I didn't really. Uh, I would be doing with that particular presentation. But they were so gracious and so wonderful and we had a wonderful experience and,
[00:36:34] Gus Herwitz: and that wasn't the, the end of things, right?
[00:36:37] Elsbeth Magilton: I, I did that, I posted about it to my friends cuz it was sort of this unexpected thing I got to do. Uh, and some of my friends in the space law community, Katherine Waldron and Gabriel Sweeney, both saw that and I reached out to them after they responded to it. And, You know, maybe we should put something together, right?
You know, you, you're also space law experts, but you're also practitioners in this. But I also knew them well enough to both know that they [00:37:00] were big nerds and loved Star Trek and loved science fiction and that there would be an appetite for something like this. So we put together a panel and managed to be through the panel picker process, uh, admitted into South by Southwest and probably one of the biggest platforms I will ever.
As a researcher is appearing at South by Southwest, and it blows my mind that it's about Star Trek, but it feels just perfect. I, I love that, uh, part of my career story,
[00:37:26] Gus Herwitz: and it really goes to capture the, the power that this medium, this format, this way of engaging with, I, I'll call them lifelong students, lifelong learners can really have, I, I guess, uh, the, our closing question, Dan and sbe, what's the.
for the program, for this approach to communicating, sharing ideas. Are you working on upcoming talks? Are we thinking about, Are you thinking about growing this sort of initiative?
[00:37:58] Dan Claes: So I'm [00:38:00] always thinking of more talks. . Often when I give a talk, I can get questions from the audience. give me ideas for future talks.
And Cy Pop is planning to have another series of lectures this coming year. Dates are not yet set and speakers have not been arranged and. For example, I haven't even picked out what subject I might talk about if I do, but the program will go on and it's often scheduled in February when the weather is lousy,
But it gives students, uh, an opportunity to take a study break cuz especially if they're already here in the library. Cause the talks are here. I, I, I, I. I can't imagine it ending. I, The lore that you can mine for topics seems endless and as long as there is popular culture, I think there are opportunities for educators to [00:39:00] exploit and bring their subject to life, to, to an audience through it.
[00:39:05] Elsbeth Magilton: Absolutely. Do wanna call out. I think we'll mention it again in our, our closing, uh, stuff. So if you miss it here, listeners, you can catch it again. But I do believe Cy Pop is hosting an event, uh, this October 23rd at the Strategic Air and Space Museum called The Science of Spooky and Scary Things. So if people can go to the, the Sac Museum or to the Cy Pop website to learn more about that event, but to the question.
I absolutely think there's a beginning to this. I think one of the things that resonated with me about my experience at the CBS Star Trek convention was the people who were attending felt that the material that they bonded with, that they were passionate about, that they paid to go to a conference about or con about.
Was honored by being picked up by academics and used as a way to inspire real research that really impacts the world. And I think that there's a lot of power there. So I actually [00:40:00] hope going forward that in my own work and in the work of other people that I work with more collaboration through cons and through people who are really.
Passionate about what they're passionate about, right? I think academics can relate to that. What I care deeply about and research in, they, they care that much and cared that deeply about what they're into. And I think that there's a lot of power and that energy and, and the collaboration between fans and, and the people who are researching topics that are adjacent to what they care about.
[00:40:25] Gus Herwitz: And I, I'll take that as an opportunity to add my own closing note and closing thought, which is, as academics and researchers. We tend to focus internally on communicating with our, our colleagues and our academic peers, and not with the external communication and sharing our ideas with a, a broader and popular audience.
And I think that's a, a loss for us, and I think that it's a loss for our fields. Um, and we, we should do a better job in thinking about our audiences and how to share our [00:41:00] ideas. The relevance of them. And, hey, I'm staying here as a podcast host, so I guess I'm practicing what I preach. And on that note, thank you Dan.
Thank you Elsbeth, for joining us today. And thank you listeners for joining us on this episode of Tech Refactored. We've been talking about SciPop Talks and uh, these events are co-sponsored by the University of Nebraska Lincoln University Library. The chemistry department and physics department do university and the Nebraska local section of the American Chemical Society.
If you live in the Nebraska area, as Elsbeth mentioned, the SciPop team invites you, uh, to the Strategic Air and Space Museum on October 23rd for a family event, the science of spooky and scary things. You can learn more about that event at sacmuseum.org. If you want to learn more about what we're doing here at the Nebraska Governance and Technology.
Or submit an idea for a future episode of this podcast. You can go to our website at ngtc.unl.edu, or you can follow us on [00:42:00] Twitter at UNL_NGTC. If you enjoy this show, please don't forget to leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast. Our show is produced by Elsbeth Magilton, and Lysandra Marquez and Colin McCarthy created and recorded our theme music.
This podcast is part of the Menard Governance and Technology Programming Series. Until next time, keep those phases on. Awesome.