I watch the ICE agent on my phone reach through the front door window and shoot three times into the driver, Renee Good. I don’t see the body, but I can see the tell-tale signs of death as her car drifts across the road and into parked cars. The echoes of her death are at the wheel.

I have to shove the phone out of sight as my student comes in for their tutoring session

I watch the beginning of Alex Pretti’s murder. I have to turn off the video, because I’ve seen enough people shot from the images out of Gaza. I’ve seen this video before. I know what a murdered corpse looks like.

I have to shove down my grief and finish my dog walk. Otherwise, I won’t get paid, and I need some way to afford my health insurance. I’ll have a good cry in the car later.

I see more videos of ICE kidnapping people. I see posts from Minnesota being repressed by social media. I have alerts for ICE movement in Seattle. I put a whistle on my keychain, though I’m worried that blowing it may lead to me being shot.

I have to set aside my planning for a moment. and work on yet another job application. Who knows- maybe this application will finally let me put my PhD to use. I only have maybe an hour between jobs anyway to work on this.

I wake up to the President bombing Iran without congressional approval. I can’t look at the pictures of the dead bodies, the bombed structures. I call my representatives before I’m even out of bed, barking at them to do their damn job.

I then change into real clothes to go on yet another dog walk. Have to pay those bills somehow.

When I was a child, I was told how bright the future was. I was promised prosperity at best, and monetary stability at worst. Now, after surviving a Biochemistry/Molecular Biology undergraduate major and a hellacious PhD, I drag myself through my daily routine as best I can . I can’t even attend rallies to unleash my rage; the best I can do is scream/sing angry songs in my car as I drive from one job to the next.

And then I have to stitch on a smile for my next client.

They don’t talk about how people lived during the Holocaust. They don’t discuss how everyday people went about their lives, pretending everything was fine because they felt like they had not other choice.

They don’t talk about how utterly exhausting it all is to compartmentalize all the time.

Is there a book on “How to Survive a Crumbling Empire?” My entire life has prepared me for saving money on the assumption I would be making an affordable salary, for voting for uncorrupt representatives, for finding trustworthy news with ease, for living in peace. I’m woefully unprepared for the current state of the world.

But I am not unequipped. I’ve one hell of an education, and more passion in my pinky finger than the entire Trump administration combined. And I’m not afraid of starting over once the dust has settled, of completely rebuilding whatever infrastructure falls in the wake of this chaos. Though I’m tired…

I’m still going.

Before I head into my usual, more lighthearted newsletter topics, I’m once again providing a link for Minnesota Mutual Aide:

Also, if you’re not contacting your reps, you can do so with ready made scripts on the 5calls app.

Not the blog post I was actually working on in February, but when the molecule my entire PhD was based on is at the center of Olympic skiing scandals, I HAVE to weigh in on it!

(Currently, there’s a small glitch on my blog that won’t let you see the post link on the front page, but the actual post exists and can be accessed though the link below!)

Blog Link: https://gettingthesciencewrite.com/HA-HA-D-ck/

Yes, that is the title. And yes, it was too good to pass up!

I’ve run two webinars for the non-profit organization, Stand Up For Science. Both Workshops are available for free on YouTube:

Webinar 1 (Storytelling for Science): https://youtu.be/gwksYHL-BVA?si=TM-zh5zs6tJZf9ZW

Webinar 2 (How to Make Friends and Influence People as Scientists): https://www.youtube.com/live/GtzriWfAx2s?si=W27AYvdIdXcd8UuT

I’m going to be honest: Webinar #2 was not my best talk. I had done much better run-throughs before I performed for the webinar, and for some reason, I was off when I was “on stage.” Ah well. Sometimes, no matter how many times you practice, you’ll still have some off days. Comes with the territory of performing.

I’m still teaching myself animation, and I finished a second really cute animation that involves animated steam floating off of a chai tea latte!

…Unfortunately, the file is apparently too large for Beehiiv (despite it having significantly less frames than the last animation I shared… Procreate creates bigger files, I guess), so I instead can only offer a work-in-progress instead

This is based on a photo that I took at the Ballard Locks. I’m currently struggling on how to show the foam in the water, and haven’t worked on any details on the birds (Alysha, I know you’ve told me which birds these are and I’ve completely forgotten. For that, I’m ashamed).

All right, so last time we had you study other science communicators, let you get a taste of what is out there. Now, you can start brainstorming what flavor of scicomm you should start looking at. I’m also including how much I know about monetizing each medium as per a request I had recently, though the real money-talk will come in a later newsletter.

1) Newsletter- A wonderful medium for those who’d rather put pen to paper over standing in front of a You can gather up a bunch of folks who want to read your writing, and then send your. You have a lot of power over what content you put out, as you’re not beholden to the algorithm. On other social media sites, like Bluesky or Instagram, you have to be very careful as to what you put out so as to not be punished by the system. However, on a newsletter or your own website, you control what can and can’t be said. No one can censor you. You can monetize this medium by locking parts of your newsletter behind a paywall (which is great for you, except this now makes your content pay-to-play and hinders who can access it. In my opinion, this would be best used for “behind the scenes content” rather than your actual scicomm content).

2) Blog- Another medium for those who prefer the written word! I know many folks who essentially run a blog via newsletter, and that’s fine. The main difference, however, is that a true blog is hosted on a website that can be access by anyone at anytime. You don’t have to be on a list to find/access posts. Depending on how you set up the blog, you may be paying a decent amount of money for website upkeep (which you don’t need to do for a newsletter). The benefit is that the internet treats the blog like a website when someone searches the web, which can make it easier for traffic to find your site. There are ways to monetize a blog, but that involves ad revenue or figuring out if there are hosting sites that pay you per read. On the plus side, I find blog posts to be very fast in terms of production time (Most of my work is planning and editing; once I get writing, I can easily pump out a 1,000 work post in an hour).

3) Video (Vlogging)- If you like sitting down and chatting about a topic, then this medium’s for you. The downside? EDITING. It takes forever to edit a video. You’ll need to re-record parts, do editing voiceovers, and . Monetizing this work is a bit more difficult, but there are plenty of ways to set up tip systems (like Patreon or KoFi) that will encourage people to support you (And people are more willing to tip for videos. Visual mediums are more likely to gain monetary support because we are visual creatures and like seeing how things work.

4) Video (animation)- If you’re artsy and like drawing, then you may want to consider animation. While this includes traditional animation, where you create images or models that move between keyframes. (think classic 2D animation), I’m also including videos recording your art process as those are very visually pleasing. The downside, much like the previous medium, is the . You may not be able to directly monetize this kind of scicomm work, BUT people will be more willing to tip you for your art (which is a struggle for us wordsmiths).

5) Infographics (digital art)- This is what you’ll see mostly on Instagram. The major downside of this medium is that the sites that primarily use infographics require you to post constantly in order to have your material seen (which is true for a lot of social media, but especially true for infographics as videos are being prioritized). Usually you need to have multiple infographics pre-made and then post once a day. On the plus side, you don’t need to be super artsy to make basic infographics- you may need to watch a few tutorials on how to use canva, but I do know you can pump out plenty of visually-pleasing infographics once you have a nice template. People also eat up artwork in general if it’s clear you spent time on it. You’ll gain a following quite quickly!

6) “Boots On The Ground”- This is the face-to-face work. You like chatting with actual people, not to a camera. You thrive with an audience. Maybe you love making TedTalks about science at your local cafe or library, or like the idea of walking around a public park and interacting with folks. I personally believe every scicommer needs to do this work, but I know some people who absolutely adore this kind of work. They’re the ones who volunteer at museums. Or, you get a job at a museum and get paid to do outreach, which is the dream. I do know some science communicators who do get paid for their outreach services on their website, so this medium is monetizable (is that a real word?).

7) Podcasting- If you like lecturing on a topic and don’t want to be seen by anyone, or want a more relaxed form of scicomm, podcasting is your friend. Podcasting is beloved by most of our society. I personally think this medium taps into our love of oral storytelling. The big benefit of podcasting is that it’s relatively low stress in terms of the actual recording; you’re just chatting. I’ve done a few podcasts as a guest, and it’s so chill. Lots of fun banter between friends. Editing can be a hassle, though, and you may want to pay for a decent microphone for the sake of your listener’s ears. I’m less familiar with this medium, though I know a lot of podcasters use Patreon to pay for production costs. You can rent out podcasting gear from your local libraries, so you can keep the cost down. My understanding is that podcasting is ultimately a time-sink in terms of production.

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There are more, but these are the big mediums I’m aware of for scicomm!

Unfortunately, no new YouTube video uploaded in February. The webinars took up too much of my time and I had to forgo editing/voiceover for the next journal club video.

If you like the work that I do and want to support me, please consider checking out my Patreon in the link below!

That’s all I have! See you all next time!

-Becca