Resources Radio: bringing people closer to science
Leave behind technical terms, forget jargon and acronyms, minimize technical elements and keep the conversation fairly informal. The producer and one of the co-hosts of Resources Radio unveil the strategy behind Resources for the Future’s podcast. A podcast that aims “to draw people in, rather than push information out” while keeping the focus on rigorous scientific content about climate change, energy, ecosystems, and more.
Richer, better educated, and crucially much younger. The profile of podcast listeners is coming to light thanks to a study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which since 2018 has tracked monthly podcast use in 20 countries (detailed in Figure 1) with a well-developed podcast industry. Across these markets, overall podcast usage has grown in the past five years from just over a quarter to about a third of the international survey sample.
15% of Reuters Institute’s survey respondents access a specialist subject podcast regularly. Under this category, podcasts related to climate change issues are growing along with the public attention for the topic.
At CMCC, we have recently produced our first podcast series, Foresight — Deep into the Future Planet, because we like to experiment with languages and tools that help to effectively tell the story of crisis and transition between climate and people, science and society.
RFF, Resources for the Future is a research institution launched its weekly podcast in December 2018. We interviewed Elizabeth Wason — the producer — and Kristin Hayes — one of the co-hosts — to know more about what is behind Resources Radio.
What does it add to having a podcast to communicate climate science?
Text-based communication about climate science and other related topics, particularly from a research organization, may be intimidating to some audiences. Articles can be dense, full of jargon, a little too “official.” RFF’s more technical publications are an important part of our research and communications strategy, though they sometimes assume that the reader has some existing knowledge and interest. The podcast intentionally makes no such assumption. Technical terms aren’t part of the conversation — or, if they appear, are defined clearly alongside any minimal use of acronyms. The podcast is deliberately casual, and we might say that the primary aim is to draw people in, rather than push information out.
How would you describe Resources Radio?
The target audience of Resources Radio includes policymakers, decisionmakers, academics, and casual energy/environment enthusiasts. We’d like the podcast to be accessible to a broad range of listeners, including non-experts such as energy/environmental business practitioners, undergraduates who are interested in energy/environment, and more. We keep the conversation fairly informal and seek to minimize technical elements such as detailed descriptions of statistical techniques or other research methods, acronyms, and jargon. The subject matter tends to cover rigorous research into a broad range of energy and environmental issues.
The episode format is deliberately structured so that each episode can feel familiar to regular listeners. The host always starts with a question about the guest’s background, including how they became interested in energy or environmental topics, and perhaps what formative experiences the guest might share from their career. The host then proceeds to the core subject matter, usually focused on new research, which typically includes the research motivation, non-technical methods, key findings, policy (or other implications), and next steps. Every episode closes with a “Top of the Stack” segment, in which the guest briefly describes a recent publication, film, podcast, event, or some other form of media that they’ve found particularly interesting.
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Climate Foresight is published by the CMCC Foundation , a research center that develops models and predictions to study the interaction between changes in the climate system and social, economic and environmental changes. Climate Foresight is an observatory on tomorrow, a digital magazine that collects ideas, interviews, articles, art performances, and multimedia to tell the stories of the future.
