It wasn’t until I heard the chirping of birds and saw sunlight peeking through the morning haze that I realized I had completely lost track of time. I knelt on the floor of my college bedroom, surrounded by paper cutouts, hand-drawn images of neural synapses, and hastily scribbled notes on electrochemical signals. I propped my phone against a stack of books and adjusted the desk lamp pointed at my “canvas” – a large sheet of poster board I had picked up from the craft supply store down the street. I was exhausted from the emotional see-saw of feeling like I was creating unintelligible garbage and marveling at my own progress. Either way, I was determined to see my video project through until the end. More determined than I had felt in awhile.
I was a burnt-out and bedraggled senior studying Biochemistry at Tufts University in 2019, going through the time-honored pre-graduation tradition of feeling like your classmates have everything figured out while you question every decision you’ve made as a student. I enjoyed my studies well enough, but suddenly, the thought of life at a lab bench or in a medical office was making me sweat. The career paths I seemed most qualified for I didn’t feel aligned with. I felt directionless and uncertain as I signed up for my senior year classes, but a description for a course titled “Science and Civic Action” caught my attention. I was intrigued by the promise of examining the role of science in society, but little did I know just how large an impact this course would have on my personal and professional life.
Our tight-knit class engaged in meaningful discussions on the intersection of science, social justice, and policy. I was introduced to the art of science communication; how to digest and interpret data in an accessible way, and how to use visuals and language to tailor information for different audiences. Creativity, curiosity, and self-reflection were encouraged in away that I had not experienced in a science course before. Additionally, I had the opportunity to meet researchers, environmental advocates, healthcare professionals, and storytellers who expanded my understanding of what “being a scientist” could mean, as well as what the field of science owes to the communities (and in many ways, the world) in which it is being practiced.
My background in Civic Science guides my journalistic process and my ethical framework as I try to produce media that expands my audience’s understanding of science and brings them into conversation with the scientific community.
My classroom experience culminated in a final assignment where we were directed to make a science communication explainer video. I chose to focus on a topic I had become passionate about: the complex science of addiction. I wrote up a script and attempted to record myself speaking directly to the camera, but after my third stumble through, I realized that something just wasn’t clicking. My time in class had shown me that I tended to gravitate towards visual forms of communication. Diagrams and drawings seemed to hold my attention better than the written word or a lecture ever could. Following my own interest, I decided to pivot and make my video entirely out of hand-drawn illustrations that I would arrange and move to create a sort of low-budget animation. Was it far more work than I had initially planned for? Absolutely. But the end result felt triumphant. For the first time, I was confident that combining my passions for art, science, and storytelling was possible.
Officially bitten by the science communication bug, I pursued a degree in journalism, with a focus on science journalism and multimedia reporting. I carried principles of civic science into my work, particularly when conducting reporting that aimed to hold institutions accountable to the public and investigated dynamics of power and privilege within the healthcare system. In2022, I became the assistant producer for Big Picture Science, a science radio show and podcast that aims to put scientific discoveries into the larger context of society, and in 2025, I became a news correspondent for the Civic Science Media Lab. Through my work, I have spoken to scientists who are eager to have their research and its impact understood by more people. I have talked with community advocates who have pushed hard to have their voices and perspectives heard within systems that sought to silence them. I have met and collaborated with fellow storytellers who were motivated to showcase the wondrous beauty of the natural world. I get to write scripts, interview guests, travel for field reporting, animate cartoons for our social media, and research subjects that genuinely interest me. Every day is different, and every show is different, but through it all, my background in civic science guides my journalistic process and my ethical framework as I try to produce media that expands my audience’s understanding of science and brings them into conversation with the scientific community.
It’s been a long, experimental journey, and one I’d gladly do again.
~
Shannon Geary is a Brooklyn-based science journalist and producer for Big Picture Science podcast & radio show. They enjoy combining their love of illustration and narrative storytelling to create work that is not only entertaining, but eye-opening to the many wonderful and weird facets of the natural world. In their free time, Shannon enjoys playing D&D, reading comic books, and making silly cartoons about everything from Mars’ moons to birds that bounce.
