Games, Stories, and Science for Successful Public Engagement

American Association of Biological Anthropologists and Leakey Foundation Communication & Outreach Award in Honor of Camilla Smith 2022 award winner Dr. Katie Hinde discusses the importance of cooperation, community, and storytelling for sharing science sustainably.

Over the past fifty years, researchers have made extraordinary discoveries that help us to understand For tens of thousands of years, sharing knowledge about the natural world has been part of what makes us human. Indeed, humans have many adaptations for fireside storytelling, shared experiences, artistic imagery, and “jokey joke joke jokes”. And yet, too many scientists ignore the evidence and continue to inadequately blather dry facts. Such approaches do not improve scientific literacy or inspire public enthusiasm. In this lecture, Dr. Hinde presents insights from studies of human adaptations for story-telling and social learning and highlights the example of March Mammal Madness.

This program features a 45-minute live-streamed lecture by Dr. Katie Hinde followed by a 15-minute Q&A session moderated by Dr. Briana Pobiner featuring live viewer questions.

Dr. Katie Hinde is an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Center for Evolution and Medicine, at Arizona State University. As director of the Comparative Lactation Lab, Dr. Hinde investigates the evolutionary ecology and behavioral biology of milk, mothers, and infants. Decoding mother’s milk insures enhanced precision medicine for the most fragile infants and children in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Transdisciplinary approaches to mother’s milk research, along with public engagement, facilitate discoveries at the bench and their translation to applications at the bedside. Dr. Hinde showcases research on mother’s milk, breastfeeding, and lactation for the general public, clinicians, and researchers at her blog “Mammals Suck… Milk!” and her TED talk “What We Don’t Know About Mother’s Milk” has ~1.5 million views. Hinde founded and directs “March Mammal Madness,” a month-long public engagement campaign that showcases animals, ecology, and behavior to hundreds of thousands of participants annually. Dr. Hinde is the recipient of the 2022 AAPA & Leakey Foundation Communication and Outreach Award in honor of Camilla M. Smith.

Note: The recording of this event will be available immediately after the live event concludes and accessible using the same link used for the live stream.

This event is presented in partnership by the American Association for Biological Anthropologists’ Education Committee and The Leakey Foundation.

Generously sponsored by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Camilla and George Smith, The Brown Foundation Inc., and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.