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This season on You’re Up Next we’ll be exploring some important topics through the lenses of humour, creativity and science. At Bright Club, we help researchers talk about their work using comedy. We believe in using humour to break down barriers between knowledge and people – creating connection and bringing us all a little closer together is what’s at the heart of Bright Club. So, this season, we’re going to be putting our money where our mouth is, and talking about some deep topics. Listen here or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Jessamyn  0:04  

This is the second season of You’re Up Next. I’m Jessamyn Fairfield, and we’ll be exploring some important topics through the lenses of science and humour. At Bright Club, we help researchers talk about their work using comedy. They might study technical things like physics, bioengineering, neuroscience, or broader disciplines like sociology, art, and literature. And we found that using humour breaks down barriers between knowledge and people, drawing those connections and bringing us all a little closer together is what’s at the heart of bright club. So this season, we’re going to be putting our money where our mouth is, and talking about some deep topics.Please see full transcript below:

Natasha  0:39  

Science can be very abstract for a lot of people, you know, no matter what type of science it is, you know, especially in inner cities, and in the communities that I grew up in. You know, we don’t have a lot of sciences, we don’t have a lot of, you know, neurology, we don’t have people. But I felt like we do have a lot of artists.

Rose  0:56  

There’s so many crises that people are just kind of sad and overwhelmed and numb. And so I think comedy could really be a great approach to bring some light into the conversation.

Stephanie  1:10  

I think a lot of scientists have the same problem that we want to give all the nitty gritty details and, you know, most people just don’t have the time for that.

Sunny  1:20  

If you can apply- find ways to apply humour and creativity to your situation, it really can change everything.

Peter  1:31  

We help other people who have been wrongfully convicted. When we listen to their story, and then we tell them how we dealt with our situation, we find that they open up and we’re able to help them, and they’ll begin to see a little bit of humor.

Kasha  1:47  

The fact that I’m on stage and other scientists are seeing this, it gives them encouragement to be more of a communicator, to try going on stage.

Susan  1:58  

The rabbi didn’t know my grandmother at all. He was sort of a mercenary. And he started spelling out her name in letters, and he said “J is for joyous. Jean was joyous. E is for effervescent. Jean was-” and I turned to my mom and I said, “Jesus Christ, thank God her name wasn’t Jennifer”. You realise in those moments of pain, that this gives you just enough time to catch your breath.

Rose  2:28  

You know, climate is one of those topics where you have to get people to feel like it’s so serious, like it’s already too late, everything is over. But then also, there’s something you can still do. And I think humour and lightheartedness are one of the levers you could use to square this almost contradictory tension.