Making science friendly

A friend of mine just introduced me to Radio Lab. (Thanks Jeff). I'm listening to the most recent podcast, Making the Hippo Dance, as I write. It's about the sludge that science writers must trudge through before reaching the mountaintop, about the difficulty of filtering through the good stuff (the readable, fun, fascinating parts) from the boring stuff (the acronyms, the nitpicking, the caveats, the qualifiers) while still getting the story right.

Just listening, I'm absolutely energized with that feeling of recognition: Yes, yes! This is exactly what is so tricky about writing about science (and education too, for that matter). And this is why audio and video can be so helpful.

When it comes to helping children learn -- and understanding what smart journalism with multimedia can do -- these radio hosts have a lot to teach us.