September 29, 2016 8:24 pm

Friday, Neil Tyson, Mayim Bialik, and Chris Hardwick discuss women in science and on TV

Tomorrow night’s episode of StarTalk Radio features a couple of familiar faces: Mayim Bialik is back as our guest, and Chris Hardwick is back as co-host.

Mayim was one of our two guest neuroscientists for StarTalk Live! Big Brains at BAM back in Season 5 in 2014, which has since become one of our fan-favorite episodes.

The last time Chris was co-host on our show was back in Season 2, in November of 2011: Time Lords: The Science of Keeping Time. He was also Neil deGrasse Tyson’s guest for StarTalk and Baba Booey Rock Comic-Con (Part 1), the show we recorded live in San Diego in 2012.

The subject that has brought both of them back to StarTalk is whether the increasing representation of women scientists on television, on social media, and in popular culture will have an impact on getting more women to pursue degrees and careers in the STEM fields.

To discuss that issue, Neil is joined in studio by STEM advocate, astronomer Summer Ash, who is not only the Director of Outreach for Columbia University’s Department of Astronomy, but also the co-founder of STARtorialist and Astronomy on Tap, and our newest StarTalk All-Stars host. We’re also joined by actress-writer-producer-creator Taryn O’Neill, another passionate advocate for women in STEM.

But that’s not all. We’ve also got three more familiar faces: data journalist Mona Chalabi, comedian and frequent co-host Chuck Nice, and the inimitable Bill Nye the Science Guy.

And everybody seems to be in agreement about one thing: the way to get more girls to study STEM subjects, and grow up to pursue degrees and careers in STEM fields, is to expose everybody to examples of women scientists doing their jobs, whether by sharing the stories of women astronauts on the ISS and particle physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, or by watching a real life neuroscientist play one on TV’s most popular comedy, The Big Bang Theory. You’ll hear about the impact of positive role models and mentors, programming that passes the Bechdel test, and teaching the general public about women scientists who changed the world.

You’ll also hear about imposter syndrome, which is not limited to just women, and how even the most accomplished among us can come to believe that they’re not as smart or talented as people think they are.

So join us Friday, September 30, at 7pm EDT for Tuning in to Science on TV, with Mayim Bialik, right here on our website or on iTunes Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher and TuneIn.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up.
–Jeffrey Simons