How To Protect The Ocean

From TikTok to Impact: How Erica Hernandez is Inspiring Change for the Ocean

Broadcast on:: 18 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

In this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, host Andrew Lewin sits down with TikTok personality Erica Hernandez to discuss the power of social media in advocating for ocean conservation. Erica shares her journey over the past two years, highlighting innovative ways to communicate environmental science, climate issues, and wildlife conservation to a broad audience. Listeners will gain insights into effective messaging strategies and be inspired to start their own platforms—whether on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or through podcasts—to join the movement for a healthier ocean. Tune in for practical advice and an engaging conversation about the impact of science communication in the conservation community.

Erika Hernandez' TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@whaleswee?lang=en

Science communication is vital for raising awareness about environmental issues and engaging the public in conservation efforts. In a podcast episode featuring Erica Hernandez, a TikTok personality focused on climate and environmental science, the significance of effective science communication is underscored through various aspects of her work and experiences.

The Role of Science Communication

Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Andrew Lewin, the host, shares his motivation for starting the podcast, which arose from conversations with friends and family who were largely unaware of the pressing issues facing the ocean. This reflects a broader trend where many people lack access to reliable information about environmental challenges. Science communication acts as a bridge, providing resources and knowledge to those who may not have been exposed to these topics otherwise.
Empowering Individuals: Erica emphasizes the impact of her TikTok content, where she shares positive climate news and educational information. She mentions receiving messages from followers expressing gratitude for her work, stating that it gives them hope and encourages them to engage with environmental issues. This demonstrates how effective communication can empower individuals to take action and feel connected to the cause.
Diverse Platforms for Engagement: The episode discusses various platforms for science communication, including TikTok, Instagram, and podcasts. Erica's use of TikTok allows her to reach a younger audience, utilizing a format that is both engaging and accessible. By experimenting with different types of content, such as lifestyle videos and positive news segments, she caters to diverse interests and encourages broader participation in environmental discussions.
Addressing Climate Doomism: Both Andrew and Erica acknowledge the heavy nature of environmental issues, which can lead to feelings of hopelessness or "climate doomism." However, through positive messaging and highlighting actionable steps, they aim to counteract this negativity. Erica's commitment to sharing uplifting news about environmental progress serves to inspire and motivate her audience, reinforcing the idea that collective action can lead to meaningful change.
Community Building: The podcast highlights the importance of community in science communication. Erica mentions connecting with other advocates and sharing information that can mobilize action, such as potential developments in Florida State Parks. By fostering a sense of community among followers and fellow advocates, science communication can amplify voices and create a collective impact on conservation efforts.
Encouraging Action: The conversation underscores that science communication is not just about sharing information; it is about inspiring action. Erica's content encourages her audience to think critically about their lifestyle choices, such as thrifting and sustainable living, which can contribute to environmental conservation. By providing practical tips and relatable content, she engages her audience in a way that feels achievable and impactful.

Conclusion

In summary, science communication plays a crucial role in raising awareness about environmental issues and engaging the public in conservation efforts. Through platforms like TikTok, individuals like Erica Hernandez are able to share knowledge, inspire hope, and foster community, ultimately driving collective action toward a more sustainable future. The episode serves as a reminder of the power of effective communication in addressing the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation.

The Importance of Science Communication in Environmental Advocacy

In the podcast episode featuring Erica Hernandez, a TikTok personality focused on climate change and environmental science, the significance of science communication in environmental advocacy is thoroughly discussed. Erica's journey into environmentalism began at a young age, sparked by witnessing deforestation, which ignited her passion for wildlife conservation and environmental justice. This early experience highlights the critical role that education and awareness play in shaping future advocates for the environment.

The Role of Social Media

Erica utilizes platforms like TikTok to communicate important environmental messages, demonstrating how social media can serve as a powerful tool for science communication. With her background in environmental science and a geology minor, she leverages her knowledge to create engaging content that resonates with a broad audience. The episode emphasizes that while social media can often be criticized for spreading misinformation, it also has the potential to disseminate valuable information and inspire action.

Erica's approach to content creation involves sharing positive climate news and addressing pressing environmental issues, which helps counteract the prevalent "climate doomism" that many individuals experience. By focusing on uplifting stories and actionable insights, she encourages her audience to remain hopeful and engaged in environmental advocacy.

Building Confidence Through Engagement

Throughout the episode, Erica discusses her evolution as a content creator, noting that her confidence has grown alongside her audience. Initially, she faced challenges in articulating her thoughts and presenting her ideas clearly. However, as she received positive feedback and encouragement from her followers, she became more comfortable sharing her voice. This transformation underscores the importance of community support in fostering confidence among science communicators.

Erica's commitment to posting weekly positive climate news demonstrates her dedication to providing consistent, valuable content. She recognizes that even a small audience can have a significant impact, as each view represents an opportunity to educate and inspire someone about environmental issues. This perspective is crucial for anyone looking to engage in science communication, as it emphasizes the value of every interaction.

The Future of Environmental Communication

Looking ahead, Erica expresses a desire to expand her reach beyond TikTok, considering platforms like YouTube to further her mission of science communication. This ambition reflects a growing trend among environmental advocates to diversify their platforms and engage with different audiences. By exploring various mediums, Erica aims to enhance her messaging and connect with individuals who may not be active on TikTok.

In conclusion, the episode highlights the vital role of science communication in environmental advocacy. Through her engaging content and personal journey, Erica Hernandez exemplifies how effective communication can inspire action, foster community, and ultimately contribute to a more informed and engaged public. As more individuals like Erica take to social media to share their knowledge and passion for the environment, the potential for positive change continues to grow.

Social media platforms, particularly TikTok, have emerged as powerful tools for sharing positive climate news and connecting with audiences. In the podcast episode featuring Erica Hernandez, a TikTok personality focused on environmental science and climate communication, several key points highlight the effectiveness of these platforms in fostering awareness and engagement.

The Power of TikTok for Climate Communication

Viral Potential: TikTok's unique algorithm allows content to go viral, reaching a wide audience quickly. Erica mentions that her videos can garner anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of views, demonstrating the platform's capacity to amplify messages. For instance, one of her videos reached 200,000 views, showcasing how impactful a single post can be.
Engagement with Followers: Despite fluctuations in view counts, Erica emphasizes the importance of every interaction. She notes that even a small number of views can represent a significant audience, akin to speaking in front of a packed lecture hall. This perspective helps creators appreciate the impact they can have, regardless of the numbers. Comments from followers expressing gratitude for her content reinforce the idea that even a few engaged viewers can lead to meaningful connections.
Positive Messaging: Erica's commitment to sharing positive climate news every Monday serves as a beacon of hope in a landscape often dominated by negative narratives about climate change. By focusing on uplifting stories, she not only informs her audience but also inspires them to take action. This approach counters the prevalent "climate doomism" that can discourage individuals from engaging with environmental issues.
Community Building: Social media platforms facilitate the creation of communities around shared interests. Erica highlights her connections with other environmental advocates and influencers, which enrich her content and expand her reach. These networks allow for the sharing of ideas, resources, and support, fostering a collaborative environment for climate communication.
Experimentation and Adaptation: The dynamic nature of social media encourages creators to experiment with different content formats and messaging strategies. Erica discusses her use of Canva for creating visually appealing posts and her willingness to adapt her style based on audience feedback. This flexibility is crucial for maintaining relevance and engagement in a fast-paced digital landscape.
Accessibility of Information: TikTok and similar platforms democratize information sharing, allowing anyone with a smartphone to contribute to the conversation about climate change. Erica's journey from a student passionate about environmental science to a content creator exemplifies how individuals can leverage their knowledge and experiences to educate others.

Conclusion

In summary, social media platforms like TikTok are invaluable for disseminating positive climate news and fostering connections with audiences. Through engaging content, community building, and a focus on uplifting narratives, creators like Erica Hernandez demonstrate that even small reaches can lead to significant impacts. By harnessing the power of these platforms, individuals can inspire action and cultivate a more informed and engaged public around environmental issues.

The Importance of Science Communication in Environmental Advocacy

In the podcast episode featuring Erica Hernandez, a TikTok personality focused on climate change and environmental science, the significance of science communication in environmental advocacy is highlighted. Erica's journey into environmentalism began at a young age, sparked by witnessing deforestation, which ignited her passion for wildlife conservation and environmental justice. This early experience shaped her educational path, leading her to pursue a degree in environmental science with a minor in geology.

The Role of Social Media

Erica utilizes social media, particularly TikTok, as a platform to communicate important environmental issues and positive climate news. She emphasizes that social media can be a powerful tool for science communication, allowing individuals to connect with a broader audience. Despite the challenges of fluctuating views and engagement, Erica remains committed to sharing her content, understanding that even a small audience can lead to significant impact. For instance, she has received messages from followers expressing gratitude for her content, which reinforces her motivation to continue.

Building Confidence Through Engagement

Throughout the episode, Erica discusses her evolving confidence in creating content. Initially, she faced challenges such as stuttering and the pressure of editing her videos. However, as she gained experience and received positive feedback from her audience, her confidence grew. This mirrors the experiences of many science communicators who may feel imposter syndrome when sharing their knowledge. Erica's journey illustrates that with practice and audience engagement, individuals can overcome self-doubt and effectively communicate their messages.

Addressing Climate Doomism

A significant theme in the episode is the concept of "climate doomism," where individuals feel overwhelmed by the dire state of the environment and may choose to disengage. Erica counters this by emphasizing the importance of hope and action. She references the Lorax movie's message, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better." This perspective encourages individuals to take action, no matter how small, and to believe that collective efforts can lead to positive change.

Diverse Topics and Pillars of Content

Erica's content spans various topics, including wildlife conservation, positive climate news, and lifestyle choices that promote sustainability, such as thrifting. By diversifying her content, she engages different segments of her audience and addresses multiple facets of environmentalism. This approach not only educates her followers but also inspires them to adopt more sustainable practices in their daily lives.

Future Aspirations

Looking ahead, Erica expresses a desire to expand her reach beyond TikTok, considering platforms like YouTube to further her science communication efforts. Her commitment to environmental advocacy and education reflects a growing trend among young activists who leverage social media to raise awareness and drive change.

In conclusion, the episode underscores the critical role of science communication in environmental advocacy. Through platforms like TikTok, individuals like Erica Hernandez are making significant strides in educating the public, fostering hope, and encouraging action in the face of climate challenges. By sharing their stories and knowledge, they inspire others to join the movement for a healthier planet.

Thrifting and sustainable fashion choices play a significant role in promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle. In the podcast episode featuring Erica Hernandez, she discusses her passion for thrifting and how it aligns with her values of sustainability and environmentalism. Here are some key points that highlight the importance of thrifting and how sharing these practices can inspire others:

The Benefits of Thrifting

Reducing Waste: Thrifting helps to reduce the amount of textile waste that ends up in landfills. By purchasing secondhand clothing, individuals give new life to garments that might otherwise be discarded. This practice contributes to a circular economy, where items are reused rather than thrown away.
Lowering Environmental Impact: The fashion industry is known for its significant environmental footprint, from water usage to pollution. By choosing thrifted items, consumers can minimize their impact on the environment. Erica emphasizes that thrifting allows her to avoid fast fashion brands, which often prioritize profit over sustainability.
Unique Style: Thrifting offers the opportunity to find unique and one-of-a-kind pieces that reflect personal style. Erica mentions her love for colorful clothes and how thrifting allows her to express her individuality without contributing to the negative aspects of fast fashion.

Inspiring Others Through Social Media

Sharing Experiences: Erica uses her TikTok platform to showcase her thrifting finds and sustainable fashion choices. By sharing her experiences, she not only highlights the benefits of thrifting but also encourages her followers to explore secondhand shopping. Her content serves as a source of inspiration for those who may not have considered thrifting before.
Building a Community: Through her social media presence, Erica connects with like-minded individuals who are passionate about environmental issues. This community fosters discussions around sustainable practices and encourages others to adopt similar habits. When people see others engaging in thrifting and making conscious fashion choices, it can motivate them to do the same.
Promoting Awareness: By discussing the environmental impacts of fast fashion and the benefits of thrifting, Erica raises awareness about sustainable fashion. Her positive messaging around thrifting helps to shift perceptions, showing that secondhand shopping is not only acceptable but also a responsible choice.

Conclusion

Thrifting and sustainable fashion choices are essential components of an environmentally friendly lifestyle. By sharing these practices on social media, individuals like Erica Hernandez can inspire others to make conscious decisions about their clothing purchases. As more people embrace thrifting, the collective impact can lead to a significant reduction in waste and a more sustainable future for the fashion industry.

Are you interested in speaking up for the ocean on social media? You're going to want to watch this episode. Because I have Erica Hernandez, who is a personality on TikTok that I love to watch. She talks about climate. She talks about environmental science. She talks about wildlife conservation. She talks a lot. And it's great. And it's really wonderful to see how she's progressed over the years. She started talking about it over two years ago and has really developed a great account, lots of views on her videos. And she's kind of looking at different ways to do environmental messaging. And we talked to her about that. I talked to her about that on this episode. And I'm really excited to share that. Because I'm hoping that people who are maybe thinking about starting a channel or a profile or what have you can take this and take some advice from Erica and myself on this. But we had a great conversation. And to say, hey, you know what? I'm going to start one too. I'm going to start a profile TikTok account on Instagram, page, or start talking on YouTube or whatever that might be, podcast. And be able to check that out and see what can come out of that. See how your life changed with that. But we're going to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. Let's start the show. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. And this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And so you're going to be talking about speaking up for the ocean, something that I love to talk about, science communication. It's probably one of the most important things in conservation, in my opinion. And it's the reason why I started this podcast, because people that I talk to, just around my own life, like my own circles, my family, my friends, didn't really know a lot about what was happening in the ocean. And they would come to me and ask me great questions, but I was like, why aren't more people talking about the ocean? I just realized, at the time when I started, there weren't a lot of resources to find out about the ocean. There's a lot of competition for information these days. So I started a podcast that you're listening to right now, and now you have a resource to talk about ocean news or to hear about ocean news and how to talk about it and all that kind of stuff. So if you're interested in starting some kind of profile, whether it be a TikTok account, an Instagram account, a podcast, a YouTube channel, this is, as I said before, this is the episode for you. Because Erica Hernandez, who has a profile in TikTok, talks about environmental science, climate change, all those great issues that we need more information on. She talks about on today's episode about why she started it, how she started it, how her message has evolved, how her confidence has been building over the last two years with each and every video. We talk about followers, we talk about commenters and how to deal with them, just a lot of different things that has to do with social media. And I think it's really important because it's such an important tool. And I know a lot of people talk about being on social media, how it's bad for you. But wouldn't it be great if there's more great content on there? And I think that's really important. Erica does provide that great content. It's information, it's something that you can use. It's not only just on this endangered species or that endangered species or this wildlife habitat. It has to do with just like how people can live by living just a little bit better for the planet, a little bit better for the ocean by buying clothes, like through thrifting, by just having a better lifestyle and more sustainable lifestyle. Not that it's perfect, nobody's perfect. Erica even mentions that she does this sort of imperfect kind of way of living. And I think it's really important to share that and to share how people can do to get better and what people do for a better, how people can live for a better planet. So with that said, here is the interview with Erica Hernandez talking about her TikTok account and her science communication. Enjoy the interview and I will talk to you after. - Hey, Erica, welcome to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Are you ready to talk about science communication? - Yes, of course I. - Nice, I love it. Look, this is exciting. I have been watching a TikTok account for quite some time. You are talking about climate change. You were talking about the environment and it's a really interesting platform to be on because you can go like mega viral at times. Sometimes it's just 10 views, a couple hundred views, but you're getting that constant connection with your audience. And that's what I really wanna talk about today, answering questions from the audience and so forth, but really how you got to pick all that up and what your plans are in the future for this wonderful platform as well as just science communication in general. So we're gonna get into all that. But before we do, Erica, why don't you just let us know who you are and what you do. - Okay, my name is Erica. I'm 23. I have a degree in environmental science and a geology minor. I went to Appalachian State and I'm currently going to work as a environmental justice organizer and researcher for clean water for NC and I'm excited about that. And I've always just had an interest in environmentalism. I feel like it really sparked when I was in third grade and the way it started was I just saw a forest just totally cut down and I don't know, something in me clicked and I felt like I had to fix something like me, like me personally, like it's such a immense amount of things. - Yeah. - I love it. So you had like, do people come into your classroom? Like did you have people like from an organization come into your classroom and talk about, you know, different things you can get take part of or like plastic or anything that had to do with the environment? Is that what you had? Or was this your teachers that were teaching about this? - Mm, I feel like for teachers it started more. They started talking more about climate change, probably in middle school. But what really got me into it was just seeing that forest and I just wanted to do more with them. I was just thinking of like the wildlife conservation, like where did the animals go? How do they adapt to human activity and how it's progressing over time? And in high school when we were applying to colleges, I was gonna go undecided because I really didn't know what I wanted. But then I forgot like I had that's where I go, environment to science I feel like that's what I wanted to do. - That's really interesting is that you go back and members like what do I really like? - Yeah, what do I really like? - They say, yeah. - No, go ahead, go ahead. - Yeah, they say your inner child has all the answers you need so I'm like, okay my inner child wanted this and I still want it now and clearly I'm still into it. - I love it, I love it. Now, so going to Appalachian State, you're kind of discovering environmental science, right? Because you're going back and thinking like what can I do? What were your ideas as you're going through college? Like maybe at the beginning compared to at the end of how your sort of image change of what you could do in conservation or wildlife biology or environmental science? - Well, like a lot of college students when they first go in, they're kind of naive. And I knew the climate crisis and like human activity environmentalism was depressing but I didn't know it was that depressing when I started going into it and learning more about it. And a lot of the times I kind of wanted to just switch my majors because I just, I don't know, I don't know, I can handle it, but I did always wanted to lean more towards wildlife conservation and I'm still not where I am, where I want to do that at the moment, but hopefully in the future. But like I said, you know, there's so many, there's so many topics within the environmental sector, climate change, environmental science. It's very broad, which is one thing I love about it because it's a very diverse degree. And I remember thinking when I was about a graduate, I'm like, I feel like this degree is not gonna help me. I feel like it's not worth it. But my advisor, like my teacher, she said, no, no, no, no, this is a very good degree and it's actually growing field, I believe, like a lot of companies that turn to be more green and they really need environmental scientists. And I feel like every job can be a climate job if you use what you know to help it. - Well, I mean, you know, as you and I know, climate change affects everything we do. And it doesn't matter if you're a marine scientist, a wildlife biologist, an environmental scientist or you own a business, you're impacted by climate change, your business is impacted by climate change, supply chains are impacted. Everything is impacted, we can't get away from it. And I think a lot of people try to deny it so they don't have to worry about it out of sight, out of mind. But we know now it's definitely not out of sight and it's on our minds quite a bit. It's interesting, you know, how you're talking about how you thought you were going to switch out or you thought about switching out because a lot of the things are heavy. You know, like a lot of the issues are heavy and there's no real like switch to be like, if we just, you know, flip the switch, we're gonna be fine, it's a lot heavier. Do you remember some of the issues that really got you down in terms of what you were learning? - Yes, I feel like for me, it's more endangered species and I remember in one of my classes, you can't save all of them. And like, essentially how biologists, I'm not sure who, but the way that they decide on which species deserves more protection is what they offer in a way. Like, do you know what I mean? It's like, okay, which one brings more money to us? Like, that's, I was like, when I heard about that, I'm like, that's kind of depressing 'cause you really can't save all the species and that's what I want to do. But obviously I, you can't, but you can try. And I think another one I feel like would be just displacement because not everyone has, can just pick up and leave where they were, is better, some people are gonna suffer. And I remember watching this, they showed us a documentary and I tried to look for it again on YouTube, but I couldn't find it. And it was titled The Island that Disappeared and it was some natives from an island that essentially sea level rise just kept getting worse and worse. And they were basically not being heard. And essentially they just hadn't deal with the consequences and I just found that depressing. - It is, I mean, if you think about people actually having to leave their homes and leave their land that they've been living there for who knows how long, hundreds of years, you know? Like multiple centuries. It's really depressing when you think about it. We don't think about it here in North America as much because it doesn't impact us or it has impact family members as of yet. But there's definitely gonna be times in the future where people on the coastline are gonna have to move and they're gonna have to try and sell their homes, not gonna be able to and they're gonna have to move to a different spot. And they are gonna be what we were gonna consider climate refugees because they weren't, they had to move with nothing because their homes are flooded or they can't sell and they move. The ones that can sell are gonna be or that are okay with leaving a home are gonna be like the super rich. And that's the people who don't really care and they have most of the power. So it's frustrating and depressing when you hear about that. But what made you, you know, like, that's enough for a lot of people to turn off. Just like I know from my case with science communication, I started a YouTube channel when I was like maybe 24, 14 years ago. And I remember my gym owner was like, yeah, I started watching your videos and then I got depressed 'cause you talked a lot about some like pressing things. So I stopped watching it. And I was like, oh, that's interesting to learn, you know, like in terms of how you communicate that. But what was it that really kept you in it? 'Cause I can understand a lot of people leaving the field even while you're learning. 'Cause you're in college, you're like, I wanna make sure that I'm gonna be happy with my job. I don't wanna have to watch all these species leave. What made you stay in that field? - If I'm being so honest, I feel like it was the Lorax movie, where it's just unless someone like you cares about a lot. - Oh wow, that was such a good movie, yeah. - Yeah, but it makes you cry every time. It's like unless someone like you cares and hold off a lot, things aren't gonna get better, it's really not. And I know 'cause they say like, I clearly believe there's power in numbers. And if we're being realistic, one person can make a difference, but it can only do so much. But still, if everyone had that mindset, I feel like things really could turn around for the better. And yeah, I even have a sticker of it on my laptop. It literally has a quote, unless someone like you cares. Yeah, but that movie, I feel like it's really special to me. And I'm hoping the future doesn't look like that in the end where people forget about it. But it does leave some hope for the future. And I feel like for me, I try not to let climate doomism get to me 'cause that gets a lot of people. And I know what it feels like to have climate doomism and just to give up, you're like, all right, I'm just waiting for the nature to kill us all. But you gotta pick up and continue, yeah. - 100%, I agree, I agree completely. It's really interesting. My kids grew up on that movie too. They're teenagers now, they love, they still go back and watch that movie. And it's like, there's some hard parts in it when you think about it. 'Cause for me, especially I relate, I see it happening in real life and it's not a far-fetched story. Maybe sort of like what's happened in the movie is far-fetched maybe, hopefully. But just the message of it, if everybody has their own voice, they all stand up, you can change. I think that's really empowering because I think we've seen that with climate change already. We saw the climate strikes happen and we saw starting off with one or two kids or three kids or four kids and then it starts to grow and grow. And then we had millions of people around the world start to say, hey, we need change here. All the people who are in charge aren't changing, they're denying climate change, all this kind of stuff. And we know it's real and so we need to do something. And now if you look at many governments, although they can be criticized if not acting fast enough, a lot of them, 10 years ago, weren't doing anything. And now they've got these major plans to do something. And like I said, they're not perfect by any means, but we're seeing those changes. And I do believe it's because people are standing up and people are starting to mobilize and empower themselves to be like, look, yeah, I know I'm one person, but if everybody starts to talk, we all know the feeling. And so we're starting to see governments change and we're starting to see that representation start to kind of fill up for people who are more, who are going to be more affected and who are being affected right now. So I love that. I love the movie being like, yeah, this is it. This is the movie that's going to kind of keep me into it. That's awesome. Now you did a minor in geology. Why geology? I have to, I have to know, I think it's a great field, complicated and complex in terms of what you're learning and stuff, but why that's, those are two big things to learn about, you know, major environmental science, minor in geology, very, you know, they mesh together quite well, but why, why geology? - Oh, I'm not sure because when I was younger, younger, I also wanted to do paleontology and I could kind of get a little bit of taste with that 'cause I could have got a, I could have chose to get a degree in like some paleontology, but that was, that's too much for me. I don't know if I wanted it that bad, but yeah, when I got my degree in environmental science, I focused on life science and then I got a geology minor 'cause I could get a good, a both, a little bit of both 'cause they do go well together and I do love rocks. I used to collect rock as a kid and color them. - Love it, love it. I love that. And so that was more of like, it's a fun thing to learn. Obviously usable in a lot of different fields as you go. So when you graduated, you got, you got life ahead of you. You've got your undergrad degree. What were you thinking? Like what kind of area did you want to go? 'Cause even environmental science is still quite a broad field like to learn from. So what were you, what are you thinking? - Well, I was applying to jobs and I did get job offers, but the thing was they were in cities a bit away and I kind of needed to save up money at the moment to get an apartment. So as soon as I graduated, I just was an environmental educator, a local camp. And I did that for a few months and I loved it. And then I worked as a restoration technician. And now here I am starting about to start my new job. My big girl job, my big girl job. - Well, like if you think about three very different jobs, if you think about like the context, right? Obviously this one, the environmental justice one is gonna be new. So you haven't done that one yet out of the other two. Which ones did you prefer or were most interested in? - The environmental educator. - Yeah, 'cause I was working with, how old were the kids that you were working with? Or was it an exercise? - It actually, yeah, it was a very, 'cause it was like during outdoor education season. So it was like four or five months. And essentially, it was mainly elementary middle school kids, but often on the weekends, there would be conference groups that they would do their own little things. But sometimes like we would do like environmental lessons for them and I loved, we talked about water ecology, forest ecology, water cycle, things like that. And also like having fun, which I thought it was fun because I was still using, it still kind of relate, it did relate to what I studied. And during my undergrad, I also had two internships. One was an outreach and it was mainly for like elementary school kids as well. And a research one, but the one I enjoyed the most was the outreach internship because like a lot of people say, or the cliche saying, kids are the future, like they, and what they know, they're gonna end up carrying on with them in the future years. And surprisingly, a lot of the kids do love learning about the environment. - Well, I mean, it worked for you, right? - Yeah. - It worked for you, you go back to grade three, you're like, yeah, that's what I kind of wanted to do. And I agree, I think that's one of the most important things to do, I think as science communicators now as well is to the people. Whether it doesn't matter what age group at this point, obviously young kids, it's like an investment, right? You're investing into the future of education so they don't come up and, you know, just learn or listen to anything that's said, that's wrong, and then they believe that. You know, you want them to understand science, you want them to understand nature and what it can do, the potential, but also the consequence that we can have if we start to disturb it too much like we're doing now. So it's always great to see that. One thing you mentioned too about, you know, you had job offers that were away from where you lived. I think that's a really interesting point because I find, I've had this a lot of times too. You know, growing up in Canada, there's a lot of jobs in the US. They offer you the job, you're like, okay, this is great. But then you're like, I'm far from home, you know, and you gotta look at lifestyle, you gotta look at, you know, what you want in terms of in the future, how you want to live your life. I think a lot of us, especially in marine biology for me, you know, you have to grow up along a coastline or you have to live along a coastline. And for me, my family's in Ontario where we have fresh water coastlines, but not ocean coastlines. And I chose to stay here, even though it was going to be challenging for my position in the future. But like, this is what, you know, this is what came out of it was this podcast, but a lot of the jobs they wouldn't offer enough to live in that city, you know, like it was, it was, and it's like, how do you expect me to survive? Or, I'm not sure if you came across this, but the jobs weren't full time. They were like a few months here or a few months there or maybe a year or a year and a half. And that's a very difficult thing when you start to look at trying to live somewhere or trying to build a life somewhere. I don't think some of these organizations think about that. And it could be, it's probably due to funding and how long the funding is. - And I find that's a really difficult thing to process when you first started. I'm curious to find your, to hear your opinion on that type of building of your style. - I agree. And especially within like the environmental sector, a lot of jobs are seasonal or it's based on funding, or they're really, really competitive because they're just really competitive to get into. And I feel like that's not talked about enough. And I was grateful enough to have job opportunities and eventually get a job. And especially now because apparently the job market is really bad right now. And I thought, 'cause I remember when I was applying like a few months ago when I was on my job, I was like, okay, 'cause I knew I was there for just a little bit of time just to save money. I was trying to fly and I kept getting interviews but then they just ghosted me. I'm like, is it me? But then I'm like, no, it's a lot of people. - It's harsh out there right now. It's harsh. Yeah, it's a hard one, yeah. - So when did you start getting the, I'm gonna pick up my phone and start talking about the environment bug? Like, when did that really start to hit you and you started to create content? - I think my first environmental TikTok was talking about why Blue Wells are my favorite. I think I think that was like, that was almost two years ago, I think. - Okay. - And I don't know, 'cause I do remember actually the time when I was like, okay, I wanna make content about environmentalism. And I told my boyfriend, I'm like, I wanna do it. I'm like, yeah, you have the technology, you have the knowledge, go ahead and try it. And I'm really glad I did because, like I said, I know my following is small, but I have like screenshots of every time someone messaged me on there saying, "Hey, thank you so much, I love your content. "It gives me hope, please don't stop posting. "I hope one day you get like a million." Like, stuff like that and it makes me feel good to post. Like, for me, I love posting 'cause I love it myself. But another people loving it is just like a bonus. It just gives me something to them. - Well, look, I'm here, you're just shy about 4,000 followers on TikTok. But I'm looking at like your videos and like I've done stuff on TikTok, not nearly as good as your content in my opinion, but you have like quite a few views on these videos. Like, you're averaging probably around like, you know, five to 800 on average and then every once in a while, I see like a 10,000 or, you know, a thousand or 5,000. I think your highest is what? I see one here for 74,000 views on this one video and this is weekly positive-- - Oh yeah, my positive confidence. - I love these and you have another one, we have 200,000, I didn't realize it was right beside it. So, you know, like when you first started out to now, how have things evolved in terms of like your messaging? - My messaging, I think my first, for the, in terms of positive climate news, my first one posted, I put positive environmental news and I probably should go back to that because some of the news I post on climate isn't really under the climate, it's a little more broad. - Gotcha. - But, 'cause I know like the TikTok algorithm changes too and that's not really on the creative's fault. And I'm trying to find different, I guess how I make my content is I think, what would I wanna see on my free page? I know every now and then I do some lifestyle videos and I just usually just make content on what I don't see as much. A lot of people post like some positive climate news and they have their own way of doing it and the way I do it, I just do like pictures and so I just keep it short and sweet. And then some of my followers say, "You should try talking about them instead." And I'm like, maybe, I don't know, maybe I might do that in the future, maybe it might get more attention. - Well, and I think, I mean, one good thing about being a scientist, which we both are, is you're okay with experimenting, right? Like I mean, you put up, everybody's gonna have an opinion on what they'd like to see and I think that's good. I think, you know, trying different things and if somebody suggests something and you're willing to do it or you're willing to try it or you have the time to try it 'cause a lot of these things are not easy to put together as I've noticed. I think it's interesting like to experiment, you know, even like you said, to put these climate news where you put a picture and you just kind of swipe across for the different, you know, climate news, which is great 'cause it's just, it's almost like you read articles and you're like, here's some cool climate news you should know about and you just summarize them so people are like, oh, this is nice because this is the positive stuff that we see and it's like, sometimes it's like, oh, you know, another couple of countries signed on to, you know, like it could be like the ocean treaty say or what have you, right? It's just really cool stuff that people are like, oh, that's nice to know, that's nice to know and they could share that with other people who knows or they could repost it or what have you, right? I find though a lot of people will have suggestions in a way to do things and I know we feel pressure to do them but then you're just like, well, I like doing my own stuff, you know, it works within my workflow 'cause like I said, sometimes it takes a long time to do it but it's really cool. And one thing I really know too is you put in sort of your life, like you kind of mentioned your lifestyle into here, right? And one of your most recent videos is your thrift clothes and like, yeah, it's kind of cool. You have like a fun style to your clothes. I don't know anything about style, right? I'm a 46 year old dad but you have, you like, you show off your, like, it's almost like a get ready with me or like, hey, look what I got and these are like nice looking clothes and you're like, this was thrifted, this was thrifted, this was thrifted. You find people-- - The shirts thrifted. - The shirts thrifted, there you go. Now, do you find people get surprised at what you find like through thrifting? - Yeah, for sure. Sometimes, one of the, I remember I got a comment, I posted like another type of thrifting video and I was like, oh my gosh, you have such good luck but it's funny because I go through every record, I search everything and I feel like people that say, oh, I never find them, they're just like, yeah, like you'd be surprised how much good stuff is at the thrift stores and personally, I don't like to buy, even though it's from the thrift store, I try to avoid fast fashion brands because they usually don't last long regardless and for me, I just like finding brands that are a little older just to have a little more sense of, no one else is gonna have this, it makes me feel like more unique and, you know. - It's your own personal style, right? - I like really colorful clothes and I'm, and I recently was starting thinking, maybe I should start dressing my age but I'm like, so far I'm still gonna have my little style but that's a problem for the future me. - You know, but what do you mean by dressing your age? I'm curious about that, like is it, you want to dress, you know, quote unquote, more, like more like a professional or is it like-- - In a way. - What is that? 'Cause I feel like you've got a good style, you know, it's professional or not or fine, like not everybody dresses professional every day, you know what I mean, like, yeah, I'm just curious like what you mean by that? - I get probably, yeah, like more professional or maybe it's 'cause we're, like social media gets to us be like, um, like, where are you? Like, or like where they say, oh my gosh, my frontal lobe is developing, I no longer find that cute, things like that. 'Cause I mean, my style, I don't really wear that much crop tops anymore, you know, just things like that. And I do have some professional clothing but I only wear that to like when I need to. 'Cause I don't dress that all the time. - Yeah, first of all, nobody, not many people do. I mean, people like to be relaxed and they like to be comfortable in their clothes and sometimes the professional clothes is not as, like I know that, like when I wear a suit, I'm not as comfortable as if I'm wearing, you know, like a nice pair of pants or like even jeans or something like that, that makes me feel comfortable, right? So it's interesting though too, the reason why I asked is because I remember having somebody on 'cause I was, I had never thrifted before and I was trying to figure out what it all meant. This was a couple of years ago, we now started to do that, but a lot of, like the person I had on the interview, she was saying that she actually buys a lot of her clothes that she goes to conferences with and she spends like less than $100 on an outfit or maybe even a couple of outfits. And then she goes to these professional conferences and people are like complimenting her on, you know, her styles and what she's wearing and things that she's like, yeah, this was, I didn't, I barely spent any money on this, not only that, but I know the clothes are used and it's better for the environment and all this kind of stuff. So I think a lot of people are, like I think this is kind of a thing now. I know in my city, we're starting to see more thrift stores pop up that have a lot of different styles and a lot of different brands. My kids like to do it as well, but they kind of search as well. They, you have to kind of search for that. I know what you mean by that. It's like search for that unique kind of material. So I like that. - Yeah, I'm really glad for like second hand is, second hand fashion is getting popularity, especially like they even have apps now like Depop and whatnot. And I usually go on there too if I'm looking for something specific. - Okay. - But yeah, I feel like a lot of people are into thrifting. I know, I don't know if it's 'cause people do it 'cause it's in now, 'cause I remember thrifting used to be looked down upon a few years ago, like it was like your poor or like, you know, like, I don't know. But now people are like, oh my gosh, like look at me, I'm thrifting, but I've always loved thrifting, so. - Yeah, and I think I used to see it 'cause it used to be like, you know, like a value village or a good will that we have up here, where it was, it was for people who couldn't afford clothes. So they went and they got used clothes and you would donate your use clothes there. But now I see a lot more stores popping up like saying, no, no, here we are, it's like a thrift store. It's like, this is, you know, come for these types of brands or what have you. And you see a lot more kids who are doing and young adults who are doing it. And it feels like the fashion plus, like things are expensive. So it makes sense to be able to buy something, like that's cheap but still quality made, which is nice to see. And I'll be honest, I try to look for new clothes that are environmentally friendly and they are crazy expensive, like shirts that go for, like t-shirts that go for like $30, $40. And just like, I can't afford that. I can't spend that on a t-shirt, there's no way. But anyway, that's good. So like in terms of the messaging for, you know, what you do on, like when you do, is it just TikTok that you do or do you do other social media platforms? - I do post on Instagram occasionally, but it's usually the same post, specifically the ones I make on Canva. And every now and then I do post stories about like important environmental issues that are going around. But mainly TikTok is where I post. - Okay. - And I'm thinking of, recently I was starting to think of maybe posting on YouTube 'cause I did have a YouTube channel before but that was more like me, but I don't know, but maybe I want to get more into it. I don't know, I just love talking. I love social media. - I mean, that's good, that's where people are. I mean, TikTok, I don't know how many users it has now, it's gotta be over a billion users and you know, not knowing what's gonna happen in the future with TikTok in the US and other places. I mean, it's kind of interesting to see this platform grow and evolve. So now like from the beginning when you first started a couple of years ago posting to now how is your social media like messaging and like or science communication evolved? Like how confident have I gotten? Is that what you're asking? - Let's start with that and how confident have you gotten? - I feel like I'm still on, I mean, it looks like I'm confident but my videos, like there's so many tries I do or I stutter and I have to like edit and like, I don't know why I cannot speak, but I feel like I've gotten better a little bit at editing. Recently I've started using Capco and by recently, I mean like literally four days ago. (laughing) The reason, because I was just editing on the app itself and the Capco. - It's difficult. - It's not easy. - Capco is a little bit, Capco is a little, I feel like a little more difficult 'cause there's too much stuff on there. - Right, right. - I'm trying to, I'm trying to get the use to hang of it and the message, can you explain a little more? Maybe I'm not getting it, like my messaging, how is it evolve? - So I guess, well the confidence is a thing too. Like, you know, like I know for me when I first started, I had huge imposter syndrome, right? So when I first started and I would say stuff, I wouldn't even tell people that I published a podcast. I would just do it and see who was listening and see how many, if I had a lot of people, I'd be like, ugh, I'm not sure. 'Cause like when I started, even like started, like I started with a website and a YouTube channel and then I went to podcasting 'cause it was easier for me, but when I first started, I was very worried about being called out and like scientists weren't talking about the work that they were doing. 'Cause there was no incentive to do so, and there's almost a disincentive because people would take what you had and they would cut it to what they wanted to. So if you talked about climate change, people like, or you did an interview about climate change, people wouldn't mess up your, they're journalists, if you call them that, some of them, they wouldn't mess up your words, they wouldn't manipulate your words. So a lot of scientists didn't have trust in talking to mainstream media. And so when I first started the podcast, the whole point was not to cut anything out, not to edit, to not to manipulate it so that people would feel comfortable. And to get like cool stories out, but I was so worried that scientists would be like, what are you doing? Like you're not supposed to be doing this, like people are gonna attack you all the time. And I realized after a while that people weren't attacking me and other scientists supported me so much that they would come on and then like, we're having so much fun, you should talk to this person and you should talk to this person and this person is doing it cool. And then I just started to get more and more people coming to chat and I think through that, through getting that acceptance and comments back being like, hey, you changed my life or I'm really glad. I never knew about this before. And that kind of built my confidence now where it's like, I feel guilty if I don't post an episode because I'm like that person who could learn about this or I'll read an article like, oh, that's not that important. And then I'm like, no, it probably is, probably important for somebody. And so I'll do an episode on it and I'll publish it. And then somebody responds like, I'm so glad you did that episode. I'm like, ah, I knew it. I knew someone's, you know. But I, you know, sometimes you're into it so much that you're like, oh, I've seen that so many times. Like people don't want to talk about that. Then I'm like, once I want to publish it, people are like, I didn't know about this. And you're like, oh my God, okay. So it's still worth it. So that my confidence kind of like in the material and what to publish has changed from being like, feeling like I'm in a posture in this field and not knowing what I'm talking about to trying to serve somebody by providing information for that person. And so it's less of about me and more about the audience that I have. So I've got a little more confident in what I'm talking about. So that's sort of what I mean in terms of that. - I feel like I feel the same way in a way, actually. I think what I just, I posted a TikTok about Vultures a few days ago and then someone commented today recently, oh my God, where does this balloon come from? - That's the video. That happens all the time. It has to turn my mouth. It's all good. It's all good. - I was like, where does the balloon come from? - Yeah, so if you do like, if you move your hands and it looks like a celebration, balloons and celebrations come on, if you do like a heart shape, like a heart shape will come out, so don't worry about your own color. - Okay, that's, yeah, essentially they just said, oh my gosh, I didn't know about this. Thank you, I learned so much from you. And yeah, I just like spreading information and environmental communications, it's like a good bridge between like the science and the community. And I feel like that's not what there is a lot of. So I like doing it to what I can. In a way, and I like speaking on topics that what I feel are important. - Yeah, for sure. So what topics do you think? Like what do you like talking about the most? Like what the best? - Well, like I said before, I like talking about like different animals to speak. Every now and then I do like it's like, it's blank day and I talk about that animal. Definitely the positive climate news, 'cause I've been doing that continuously for like a year and a half now and I haven't missed a single week. Even though the views don't bother me, I know some days like I don't get that many views. Like I'm still gonna post them because some people still like seeing them and I like seeing them too. And those videos I like doing and just if there's like a local or like a issue, environmental issue that I know about or I'm aware of to a good knowledge, I usually speak out on that as well. And I was thinking of doing a TikTok, I think in Texas there was like a chemical power plant explosion right now. So I was like, I don't know. Yeah, I think that happened this morning and I'm like, that's bad. Yeah, well actually I'll be honest, one of the reasons actually we connected and I never told anybody at the beginning was you did a story on the Florida state parks recently, maybe like three, four, four weeks ago. And you were talking about how the state wanted to be able to build or having public comments on building these massive resorts, these golf courses, disc golf course too. I didn't know that was a big thing, but apparently that's a big thing. And they want to build in these beautiful state parks and they were giving like less than a week notice of like these public comments. You told me, you kind of let me know of that story through your content. And I was like, I got to do an episode on this. And I mentioned you in the episode. That's what I reached out like, hey, just to let you know, I mentioned you in this episode because this is important. And so that's a, I feel like that's the cool thing. I also feel too, I don't know if you ever noticed this, but like when we get on social media and I don't know if it's just because so many people talk about it and like, there are a lot of celebrities out there that have like millions of followers. They get so many views and even like the quote unquote, tick talkers that are like huge, it's their brand, right? They're the influencers of the world and they hate it, you know, millions and millions of views. And then I look at mine and I'm like, I got like only 100 views on this for 300 views. And then I think to myself, that's like 300 people. Like if you can fill a lecture hall with 300 people and it'll look busy. And you just like imagine if I had to speak in front of 300 people, you know, for like two minutes of like an episode that I would do on tick tock or even like 10, 20 minutes of an episode I would do on the podcast. I was like, that's a lot of people to connect with. And you never know who you're connecting with, right? It could be a decision maker, it could be the kid of a politician, you know, who's like, hey, you know, mom or dad, like I need to, like you need to see this because this is important. And you may change somebody, you just, you never know who's out there watching your content. And so I think that's, that's, that's quite interesting when it comes out. - Don't forget that feeling though, 'cause you get a good, like you get a solid amount of views. Do you ever feel like sometimes you're like, I wish that did better, but actually it hit a lot of people. Like it got to a lot of people. - Yeah, I do, like perspective is everything. And even likes, like let's say you get like 30 likes, like if 30 people could win up to you and compliment it on what you did, I'd feel like very happy. I'd be like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. But yeah, I do feel that way. And also like some of my mutuals, like you and other people, like they're within the environmental sector field. And like I've connected, like even like I've connected with people that advocate for, you know, animal rights, like they're vegans or some of them work in like city, city planning, things like that. And yeah, I, it's crazy like who people like who sees it. And even if they don't directly interact or well, they do interact with us. Let's say they repost it. Like a lot of people do repost my stuff and it gets you into other people. - Yeah, I reposted your stuff quite a few times. (laughing) So this is all good, like this is great. Like it's interesting to see what you've done on here and what you're sort of able to do. Do you have like specific types? Like you talked about your weekly positive climate news and that's cool. And that comes out like, is it once a week or a couple of times a week? A couple of times a week? - Yeah, every Monday, I'm probably gonna post it later today. - Yeah. - Okay, every Monday, I can see Monday today. Okay, cool. So you do that every Monday. Do you have other types? Like do you say, okay, Monday's for this? Well, I guess the first question, do you post every day? - I'm trying to, I think I have so far, but every now and then I have like a little streak and then I don't post for like one or two days and then I post again, but that's one of my goals. Like I'm trying to be more consistent with posting. 'Cause that essentially is better for your performance 'cause they get circulated more. - Still not working. - And also, yeah, it's a lot of work, but usually what I do is I like bulk create, like one day I like make the same. I make videos of myself and sometimes I like change. So, sometimes I change my shirt, but it's the same day to make you think that it's another day. - I do the same thing. (laughing) - Yeah, I do that. And pattern wise, I know like I'm trying to have more like a schedule, but I know Mondays are weekly positive climate news. And essentially I just look at my feed and I try to have a weekly positive news every now and then a Canva post, which is like something, it doesn't matter what topic it is, but it's just something I made on Canva. Every other now and then maybe like a video to show about me and yeah, some more. - So you have kind of like pillars. So you have like the ocean positive news, like a lifestyle thing, you know, something that you make on like something that you try and experiment on Canva. Usually they have, and what you mean by that, like they have templates and you just kind of pick a template and then use it and then kind of fit it to the content that you want to put in? Is that what you do? - Yes. - Okay, cool. So that's kind of cool. So you have those types of pillars. I think that's, I think that's great. I mean, even posting a couple of times a year, I'm like, it's pretty cool if you think about it 'cause I'm like, wow, this is pretty cool. But, so looking into the future now, what do you want to accomplish with? - What do I want to accomplish? - Yeah, with science communication in general, like are you gonna just stay on TikTok mostly and build that platform out? Are you going to, like you mentioned a little bit of like maybe going back to YouTube, like what's your plan? - I do want to stick mainly to TikTok. I know they were saying like, am I getting banned? And that's part of the reason why some videos aren't performing as well as they used to. But I do want to stay on TikTok. Maybe more on YouTube, but essentially, I want to get more comfortable using the features that TikTok has, like I know TikTok live. I've been on it for a few times, but I only, I'm on it for like three minutes or less 'cause I get scared for some reason. - So I'm trying to like-- - Is it like, 'cause I'm worried about running out of content? Is that what you're worried about? - Running out of content, sometimes I do think about that, but especially like, 'cause I know, 'cause I know I have a little bit of free time because I haven't started working my full-time job yet 'cause I've had like a two-week gap just to enjoy, but I'm trying to like get as much done as possible, but it is kind of hard to do like social media while doing other stuff. And that's like, it's a skill to have like time management and like having all that. So props to us because we-- - Absolutely, it's difficult, it's not like, it takes a lot of people, they don't realize how much time it takes to be able to get these videos up and to edit them and whatever software you're using to edit. Like it takes a long time and to put it out there and make sure you do a job that you think is like a good job, right, that's good enough to put out for you. It does take a long time to do so doing it with the job would be good. Now, is your job aware that you have like a TikTok account that gets to pretty good music? And do you think you'd feel comfortable in talking about some of the work you do to make people more aware of the organization and of the work that they're doing? - For sure, yeah. And I did tell them about that I do post on social media as like a little hobby for environmentalism and they know my accounts, so they're not stalking me, but like they think no, I know, and I'm pretty sure they're gonna know that I'm gonna talk about like what I do and the game we're inside because I'm gonna have to be doing research and like environmental justice communities within the state. And a lot of it has to do with like hog operations and how it affects some water quality streams nearby. - Gotcha. - Yeah, I'd probably talk more about that as well. - Yeah, that'll be cool. I think it's great. I think more organizations have their, I mean, they should show off their staff in my opinion 'cause I love the people that work within the environmental field and I find some organizations do it really, really well and other organizations are so tight knit that they don't wanna let any information 'cause they wanna control everything. But I like the fact that they let people talk, you know, and let their staff talk because that's why you hire them. You hire them for their expertise and so you let them talk on their expertise. So I love that. One question I haven't asked and I've wanted to ask this for a while, you know, you post a lot, you get a lot of views, you're gonna get comments. Do you find most of your, and some people are always worried about comments, right? Like it could be really, really great and you've started to mention some of them, but some of them can be like, you know, when you, especially when you deal with climate, a lot of times you get some, some, whether they're real people or not, who knows, but you get some pretty harsh comments. How do you approach comments? - How do I approach them? I usually just delete them because I don't respond to them. Yeah, sometimes I think one time I do it, but essentially how I see it, I'm like, wait a minute, this is my page, get out of here. So I just delete them. So I often, I don't really get them any like negative comments. I would say I got them more when I, my weekly positive climate news were getting more traction. Like people would be like, they would say stuff like, well, what's the point where I already did, or this isn't really a good climate. Like, I don't know, something like that. Or I think I made a video, maybe like last year talking about like, oh, did you know if we killed animals? Well, if we killed humans, the same rate we killed animals, we'd be extinct in like two weeks, 14 days. And cause I was talking about like, how you can reduce your impact. Cause I'm not a vegan, but I do my best to like, - Yup. - Cause I don't need pork, I don't need seafood. I'm gonna like just eat chicken. And yeah, people were just saying like, oh, I'm gonna eat like two burgers to like, to the vegan's dinkums. Like, you know, just to cancel. Like it's definitely, I just trolls. I'm like, ah, I don't know. - There's people trying to cause stuff, right? The trolls, I mean, we've all seen it. I find every time I post anything on climate, I get somebody that's just like, you know, you should watch this YouTube video cause this YouTube video sells everything. And I always laugh, I respond, I'm like, well, thank you for sharing this YouTube video. I'll stop listening to the scientific, you know, papers that are out there that are peer reviewed by other scientists, the top scientists to watch this guy on this YouTube video talk about, you know, how it's, you know, a completely different theory. I always find that. I always get that every time I post it, right? But no, I think that, I think it's, it's interesting. Cause a lot of people are afraid to talk on like these platforms because of the comments. So I think if I like that approach, it's like, look, if I see these comments, I'm just gonna delete them. They don't provide anything. I find some people who like who respond positively can actually help other people when they come to the, to the comments be like, Oh, like people are really enjoying it here. Like this is, this is fun. Like this is, you can almost build a community. Do you find you hear from the same people or there are a lot of the same people commenting on like multiple videos, like building a little bit of that audience or community? - Yeah, I do. I do feel like I have a good little community. And I do, I do the same thing to their videos. Like we both do good interactions. And yeah, like I said, that's like the thing to love about social media. Like you never know who's watching and some people have the same interests connect with you or they want to learn more about XYZ and the environmental sector. And I just feel like it's, it's really, it's really heartwarming. That's like the thing I love about social media. I know it can be like, social media can have its downsides, especially within the climate field. Cause I know I would see these like videos that I would trend. And it was just like all like negative, like a video of the polar bear starving on ice, the nice litter. Like I know what they were trying to do, like to raise awareness, but that's not a good approach to do it. Because like a lot of people just see and they're like, oh, we're already dead, like they scroll. But I feel like it should be a little bit of a good mix. Like that's why I do some environmental awareness. And I do positive climate news because I feel like hope is like the biggest thing you can have right now. Like cautious climate optimism is like huge for me. Cause I know cause there's toxic positivity. It's not like, oh yeah, we're good, we're good, whatever. Like you should, you should still be aware of like what's going on. But you know, still talk about like what's good because often like the news, they hardly ever say anything about like what's good. So I have to like actually look for it. It's always like this explosion happened. This, this much deforestation is like, it's always just they're just, it's all negative, negative, negative in a matter. - Yeah, they love it. Cause it's easy to click on, right? Like look at this forest, it used to look like this. Now look at a click on here and find out what it looks like. And people love to hear that. I find too, one of the things that I've discovered recently and it's interviewing a few people. There are major projects out there that talk about like say the blue economy or blue carbon or climate, like you see like the, you know, the Paris Accord and everything like that. But you never hear about the projects that are actually happening from that. You know, they never talk about some of the things. So some of the interviews I've been doing, I've been digging deep into like, tell me a project that's come out of this agreement. And like, let's talk about those. And they're so cool. Like they're, they're, when you listen to it, you're like, I get excited. I'm just like, this is a cool thing. Why don't you talk about this? Why isn't this like front page on your website to say, look at this great thing. Like, you know, there was a, there was a community, a fishing community in the Philippines where I was talking to the, to the, the process from rare. It's on, it's on, it's on the interview that we did a couple of weeks ago. And, you know, they talked about how they have this, this marine protected area that everybody, it's managed by the government, but it's co-managed by the fishing village. And they have a safe, so they've been all contributing to the savings account. So like the whole village has the savings account in case there's like a typhoon or cyclone that comes through and it destroys the MPA. So they can't fish in the MPA because they want to get back, but they need money. So what they do is when they get that, they allow the MPA to recover and they dip into the savings and they all, they still have money to feed their families to send their kids to school, all that kind of stuff. So by the time that the MPA's back and ready to go and they can start fishing again, they don't have, they don't have to take from their savings account, but they have the savings account. I'm like, that's a cool thing. That's like, that's a good adaptation. That's good prep. And everybody I've told that story to was like, that's amazing, like that's so cool. Like, why don't we hear about this kind of stuff? And you're like, ah, 'cause they don't get out. 'Cause it's almost like too good of news, you know? So that's what I love about, you know, sharing news that you share, like the weekly positive climate change news. I think that's cool because it makes me happy when I see that 'cause I'm like, oh, I didn't even know about this. You know, then I'll go searching. I'll be like, where is it? Where's she finding that? But finding those takes a long time, right? Like you said, you have to go digging a couple of times. So like, how long would you spend? Like, so you're gonna do one today, say, how long would you spend looking for those types of stories? - So when I, the way I do it, I always do them Sunday mornings. - Okay. - And then on Monday, I look for images, the images that I usually came from are similar and save them and then I post them. And I say sometimes it ranges between maybe like 25, 30 minutes. I usually am better now, but I usually try to do it in the morning of Sunday, just so it's not too much of a hassle the day of. - Well, especially now that you're gonna be working, it's gonna be like, Sundays are gonna be the day you do it. (laughing) Right, on. Erika, last question for you. What would, if somebody is listening to this and they've wanted to start something where they start talking about something that's important to them, you know, from a conservation standpoint, what would be the first recommendations that you would say, like the first steps that you would say that they should take when they consider starting to speak up for, say, the ocean or for just nature in general? - I would tell them, like, if they're nervous, just go ahead and do it because time will pass anyway. And if it's something that matters to you, I feel like it's probably gonna matter to somebody else. You never know who also is thinking of that. And, you know, just make sure you are getting the facts straight, because some people, they don't mean to, but sometimes they do send like a little bit of misinformation. And sometimes they're light, but still some people can call you out on that. And I would just say, just make sure you're doing it right, but also your passion will show. Like, people will know if you're passionate about it and that's gonna make them wanna hear you more. Like, if you sound monotone or you talk about something, they're probably just gonna scroll. So I would just say, just, if you love something, go for it. And don't be too nervous like me. Like, I'm not nervous at the beginning, I was scared, but now I'm like good, I'm good. I opened up now. - Yeah, but I think it takes some time, right? It takes some time to kind of get that confidence and to be like, no, no, I'm doing this. Like, now I'm looking at other things I wanna accomplish, not just getting them out there. And I always tell people, like, when you do, I do the same thing, I'm like, just record. You don't have to post it, but record and have somebody watch and be like, hey, what do you think? Like, have someone close to you. Do you like, what do you think? You know, and I think that's really important to get a little bit of that boost of confidence, but yeah, you should post this. I didn't know about this and then send it. And then you get better and better as you go through. Like, you don't, I still mess up on words. I still do that, you know. And sometimes you can correct it. Sometimes I know, you're all human. And I find like social media allows us to be human and not like the perfect, you know, cadence or the perfect way to say the words or anything like that. So I find that kind of nice. But anyway, love that advice. And I wanna thank you so much, Erica, for not only for the work you do, but for coming on the podcast and talking about it. I think it's really great. I can't wait to see what you're gonna create next and the next year. Love to have you back on to talking more about not only the sick dog, maybe your job and what you're up to in this wonderful field. So thank you so much. - Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me. This was so fun. Now I'm no longer scared to have been a podcast. - This was her first podcast, people. It's a fantastic job. I love it. So thank you so much, Erica. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Erica, for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. It was great to be able to talk to another science communicator, especially learning some of the tips and tricks that she has used on TikTok. And I think that's really important. 'Cause TikTok is an interesting platform. I know we know all the controversy with the app being owned by a company in China and the way that the US and Canada and as well as other countries have approached the app trying to ban it, trying to worry about your information getting out to people who are not so in your corner, let's just say. And so there's a lot of bad things that get talked about the platform, but there's still a lot of users on there and there's people are on it age and every day and they watch videos for multiple hours. So imagine being able to take up some of that time, two minutes, three minutes, one minute, ten minutes. I think you can now post for 60 minutes. Not many people do. But imagine if you can do that and you can take some attention and take some attention on the environment, right? And put it toward the environment. I think that's really important. I think that's something that we need more of and we need more people on TikTok, on all the different platforms, talking about the environment, because my audience may not, some people who listen to my podcast may not hit the right note. It may not just be that right connection for them. They may feel more of a connection towards Erica or towards some other creator that is doing some kind of creation on whatever platform that we have here on social media, YouTube, TikTok, podcast, whatever that might be. And so I think it's important to be able to find all these different creators and be able to hear what they have to say and how they work. I think that's super important. So with that said, I hope you enjoyed the episode. I think it's, I thought it was really important to be able to have Erica on and looking forward to having her back on. I'm gonna put her link to her TikTok. The handle is @whaleswee. So two E, so whale, W-H-A-L-E-S, W-E-E. And I'll put the link in the show notes, in the description, however you're watching this podcast. You can watch it on Spotify, which will be video, YouTube will be video, as well as all your podcast listening platforms and your favorite one at that. And those will be audio as well. But you can leave a comment on Spotify on YouTube or you can hit me up on Instagram at how to protect the ocean. You can also hit me up on TikTok. My profile account is, once I find it, I don't remember what it is. It's Speak Up For Blue, @SpeakUpForBlue. You can check that out. I'll put a link in the show notes as well. But thank you so much again, Erica. And thank you for listening and letting people know that, hey, if you wanna know more about communicating on TikTok, send them this video or send this link to this episode and I'd love to hear from them and hear what they think. But thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of The How To Protect The Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Loon. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)