vision
“I see this flattening of imagination. And for me it’s the most frightening thing. A lack of imagination leads to a lack of problem-solving, a lack of critical thinking. That’s what’s at risk here.”
– Emily Grassley, creator of Brain Scoop
Spotlight
Last week we shared a story about a shake-up that workers, career coaches and development experts are currently experiencing in the climate employment market. I was really happy to see the work that made a round at Linkedin. There, several commenters said the advice language was helpful, not just the resource words rounded up at the end of the newsletter. However, one quote from this work seems to stick to me from Tom Di Libert, a communications specialist whose work has been reduced recently in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I hit a chord And others: “It’s not that much that I lose my job,” he said. “This is that this job doesn’t exist anymore.”
Many people who lost their jobs or funds in the past few months are the leading organizations of climate work and have reached their communities in a way that is obvious. These cuts have ripple effects on spaces that are not immediately apparent. Grist also reports on the changes brought about by Donald Trump’s administration and what they mean for our country and the future of climate, I want to help capture the story of what’s lost. If you are one of the people who have been affected, please contact us to share your story – you can reply to this email or click here.
Emily Grassley is one of those people you may not be thinking about when you imagine the work lost as a result of federal staff and fund cuts. She is a scientific communicator and creates YouTube videos to explain all kinds of scientific research in a fun and easy to understand way. You may have come across her channel, Brain scoop – Or others who like it – in your YouTube browsing, she covers topics from What Fossils Tell You About Climate Change How The city of Chicago is tackling the problem of mice. She has produced hundreds of videos and has gained over 600,000 followers. But she is now facing an uncertain future of the channel and her work.
“There may be days when I’m logged on to YouTube, but I don’t have any more of my favorite creators,” she said.
Graslie, which was featured on the Grist 50 list in 2016, created Brain Scoop over a decade ago. Over the years she ran the show as the first-ever “prime minister correspondent” for the Field Museum in Chicago, sharing her behind the scenes work at the museum, then reopened as an independent creator, partnering with other institutions across the country to help the story of their research.
Emily Graslie, creator of Brain Scoop. Julie Florio
Grassley is closely involved in a community of science communicators, primarily a group of women and non-binary creators. “Most of us own and manage our own production companies, which include negotiating contracts for each project,” Grassley told Grist. “We are most excited when we get money from science centres or through library outreach grants, from science organizations that “get us.” “So, when she landed a gig in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health to create videos that would share work and evoke work from the world’s largest medical research institute, it was a dream.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is part of the Ministry of Health and Human Services, each of which consists of 27 institutions focusing on their own research. “We know that one area that we’ve been particularly interested in highlighting is infectious diseases, and that it’s only becoming more common in warming climates,” Grassley said. As a non-scientist herself – but as a science enthusiast and taxpayer, the majority of her job was to break down the importance of science for the general audience that our taxes are funds. “I can be a conduit to some of these rather opaque institutions,” she said.
She was on the NIH campus this January and was due to begin filming the series, which had already been developed for a year. Instead, she received an email informing her that the project was on hold until further notice.
“I learned from the media – I learned from the news headlines that this is Communication Gag For the NIH,” she said. Stops almost all external communications. “I was considered a member of the media and therefore could not communicate with these people I had worked with for over a year.” In February, she visited her family in the Washington, D.C. area and contacted one of her collaborators by a personal email address. “What is the chance of us having to come across each other in a coffee shop?” she asked. “Just gossip. Just chatchat.” Through that informal meeting, she learned that her project had been effectively cancelled.
She had not been paid for any of the previous implementation work she undertook in 2024, but now her funds had evaporated all year round.
It was a pretty blow, but the impact she is doing on the work she is doing has spread beyond losing this opportunity at NIH. The Trump administration also has it Freezing funds from the National Science Foundation And it moved Eliminate museums and library services research labs (Grassley’s actions) It’s been covered in her YouTube channel recently). Many said federal funds to support scientific research and programming in museums and libraries may not recognize that they often cover contracts with independent creators like themselves and help communicate their work to the public. Without it, she fears that it will become increasingly difficult to maintain working like her.
“Online science content has never been luded more than ever,” she said. These cuts are likely to drive many people out of the space. Creators who come from alienated backgrounds, especially cannot afford to invest their time and energy in these projects without proper wages.
But after working in the job for over a decade, Grassley said she is proud of the science enthusiast and the curious heart she nurtured. She regularly hears from viewers about how the show has influenced it. Some people started watching it in junior high school and became scientists and teachers.
“One of the most important things Brain Scoop has done is sharing the different kinds of work that happens in the natural centres and museums around the country. I think it’s a loss. It just limits people’s understanding of who they want to grow and how they see the world when they have the ability,” Graslie said.
“I just look at this flattening of imagination. And it’s the most frightening thing for me. A lack of imagination leads to a lack of problem solving, a lack of critical thinking. That’s what’s at risk here.”
Do you know another climate leader with a story like Emily? (Are you that person?) Tell us more about how you feel about the impact of federal cuts: Please contact us here.
– Claire Ellie Ze Thompson
A farewell shot
In 2020, Emily Grassley made her debut on public television, hosting and producing a show called PBS Prehistoric road trips. She studied archaeology and paleontology and traveled the Northern Plains of the United States to see some cool fossils. Here she is in a Montana quarry and has sauropod bones. This is a group of dinosaurs that include the largest animal that has ever lived on land.
