Soren Wheeler, the senior editor at Radiolab, will be on campus all week to work as UW-Madison’s Science Writer in Residence in an effort to help students improve their science writing in a new age of journalism.
For over a decade, Wheeler has been “trying to get regular people to understand and engage with science.” In 2000, he co-authored “Atlas of Science Literacy,” which articulated what students should know about science at each level of education.
In 2006, Wheeler received a master’s degree in science writing from John Hopkins University and then began working on Radiolab, a public radio show hosted in New York. He does a variety of work for the award-winning show that usually covers scientific topics.
After years of growing Radiolab’s audience by writing consistent, interesting shows once every two weeks, Wheeler said he hopes to help advise students on how improve their writing about science.
Though the show is hosted in New York, Wheeler moved to Madison about a year and a half ago. Beginning Monday, Wheeler will interact with students and faculty members on the UW-Madison campus, giving a free speech and attending numerous journalism and communication classes.
Wheeler said his talk Tuesday will focus on the special challenges science writing presents and “how to talk to people about science, how to get people who don’t care to care.”
As journalism continues to progress, Wheeler said that there will continue to be a “blurring of the boundaries” between traditional and nontraditional reporting, which allows for journalism to be more personally connected to readers and listeners.
Though Wheeler will focus on writing about science, as the title Science Writer in Residence suggests, he said he also believes his speech will be applicable to all types of reporting.
“What I’m saying about science is true about every kind of journalism, I don’t care if you’re writing about football or if you’re writing about politics,” Wheeler said. “If you’re not trying to get people who otherwise wouldn’t care about this stuff to get interested, then I don’t think you’re really doing your job.”
