Astrophysicist Moiya McTier, Folklorist of the Cosmos (#073)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Physics, Natural Sciences, Science

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Moiya McTier is in the final year of her PhD in astrophysics at Columbia, but she is already a science communication star. With a background in folklore, she is an accomplished storyteller working to bring more science into science fiction. Moiya joins me on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE podcast to discuss her research on the Milky Way, her upcoming popular science book, and how her background influences her career choices. Subscribe to my mailing list to receive show notes for this episode: https://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php 00:00 Introduction 06:42 Combining science and folklore into science fiction. 14:10 Moiya explains her research on the Milky Way. 19:51 How a unique childhood encouraged creativity. 26:20 Can anyone be an effective science communicator? 33:14 World building is “the art of playing God.” 39:11 Equity and diversity in science and science fiction. 45:38 What ethical will does Moiya plan to leave behind? 47:49 What object or knowledge would Moiya put on her monolith? Moiya McTier is in her fifth year of a PhD program in astronomy at Columbia University. She studied astrophysics and folklore at Harvard. Her podcast, Exolore, fosters world building – bringing science into science fiction. She is an accomplished science communicator and public speaker. Listen to the Exolore podcast here: https://www.exolorepod.com/episodes Find Moiya on the web: https://www.moiyamctier.com and Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoAstroMo Question to pin in the comments: What is your favorite science fiction universe? Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos: Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1 Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1 Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1 Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1 Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos: Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1 Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1 Noam Chomsky: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everybody. Can you imagine growing up in a West Pennsylvania coal mining town without indoor
0:06.2	plumbing, running water, access to high quality education and yet still going on to one of the most
0:12.1	competitive PhD programs in the world at a top Ivy League institution.
0:16.0	Oh, by the way, that was after you decided to double major in folklore and astrophysics at a certain university in Cambridge, Massachusetts that begins with the letter H.
0:26.9	You may have heard of it.
0:28.5	Well, today's guess did just that.
0:30.7	And she is pre-doctor.
0:32.0	She'll be doctored next year, 2021, Moia McTier, who is not only a top-notch astrophysicist studying how different worlds can exist around other planets in parts of our galaxy that are very different than our own local neighborhood out here on the disk of the galaxy as we inhabit, but also she explores the other worlds that could
0:56.1	possibly exist in terms of science fiction or fantasy. She's in fact a published author. She was an author already before she started graduate school.
1:05.2	And she's working on a book about what we call
1:08.1	popular science, the science of the galactic processes
1:12.2	that allow planets to form. and that book will be out next year.
1:16.2	And that's Moyam McTere.
1:18.1	She's a young up-and-coming phenom and I can't wait to see where her career goes.
1:24.0	Certainly it's already gone out into our galaxy.
1:26.4	And I suspect it'll be coming to a galaxy near you
1:29.1	in a very short time.
1:30.6	So please sit back, enjoy this video. Please leave a comment or a review on iTunes or here on YouTube
1:38.1	wherever you get this this interview delivered to you. So I hope you really enjoy this wonderful interview
1:44.2	as much as I did.
1:45.1	She's really just such a phenomenon to talk to.
1:47.6	Played around with a couple of new technology
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Brian Keating, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Brian Keating and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.