Producing STEM Content for the Next Generation: DiscoverE’s Chats With Change Makers
When organizations have extraordinary experts, one of the biggest communications challenges is making their knowledge accessible to people outside their field.
That is exactly what DiscoverE is doing with its **Chats With Change Makers** podcast series, produced by Puritano Media Group.
DiscoverE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young people discover engineering and understand the people, ideas and possibilities behind the profession. The podcast gives students the opportunity to have real conversations with engineers whose work is shaping the world around them.
PMG produces the series for DiscoverE, handling the video and podcast production needed to turn those conversations into engaging content that can reach students, educators and families online.
A Conversation That Suddenly Became Part of the News
One episode featured NASA engineer **Margaret Dominguez**, who worked on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Instead of being interviewed by another scientist or a professional journalist, Dominguez was interviewed by a ninth grade student.
That simple creative decision captures what makes the series work.
A young person gets to ask the questions another young person might actually want answered. The engineer gets an opportunity to explain complicated work conversationally and personally. Viewers are introduced not only to engineering, but to the people behind it.
Then something remarkable happened.
NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Suddenly, a conversation that DiscoverE and PMG had already captured became directly connected to one of the biggest science stories in the world.
Students watching news coverage of the Roman telescope can now hear directly from an engineer who helped make the mission possible.
That is a perfect example of the long term value of strong organizational content.
Great Content Can Become More Valuable Over Time
Organizations often think about video in terms of a single campaign, event or posting date. But interviews with genuine subject matter experts can have a much longer life.
When an organization captures those stories well, the content becomes an asset.
A scientific discovery happens.
A major project launches.
An issue suddenly enters the news.
A person featured in the program receives recognition.
A new generation becomes interested in the subject.
The original conversation is still there, ready to be discovered, shared and rediscovered.
The Roman launch demonstrates exactly why this matters.
DiscoverE did not have to scramble to find someone who understood the telescope after it entered the news. The organization already had a compelling conversation with someone who helped build it.
Making Experts Accessible
Producing content with scientists, engineers, executives and other subject matter experts requires more than simply recording an interview.
PMG works to create an environment where expertise can be communicated naturally and where complicated subjects remain accurate without becoming inaccessible.
For **Chats With Change Makers**, the student interviewer is an important part of that approach.
The conversation is not designed to demonstrate how complicated engineering is. It is designed to show young people that engineering is understandable, exciting and something they can imagine themselves doing.
That requires thoughtful production, clear storytelling and an understanding of the audience.
Building a Series, Not Just an Episode
Following the initial work on **Chats With Change Makers**, DiscoverE selected Puritano Media Group to produce eight additional podcast episodes over the coming year.
Each episode creates another opportunity to introduce young people to engineers, careers, discoveries and ideas they might otherwise never encounter.
Together, the episodes also create something larger: a growing library of conversations with people who are actively shaping science, technology and engineering.
The Roman telescope episode illustrates what can happen when that library intersects with the news.
An educational podcast becomes timely.
A scientist becomes part of a major public story.
A young interviewer gets a direct connection to an historic engineering achievement.
And audiences get to meet one of the people behind something they are suddenly hearing about everywhere.
Video and Podcast Production With a Purpose
Puritano Media Group produces video, podcast and communications content for associations, nonprofits, government organizations and private sector clients.
Our job is not simply to record what an expert says.
It is to help organizations turn expertise into stories that people can understand, remember and share.
DiscoverE’s Chats With Change Makers series is a great example.
Sometimes the best proof of the value of a piece of content comes months later, when the rest of the world suddenly starts talking about the story you already had the foresight to capture.
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