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

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Are you interested in speaking up for the ocean on social media? you're going

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to want to watch this episode because I have Erica Hernandez who is a

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personality on TikTok that I love to watch. She talks about

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climate, she talks about environmental science, she talks about wildlife conservation,

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she talks a lot and it's great and it's really wonderful

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to see how she's progressed over the years. She started talking

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about it over two years ago and has really developed

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a great account, lots of views on

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her videos and she's kind of looking at different ways to

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do environmental messaging. And we talked to her about that. I talked to her about that

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on this episode. And I'm really excited to share that because

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I'm hoping that people who are maybe thinking about starting

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a channel or a profile or what have you, you

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know, can take this and take some advice from from Erica and

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myself on this. We had a great conversation and to say, hey, you know what? I'm

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going to start one, too. I'm going to start a profile, a TikTok account, an Instagram page

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or start talking on YouTube or whatever that might be, podcasts, and

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be able to check that out and see what can come out of that, see how

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your life changed with that. But we're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

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your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how

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you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by

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taking action. And today we're gonna be talking about speaking up

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for the ocean, something that I love to talk about, science

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communication. It's probably one of the most important things in conservation, in my

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opinion, and it's the reason why I started this podcast, because

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people that I talk to just around my own life, like my

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own circles, my family, my friends, didn't really know a lot about

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what was happening in the ocean. And they would come to me and ask me great questions, but

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I was like, why aren't more people talking about the ocean? I just realized at

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the time when I started, there weren't a lot of resources to find out about

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the ocean. There's a lot of competition for information these days. So

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I started a podcast that you're listening to right now, and now

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you have a resource to talk about ocean news or to hear about ocean news and

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how to talk about it and all that kind of stuff. So if you're interested in starting some

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kind of profile, whether it be a TikTok account, an

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Instagram account, a podcast, a YouTube channel. This

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is, as I said before, this is the episode for you because Erica

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Hernandez, who has a profile on TikTok, talks

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about environmental science, climate change, all those great issues

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that we need more information on. She talks on

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today's episode about why she started it, how she started it, how her

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message has evolved, how her confidence has been building over

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the last two years with each and every video. We talk about

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followers, we talk about commenters and how to deal with them, just

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a lot of different things that has to do with social media. And I think it's really

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important because it's such an important tool. And I know a

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lot of people talk about being on social media, how it's bad for

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you. But wouldn't it be great if there's more great content on

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there? And I think that's really important. Erica does provide that great content. It's

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information. It's something that you can use. It's not only just on, you

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know, this endangered species or that endangered species or this

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wildlife habitat. It has to do with just like how people can

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live by living just a little bit better for the planet,

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a little bit better for the ocean by buying clothes, like through thrifting,

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by just having a better lifestyle, a more sustainable lifestyle. Not that

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it's perfect. Nobody's perfect. Erika even mentions that she does this

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sort of imperfect kind of way of living. And I think it's really important to share

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that and to share how people can do to get better and

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what people do for a better, how people can live for a better planet. So

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with that said, here is the interview with Erika Hernandez talking

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about her TikTok account and her science communication. Enjoy the

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interview and I will talk to you after. Hey, Erika, welcome to

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the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Are you ready to talk about science communication?

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Nice. I love it. Look, this is exciting. I have been watching

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your TikTok account for quite some time. You are

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talking about climate change. You were talking about the environment. And

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it's a really interesting platform to be on because you

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can go like mega viral at times, sometimes just 10 views,

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a couple hundred views, but you're getting that constant connection

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with your audience. And that's what I really wanna talk about today, answering

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questions from the audience and so forth, but really how you got to pick all

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that up and what your plans are in the future for this wonderful

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platform as well as just science communication in general. So

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we're gonna get into all that, but before we do, Erica, why don't you just let

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Okay. My name is Erica. I'm 23. I have

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a degree in environmental science and a geology minor. I went

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to Appalachian State. And I'm currently going

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to work as a environmental justice organizer and researcher for

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Clean Water for NC. And I'm excited about that. And

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I've always just had an interest in environmentalism. I feel like it

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really sparked when I was in third grade. And the way it

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Just saw a forest just totally cut down and I don't know something in

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me clicked and I felt like I had to fix something like me like me personally like

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it's such a So

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you had like so what did people come into your classroom like did you

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have people like from an organization come into your classroom and talk about

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you know different things you can get take part of or like plastic or

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Anything that had to do with the environment. Is that what you had or was this your teachers that were

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I feel like for teachers, they started talking more about climate change

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probably in middle school, but what

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really got me into it was just seeing that forest and I just

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wanted to do more with them. I was just thinking of like the

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wildlife conservation, like where did the animals go? How do they

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adapt to human activity and how it's progressing over

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time? In

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high school, when we were applying to colleges, I was gonna go undecided

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because I really didn't know what I wanted. But then I forgot,

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like I had that spark. I'm like, environmental science. I feel like that's what

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Yeah, they say your inner your inner child has all the answers you need.

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So I'm like, okay, my inner child wanted this. And I still

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I love it. I love it. Now. So going to Appalachian State,

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you're, you know, it's kind of discovering environmental science, right? Because,

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you know, you're going back and thinking, like, what can I do? What were your

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ideas as you're going through college, like maybe

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at the beginning compared to at the end of how you're sort of image

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change of what you could do in conservation or

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Well, like a lot of college students, when they first go in, they're kind of naive.

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And I knew the climate crisis and like human

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activity, environmentalism was depressing. But I didn't know it was that

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depressing when I started going into it and learning more about it. And a

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lot of the times I kind of wanted to just switch my majors because I just

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I don't know. I don't I can handle it. But I did always wanted

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to lean more towards wildlife conservation. And I'm

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still not where I am where I want to do that at the moment, but hopefully in the future. But

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like I said, there's so many topics

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within the environmental sector, climate change, environmental science.

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It's very broad, which is one thing I love about it because it's

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a very diverse degree. And

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I remember thinking when I was about to graduate, I'm like, I feel like this is this

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degree is not going to help me. I feel like it's not worth it. But my my

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advisor, like my teacher, she said, no, no, no, no, no. This is a very good

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degree. And it's it's actually growing field, I believe, like a

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lot of companies are trying to be more green and they really need

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environmental scientists. And I feel like every

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job can be a climate job if you use what you know to help

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Well, I mean, you know, as you and I know, climate change affects

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everything we do. And it doesn't matter if you're a marine scientist,

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a wildlife biologist, an environmental scientist, or you own

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a business. You're impacted by climate change. Your business is impacted by

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climate change. Supply chains are impacted. Everything is impacted. We

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can't get away from it. And I think a lot of people try to deny it so they don't

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have to worry about it out of sight, out of mind. But we know now it's

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definitely not out of sight, and it's on our minds quite a

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bit. It's interesting how you're talking about

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how you thought you were going to switch out, or you thought about switching out,

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because a lot of the things are heavy. A

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lot of the issues are heavy, and there is no real

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like switch to be like, if we just, you know, flip this switch, we're

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going to be fine. It's a lot heavier. Do you remember

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some of the, some of the issues that really got

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Yes. I feel like for me, it's more endangered species.

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And I remember in one of my classes, you can't save all of them. And

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like essentially how biologists, I'm

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not sure who, but the way that they decide on which

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species deserves more protection is what they offer in

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a way. Like, do you know what I mean? It's like, okay, which one brings

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more money to us? Like, that's, I was like, when I heard

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about that, I'm like, that was, that's kind of depressing, because you really can't save all the

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species. And that's what I want to do. But obviously, you

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can't, but you can try. And I think another one, I

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feel like would be just Displacement because not everyone has

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can just pick up and leave where they were is better. Some

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people are gonna Suffer and I remember watching this they

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showed us a documentary and I tried to look for it again on youtube But I couldn't find

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it and it was titled the island that disappeared and it was some

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natives from an island that essentially sea level rise just kept getting

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worse and worse and they were basically not being heard and

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essentially they just hadn't deal with the consequences and

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It is. I mean, if you think about people actually having to leave their

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homes and leave their land that they've been living

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there for who knows how long, hundreds of years, you

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know, like multiple centuries, it's really depressing

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when you think about it. We don't think about it here in North America as

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much. because it doesn't impact us

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or it has impact family members as of yet. But there's definitely going

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to be times in the future where people on the coastline are

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going to have to move and they're going to have to try and sell

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their homes, not going to be able to, and they're going to have to move

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to a different spot. And they are going to be what we're going to consider

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climate refugees because they weren't, they had to move with nothing because their

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homes are flooded or they can't sell. and they move. The

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ones that can sell are gonna be, or that are okay with leaving the

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home are gonna be like the super rich. And that's the people who don't really

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care and they have most of the power. So it's frustrating and

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depressing when you hear about that. But

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what made you, you know, like that's enough for a lot of people to

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turn off. Just like I know from my case with science communication,

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I started a YouTube channel when I was like maybe 24, 15, 14 years ago. And

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I remember one of my gym owner was like, yeah, I started watching your videos. And

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I got depressed because you talked a lot about some depressing things. So

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I stopped watching it. And I was like, oh, that's interesting to learn, you

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know, like in terms of how you communicate that. But what was

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it that really kept you in it? Because I can understand a lot of people leaving the

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field even while you're learning because you're in college. You're like, I want to make sure

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that I'm going to be happy with my job. I don't want to have to

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watch all these species leave. What made you stay in

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If I'm being so honest, I feel like it was the Lorax movie,

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Yeah. But it makes me cry every time. It's like, unless someone like you

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cares and hold off a lot, things aren't going to get better. It's really not. And I

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know because they say like, I clearly believe there's power in numbers.

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And if we're being realistic, one person can make a difference, but it can only

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do so much. But still, if everyone had that mindset, I

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feel like things really could turn around for

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the better. And yeah, I even have a sticker of

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it on my laptop. It literally has a quote, unless someone like you cares. Yeah,

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but that movie, I feel like it's really special to me. And I'm

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hoping the future doesn't look like that in the end where people forget about

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it. But it does leave some

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hope for the future. And I feel like, for me,

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I try not to let climate doomism get to me, because that

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gets a lot of people. And I know what it feels like to have climate doomism

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and just to give up and be like, all right, I'm just waiting for Mother Nature to kill us

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100%, I agree. I agree completely. It's really interesting. My

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kids grew up on that movie too. They're teenagers now. They love,

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they still go back and watch that movie. And it's like, there's some hard parts

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in it when you think about it. Cause for me, especially, I relate, I see

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it happening in real life and it's not a far-fetched

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story. Maybe sort of like what's happened in

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the movie is far-fetched. Maybe, hopefully, but

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just the message of it, if

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everybody has their own voice, they all stand up, you can change. I

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think that's really empowering because I think we've seen

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that with Climate change already, you know,

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we saw the the climate strikes happen and we saw starting

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off with you know One or two kids or three kids or four kids

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and then starts to you know Grow and grow and then we had millions

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of people around the world start to say hey like we

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need change here You know all the people who are in charge aren't changing. They're

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denying climate change all this kind of stuff and And we know

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it's real and so we need to do something. And now if you look at many governments,

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although they can be criticized of not acting fast enough.

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a lot of them, like 10 years ago, weren't doing anything. And

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now they've got these major plans to do something. And like

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I said, they're not perfect by any means, but we're seeing those changes. And

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I do believe it's because people are standing up and people are starting to mobilize

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and empower themselves to be like, look, yeah, I know I'm one person, but if

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everybody starts to talk, we all know the feeling. And

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so we're starting to see governments change and we're starting to see that representation start

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to kind of fill out for people who are more, who are going to be more affected. and

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who are being affected right now. So I love that. I love the movie. I'm like, yeah,

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this is it. This is the movie that's gonna kind of keep me into it. That's

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awesome. Now you did a minor in geology. Why geology?

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I have to know. I think it's a great field, complicated

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and complex in terms of what you're learning and stuff, but why, those

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are two big things to learn about, you know, major environmental science, minor

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in geology, very, you know, they mesh together quite

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Um, I'm not sure because I, when I was younger, younger,

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I also wanted to do paleontology and I could kind of get a little bit

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of taste with that because, um, I could have

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gotten. I could have chose to get a degree in like some paleontology, but

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that's too much for me. I don't know if I wanted it

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that bad. But yeah, when I got my degree in

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environmental science, I focused on life science. And then I

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got a geology minor because I could get a

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little bit of both. Because they do go well together. And I

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Love it. I love that. And so that

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was more of like, it's a fun thing to learn, obviously usable in

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a lot of different fields as you go. So when you graduated, you've

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got your life ahead of you. You've got your undergrad degree. What

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were you thinking? What kind of area did you want to go? Because even environmental science

253
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is still quite a broad field to learn from.

254
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Well, I was applying to jobs and I did get job offers, but the thing was

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they were in cities a bit away and I kind of needed to

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save up money at the moment to get an apartment. So as

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soon as I graduated, I just was an environmental educator at

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a local camp. And I did that for a few months and I loved it. And

259
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then I worked as a restoration technician. And

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now here I am starting about to start my new job, my big girl job.

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Like if you think about three very different jobs

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if you think about like the context, right Obviously

263
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this one you the environmental justice one is gonna be new so

264
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you haven't done that one yet out of the other two Which ones did you prefer

265
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Yeah, it was a very because um, I it was like during outdoor education

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season so it was like four or five months and

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essentially it was mainly elementary middle

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school kids but often on the weekends there would be conference groups that

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they would do their own little things but sometimes like we would do like environmental

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lessons for them and and I loved like we talked about water ecology, forest

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ecology, the water cycle, things like that and also like having

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fun which which I thought it was fun because I was still using it's

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still kind of related it did relate to what I studied and

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I During my undergrad, I also had

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two internships. One was an outreach, and it was mainly for elementary school

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kids as well, and then a research one. But the

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one I enjoyed most was the outreach internship, because like

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a lot of people say, or the cliche saying, kids are the future. And

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what they know, they're going to end up carrying on with them in

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the future years. And surprisingly, a lot of the kids do

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Well, I mean, it worked for you, right? Yeah. If you go back to grade

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three, you're like, yeah, that's, uh, you know, that's what I kind of wanted to do. And

283
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I agree. I think that's one of the most important things to do. I think as

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science communicators now as well is this to

285
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the people, whether it doesn't matter what age group at this

286
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point, obviously young kids are, it's like an investment, right? You're investing into

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the future of education. So they don't come up and. You

288
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know, just learn or listen to anything that's said

289
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that's wrong and then they believe that. You know, you want them to

290
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understand science, you want them to understand nature and what

291
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it can do, the potential, but also the consequence that

292
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we can have if we start to disturb it too much like we're doing now. So

293
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it's always great to see that. One

294
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thing you mentioned too about, you know, you had job offers that were away from

295
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where you lived. I think that's a really interesting point because

296
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I find I've had this a lot of times too. You know, growing up in Canada, there's

297
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a lot of jobs in the US. They offer you the job, you're

298
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like, okay, this is great. But then you're like, I'm far from

299
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home, you know, and you got to look at lifestyle, you got to look at,

300
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you know, what you want in terms of in the future, how

301
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you want to live your life. I think a lot of us, especially in marine biology,

302
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for me, You know, you have to grow up along a coastline, or you have to

303
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live along a coastline. And for me, my family's in Ontario, where

304
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we have freshwater coastlines, but not ocean coastlines. And I

305
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chose to stay here, even though it was going to be challenging for my position in

306
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the future. But this is what came out of

307
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it, was this podcast. But a lot of the jobs, they wouldn't

308
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offer enough to live in that city. You know like it was it was and

309
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it's like how do you expect me to survive or I'm not sure if

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you came across this but the jobs weren't full-time they

311
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were like a few months here or a few months there or maybe a

312
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year or a year and a half and that's a very difficult thing

313
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when you start to look at trying to live somewhere

314
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or trying to build a life somewhere. I don't think some of these organizations think

315
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about that. It's probably due to funding and how long the funding

316
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is, but I find that's a really difficult thing to

317
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process when you first start out. I'm curious to hear

318
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your opinion on that type of building

319
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I agree. And especially within like the environmental sector, a lot of jobs are

320
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seasonal or it's based on funding or they're really,

321
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really competitive because they're just really competitive to

322
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get into. And I feel like that's not talked about enough. And I was

323
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grateful enough to have job opportunities and eventually get a job. And

324
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especially now, because apparently the job market is really bad right now. And

325
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I thought it because I remember when I was applying like

326
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a few months ago when I was at my job I was like, okay cuz I knew I was there for just

327
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a little bit of time just to save money Yeah, I was trying to

328
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fly and I kept getting interviews, but then they just ghosted me I'm like is it me

329
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but then I'm like no it's it's it's a lot of people and I

330
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It's harsh out there right now. It's harsh. Yeah, it's a hard

331
00:20:53,447 --> 00:20:57,110
one. So when did you start getting the,

332
00:20:57,470 --> 00:21:01,775
I'm gonna pick up my phone and start talking about the environment bug?

333
00:21:01,855 --> 00:21:04,998
When did that really start to hit you and

334
00:21:07,424 --> 00:21:10,987
I think my first environmental TikTok was

335
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talking about why blue whales are my favorite. That was

336
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like, that was almost two years ago, I think. And I don't

337
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know, because I do remember actually the time when I was like, okay, I want to I

338
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want to make content about environmentalism. And

339
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I told my boyfriend, I want to do it. You have

340
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the technology, you have the knowledge, go ahead and try it. And I'm

341
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really glad I did because, like I said, I know my following is

342
00:21:35,905 --> 00:21:40,242
small, but I have screenshots of every time someone Messaged

343
00:21:40,342 --> 00:21:43,943
me on there saying hey, thank you so much. I love your content.

344
00:21:44,023 --> 00:21:47,184
It gives me. Hope please don't stop posting I hope

345
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one day you get like a million like stuff like that and and it makes me

346
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feel good to post like for me I love posting because I love it

347
00:21:53,786 --> 00:21:57,167
myself, but yeah and other people loving it. It's just like a bonus

348
00:21:59,916 --> 00:22:03,380
Well, look, I'm here. You're just shy about 4000 followers on

349
00:22:03,420 --> 00:22:06,584
TikTok. And but I'm looking at

350
00:22:06,764 --> 00:22:10,269
like your videos. And like, I've done stuff on TikTok,

351
00:22:10,729 --> 00:22:14,073
not nearly as good as your content, in my opinion, but you

352
00:22:14,093 --> 00:22:17,598
have like quite a few views on these videos, like you're averaging

353
00:22:17,658 --> 00:22:21,379
probably around like, you know, five to

354
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800 on average, and then every once in a while, I see like a

355
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10,000, or a 1,000, or 5,000. I think your

356
00:22:29,944 --> 00:22:33,646
highest is, what, I see one here for

357
00:22:34,346 --> 00:22:38,449
74,000 views on this one video, and this is weekly

358
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positive climate views. I love these.

359
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And you have another one where you have 200,000. I didn't even realize it, it was right beside

360
00:22:46,574 --> 00:22:50,338
it. When

361
00:22:50,358 --> 00:22:54,080
you first started out to now, how have things evolved

362
00:22:56,842 --> 00:23:00,624
My messaging? I think my first, in

363
00:23:00,664 --> 00:23:04,726
terms of positive climate news, my first one posted, I put positive environmental

364
00:23:04,766 --> 00:23:08,327
news. And I probably should go back to that because some of the news I post on climate isn't

365
00:23:08,367 --> 00:23:12,470
really under the climate. It's a little more broad. Gotcha. But

366
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because I know like the TikTok algorithm changes too, and

367
00:23:15,851 --> 00:23:20,313
that's not really on the creator's fault. And I'm trying to find Different

368
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I guess how I make my content is I think what

369
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would I want to see in my for you page? I know every now and then I do some lifestyle videos

370
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and I just usually just make content on what I don't see

371
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as much a lot of people post like Some positive climate

372
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news and they have their own way of doing it and the way I do it I just do

373
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like pictures and so I just keep it short and sweet and

374
00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:45,309
then some of my followers say you should try talking about them instead and

375
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I'm like maybe I Maybe I might do that in

376
00:23:52,047 --> 00:23:55,889
Well, and I think, I mean, one good thing about being a scientist,

377
00:23:56,549 --> 00:24:00,090
which we both are, is you're okay with experimenting, right?

378
00:24:00,390 --> 00:24:03,692
Like, I mean, you put up, everybody's gonna have an opinion

379
00:24:03,712 --> 00:24:07,153
on what they'd like to see, and I think that's good. I think, you know, trying different things, and

380
00:24:07,273 --> 00:24:10,434
if somebody suggests something and you're willing to do it, or

381
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you're willing to try it, or you have the time to try it, because a

382
00:24:13,736 --> 00:24:17,817
lot of these things are not easy to put together, as I've noticed.

383
00:24:19,518 --> 00:24:22,822
I think it's interesting to experiment. Even

384
00:24:22,842 --> 00:24:26,446
like you said, to put these climate news where you put a picture and you just kind of swipe

385
00:24:26,486 --> 00:24:29,909
across for the different climate news, which is great because

386
00:24:30,570 --> 00:24:33,894
it's almost like you read articles and you're like, here's some cool climate

387
00:24:33,914 --> 00:24:37,217
news you should know about. You just summarize them so people are like, oh, this is

388
00:24:37,257 --> 00:24:40,460
nice because this is the positive stuff. that you we

389
00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:43,702
see and it's like sometimes it's like oh you know another couple of

390
00:24:43,722 --> 00:24:46,984
countries signed on to you know like it

391
00:24:47,004 --> 00:24:50,226
could be like the ocean treaty say or or what have you right it's just really

392
00:24:50,266 --> 00:24:53,387
cool stuff that people are like oh that's nice to know that's nice to know and

393
00:24:53,407 --> 00:24:56,909
they could share that with other people who knows or they could repost it or or

394
00:24:56,969 --> 00:25:00,032
what have you, right? I find, though, a lot of people will have suggestions on

395
00:25:00,052 --> 00:25:03,254
the way to do things, and I know we feel pressure to do them, but then you're just like,

396
00:25:03,274 --> 00:25:07,297
well, I like doing my own stuff. You know, it works within my workflow,

397
00:25:07,458 --> 00:25:11,100
because, like I said, sometimes it takes a long time to do it, but it's really

398
00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:14,363
cool. And one thing I really noticed, too, is you put

399
00:25:14,423 --> 00:25:17,946
in sort of your, like you kind of mentioned, your lifestyle into

400
00:25:17,986 --> 00:25:21,609
here, right? And one of your most recent videos is

401
00:25:21,889 --> 00:25:25,111
your thrift clothes. Yeah, it's kind

402
00:25:25,131 --> 00:25:28,373
of cool. You have like a fun style to your clothes. I

403
00:25:28,413 --> 00:25:31,715
don't know anything about style, right? I'm a, I'm a 46 year old dad,

404
00:25:32,095 --> 00:25:35,357
but you have, you like, you show off your, you like, it's almost

405
00:25:35,377 --> 00:25:38,539
like a get ready with me or like, Hey, look what I got. And these

406
00:25:38,579 --> 00:25:41,761
are like nice looking clothes. And you're like, this was thrifted. This

407
00:25:41,801 --> 00:25:45,022
was thrifted. This was thrifted. Do you find people get surprised at what you

408
00:25:54,230 --> 00:25:57,533
Yeah, for sure. I remember I got

409
00:25:57,573 --> 00:26:00,795
a comment, I posted another type of thrifting video, and I was like, oh my gosh,

410
00:26:00,815 --> 00:26:04,138
you have such good luck. But it's funny because I go through every

411
00:26:04,198 --> 00:26:07,340
rack and I search everything, and I feel like people that say,

412
00:26:07,460 --> 00:26:11,087
oh, I never find anything, they're just like, Like, you'd be surprised how

413
00:26:11,147 --> 00:26:14,590
much good stuff is at the thrift stores. And personally, I don't like

414
00:26:14,630 --> 00:26:18,153
to buy, even though it's from the thrift store, I try to avoid fast

415
00:26:18,193 --> 00:26:21,395
fashion brands because they usually don't last long regardless. And for

416
00:26:21,435 --> 00:26:24,798
me, I just like finding brands that are a little older just to have a little more sense

417
00:26:24,818 --> 00:26:28,335
of No one else is going to have this. It makes me feel like more unique

418
00:26:32,399 --> 00:26:35,942
I like really colorful clothes and I

419
00:26:37,663 --> 00:26:41,528
recently was starting thinking maybe I should start dressing my age, but I'm like, So

420
00:26:41,548 --> 00:26:45,330
far, I'm still gonna have my little style, but that's a problem

421
00:26:46,211 --> 00:26:49,633
You know, but what do you mean by dressing your age? I'm curious

422
00:26:49,693 --> 00:26:52,994
about that. Like, is it you want to dress, you know, quote unquote, more

423
00:26:53,475 --> 00:26:56,896
like more like professional or is it like, what

424
00:26:56,937 --> 00:27:00,098
is that? Because I, because I feel like you've got a good style, you know,

425
00:27:00,158 --> 00:27:03,900
it's professional or not, or fine. Like not everybody dresses professional

426
00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:07,462
every day, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I'm just curious,

427
00:27:09,792 --> 00:27:13,054
I guess probably yeah, like more professional or maybe it's

428
00:27:13,074 --> 00:27:16,197
because we're like social media gets to us be

429
00:27:16,217 --> 00:27:19,459
like, um, like, why are you like, or like where they say, Oh my gosh, my

430
00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:22,841
frontal lobe is developing. I no longer find that

431
00:27:24,523 --> 00:27:27,985
Because I mean, my, my, my style, I don't, I

432
00:27:28,025 --> 00:27:31,227
don't really wear that much crop tops anymore. You know, just things

433
00:27:31,247 --> 00:27:34,324
like that. And I do have some professional clothing, but I

434
00:27:39,008 --> 00:27:42,151
Not many people do. I mean, people like to be relaxed and

435
00:27:42,171 --> 00:27:45,534
they like to be comfortable in their clothes. And sometimes the professional clothes is

436
00:27:45,634 --> 00:27:48,817
not as, like, I know that, like when I wear a suit, I'm not as comfortable as if I'm

437
00:27:48,857 --> 00:27:52,299
wearing. You know, like a nice pair of pants, like even jeans

438
00:27:52,339 --> 00:27:56,119
or something like that, that makes me feel comfortable, right? So

439
00:27:56,399 --> 00:27:59,620
it's interesting though, too. The reason why I asked is because I remember having

440
00:27:59,660 --> 00:28:02,961
somebody on because I was, I had never thrifted before and I was trying to figure

441
00:28:03,021 --> 00:28:06,342
out what it all meant. This was a couple of years ago. I've now started to

442
00:28:06,402 --> 00:28:09,462
do that. But a lot of like the person I had on

443
00:28:09,502 --> 00:28:14,238
the interview, she was saying that she actually buys a lot of her that

444
00:28:14,278 --> 00:28:17,461
she goes to conferences with and she spends like less than $100 on

445
00:28:17,681 --> 00:28:21,104
an outfit or maybe even a couple of outfits. And

446
00:28:21,144 --> 00:28:24,967
then she goes to these professional conferences and people are like complimenting her

447
00:28:25,288 --> 00:28:28,410
on, you know, her styles and what she's wearing and things. And she's like,

448
00:28:28,450 --> 00:28:31,773
yeah, this was, I didn't, I barely spent any money on this. Not only that, but

449
00:28:31,813 --> 00:28:35,836
I know the clothes are used and it's better for the environment and all this kind of stuff. So

450
00:28:35,856 --> 00:28:39,780
I think a lot of people like, I think this is kind of a thing now. I

451
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,182
know in my city, we're starting to see more thrift stores pop up

452
00:28:43,222 --> 00:28:46,783
that have a lot of different styles and a lot of different brands. My

453
00:28:46,803 --> 00:28:49,984
kids like to do it as well. But they kind of search as

454
00:28:50,024 --> 00:28:53,165
well. You have to kind of search for that. I know what you mean

455
00:28:53,205 --> 00:28:56,466
by that. It's like search for that unique kind of material. So I

456
00:28:56,946 --> 00:29:00,827
I'm really glad for like secondhand fashion

457
00:29:00,908 --> 00:29:04,489
is getting popularity, especially like we even have apps now like Depop

458
00:29:04,569 --> 00:29:08,090
and whatnot. And I usually go on there too if I'm looking for something specific.

459
00:29:09,732 --> 00:29:12,917
But yeah, I feel like a lot of people are into thrifting. I

460
00:29:12,978 --> 00:29:16,143
know, I don't know if it's because people do it because it's in now because I

461
00:29:16,183 --> 00:29:19,308
remember thrifting used to be looked down upon a few years ago, like it was

462
00:29:19,328 --> 00:29:22,804
like, like, you're poor or like, ill. Like,

463
00:29:22,924 --> 00:29:26,908
I don't know, but now people are like, oh my gosh, like, look at me, I'm thrifting. But I've

464
00:29:27,849 --> 00:29:30,971
So yeah, I think I used to see it because it used

465
00:29:31,011 --> 00:29:34,334
to be like, you know, like a value village or a goodwill that

466
00:29:34,354 --> 00:29:37,917
we have up here, where it was, it was for people who couldn't afford clothes.

467
00:29:37,937 --> 00:29:41,260
So they went and they got used clothes, and you would donate your your used

468
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,603
clothes there. But now I see a lot more stores popping up like saying no,

469
00:29:44,623 --> 00:29:47,887
no, here we are. It's like a thrift store. It's like this is you know, come for these

470
00:29:47,947 --> 00:29:51,375
types of brands or what have you and you see a lot more

471
00:29:51,956 --> 00:29:55,464
kids who are doing it and young adults who are doing it and it feels

472
00:29:55,484 --> 00:29:58,572
like the fashion plus like... things are expensive, so it

473
00:29:58,592 --> 00:30:02,233
makes sense to be able to buy something that's cheap but still quality

474
00:30:02,253 --> 00:30:05,414
made, which is nice to see. And I'll be honest, I try

475
00:30:05,454 --> 00:30:08,795
to look for new clothes that are environmentally friendly, and they

476
00:30:08,875 --> 00:30:12,076
are crazy expensive. Like shirts that go

477
00:30:12,136 --> 00:30:15,897
for, like T-shirts that go for like $30, $40, and it's like, I

478
00:30:15,957 --> 00:30:19,218
can't afford that. I can't spend that on a T-shirt. There's no way.

479
00:30:19,318 --> 00:30:23,299
But anyway, that's good. So in terms of the messaging for,

480
00:30:24,419 --> 00:30:27,521
you know, what you do on, like when you do, is it just TikTok that you do

481
00:30:30,703 --> 00:30:34,505
I do post on Instagram occasionally, but it's usually the same

482
00:30:36,046 --> 00:30:39,168
posts, specifically the ones I make on Canva and every now and then I

483
00:30:39,188 --> 00:30:42,609
do post stories about like important environmental issues that are going around,

484
00:30:42,850 --> 00:30:46,252
but mainly TikTok is where I post at. And I'm thinking of,

485
00:30:46,772 --> 00:30:49,993
recently I was starting to think of Maybe posting on

486
00:30:50,033 --> 00:30:53,735
YouTube because I did have a YouTube channel before but that was more like me But

487
00:31:00,197 --> 00:31:03,318
That's where people are. I mean, I don't know how many users it has now. It's

488
00:31:03,358 --> 00:31:06,939
got to be over a billion And you know not

489
00:31:07,019 --> 00:31:10,520
knowing what's gonna happen in the future with tick-tock in the US and other places

490
00:31:10,620 --> 00:31:14,315
I mean, it's kind of interesting to see this platform

491
00:31:14,375 --> 00:31:17,817
grow and evolve. So now like

492
00:31:17,837 --> 00:31:21,120
from the beginning when you first started a couple years ago posting to now

493
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:24,642
how is your social media like messaging and like

494
00:31:34,210 --> 00:31:37,352
I feel like I'm still on I mean,

495
00:31:37,392 --> 00:31:40,634
it looks like I'm confident, but my videos, like there's so

496
00:31:40,674 --> 00:31:44,015
many tries I do, or I stutter and I have to like edit. I'm

497
00:31:44,035 --> 00:31:48,338
like, I don't know why I cannot speak. But I

498
00:31:48,378 --> 00:31:51,779
feel like I've gotten better a little bit at editing. Recently, I've started using

499
00:31:51,819 --> 00:31:56,021
CapCut. And by recently, I mean, like literally four days ago. Because recently,

500
00:31:56,421 --> 00:31:59,723
because I was just editing on the app itself and the CapCut. It's

501
00:32:02,726 --> 00:32:06,128
A little bit cap cup is a little I feel like a little more difficult

502
00:32:09,770 --> 00:32:13,352
Yeah, I'm trying to get the use hang of it and

503
00:32:13,593 --> 00:32:17,475
The message explain a little more me. I'm not getting it like my messaging. How

504
00:32:18,695 --> 00:32:21,897
Well, the confidence is a thing to like, you know, like I know for me when

505
00:32:21,937 --> 00:32:25,399
I first started I had huge imposter syndrome, right? So when

506
00:32:25,439 --> 00:32:28,861
I first started and I would say stuff I wouldn't even tell people that I published a

507
00:32:28,881 --> 00:32:32,063
podcast I would just and see who was listening and see

508
00:32:32,083 --> 00:32:35,304
how many. If I had a lot of people, I'd be like, ugh, I'm not sure. Because like when

509
00:32:35,384 --> 00:32:38,765
I started, even like started, like

510
00:32:38,805 --> 00:32:42,026
I started with a website and a YouTube channel and then I went to podcasting because

511
00:32:42,046 --> 00:32:45,408
it was easier for me. But when I first started, I was very worried about

512
00:32:45,468 --> 00:32:48,929
being called out. And like scientists weren't talking about

513
00:32:49,769 --> 00:32:52,930
the work that they were doing. Because there was no incentive to do so. And there was

514
00:32:52,950 --> 00:32:56,332
almost a disincentive because people would take what you had and they would cut

515
00:32:56,372 --> 00:33:00,337
it to what they wanted to. So if you talked about climate change, people

516
00:33:00,517 --> 00:33:04,120
like it or you did an interview about climate change, people would mess up your, the journalists,

517
00:33:04,561 --> 00:33:07,863
if you call them that, some of them, they would mess up your words,

518
00:33:07,883 --> 00:33:11,106
they wouldn't manipulate your words. So a lot of scientists didn't have trust in

519
00:33:11,146 --> 00:33:14,308
talking to mainstream media. And, and so

520
00:33:14,388 --> 00:33:17,891
when I first started the podcast, the whole point was not to cut anything out,

521
00:33:18,011 --> 00:33:22,602
not to edit that to not to manipulate it so that people would feel comfortable. and

522
00:33:22,642 --> 00:33:26,045
to get cool stories out. But I was so worried that scientists would

523
00:33:26,065 --> 00:33:29,167
be like, what are you doing? You're not supposed to be doing this. People are going

524
00:33:29,207 --> 00:33:32,710
to attack you all the time. And I realized after a while that people weren't

525
00:33:32,750 --> 00:33:35,952
attacking me. And other scientists supported me so much that they would come on.

526
00:33:35,992 --> 00:33:39,234
And then they're like, we're having so much fun. You should talk to this person. And you should talk to this person.

527
00:33:39,274 --> 00:33:42,657
And this person is doing it cool. And then I just started to get more and more people coming

528
00:33:42,877 --> 00:33:47,320
to chat. And I think through that, through getting that acceptance, And

529
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,643
comments back being like, hey, like, you know, you changed my

530
00:33:50,703 --> 00:33:53,885
life, or I'm really glad I never had this. I never knew about

531
00:33:53,905 --> 00:33:57,148
this before. And that kind of built my confidence. Now

532
00:33:57,188 --> 00:34:00,870
where it's like, I feel guilty if I don't post an episode, because

533
00:34:00,910 --> 00:34:03,993
I'm like that person who's who could learn about this, or I'll read an

534
00:34:04,033 --> 00:34:07,367
article like, oh, that's not that important. And I'm like, No, it probably is

535
00:34:07,407 --> 00:34:10,669
probably important for somebody. And so I'll

536
00:34:10,709 --> 00:34:13,871
do an episode on it and I'll publish it. And then somebody responds like, I'm

537
00:34:13,931 --> 00:34:17,194
so glad you did that episode. I'm like, ah, I knew it.

538
00:34:17,334 --> 00:34:21,117
But sometimes you're into it so much that you're

539
00:34:21,137 --> 00:34:24,259
like, oh, I've seen that so many times. People don't want to

540
00:34:24,299 --> 00:34:27,457
talk about that. Then I'm like, Once I publish it, people are

541
00:34:27,477 --> 00:34:30,720
like, I didn't know about this. And you're like, oh my god. OK, so it's still worth it.

542
00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,003
So my confidence in the material and what to publish

543
00:34:34,023 --> 00:34:37,586
has changed from feeling like I'm an imposter in

544
00:34:37,626 --> 00:34:41,048
this field and not knowing what I'm talking about to trying

545
00:34:41,089 --> 00:34:44,331
to serve somebody by providing information for

546
00:34:44,371 --> 00:34:47,534
that person. And so it's less of about me and more about the

547
00:34:47,634 --> 00:34:50,897
audience that I have. So I've got a little bit more confident in what I'm

548
00:34:55,055 --> 00:35:00,018
I feel the same way, in a way, actually. I posted

549
00:35:00,038 --> 00:35:03,481
a TikTok about vultures a few days ago, and then someone commented today,

550
00:35:06,342 --> 00:35:09,764
That's the video that happens all the time. I had to turn mine

551
00:35:10,625 --> 00:35:13,767
I was like, where did those balloons come

552
00:35:14,428 --> 00:35:18,190
Yeah, so if you do like if you move your hands, and like it looks like a celebration

553
00:35:18,350 --> 00:35:21,912
balloons and celebration. Do you like a heart shape

554
00:35:25,434 --> 00:35:28,656
Essentially, they just said, Oh my gosh, I didn't know about

555
00:35:28,676 --> 00:35:31,898
this. Thank you. I learned so much from you. And yeah, I just I just

556
00:35:31,938 --> 00:35:35,842
like spreading information and Environmental communications, it's

557
00:35:35,862 --> 00:35:39,025
like a good bridge between like the science and the community. And

558
00:35:39,045 --> 00:35:42,427
I feel like that's not what there is a lot of. So I like

559
00:35:43,108 --> 00:35:46,370
doing it to what I can in a way. And I like speaking on topics that

560
00:35:48,152 --> 00:35:51,354
Yeah, for sure. So what topics do you think? Like, what

561
00:35:55,065 --> 00:35:58,627
Uh, well, like I said before, I like talking about like different animals

562
00:35:58,687 --> 00:36:01,888
and species every now and then I do like it's like it's blank day and I talk about that

563
00:36:01,968 --> 00:36:05,390
animal. Uh, definitely the positive climate news. Cause I've, I've

564
00:36:05,410 --> 00:36:08,571
been doing that continuously for like a year and

565
00:36:08,591 --> 00:36:11,933
a half now. And I haven't missed a single week, even

566
00:36:11,973 --> 00:36:15,174
though the views don't bother me. I know some days, like I don't get that many views. Like

567
00:36:15,314 --> 00:36:18,435
I'm still going to post them because some people still like seeing them

568
00:36:18,495 --> 00:36:21,797
and I like seeing them too. And those, those videos I

569
00:36:21,817 --> 00:36:25,159
like doing and just. If there's like

570
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:28,925
a local or like issue, environmental issue

571
00:36:28,945 --> 00:36:32,249
that I know about or I'm aware of to a good knowledge, I usually speak

572
00:36:32,309 --> 00:36:35,614
out on that as well. And I was thinking of doing a TikTok. I

573
00:36:35,654 --> 00:36:39,219
think I think in Texas there was like a chemical power

574
00:36:42,364 --> 00:36:45,946
Yeah, I think I think I think that happened this morning and I'm like, uh, that's

575
00:36:46,006 --> 00:36:49,689
bad yeah, well, I'll be honest one of the reasons actually

576
00:36:49,729 --> 00:36:53,251
we connected and I never told anybody at the beginning was you

577
00:36:53,271 --> 00:36:57,434
did a Story on the Florida State Parks recently.

578
00:36:58,195 --> 00:37:01,497
Maybe like three fourth four weeks ago. Yeah, I and you're talking about how you

579
00:37:01,517 --> 00:37:05,039
know that the the state wanted to be able to build or having public comments

580
00:37:05,159 --> 00:37:08,721
on building these massive resorts these golf courses, disc

581
00:37:08,781 --> 00:37:11,963
golf course too, I didn't know that was a big thing but apparently that's a big thing

582
00:37:12,244 --> 00:37:15,566
and they want to build in these beautiful state parks and they're giving like

583
00:37:15,846 --> 00:37:19,708
less than a week notice of like these public comments You

584
00:37:19,768 --> 00:37:23,050
told me you you kind of let me know of that story through your content and

585
00:37:23,090 --> 00:37:26,232
I was like I gotta do an episode on this and I mentioned you in the episode that's when

586
00:37:26,252 --> 00:37:29,594
I reached out like hey just to let you know I mentioned you in this episode because

587
00:37:29,654 --> 00:37:32,835
this is important um and so that's what I feel like that's

588
00:37:32,855 --> 00:37:36,197
the cool thing I also feel too I don't know if you ever noticed this but like when

589
00:37:36,217 --> 00:37:39,540
we get on social media And I don't know if we, it's just because so many people talk

590
00:37:39,580 --> 00:37:42,944
about it. And like, there are a lot of celebrities out there that have like millions of followers.

591
00:37:42,964 --> 00:37:46,528
They get so many views. And even like the quote unquote Tik Tokers

592
00:37:46,588 --> 00:37:50,091
that are like huge. It's their brand, right? They're the influencers of

593
00:37:50,131 --> 00:37:53,195
the world. And they get, you know, millions and millions of views. And then I

594
00:37:53,215 --> 00:37:56,538
look at mine and I'm like, I got like only a hundred views on this or 300 views

595
00:37:56,578 --> 00:38:00,171
on this. I'm like, then I think to myself, That's like

596
00:38:00,431 --> 00:38:03,953
300 people. Like if you can fill a lecture hall with 300 people

597
00:38:04,053 --> 00:38:07,194
and it'll look busy and you just like imagine if I had to speak in front of

598
00:38:07,814 --> 00:38:11,056
300 people, you know, for like two minutes of

599
00:38:11,136 --> 00:38:14,457
like an episode that I do on TikTok or even like 10-20 minutes of an episode that

600
00:38:14,497 --> 00:38:18,179
I do on the podcast. I was like, that's a lot of people to

601
00:38:18,219 --> 00:38:21,460
connect with and you never know who you're connecting with, right? It could be

602
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:25,882
a decision maker, it could be the kid of a politician who's

603
00:38:25,922 --> 00:38:29,083
like, hey, mom or dad, you need to see this

604
00:38:29,143 --> 00:38:32,765
because this is important. And you may change somebody. You never

605
00:38:32,865 --> 00:38:36,367
know who's out there watching your content. And

606
00:38:36,387 --> 00:38:39,448
so I think that's quite interesting when it comes out. Do you

607
00:38:39,468 --> 00:38:42,610
ever get that feeling though? Because you get a good, you get a solid amount of

608
00:38:42,650 --> 00:38:45,826
views. Do you ever feel like sometimes you're like, oh, I wish that

609
00:38:45,866 --> 00:38:49,009
did better, but actually it hit a lot of people. Like it got to a lot of

610
00:38:49,949 --> 00:38:53,492
Yeah, I do. Like perspective is everything. And even

611
00:38:53,572 --> 00:38:56,734
likes, like let's say you get like 30 likes, like if 30 people went

612
00:38:56,774 --> 00:39:00,036
up to you and complimented on what you did, I'd feel like very happy.

613
00:39:00,056 --> 00:39:03,218
I'd be like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. But I, yeah, I do

614
00:39:03,238 --> 00:39:06,600
feel that way. And also like some of my mutuals, Like,

615
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:09,922
like you and other people, like, they're within the environmental sector field. And

616
00:39:09,942 --> 00:39:13,164
like, I've connected, like, even like, I've connected with

617
00:39:13,204 --> 00:39:16,506
people that advocate for animal

618
00:39:16,546 --> 00:39:20,648
rights, like they're vegans, or some of them work in like city, city

619
00:39:20,708 --> 00:39:24,190
planning, things like that. And yeah, I, it's

620
00:39:24,450 --> 00:39:27,692
crazy, like who, who people like who sees and even if they

621
00:39:27,752 --> 00:39:31,315
don't directly Interact or

622
00:39:31,495 --> 00:39:34,919
will they do interact with let's say they repost it like a lot of people do repost my

623
00:39:37,682 --> 00:39:42,147
Yep. I reposted your stuff quite a few times So

624
00:39:42,227 --> 00:39:45,550
this is all good like this is great like it's interesting to see

625
00:39:45,690 --> 00:39:49,134
what you've done on here and what you're sort of able to do

626
00:39:49,154 --> 00:39:52,967
Do you have? Like

627
00:39:53,087 --> 00:39:56,450
specific types, like you talked about your weekly positive

628
00:39:56,490 --> 00:39:59,712
climate news. And that's cool. And that's comes out like, is it once

629
00:40:05,016 --> 00:40:08,159
Okay. Every Monday. Yeah. Cause it's Monday today. Okay, cool. Um, so you, so

630
00:40:08,199 --> 00:40:11,281
you do that every Monday. Do you have other types of like, do

631
00:40:11,321 --> 00:40:14,964
you say, okay, Monday's for this? Um, one,

632
00:40:17,942 --> 00:40:21,804
I'm trying to. I think I have so far, but

633
00:40:21,944 --> 00:40:25,065
every now and then I have like a little streak and then I don't post for

634
00:40:25,085 --> 00:40:28,266
like one or two days and then I post again. But that's one

635
00:40:28,286 --> 00:40:31,768
of my goals. Like I'm trying to be more consistent with posting because

636
00:40:31,828 --> 00:40:35,629
that essentially is better for your performance because they get circulated more. Still

637
00:40:35,649 --> 00:40:38,971
a lot of work. And also, yeah, it's a lot of work. But usually what

638
00:40:39,011 --> 00:40:42,232
I do is I like bulk create. Like one day

639
00:40:42,312 --> 00:40:45,985
I like make the same. I make videos

640
00:40:46,166 --> 00:40:51,415
of myself and sometimes I like change my

641
00:40:51,455 --> 00:40:59,038
shirt but it's the same day to make you think that it's another day Yeah,

642
00:40:59,118 --> 00:41:02,400
I do that. And pattern wise, I know like

643
00:41:02,420 --> 00:41:05,742
I'm trying to have more like a schedule. But I know Mondays are

644
00:41:05,762 --> 00:41:09,284
weekly positive climate news. And essentially, I just look at my feed.

645
00:41:09,744 --> 00:41:13,347
And I try to have a weekly positive news every now and then a Canva post,

646
00:41:13,387 --> 00:41:16,448
which is like something it doesn't matter what topic it is, but it's just something I made on

647
00:41:16,468 --> 00:41:19,790
Canva. Every other now and then maybe like a video to

648
00:41:19,830 --> 00:41:23,292
show about me. And And

649
00:41:23,933 --> 00:41:27,096
So you have kind of like pillars. So you have like the ocean positive news, like

650
00:41:27,136 --> 00:41:30,559
a lifestyle thing, you know, something that you make

651
00:41:30,699 --> 00:41:33,961
on, like something that you try and experiment on Canva. Usually

652
00:41:33,981 --> 00:41:37,264
they have, and what you mean by that, like they have templates and you just kind of pick a template and

653
00:41:37,284 --> 00:41:41,147
then use it and then kind of fit it to the

654
00:41:44,693 --> 00:41:48,036
Okay, cool. So that's kind of cool. So you have those types of pillars. I

655
00:41:48,056 --> 00:41:51,238
think that's, I think that's great. I mean, even posting a couple of

656
00:41:51,278 --> 00:41:54,320
times a year, I'm like, is pretty cool. If you think about it,

657
00:41:54,341 --> 00:41:58,324
because I'm like, wow, this is, this is pretty cool. But

658
00:41:59,004 --> 00:42:02,507
so looking into the future now,

659
00:42:10,149 --> 00:42:13,491
Yeah, with just science communication in general, are you gonna just

660
00:42:13,531 --> 00:42:16,974
stay on TikTok mostly and build that platform out? Are

661
00:42:17,014 --> 00:42:20,396
you going to, like you mentioned a little bit of maybe going back to YouTube,

662
00:42:22,457 --> 00:42:25,879
I do wanna stick mainly to TikTok. I know they were saying

663
00:42:25,939 --> 00:42:29,021
it might get banned and that's part of the reason why some

664
00:42:29,262 --> 00:42:32,604
videos aren't performing as well as they used to. But

665
00:42:34,485 --> 00:42:38,556
I do wanna stay on TikTok. Maybe more on YouTube, but Essentially,

666
00:42:38,616 --> 00:42:42,379
I want to get more comfortable using the features that TikTok has.

667
00:42:42,519 --> 00:42:45,882
I know TikTok Live. I've been on it for a few times, but I only

668
00:42:46,122 --> 00:42:49,385
am on it for like three minutes or less because I get scared for

669
00:42:49,405 --> 00:42:53,008
some reason. Is it because you're worried about running

670
00:42:55,851 --> 00:43:00,442
That's what I'm worried about. Sometimes I do think about that. Especially

671
00:43:00,482 --> 00:43:03,804
like because I know could I not have a little bit of free time because I haven't started

672
00:43:03,844 --> 00:43:07,125
working my full-time job yet Yeah, cuz I've had like a two-week gap just

673
00:43:07,145 --> 00:43:10,247
to enjoy but I'm trying to like get as

674
00:43:10,347 --> 00:43:13,548
much done as possible But it is kind of hard

675
00:43:13,568 --> 00:43:16,970
to do like social media while doing other stuff and

676
00:43:17,450 --> 00:43:20,891
that's I like it's it's it's a skill to have like time management and

677
00:43:20,932 --> 00:43:24,509
like having all that so I Props to us because we did.

678
00:43:24,609 --> 00:43:28,392
Absolutely. It's difficult. I think a lot of people, they don't realize

679
00:43:29,032 --> 00:43:32,655
how much time it takes to be able to get these

680
00:43:32,695 --> 00:43:36,158
videos up and to edit them and whatever software you're using to edit. It

681
00:43:36,198 --> 00:43:39,340
takes a long time to put it up there and make sure you do a

682
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:42,583
job that you think is a good job. That's good enough to

683
00:43:42,623 --> 00:43:45,986
put out for you. It does take a long time to do, so doing it with the job.

684
00:43:46,927 --> 00:43:50,132
would be good. Now, is your job aware that you have like a

685
00:43:50,172 --> 00:43:53,438
TikTok account that gets some pretty good views? And do you think you'd

686
00:43:53,478 --> 00:43:56,783
feel comfortable in talking about some of the work you do to make people more

687
00:44:00,670 --> 00:44:04,833
Um, for sure. Yeah. And I did tell them about that. I do post on

688
00:44:04,873 --> 00:44:08,836
social media as like a little hobby for environmentalism and

689
00:44:09,237 --> 00:44:14,200
they know my account. So they're not stalking me, but like, and

690
00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:17,503
I'm pretty sure they're gonna, they're gonna know that I'm going to talk about like what I

691
00:44:17,543 --> 00:44:21,125
do and to gain more insight because I'm going to have to be doing research

692
00:44:21,205 --> 00:44:25,168
and like environmental justice communities within the state. And

693
00:44:25,748 --> 00:44:28,909
a lot of it has to do with like hog operations and how it affects some

694
00:44:28,929 --> 00:44:32,970
water qualities or streams nearby. And yeah,

695
00:44:34,730 --> 00:44:38,231
Yeah, that'll be cool. I think, I think it's great. I think more organizations that

696
00:44:38,291 --> 00:44:41,491
have their, I mean, they should show off their staff in my opinion, cause

697
00:44:41,531 --> 00:44:44,972
I love the people that work within the environmental field and

698
00:44:45,232 --> 00:44:48,512
I find some organizations do it really, really well. And other

699
00:44:48,573 --> 00:44:52,053
organizations are so tight knit that they don't want to let any information because

700
00:44:52,073 --> 00:44:56,034
they want to control everything. But I like the fact that they let people talk

701
00:44:56,194 --> 00:44:59,635
and let their staff talk because that's why you hire them. You hire them for their expertise and

702
00:44:59,855 --> 00:45:03,516
so you let them talk on their expertise. So I love that. One

703
00:45:03,536 --> 00:45:07,357
question I haven't asked and I've wanted to ask this for a while. You

704
00:45:07,377 --> 00:45:10,978
post a lot, you get a lot of views, you're going to get comments. Do

705
00:45:11,018 --> 00:45:14,759
you find most of your, and some people are always worried about comments,

706
00:45:14,859 --> 00:45:18,160
right? Like it could be really, really great. And you've started to mention some

707
00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:22,022
of them, but some of them can be like, you know, when, especially when you deal with climate, a

708
00:45:22,062 --> 00:45:25,443
lot of times you get some, some, some, whether they're real people

709
00:45:25,483 --> 00:45:29,464
or not, who knows, but you get some pretty harsh comments. How do you approach

710
00:45:30,945 --> 00:45:34,614
How do I approach them? I usually just delete them

711
00:45:34,694 --> 00:45:37,917
because I don't respond to them. Sometimes, I think

712
00:45:38,038 --> 00:45:41,581
one time I do, but essentially how I see it, I'm like, wait

713
00:45:41,621 --> 00:45:44,904
a minute, this is my page, get out of here. So I just delete them. But I often,

714
00:45:45,025 --> 00:45:48,128
I don't really get that many negative comments. I would say I

715
00:45:48,148 --> 00:45:51,391
got them more when my weekly positive climate news

716
00:45:51,431 --> 00:45:54,654
were getting more traction. People would be like, they would

717
00:45:54,674 --> 00:45:58,356
say stuff like, Well, what's the point? We're already dead. Or this

718
00:45:58,416 --> 00:46:01,617
isn't really good climate. Like, I don't know, something like that. Or I

719
00:46:01,657 --> 00:46:05,318
think I made a video maybe like last year talking about like, Oh,

720
00:46:05,398 --> 00:46:08,740
did you know if we killed animals? Well, if we killed humans,

721
00:46:08,780 --> 00:46:12,181
the same rate we killed animals, we'd be extinct in like, two

722
00:46:12,241 --> 00:46:15,542
weeks, 14 days. And because I was talking about like, how you

723
00:46:15,562 --> 00:46:18,987
can reduce your impact because I'm not a vegan, but I do my best to like, Yep,

724
00:46:19,167 --> 00:46:22,910
because I don't eat pork. I don't eat seafood. I'm really just eat chicken and

725
00:46:23,550 --> 00:46:26,993
and yeah people were just saying like oh I'm gonna eat like a two burgers to

726
00:46:27,033 --> 00:46:30,655
like to the vegans think I'm like, you know, just to cancel like it's definitely

727
00:46:31,236 --> 00:46:34,598
I'm like, yeah Right

728
00:46:34,838 --> 00:46:38,261
the trolls and we've all seen it. I I find every time I post

729
00:46:38,321 --> 00:46:41,503
anything on climate I get somebody that's just like I You

730
00:46:41,523 --> 00:46:44,584
know, you should watch this YouTube video because this YouTube video sells everything. And I

731
00:46:44,604 --> 00:46:48,465
always laugh. I respond. I'm like, oh, thank you for sharing this YouTube video. I'll

732
00:46:48,485 --> 00:46:51,706
stop listening to the scientific papers that are out there

733
00:46:51,746 --> 00:46:54,987
that are peer reviewed by other scientists, the top scientists to watch

734
00:46:55,027 --> 00:46:58,468
this guy on this YouTube video talk about, you know, how it's, you

735
00:46:58,488 --> 00:47:01,789
know, a completely different theory. I always find that I always get that every

736
00:47:01,809 --> 00:47:05,030
time I post it. Right. But no, I think that I think

737
00:47:05,070 --> 00:47:08,551
it's it's interesting because a lot of some people are afraid to talk on on

738
00:47:08,651 --> 00:47:11,884
like these platforms because The comment so

739
00:47:11,904 --> 00:47:15,046
I think if I like that approach it's like look if I see these comments, I'm just

740
00:47:15,066 --> 00:47:18,309
gonna delete them They don't provide anything. I find some people

741
00:47:18,349 --> 00:47:21,512
who like who respond positively Can

742
00:47:21,552 --> 00:47:24,654
actually help other people when they come to the to the comments be

743
00:47:24,694 --> 00:47:27,977
like, oh Like people are really enjoying it here. Like this is this

744
00:47:28,037 --> 00:47:31,200
is fun. Like this is you can almost build a community Do you find you

745
00:47:31,260 --> 00:47:35,463
hear from the same people or a lot of the same people? commenting on

746
00:47:35,523 --> 00:47:39,026
like multiple videos like building a little bit of that audience or a community

747
00:47:39,528 --> 00:47:42,851
Yeah, I do. I do feel like I have a good little community and

748
00:47:42,951 --> 00:47:46,113
I do the same thing to their videos. We both do good

749
00:47:46,133 --> 00:47:49,515
interactions. And yeah, like I said, that's

750
00:47:49,696 --> 00:47:52,918
the thing I love about social media. You never know who's watching and some people have

751
00:47:52,938 --> 00:47:56,841
the same interests connect with you or they want to learn more about XYZ

752
00:47:56,901 --> 00:48:01,064
and the environmental sector. And I just feel like it's

753
00:48:01,104 --> 00:48:04,406
really heartwarming. That's the thing I love about social media.

754
00:48:04,466 --> 00:48:08,450
I know it can be Like, social media can have its downsides, especially

755
00:48:08,490 --> 00:48:11,737
within the climate field, because I know I would

756
00:48:11,757 --> 00:48:14,923
see these, like, videos that would trend and it was

757
00:48:14,963 --> 00:48:18,313
just, like, all, like, negative, like. like

758
00:48:18,433 --> 00:48:21,976
a video of the polar bear starving on

759
00:48:22,116 --> 00:48:25,418
ice, thin ice, litter. I know what

760
00:48:25,438 --> 00:48:28,581
they were trying to do, like to raise awareness, but that's not a good

761
00:48:28,621 --> 00:48:31,703
approach to do it because a lot of people just see it

762
00:48:31,763 --> 00:48:35,105
and they're like, oh, we're already dead, like they scroll. But

763
00:48:35,786 --> 00:48:39,929
I feel like it should be a little bit of a good mix. That's why I do some environmental

764
00:48:39,949 --> 00:48:43,151
awareness and I do positive climate news because I feel like hope

765
00:48:43,211 --> 00:48:46,715
is the biggest thing you can have right now. Um, like,

766
00:48:46,755 --> 00:48:49,959
cautious climate optimism is like, huge for me because I

767
00:48:49,999 --> 00:48:53,464
know because there's toxic positivity. It's not like, oh, yeah, we're good. We're good. Whatever. Like, you

768
00:48:53,484 --> 00:48:57,169
should, you should still be aware of, like, what's going on, but, you know, still

769
00:48:57,189 --> 00:49:00,468
talk about, like, what's good because often, like. The news, they

770
00:49:00,508 --> 00:49:03,829
hardly ever say anything about what's good, so I have to actually look

771
00:49:03,889 --> 00:49:07,370
for it. It's always like, this explosion happened, this

772
00:49:08,090 --> 00:49:11,491
much deforestation, it's always just, it's all negative,

773
00:49:13,871 --> 00:49:17,192
They love it, because it's easy to click on, right? It's like, look at this forest, it

774
00:49:17,232 --> 00:49:20,553
used to look like this, now look at it, you click on here and find out what it looks like, and people

775
00:49:21,053 --> 00:49:24,194
love to hear that. I find too, one of the things that I've discovered recently, and it's

776
00:49:24,514 --> 00:49:28,135
interviewing a few people, there are major projects

777
00:49:28,255 --> 00:49:32,052
out there, That talk about like say the blue economy or

778
00:49:32,132 --> 00:49:35,453
blue carbon or climate like you see like the you

779
00:49:35,473 --> 00:49:39,034
know, the the paris accord Uh and everything like that, but

780
00:49:39,054 --> 00:49:42,435
you never hear about the projects that are actually happening from that You know, they never talk

781
00:49:42,495 --> 00:49:45,796
about some of the things and so some of the interviews i've been doing i've been digging deep

782
00:49:45,856 --> 00:49:49,980
into like Tell me a project that's come out of this agreement Let's

783
00:49:50,020 --> 00:49:53,382
talk about those." They're so cool. When

784
00:49:53,402 --> 00:49:56,604
you listen to it, you're like, I get excited. I'm just like, this is a cool thing.

785
00:49:56,664 --> 00:50:00,207
Why don't you talk about this? Why isn't this front page on your website

786
00:50:00,247 --> 00:50:03,689
to say, look at this great thing? There was

787
00:50:05,330 --> 00:50:08,532
a fishing community in the Philippines where I was talking to

788
00:50:08,732 --> 00:50:12,014
the person that's from Rare. It's in the interview that

789
00:50:12,054 --> 00:50:15,302
we did a couple of weeks ago. you know, they

790
00:50:15,322 --> 00:50:18,985
talked about how they have this marine protected area that everybody, it's

791
00:50:19,085 --> 00:50:22,407
managed by the government, but it's co-managed by the fishing

792
00:50:22,427 --> 00:50:25,609
village. And they have a, so they've been all contributing to this

793
00:50:25,689 --> 00:50:29,371
savings account. So like the whole village has this savings account in

794
00:50:29,431 --> 00:50:33,314
case there's like a typhoon or cyclone that comes through and it destroys the

795
00:50:33,374 --> 00:50:36,636
MPA. So they can't fish in the MPA because they want to

796
00:50:36,856 --> 00:50:40,358
get back, but they need money. So what they do is when they get that,

797
00:50:40,459 --> 00:50:43,761
they allow the MPA to recover. and they

798
00:50:43,801 --> 00:50:47,263
dip into the savings and they all, they still have money to feed their families, to

799
00:50:47,463 --> 00:50:50,865
send their kids to school, all that kind of stuff. So by the time that the

800
00:50:50,925 --> 00:50:54,448
MPA is back and ready to go and they can start fishing again, they

801
00:50:54,468 --> 00:50:57,870
don't have, they don't have to take from their savings account, but they have the savings account. I'm like, that's

802
00:50:57,910 --> 00:51:01,352
a cool thing. That's like, that's a good adaptation. That's good prep. And everybody I've

803
00:51:01,372 --> 00:51:04,614
told that story to is like, That's amazing. That's so cool. Why

804
00:51:04,634 --> 00:51:08,716
don't we hear about this kind of stuff?" And you're like, no, because they don't get out. It's

805
00:51:08,736 --> 00:51:11,858
almost like too good of news. That's what

806
00:51:11,898 --> 00:51:14,999
I love about sharing news that you share, like the

807
00:51:15,019 --> 00:51:18,621
weekly positive climate change news. I think that's cool because it

808
00:51:18,641 --> 00:51:22,043
makes me happy when I see that because I'm like, oh, I didn't even know about this. Then

809
00:51:22,063 --> 00:51:25,505
I'll go searching. I'll be like, where did she find that? But finding those

810
00:51:25,585 --> 00:51:28,806
takes a long time, right? Like you said, you have to go digging a couple

811
00:51:28,826 --> 00:51:32,268
of times. So how long would you spend, so you're going to do one today, say,

812
00:51:37,231 --> 00:51:40,552
The way I do it, I always do them Sunday mornings and then

813
00:51:40,912 --> 00:51:43,974
on Monday I look for images, the images that I

814
00:51:44,034 --> 00:51:47,196
usually came from that are similar and save them and then I post them. And

815
00:51:47,436 --> 00:51:50,903
I say sometimes it ranges between maybe

816
00:51:50,943 --> 00:51:54,565
like 25, 30 minutes. I usually am better

817
00:51:54,625 --> 00:51:58,127
now, but yeah, I usually try to do in the morning of Sunday

818
00:52:01,228 --> 00:52:04,550
Well, especially now that you're going to be working, it's going to be like Sundays

819
00:52:04,570 --> 00:52:08,242
are going to be the day you do it. Right

820
00:52:08,442 --> 00:52:12,464
on. Erica, last question for you. If

821
00:52:12,504 --> 00:52:15,705
somebody's listening to this and they've wanted to start something where they start

822
00:52:15,745 --> 00:52:18,946
talking about something that's important to them, you know, from

823
00:52:18,966 --> 00:52:22,647
a conservation standpoint, what would be the first recommendations that

824
00:52:22,687 --> 00:52:26,648
you would say, like the first steps that you would say that they should take when they consider starting

825
00:52:27,049 --> 00:52:30,630
to speak up for, say, the ocean or for just

826
00:52:32,610 --> 00:52:35,852
Um, I would tell them, like, if they're nervous, just go ahead and do it

827
00:52:35,892 --> 00:52:39,274
because time will pass anyway. And if it's something that matters to

828
00:52:39,314 --> 00:52:42,776
you, I feel like it should, it's probably going to matter to somebody else.

829
00:52:42,796 --> 00:52:46,458
You never know who also is thinking of that. And just

830
00:52:46,698 --> 00:52:50,165
make sure you are getting the facts. Straight

831
00:52:50,225 --> 00:52:53,386
because some people they don't mean to but sometimes they do some like a little

832
00:52:53,406 --> 00:52:56,807
bit misinformation And sometimes they're light

833
00:52:56,867 --> 00:53:00,048
but still some people can call you out on that and

834
00:53:00,068 --> 00:53:03,209
I would just say just make sure you're doing it right but also Your

835
00:53:03,229 --> 00:53:06,370
passion will show like people will know if you're passionate about it and that's gonna make them

836
00:53:06,390 --> 00:53:09,711
want to hear you more like if you sound monotone or you talk about something they're probably

837
00:53:09,731 --> 00:53:12,862
just gonna scroll so I would just say just just If

838
00:53:12,902 --> 00:53:16,223
you love something, go for it. And don't be too nervous like

839
00:53:17,704 --> 00:53:20,905
At the beginning, I was scared. But now I'm like, good. I'm good. I

840
00:53:21,885 --> 00:53:25,146
Yeah. But I think it takes some time, right? It takes some time to

841
00:53:25,186 --> 00:53:28,948
kind of get that confidence and to be like, no, no, I'm doing this. Now

842
00:53:28,968 --> 00:53:32,089
I'm looking at other things I want to accomplish, not just getting them out there. And

843
00:53:32,109 --> 00:53:35,390
I always tell people, when you do, I do the same thing. I'm like, just

844
00:53:35,430 --> 00:53:38,933
record. You don't have to post it but record and

845
00:53:38,973 --> 00:53:42,438
have somebody watch it be like hey What do you think like have someone close to you be like what

846
00:53:42,458 --> 00:53:45,742
do you think you know? And I think that's really important to get a little

847
00:53:45,762 --> 00:53:49,346
bit of that boost of confidence, but yeah, you should post this I didn't know about this and then Send

848
00:53:49,366 --> 00:53:52,770
it and then you get better and better as you go through like you don't I

849
00:53:52,790 --> 00:53:56,074
still mess up on words. I still do that. Yeah You know, and sometimes

850
00:53:56,094 --> 00:53:59,517
you can correct this, sometimes not. We're all human. I find like social media

851
00:53:59,537 --> 00:54:02,880
allows us to be human and not like the perfect, you know,

852
00:54:03,621 --> 00:54:06,804
cadence or the perfect way to say the words or anything like that.

853
00:54:06,844 --> 00:54:10,327
So I find that kind of nice. But anyway, love that advice.

854
00:54:10,427 --> 00:54:13,550
And I want to thank you so much, Erica, for not only for the work you do, but for coming on.

855
00:54:13,957 --> 00:54:17,118
of the podcast and talking about it. I think it's really great. I can't wait to

856
00:54:17,198 --> 00:54:20,879
see what you're gonna create next and in the next year. Love

857
00:54:20,899 --> 00:54:24,300
to have you back on to talk more about not only the TikTok, maybe

858
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:27,881
your job, and what you're up to in this wonderful field.

859
00:54:28,842 --> 00:54:32,183
Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me. This was so fun. Now I'm no longer

860
00:54:34,203 --> 00:54:37,284
This was her first podcast, people, and she did a fantastic job. I

861
00:54:37,324 --> 00:54:41,120
love it. So thank you so much, Eka. I really appreciate it. Thank

862
00:54:41,140 --> 00:54:44,583
you, Erica, for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. It

863
00:54:44,623 --> 00:54:48,205
was great to be able to talk to another science communicator, especially

864
00:54:48,305 --> 00:54:52,688
learning some of the tips and tricks that she has used

865
00:54:53,029 --> 00:54:56,191
on TikTok. And I think that's really important because TikTok is an

866
00:54:56,231 --> 00:54:59,533
interesting platform. I know we know all the controversy with, you know, the app

867
00:54:59,593 --> 00:55:02,736
being owned by a company in China and the way that the

868
00:55:02,876 --> 00:55:05,978
US and Canada and as well as other countries have approached the

869
00:55:06,118 --> 00:55:09,461
app, trying to ban it, trying to worry about your information getting

870
00:55:09,541 --> 00:55:12,743
out to people who are not so in your

871
00:55:12,823 --> 00:55:16,947
corner, let's just say. And so there's a lot of bad

872
00:55:17,007 --> 00:55:20,089
things that get talked about the platform, but there's still a lot of

873
00:55:20,189 --> 00:55:23,652
users on there. And there's people are on it each and every day. And

874
00:55:23,672 --> 00:55:27,135
they watch videos for multiple hours. So imagine being able

875
00:55:27,175 --> 00:55:30,458
to take up some of that time, two minutes, three minutes, one

876
00:55:30,498 --> 00:55:33,721
minute, 10 minutes. I think you can now post for 60 minutes, not

877
00:55:33,741 --> 00:55:36,924
many people do. But imagine if you can do that and you

878
00:55:36,964 --> 00:55:40,246
can take some attention and take some attention on

879
00:55:40,327 --> 00:55:43,649
the environment, right? And put us toward the environment. I think that's really important.

880
00:55:43,669 --> 00:55:47,212
I think that's something that we need more of and we need more people on

881
00:55:47,253 --> 00:55:51,076
TikTok, on all the different platforms talking about the environment because, you

882
00:55:51,116 --> 00:55:54,379
know, my audience may not, you know, some people who listen

883
00:55:54,399 --> 00:55:57,661
to my podcast may not hit the right note. It may not just be

884
00:55:57,702 --> 00:56:00,844
that right connection for them. They may, you know, they

885
00:56:00,864 --> 00:56:04,428
may feel more of a connection towards Erica. or towards some

886
00:56:04,488 --> 00:56:08,091
other creator that is doing some kind of creation on

887
00:56:08,292 --> 00:56:12,076
whatever platform that we have here on social media, YouTube, TikTok,

888
00:56:12,116 --> 00:56:15,239
podcast, whatever that might be. And so I think it's important to be

889
00:56:15,279 --> 00:56:18,682
able to find all these different creators and

890
00:56:18,722 --> 00:56:22,504
be able to hear what they have to say and how they work. I think that's super

891
00:56:22,524 --> 00:56:25,645
important. So with that said, I hope you enjoyed the

892
00:56:25,685 --> 00:56:29,106
episode. I thought it was really important to be able to have Erica on,

893
00:56:29,607 --> 00:56:32,908
and looking forward to having her back on. I'm going to put her link to

894
00:56:32,948 --> 00:56:37,050
her TikTok. The handle is atwhales2e,

895
00:56:37,070 --> 00:56:43,972
so whale, W-H-A-L-E-S. And

896
00:56:43,992 --> 00:56:47,273
I'll put the link in the show notes, in the description, however you're

897
00:56:47,293 --> 00:56:50,994
watching this podcast. You can watch it on Spotify, which will be video, YouTube

898
00:56:51,014 --> 00:56:55,735
will be video, as well as all your podcast listening platforms,

899
00:56:55,875 --> 00:56:59,035
and your favorite one at that. And those will be audio as

900
00:56:59,055 --> 00:57:02,676
well. But you can leave a comment on Spotify, on YouTube, or

901
00:57:02,736 --> 00:57:07,257
you can hit me up on Instagram, at howtoprotecttheocean. You

902
00:57:07,297 --> 00:57:10,758
can also hit me up on TikTok, my

903
00:57:10,938 --> 00:57:14,118
profile account, is, once

904
00:57:14,279 --> 00:57:18,500
I find it, I don't remember what it is, it's speakup4blue, at

905
00:57:18,680 --> 00:57:21,921
speakup4blue. You can check that out. I'll put a link in

906
00:57:21,961 --> 00:57:25,202
the show notes as well. But thank you so much again, Erica, and thank you for

907
00:57:25,242 --> 00:57:29,003
listening and letting people know that, hey, if you wanna know more about communicating

908
00:57:29,023 --> 00:57:32,324
on TikTok, send them this video or send this link to this

909
00:57:32,364 --> 00:57:35,506
episode, and I'd love to hear from them and hear what they think. But thank

910
00:57:35,526 --> 00:57:38,831
you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

911
00:57:38,851 --> 00:57:42,497
your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.