Wendy Zukerman Talks Science Journalism On ‘The Women’

The Women highlights extraordinary work by women in every field and industry, and on this episode, host Rose Reed sits down with her good friend Wendy Zukerman to talk about her path into science journalism. Wendy, host of the popular podcast Science Vs., has covered topics ranging from abortion and climate change to diets and cleanses to ghosts and aliens, giving us relevant science facts with a sense of playfulness and curiosity. Lately, she’s focused on the coronavirus, interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts to find out about asymptomatic carriers, if you can get the virus twice, and much more. Rose asks her about how she got into science journalism, what she’s learned along the way, and how her job has changed in the past five years since she started the show.

Wendy first started pitching freelance articles when she was at university in Australia, focusing on political stories, but “nobody got back to me, thank goodness!” she laughs. “Then I started pitching science stories because I realized it was a bit of a niche, and...that’s when I started hearing back.” After graduation, she got a job at the Australia Broadcasting Company researching science stories until 2018, when they got interested in creating podcasts. “Around the same time Gwyneth Paltrow’s star was rising as a health guru,” telling women they should steam-clean their vaginas – an idea science does not support. So Wendy created Science Vs. to either debunk or champion theories and ideas floating around in the zeitgeist, and help us better understand the facts behind the fads. 

She's had to navigate the shifting sands of public opinion toward science, as well. “When I started the show….we were just starting to hear rumblings of ‘No one trusts science anymore,’ ‘everyone’s their own expert’....now it’s just front and center,” she points out. And she sees a positive trend since the pandemic began: “I feel like a couple of months ago we were fighting so hard for people to be excited about science and facts. Now….people do want to know the facts, and they do want it to come from science.” She’s glad people are questioning the world around them; that’s why she enjoys her job so much. “But are we questioning the right things?” she wonders, pointing to people's concerns about sunscreen as an example. “Why not ask why we don’t have action on climate change? Put your energy there, don’t put it on sunscreen!” 

Listen to this episode to hear more about Wendy, including clips from her entire family about her as a child, and find out what she thought New York City would be like, the importance of representation in science, and much more on The Women. 

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