Also: in his profile when we met @afertig.bsky.social said his favorite kind of day was walking around a great city, stopping in coffee shops and bookstores (and museums? Probably)...he did not lie. That is the man's bliss. He's the best.

Anytime!

lol, me too, just a lil comms person over here, wishing things were different, whispering into the void of sedentary institutions.

PS - I hope this is taken in the appreciative, respectful tone I intend, and also, seriously, I really enjoyed Bright Ages! It was the kind of book I always wanted to read when I was studying medieval history in college.

So, I fully agree that there should be many pathways for public engagement for academic expertise. And that people should be paid for their work. And I wish that there were more platforms for expertise to get to average people, because bad info is rife and free, and good info is valuable. Fin.

...or relies on journalists or comms people (ahem, 🙋🏼‍♀️) to make it publicly accessible. Both of those groups have their own incentives, which are not always to make the point about the research that the academic wants to make. And neither have the expertise to always communicate it accurately.

Academia requires publishing in peer reviewed journals in order to succeed, be promoted, be respected, etc. As far as I'm aware those journals never pay authors - because the incentive structures of academia mean they don't have to. Which means the knowledge is often lost to the public...

If it wasn't only the tenured few who had adequate time and resources to both do the research and even consider finding ways to get it out in the world, the question of being paid or not would be less a concern. Less, not none, but heinous pay for adjuncts isn't solved with freelancing.

Ok, I finally have time to write this out. And thanks again for engaging in this!
The Conversation aside, I think if academia incentivized public engagement alongside academic publishing, we'd have a lot more publicly-accessible expertise. And that would be a good thing.

Oh, agree for SURE. Isn't this as much an issue with the institutions (and institutional norms of higher ed) and incentive structures as anything?

Happy Thanksgiving to you too! Fan of your work. Totally respect the sentiment here, though I disagree about predatory, but would love to discuss it more! I'm interested in how we get more expert knowledge into the mainstream, and building interest from both sides in more than interview soundbites.

Excellent cranberry sauce ratio

The Conversation is great for this! theconversation.com/us