Science Communicator, Podcaster & Entrepreneur: Ananthapathmanabhan
Career Story
Ananthapathmanabhan is a science communicator, podcaster. That said, I had my formal training in physics. Afterwards, I worked as a physics tutor at different institutes and realized my skill is in conveying an idea, that too in science, effortlessly to my students. I have had an internship with Science Gallery Banglore, only then did I come to know this field of “science communication”. Right away, I am a full-time science communicator investing most of my time in podcasting science. I would like to be known as a journalist who has an interest in science, society and people.
I started Scicle on 16 November 2020, releasing the first episode. I had no plans then, to build Scicle as a startup; nonetheless I did feel a sense of happiness while podcasting. After one year of successful podcasting, I thought of scaling up Scicle to a science communication platform, especially for podcasts. This is it.
I wouldn’t want Scicle to confine to any particular area even though I have my own taste but amid the pandemic, we did dedicate an entire season on Public Health intending health journalism. We felt this is the need of the hour. For this I talked to doctors, healthcare experts, public health consultants in India as well as outside India and did make a good sense of the public health/ health care system.
Being an entrepreneur was not my intention but for Scicle to be a better platform I have to be an entrepreneur by all means. So, in that case, this entrepreneurial genre was an accident that was necessary.
I would certainly be a journalist (which I am) but to work with top notch traditional media houses (as a science journalist) here in my country, is something that I’d love to do before I kick the bucket. I have no clear-cut plans or strict rules to play by, I only knew that I needed to communicate science and I need to make a decent living out of it, this is my “funda!”.
I am lucky enough to meet people who inspired me a lot. I would love to speak about my mother, Mini, here. She did motivate me in the best way possible. The next one would be my best friend Roopasri-during the tough times, and at a stage where I felt demotivated, she did support me in such a way that I felt much at peace. Also, I would love to mention someone who is my mentor, friend, technically my boss and that’s Jinoy Jose P who did help me with the basics of journalism. If at all I had any formal training in journalism then that’s only through the telephone calls with Jinoy where he would talk a lot about his experiences in working with The Hindu, Business Line and with Down To Earth magazine and his associations with elsewhere media tycoons. Albeit a senior journalist in India his magnanimity made me feel he’s more of a close mentor or a friend whom you can call at any time if you are in need of help. My association with Jinoy was through India Art Review where I did my podcast mixing works for them.
“A professional is an amateur who never quits.“
Podcasting was nowhere near an easy game for me, once I realized its potential reach in the content market. I had to go through hours of lecture classes, reading books, talking with people to understand how to do science journalism to the beat and also should the same be engaging enough for my listeners. I still remember where my first work had to bounce off (to be very true it did bounce off copious amounts of times) where I had to learn the art of mixing and editing audio. This learning curve was never a cake walk. But all said and done, this learning path indeed paid me with delightful takeaways. As someone said, “sweat more in training and bleed less in war”.
Keeping up deadlines was something I did take the time to figure out. That said, my workspace or schedule works in such a way that I do break down the whole tasks into small pieces with a definite time interval which would help me meet the deadline. Thanks to the “how to organize your works” YouTube tutorials.
Once Jinoy gave me a piece of professional advice that I still keep close to my heart and that’s “A professional is an amateur who never quits”. This is what motivates me whenever I am stuck somewhere in the middle of my work, career or anything that I do.
So far, I am happy with all the decisions I’ve made in my entire life. It doesn’t really matter whether the decision you took is right or wrong, in the end, you will learn something new. All you have to do is to move forward whatever the situation be.
There are two types of work, as Jinoy once said to me, “Hard work” and “Network “. Keeping that in mind, networking has always helped me maintain connections and also to scale up Scicle through associations with big shots/ veterans/ professionals in the field of podcasting. This is thanks to LinkedIn where I do most of my networking. The space helped a lot. I’d strongly recommend LinkedIn if anyone is yet to be there.
I am bad at giving advice but one thing I would love to say to start-up aspirants is that always work hard, network more and be happy at the end of the day. If you are not happy then there’s only a little sense to it.
Nevertheless, attaining delightfulness is also a (social) privilege, not all have the virtue of it.
Podcasting is in its infancy, in India and when it comes to science communication not many have explored the field. This novelty brings all the challenges to this field of podcasting. Nevertheless, sooner or later science podcasts will be one of the major outreach activities by scientists, labs or anyone who would love to communicate, especially science.
This optimism is what keeps me driving.
One day things will eventually fall into place.
Until then, as mentioned earlier, work hard-network more.
Edited by: Dolly Singh
Biopatrika: Bringing Science to Society
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