Episode Highlights:

• The surprising reason scientists should let filmmakers into their labs

• What it's really like filming science in Antarctica and at deep-sea volcanoes

• The hidden challenge of running a grant-funded research lab

Timestamps:

0:44 - What is a Science Filmmaker and Food Systems Researcher?

4:45 - What does a typical day look like?

13:56 - What do you enjoy?

25:43 - What do you dislike?

32:33 - How does your career compare to your initial aspirations?

33:42 - What were your career milestones?

41:18 - What advice would you give an aspiring professional?

About Our Guest:

Dena Seidel is an interdisciplinary social scientist and Emmy Award winning science filmmaker who combines Anthropology, science storytelling and ethnographic documentary filmmaking as part of science communication, STEM learning and food systems research. Seidel is the director/producer of several original long form documentaries featuring Rutgers scientists on journeys of discovery. She is the Founding Director of the Rutgers Center for Digital Filmmaking during which time she designed Rutgers BFA in Digital Filmmaking and she also served as the Director of Digital Storytelling in the Rutgers English Department. Seidel has a Masters Degree in Anthropology with years of experience learning from Pacific indigenous cultures. Seidel has spent years working in Micronesian island nations with cultural leaders supporting community led sustainable development projects. She has developed innovative International and university programs combining anthropology, filmmaking/storytelling and sustainable development including traditionally based food systems and interdisciplinary education. Seidel designed the impactful Science-in-Action Storytelling™ model and oversees Rutgers Immersive Learning through Science Storytelling Research Lab found that was recognized by a 2025 New Jersey State Senate Resolution for increasing public trust in science.

• Connect with Dena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dena-seidel-4859b645/

• Recommended Resources From Dena:

• • storytellinglab.rutgers.edu

• Extended Interview: ⁠patreon.com/diverseroutes

Looking for career support?

• Check out ⁠Success in Science Career Coaching⁠

• Follow us on Instagram @sciencecareercoach

Episode Highlights:

• How a chemistry PhD led to an unexpected career in coaching.

• How she knew it was time to leave her traditional STEM path.

• The surprising connection between figure skating and her career today.

Timestamps:

1:01 - What is an Organizational Change Consultant & Somatic Empowerment Coach?

6:36 - What does a typical day look like?

7:47 - What do you enjoy?

10:08 - What do you dislike?

14:00 - How does your career compare to your initial aspirations?

25:19 - What were your career milestones?

28:00 - What advice would you give an aspiring professional?

About Our Guest:

Dr. Chrissy Stachl is a somatic empowerment coach, trauma-informed practitioner, and organizational change consultant based in Oakland, CA. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from UC Berkeley, a background in neuroscience and medicine, and 600+ hours of somatic coaching training—a combination that lets her bridge intellectual rigor with body-based, emotionally attuned support for her clients in a way that's genuinely rare.

Through her coaching practice, Chrissy works 1:1 with high-achieving adults who look successful on paper but feel quietly disconnected, overextended, or unfulfilled inside. Her work is not mindset coaching—it's embodied identity empowerment. Together with her clients, she unwinds patterns of over-functioning and self-abandonment, rebuilds the capacity to feel joy and desire, and supports a return to internal authority rather than external validation.

Through Reflecting Equity, her organizational consulting practice, Chrissy supports STEM organizations in creating cultures that can actually hold the discomfort that real culture change requires—integrating nervous system literacy and relational safety into equity and culture work.

Her career has never been linear, and she wouldn't want it to be. Every pivot—from pre-med to chemistry, from academia to consulting, from consulting to coaching—has been an integrity-driven recalibration toward work that honors both the body and the mind. She brings all of it into the room.

• Connect with Chrissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissystachl/

• Learn more about Chrissy’s Services:

• • https://www.reflectingequity.com/

  • https://chrissystachl.com/

  • https://elifesciences.org/articles/71583

  • https://www.reflectingequity.com/resources

  • https://chrissystachl.myflodesk.com/reic

• Extended Interview: ⁠patreon.com/diverseroutes

Looking for career support?

• Check out ⁠Success in Science Career Coaching⁠

• Follow us on Instagram @sciencecareercoach
  

Episode Highlights:

• What science writers actually do all day

• How freelancers land clients without constantly pitching themselves

• The hidden role science writers play in securing research funding

Timestamps:

0:30 - What is a Science Writer?

2:09 - What does a typical day look like?

12:37 - What do you enjoy?

15:27 - What do you dislike?

20:06 - How does your career compare to your initial aspirations?

24:45 - What were your career milestones?

38:32 - What advice would you give an aspiring professional?

About Our Guest:

Christina Nunez is an independent writer and editor specializing in science. She got her start in newsrooms and eventually began covering energy and climate at National Geographic. In 2016, she launched her own business and went full-time freelance. Her clients include government agencies, media outlets, companies, and nonprofits.

• Connect with Christina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-nunez-writer-editor/

• Resources:

• • https://www.christinanunez.me/

• Extended Interview: ⁠patreon.com/diverseroutes ⁠

Looking for career support?

• Check out ⁠Success in Science Career Coaching⁠

• Follow us on Instagram @sciencecareercoach