Ep 88: Bridging Communication, Art, and Health - The Work

Today we are joined by Beth Amato, a public health research communicator and writer at the University of Witwatersrand and Wits Health consortium in South Africa. Beth’s work centers on science communication and engagement specifically focused on public health issues in South Africa and across the continent. Her day-to-day work involves translating research discoveries from the 5 research units of the health consortium into a palatable format that is relatable and accessible to audiences outside of academia. She describes her creative process as an intersection between communication, art, health, and science. For example, Beth recently reported on a discovery from the Anti-Viral Gene Therapy Research Unit which adapted cashew shell nut oil as a lipid transporter for mRNA vaccines. “Cashew nut shell oil is actually a waste product, and it is abundant across the continent; and is basically a biodegradable material that is very unique, and something that is African led and African made,” she explains. This discovery was key following the limitations in access experienced across Africa during the development of the COVID vaccine. In addition to writing articles, Beth and her team also used art to describe the process of developing the oil for use in vaccines. Her work even ended up in articles available in airport lounges for business travelers, catching the attention and interest of the business community in further expanding vaccine development in the global South. Throughout her work, Beth is motivated to decode data that initially seems incomprehensible to highlight its broader impact on humanity. The biggest challenge she comes across as a public research communicator is the reluctance of scientists to tell the story of their discoveries for broader audiences. But, Beth is patient and with a little bit of coaxing, she is able to get many brilliant yet shy minds to break out of their shell. One piece of advice she would give to someone starting in science communication is to be brave. 

Check out more about Beth’s work in the latest episode.

Tune into this episode to learn more about Beth’s work and:

• Discover examples of the research areas represented by the Wits Health consortium—from rural health to genomics
• How she communicated on a recent discovery about the gut micro biome 
• Why she is motivated to tell the story of science from the African perspective, as part of a global viewpoint  

Reach out to Beth: 

• Email: Beth.amato3@wits.ac.za
• IG: @sweetlittlefrida 

If you enjoyed this episode, also listen to:

• Ep 20: Who Should Art Represent? - The Work 
• Ep 44: The Colorful Life of Bird Eggs 

Chapters

• 1:22 Food Talk
• 7:11 Guest Intro
• 8:00 What is a Public Health Research Communicator?
• 12:36 Tell us about your creative process in communicating science
• 20:16 What do you love most about what you do?
• 22:51 What do you find most challenging in your role?
• 29:05 What topics do you focus on currently and how has that changed over time?
• 33:26 What advice would you give to someone who wants a role like yours?
• 36:46 How to reach Beth

Transcript

What can you do with your love of science? We'll tell you. Hello and thank you for tuning in to to another episode of your favorite podcast, We Love Science. We are your hosts. I am Fatu

and I'm Shekerah. And today we're talking about public health communications and science writing with an international twist.

Yes, we are. Our special guest chatting with us today is Beth Amato, a public health research communicator working for various research units under the Witz Health Consortium banner, including the Sydney Brener Institute for Molecular Bioscience based in South Africa. Beth, we're so incredibly happy you could join us today. Welcome. Welcome.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Lovely. And before we get into what I'm sure is going to be an amazing discussion with you, hearing all about your work and your journey, let's first warm up with some food talk. How does that sound?

That sounds wonderful. Perfect. So, for today's topic, what is the best thing that you ate this week? Shekerah, do you want to get us started?

Okay. Uh, yes. I will be happy to get us started. I can't remember what I ate this week. I'm sorry, but the only thing that stuck in my head is something I had yesterday,

which is not a meal, but a snack.

Okay, I'll take it.

I hope that's okay with everyone. Of course

it's chocolate and I think it stuck in my head because it was so special. I love chocolate but I haven't had it in a while.

Yeah. Soed to treat myself and so it was like an experience for me, you know, after you haven't had something that you love for a long time and you finally have it. It's like, oh my god, I remember why I love you.

Very nice.

I think it was um I think it was was cabbury like caramello.

So that's like a milk chocolate shell with caramel on the

side.

Yes.

Takes me back to childhood,

right?

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Excellent. Shekerah,

I really I really loved it. And it's like stuck in my head. I'm like, what else did I eat over the past week? I don't think I I don't know what I ate, but I had this amazing chocolate

and that's all that matters.

That's all I can remember. Perfect. How about you, Beth? What do you have?

Um, so there is this I don't know if there is um you know if if you guys get this in America or Kenya, but there is this biscuit there is this biscuit spread called Bisoff

and um basically Yes. And so I went and bought an actual jar of it

and I ate it a kind of by the spoonful and really really delicious. Um, and it's kind of a big fad here where everybody is buying it and putting it in their ice cream and putting it on waffles and pancakes.

So, I have bitten and I have a massive sweet tooth.

Um, so I I eat sweets all the time and so I have to say that this is heavenly for me.

Oh my gosh, that

that is one of those things that I cannot buy. because I will do the same thing. I will sit there with the spoon and I will just eat it up out of the jar. And I do love biscoff and I have seen it in our in our uh supermarket and I've been staying away from it. I know I can't buy that. I'm not going to spread it on any except my tongue.

I know.

I know. This is the problem. And you know and as a and I know the science and I know um you know the the health around sort of diet and sugar and here's me kind of you know, saying, but still, these are the best things ever, so I have to I have to indulge.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, we can treat ourselves every once in once in a while, right?

Agreed.

That's how I've been. I I've been trying to eat healthy, too. So, I I've been staying away from chocolate, but I think, you know what? I can treat myself. I can treat myself.

So, I really I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was special.

I feel it best.

You two are being so indulgent over there,

but I love it for both.

Perfect.

What about you, Fatu?

I did not have a snack or anything as I would say like delicious, you know, as as you guys had maybe. And it wasn't on the sweet side per se, but I discovered that one of the local restaurants that I really like that makes sort of like more traditional what they call like swuahili cuisine, which is what you um typically eat on the coast of Kenya, which is a little bit different than food that you get in other parts. Um they have an amazing breakfast platter and I discovered that they also I can get them like delivered.

So I ordered myself a beautiful breakfast platter, something meant for four people but just for me

and literally that's all I've been eating the past like two days.

It's just breakfast for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. And it's such a nice spread. They have these like really like soft local donuts called which are just like really delicious. And then they have like really tiny donuts that are covered with like cardamom and sugar. There's like kebabs. So then you're getting like your savory. There's samosas. There's spring rolls. Um and then there's like this um really nice mixture of um it's I think it's like black eyed peas and um coconut which you eat with like the Yeah. with the donuts. So good. And then to top it all off, of course, nothing would be complete without potatoes. And so there also these just beautiful crispy fried potatoes. And yes, so I have I have been indulging in breakfast non-stop.

Beautiful.

And it's been great. It's been great. Yeah.

Fantastic. Yeah, that definitely sounds like a lot of breakfast. Yeah.

But it's been so good. It's been so good. I did not know that they that they delivered, but I decided to treat myself also to one of my favorite meals of the day, which is breakfast. enjoying it.

Yes.

Wonderful.

Great. So, thank you both also for sharing your sweet tooth, which is really nice

with all of us.

So, let's jump in. Our guest today is Beth Amato and she is a public health research communicator. Beth's work has been recognized through fellowships with the African Academy of Sciences and Columbia University's Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma as well. as well as awards for reporting on mental health and childhood trauma. She has published in both academic journals and leading African media outlets and continues to bridge the gap between science and society through strategic content creation, stakeholder engagement, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Beth, this is so wonderful. We're really excited to have you. So, we're going to start with kind of um to give our audience a better understanding of what exactly it is that you do. So let's start with your role. Uh what exactly is a public health research communicator and what does this mean as part of um the Vitz Health Consortium that you're a part of? So um yeah so let's start there.

Sure. So what I do is um you know I think when I say public health research communicator it's very much um a part of science communication and public engagement but I specifically look at um public health issues that affect South Africa and the continent

and you know what what I do is I take complex research and I basically translate that for various stakeholders for various publics.

So whether that's um you know whether that's got something to do with taking an really interesting story about um how we look at malaria uh data capturing or you know capturing malaria data

and putting that out into making that really palatable and interesting for the media and for the public in general. And the hope is that through really making the science accessible and making the work interesting um for a variety of people that it will affect policy in in that kind of way. you know, not necessarily um that I'm going to take a policy brief to somebody, but that we're going to get the science ready.

And um the Vitz Health Consortium is a research um institution

and they basically have a lot of research units that operate underneath them. So my role is I have various research units under my uh you know I suppose my watch and I um There's about five of them and I then um translate their science into um palatable copy and palatable research so that people can understand it and use it.

Okay. And um is all of the science that takes place within this consortium similar or is it you know like very diverse in many different fields?

So I mean it all falls under public health but it is quite diverse. So for instance at the Sydney Brener Institute of Molecular Biosciences, we will look at the African genome

and we will look at um solving various health problems and concerns on the African continent through uh looking at African genetic data.

Okay.

Um and then for the the advanced the Vitz advanced drug delivery platform,

we look at ways to to deliver pharmaceuticals and drugs uh that is not necessarily um so it's a a drug delivery platform. So for instance they might think of a new way to deliver a a TB drug which could be an inhaler

then um that's just an example and then for the um for SAKUB which is the um the the Southern African consortium for African bias bioatistics um we basically look at how to empower and train data scientists

to um yeah to to to basically uh take data and how can we use data best to inform policy um you know data has always been a problem um in terms of capturing it and in terms of analyzing it so especially on the African continent so that's what I do there and then I look at um the Vitz rural facility which is um it's It is a um research institute in the rural part of South Africa and it's basically telling the rural story, rural health story. Um and then I look at the antiviral gene therapy unit which looks at different ways of delivering um vaccines um whether that's through mRNA technology. Yeah. So it's it's all very diverse and it's a lot um but yeah that's a that's a start.

Sounds very very interesting.

Yeah. Yes.

Wonderful. All right. Um, yeah. So, thank you so much for that, Beth. Um, can you tell us also a little bit more about your creative process in communicating science? So, how is it that you kind of, you know, make these complex topics, you know, I guess like more palatable or just more accessible for um, general audiences.

Sure. So, um, you know, I love that question about the creative process because I think that's it's kind of bridging communication and and art and and science and health um in in in a particular in a particular way.

So I basically look at a published research piece um and I'll give you the example of one and then we can go through how that has been turned into something creative.

So um at the beginning of the year the Sydney Brener for Institute for Molecular Science Bioscience um released a really interesting paper in Nature Journal looking at the fact that different gut microbiota had been discovered in African populations that had never been discovered before in other gut microbiome research. So um what this entailed is this is really big news um because the gut microbiome has become very um you know interesting and has gained popularity and curiosity from various uh people and institutions from across the world for for for quite a while. So what we did is that I interviewed the scientists and with that I thought let me speak to various media in South Africa across Africa and indeed across the world and tell them about this really interesting African discovery. And the way that I pitched it was that if we if that the African genome is the most diverse in the world. And if we have more information about the African genome, it helps everybody because there's more information that then helps everybody across the world.

Yes. So that is a good example. And what was really lovely about that was that we um we made it to the cover of Nature magazine. Um,

oh wow.

You know,

showed we have an artist uh one of the one of the researchers um got an artist to make really beautiful beaded necklaces that represented the African genome um and the different things that we' find out found out about it. So there was a kind of really beautiful visual element to it um which I can share and I can point uh the listeners to as as well for them to go and have a look at that.

Yeah.

Um yeah, I mean I think we we we really sort of did we went into radio, we went into television, we wrote um feature stories. Um there was a lot there was a lot and I think it was mainly the way that we pitched it or that I pitched it just to say that you know when we discover new species um taking African genetics data. It means that all of us are able to benefit from this because there's more information um that is available for the rest of humanity. And I think that was really really great. Um and um the other piece of work that I did which which was also really lovely um was for the antiviral gene therapy research unit. I um interviewed somebody a few scientists who discovered that they could use the cashew nut shell oil um to basically become a lipid to trans to transport um mRNA

uh technology into to to take that could be used as a messenger for vaccines as a vaccine compound. And the cashew nutshell oil is actually a waste product

and it is abundant across the continent and is basically a biodegradable material that is uh very unique and something that is Africanled and Africanmade and it came at a really important time um to discover this particularly after the COVID vaccine was really difficult to get hold of on the continent um because we didn't have enough uh vaccines that were made here and our manufacturing capacity was very reliant on the global north.

So we could actually make these vaccines from homegrown waste materials was really interesting and really got a lot of attention. And one of the ways that we also did this was we illustrated the process of um you know actually sort of an art illustration of the process of taking the oil from the cashew nutshell Um yeah so it was really a it was really an interesting way to convey this and uh is just continuing you know people are really interested in it and continue to be interested in it and a lovely story that came out of that was that um I'd written an article um for one of the university publications which gets uh distributed in airport lounges across the country and the continent and a businessman from um Papa New Guinea saw this and thought well this could be a really interesting thing to invest in. So got scientists. So it really kind of translated into um so so it showed that uh that writing about this and putting it out there and getting interviews for the scientists and doing a lot of science communication and media training with them. Of course that really um you know, led to um, you know, this this being a really viable option for use in our own vaccine manufacturing capabilities.

So, those are just two those are just two examples. There's many more, but we can leave it there for now.

Yeah. And those are such great great examples. Thank you for sharing those. Really, really fascinating.

Pleasure. Pleasure. Yeah, I know. I agree. Very fascinating. I love um sort of the theme of sustainability also that you have

sort of running through these different scientific topics and inventions and I think that's so important right for our planet we can all agree on that we definitely need to find ways to use our waste products

right because there is so much waste that we create as humans so I love that

absolutely and it's kind of abundant and the fact that it's waste means it's basically you know incredibly inexpensive ensive.

Um it was a kind of a really genius um discovery.

Um so and these are kind of African scientists working on it

and we never know where it will lead us.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Excellent. Excellent.

So I feel like we can already tell Beth how passionate you are about what you do, but if you have to choose just maybe one or two things, what do you love the most about what you do currently?

So So you know I think what's really been wonderful for me is the the science is very complex.

Okay.

So for example um you know the data will come and it is in code. It looks like an engineer has been looking at it. It looks like a coder has put and it really is kind of a bit incomprehensible.

But as soon as I take the information and go and have conversations with the the people, the researchers and the health institutions working behind it. I get to really understand what's going on and how important it is for humanity and that if this information is just stuck in a journal or if it is just stuck um with in a scientist's brain who doesn't have the or or kind of the the knowledge or even the the desire to communicate this, it gets stuck.

So, you know, if we don't talk about these um this amazing research that happens, you know, we won't uh we won't know about it. And I sometimes feel like the the African story then doesn't get told enough.

So, that's why I'm passionate about it is also just leading from from the global south and um kind of positioning it not as a a passive uh recipient of international technology or the global north technology. And of course that's been amazing and and very um life-changing, but also just a telling the story of science uh from from the African continent's perspective.

Yeah, I really like um that I mean and this is I wouldn't even say an idea, but I think an obvious truth that science is global and there are so many stories, you know, that come out of labs and come out of research. And being able to give all of them an equal weight and an equal voice is, I think, really, really important to making sure that we're really telling the story of all of us and all of our discoveries. So, I really like that framing that.

Yes, absolutely.

What do you find most challenging in your role or something that you might change?

Sure. So, What I find there's a few things I find challenging. The one is scientists are very reluctant to talk and very reluctant.

Many of them are very reluctant to um share their science.

Um and that is that is a challenge. Um and some of them are very media shy. Um there was such a funny example of a really interesting um cancer research uh project that saw that prostate cancer was um high was more than was very what way more prevalent in African men than in any other population in the world and he had really this beautiful data is is what I can say um but he was very he was too shy to speak to the media he didn't like the questions so it took a lot of coaxing it took a lot of training um and it took a way for us to communicate this um for greater awareness. I mean the fact that he had discovered this fascinating thing that you know if prostate cancer was more prevalent in African men this means that um health systems need to be designed around that um and he needs to be able to communicate this. So we worked quite hard at that but it was a big challenge.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. I think it's just the nature of the beast when you're in your lab all day and you're surrounded by experiments right you kind of end up in a little bit of a bubble. You're always talking to your peers and they understand your research and find it really interesting, but then there's this whole bigger world, right, that also needs to hear about all of these advancements because that's how the science is really going to create an impact.

Absolutely. And I think that since the the global funding environment has changed so much um where funding has been pulled from key scientific research endeavors, it's a I think it's upon a scientist and a researcher and a health practitioner to be able to communicate their science to show that it is still a public good that it still should be invested in

and that it's it's it's a it's a public good meaning that you know in addition to the funding cuts there's also been this we kind of live in this post-truth conspiracy era about science and I think it's also upon us to tell the stories um so that we keep it um alive and that we show that it is still very much a worthy and dignified and truthful pursuit.

Well well said.

Yeah. I I really loved hearing about uh the shy scientist Beth that you coached through

um how to share his idea and how to share his science because there were so many people out there who have uh something important to contribute,

right? And maybe all they need is just a little bit of help and support on the best way to to bring that forward.

Yes.

Yeah. So,

yes, exactly. Um so, you know, we did a lot of um uh we did a lot of roleplaying. Um you know, he was told not to babble, not to go into too much jargon,

to kind of have this question at the back of his mind to say what why does this person that I'm talking to why would they care about this and then distilling it from there and then we kind of used that as a base question and then move from there and then tried to be very succinct and very uh we didn't want to waffle we didn't want to put too much jargon uh through um and just kind of really distilling the essence of why he does what he does which is to um you know where many diseases intersect in the in a country um and it's a high there's a lot of high disease burden um just to kind of first of all um ensure that people don't have to suffer as much and that uh there is help available and that also um we can direct policy and health systems uh to focus more on prostate cancer in men if it is so prevalent. um to so so I think it's just kind of knowing the purpose and then moving out from there

right

yeah I agree with that so yeah that was some really I think great points you hit on and great advice about how to communicate your science right focusing on the why not too much jargon like why should this person care about what I'm saying so I'm just curious do you guys have a formal program for science communication uh for scientists or is it more targeted

m So, so I it's it's me. So, I run them for the different units. I tailor them for the different units. Um, we look at various uh topics. So, um you know, it's it it ranges. Um for instance, you know, we need for the for a for the drug delivery platform, you know, it's really important to explain to somebody why a um a a wafer tablets under your tongue is better than taking a vaccine or for opioid addiction, why an inhaler system would be better than um taking uh pills.

And so it really is it really is different across across everybody. So I tailor them and I work really hard and I try and have them quite frequently. You know, it's an organic and an ongoing process to communicate your science. Um so you know, a one and done and it's not really how it works.

Okay.

Yeah.

Very nice.

Thank you.

So, um, what topics have you focused on currently as part of your science communications? And how has this maybe changed over the course of your career? So, is there anything that sort of is maybe more prevalent or more kind of, you know, like um on the hot um, you know, like um, I guess you could say that is more of a topic of focus now than when you started or how have you kind of like seen some of these different themes and topics shift over time?

Sure. So I mean I think that you know when I started u some time ago I'll give one really good example

is you know the the scientists were looking at um mRNA technology to use in vaccines

and then the co pandemic. happened and essentially we had to see how we could be part of this discovery, how we could be part of this movement to create a vaccine and really fast. And so, you know, what was once kind of basic science experimenting with seeing, okay, well, we need to make a a vaccine for tuberculosis. Uh, we need to we need to this kind of changed in to right, we now need to focus on making a vaccine for CO and how do we do this and how do we get people on board?

Um, and so the science became really urgent and you know at first you know we saw it as a very sort of iterative process and of course it still is you know uh it takes a long time to to discover things but what we saw with mRNA technology was that it could be easily adjustable and it's um compound or it's its code rather that's kind of a better way of saying it could be changed quite rapidly. So in a way it was like how could I take this conversation from saying that vaccines have taken years to make in some ways you know the polio vaccine we know was probably decades long in in its discovery and now this is uh really rapid and how do we get people to trust that this is okay? You know vaccine hesitancy came because of that argument of oh well you know the vaccine is uh it takes decades and now you know you're trying to put it onto us within a space of a year but it's almost trying to explain the science behind it to say well we've actually come to this point where the technology has rapidly developed and we can change it quite quickly so how we how we communicated that and continue to do so is something that's really uh has changed for me and I think co you know despite all its uh struggles and despite all um you know the the massive tragedy and the massive burden and we're still recovering from it in so many ways that the science really uh took off in some ways too.

Yeah, I really like that idea of sort of how the science is is responding to the moment, right? Is responding to the now.

Yeah, that's very well

and and you know I think Bill Gates said uh that uh science seems to have taken a bad knock after co because of uh because of the conspiracies and because of how badly people were affected by it. Um so I think now more than ever it is a it is such a sort of a a it's a duty for all of us as a science communicator but also in helping researchers uh take this moment and say right we live in this really difficult time where science is is having a bad um is having a really bad time. So why don't we find innovative ways we can um speak with artists, we can speak with writers, we can speak with um broadcasters. How do we get this uh how do we get it how do we sort of get its credibility back and show that it is an amazing a still amazing public good?

Yeah. Yeah. Very well put.

And now Beth, what advice would you gift to someone who wants to also become um a public health um communicator um and do similar work to what you're doing at an academic institution that's sort of like working very closely with researchers.

So I mean I've got such an interesting journey in that I actually am a hustler and I saw a gap. So I for the health sciences at Fitz University And there are many research institutions that fall under that as well as the vitz health consortium. And I saw that many people and many units were doing unbelievable work but they didn't put enough resources and they didn't have capacity to basically talk about what they were doing. So I saw a gap and I thought well in particular we have uh the funding has just been pulled from um from under us um in many in many instances from the US. Um which was really unfortunate um and so the time is now to find ways to communicate this so that you can get other sources of funding. And so I pitched myself like that. And I don't think that that's that kind of is is going to go away. I think that the more and more time goes on, the more and more we need to convince people of what we do. So I kind of positioned myself like that and then um approached units individually. So the advice to give to somebody is probably just to have a lot of bravery and to have the mind of somebody who sees gaps in places especially as a storyteller.

Very nice. Very nice. Very well put.

I come from the I think I think my my first role is a storyteller and Um there's ways in which then I say okay how can we tell the story given that there is so much stacked up against us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's worked you know it's worked.

Yeah. Very well put that. And I like how you also um in the opening line described yourself as a hustler. You know like you're really just looking for what is the best way of of doing this incredible work. And I think you found it. So that's really amazing. Yes, I I I have.

Yeah. Yeah. Kudos to you for that. So, Beth, thanks again so much for chatting with us today.

Pleasure. It's been really amazing. Thank you. And hopefully inspirational and hopefully can conversation starter.

Yeah. No, I definitely think so. And you also just had so many great stories to pull from that I'm sure our audience will really really appreciate, especially those who are maybe interested in sharing their own stories of science or those who are also maybe trying to take their first steps into how is it that I can work with fellow researchers um to kind of tell their own stories. So thank you again. Pleasure. Yeah. But before we jump into the journey segment, could you also share with us how people can reach you if they would like to?

Absolutely. And um because as I say I'm a hustler So this is also a real opportunity to punch to punt my services and punch what I do. Um so um everybody can find me um I can give my email and I can also give my Instagram handle. So um my Instagram handle is um @ sweet little Freda. Um so that is my Instagram. I know long story. And my um my email address is beth.amato. So, um, Beth as in B E T h.amato. A m a t o. The number three @ vitz, which is wits.ac.za.

Wonderful. Thank you, Beth. And we'll be sure to put those in the show notes as well. So, excellent. Um, thank you again um to all of our listeners. And, uh, thank you again, Beth. This has been a really, really nice discussion with you. Pleasure. Thank you. Thanks everyone.