This week on Episode 34 of STEAM Powered, we speak with Dr Kit Prendergast, the Bee Babette, Native Bee Scientist.
Dr Kit Prendergast, also known as The Bee Babette, is a native bee scientist and science communicator. Her research focuses on discovering the biodiversity of native bees and identifying the factors that influence their abundance, diversity, and distribution, so that we can have an evidence-based understanding of their ecologies to better conserve our indigenous bees. Her research has also involved investigating the controversial topic of competition with the introduced European honeybee Apis mellifera. She loves getting out in nature and spending her days among the flowers seeking buzzy bees! In addition to her 'hard core' sciencing, the Bee Babette also is passionate about scicomm, and regularly gives presentations to local communities and schools about native bees and how we can all make a difference to their conservation. She is the author of 'Creating a Haven for Native Bees' and 'Abuzz About Dawson's Burrowing Bee', the latter about her research on her favourite bee, Amegilla dawsoni which she has a tattoo of a pair having sex on her shoulder. Kit was a Famelab Finalist and a Young Scientist of the Year Finalist in 2019.
In our conversation, we talk about Australian native bees, bee conservation, and biological taxonomy.
Watch this episode on YouTube. Listen to it on Vurbl, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Castbox, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, or RSS.

Wrote a bash script that uses ffmpeg to bake-in captions from SRT files into videos for sharing on Twitter and Instagram.
https://gist.github.com/solace/97e0b54ef35929bf05a3dcf1ae316ff5

Just another small step forward in making STEAM Powered more accessible.

My latest playlist for Vurbl is called Go with the Flow where hear all about periods. Sure it's a medical and biological thing, but it touches on a lot of additional ground as well from mental health and economics through to systems engineering.

This playlist features:

• Natasha Coutts, primatologist, conservation manager, and educator, on period poverty and how it affects capacity building and the economy
• Dr Dani Barrington, water, sanitation, and health specialist, on the wider impact of periods and period poverty
• The Exploress Podcast on the history of the menstrual cycle
• Brains with Brawn with a primer on periods
• The Authentic Man speaking about periods and intimacy
• Surviving Nairobi chatting with Sister Speaks Global about Heels4Pads and destigmatising menstruation. 
• Point Blank Period telling us about the myths around periods

Thoughts some brilliant Women in STEAM had to share about how we can promote educational engagement, stoke enquiring minds, and get kids (and everyone else) excited about STEM.
https://micheleong.substack.com/p/musings-4-educational-engagement

This week on Episode 33 of STEAM Powered, we speak with Pia Andrews, serial public sector transformer.

Pia Andrews is an open government and data ninja [1] who has been working in making the world a better place for 20 years. She currently works within the (public sector) machine to transform public services through greater transparency, democratic engagement, citizen-centric design, open data, emerging technologies and real, pragmatic actual innovation in the public sector and beyond. She believes that tech culture has a huge role to play in achieving better policy planning, outcomes, public engagement and a better public service all round. She is also trying to do her part in establishing greater public benefit from publicly funded data, software and research. Pia was recognised in 2018 and 2019 as one of the global top 20 most Influential in Digital Government and was awarded as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Australia for 2014.

Pia is currently the Digital Lead and Special Advisor for the Benefits Delivery Modernization program at Service Canada (ESDC) in Ottawa, Canada. There she is helping design and deliver a holistic and modern digital channel for the Canadian Government to deliver a delightful, dignified, user-centric, responsive and integrated digital journey that motivates and empowers people to help themselves.
In our conversation, we talk about digital commons, public policy, and Pia's dream of an optimistic future.

Watch this episode on YouTube. Listen to it on Vurbl, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Castbox, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, or RSS.

One of the playlists I've curated for Vurbl is called Sporty Women in STEAM.

Hear from these wonderful STEAM Powered women about their sporting interests and the impact sports has on their lives.

• Rebecca Wheadon, Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory Site Entity Leader, Masters Champion track cyclist
• Emily Ross, Business Strategist, Advisor, and Startup Mentor, rower
• Dr Sabine Bird, researcher and science communicator, 24 Hour Road Race World Champion
• Dr Heloise Stevance, computational astrophysicist, roller derby skater
• Dr Merryn McKinnon, science communication academic and practitioner, footballer/soccer player
• Rebecca Lim, stem cell biologist, Pauline Belford, educational consultant and accessibility researcher, olympic weightlifter
• Pauline Belford, educational consultant and accessibility researcher, Parkrunner