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Birding & Science Communication with Isaiah "Ike" Scott
782 Plays2 months ago
Extraordinary episode ahead! This week, we speak with Isaiah “Ike” Scott, a senior at Cornell University, specifically focusing on studying ornithology at the Cornell Lab or Ornithology. Ike talks to us about what it’s like to study birds and how we followed this particular path in his education, including his teaching under Dr. Irby Lovett. Ike is also a bird artist and can express some beautiful aspects of his birding. Check it out at Ikes Bird Art. We touch on what it’s like to be a student birder seeing his first Golden Eagle and how those experiences play a role in developing as a practical science communicator. It’s essential to get more folks from various communities involved in birding. That comes through in Ike’s social media, educational pursuits, and advice to other budding Black science communicators! We journey to the future, Snoop Dogg album in hand, and figure out where Ike is going!
Join us as we spend some time sharing the always welcome Bird Joy!!
Be sure to follow our podcast on Instagram at @thebirdjoypod and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction to Bird Joy Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
I want to welcome everybody to the Bird Joy podcast. I'm Dexter Patterson. And I'm Jason Hall. This is the pod for all the homies across the globe. Spot where we can celebrate some birds together. Are you ready for some bird joy? Let's go.
00:00:13
Speaker
What's up, Dags? Good to see you, brother. How you week we
Memories of Birding with Ike
00:00:31
Speaker
talked to Christian. This week we're talking to Ike. And we were talking about some of those memories on Little St. Simon's Island. And all I can think about is us doing life for dances together, Ike.
00:00:49
Speaker
You just kind of set the tone for us with that energy. And I just remember just being just so excited to meet you in real life, similar to Jason, where we all had been like IG homies for a while, you know, and to Get on that island together, and just to be able to see your bird joy in real life, Ike was just truly, truly inspiring, man. So i am I'm so excited to see you. Happy that we get a chance to catch up, but, man, welcome to the Bird Joy podcast. Also, well, thank you guys so much for having me. I know it's been a ah long time coming, just been reaching out and wanting to be. And I saw some of your your episodes, and I was like, oh, I i i have to join. Like, I have to get my episode. I'm glad it's finally happening and yeah man like the art gathering we had at Little Saint Simon's Island and was just a dream come true and like it was yeah just so much joy just dancing singing celebrating watch bird watching with with all of us black birders being joyful together and just
00:01:53
Speaker
spending time and outside that was like something I always envisioned and um yeah that was just amazing amazing highlight experience of just the whole bird watching journey I'm sure that we we're all on that's what I see like Ever since, from the first day of like picking up binoculars, it's like we've been on this journey. And it's it's been very fruitful and very awesome. And I'm really glad to know you guys. so Likewise, homie. Likewise. So let's let's talk a little bit. i You're doing some really, really cool things, not only in regards to how you're communicating about your joy of birds with your social media
Ike's Influence on Social Media
00:02:30
Speaker
account. You are killing it on social media, by the way. over 105,000 followers just on IG alone. So when we're thinking about this next generation of birders and environmentalists and naturalists, what inspired you? You're at Cornell right now. It looks like you're chilling in like a dorm room or something. where off-campus housing right now, what inspired you to really think about trying to combine not only environmental studies, sustainability, science communication, and burning?
Academic Journey at Cornell
00:03:02
Speaker
What inspired you to take that route for your education? Yeah. And um yeah, so what where I am now, I'm like, I just found like this very quiet office on campus because I have like a meeting. So just like I had to find a place in my schedule and it worked out. Yeah. So what inspired me is, well, it's really interesting because when I first decided like what my major was going to be enrolling into Cornell, I really, I didn't want to be in environment and sustainability actually. Cause I was thinking like,
00:03:32
Speaker
I didn't really know a lot about it. I was like, I just want to study birds. I want to go to Cornell to study birds. As one does. As one does. Understandable. Yes. Exactly. I was like, is there a ornithology or even something zoology major? Because I really just wanted to focus on the study of that. And it was like a biology. You can be a biology major.
00:03:54
Speaker
and um with biology it's more like cells and you know working with diseases and like other it's like not ah it's not what I really thought and it also required taking more difficult courses like you know like calculus different math courses chemistry genetics and like all these and then even my mom who was also like present during this time was just like I don't know if you want to do like you know biological sciences because that's more... like I feel like better fit is environment and sustainability. And so when I was like looking and reading into it, I was thinking, okay, you know I think I'll
Choosing Environment and Sustainability
00:04:34
Speaker
learn more about it. you know i love I like the environment. and but yeah and it turns out that that was a great decision because most of the ornithology students of the students that are interested in working in the lab and studying birds here are environment and sustainability majors and we call it es ENS majors and so yeah and also
00:04:55
Speaker
some students were like bold and ambitious to do the biology, so biological science major, but they ended up switching over to the ENS because it's like, oh, bio the bio major is so hard. Like why is it so hard? I just want to study birds and so on. So yeah, so I made that decision and in in in this, like in the beginning of like some courses that I took as ah an ENS major, we just started I started to learn more about like the introduction of like environment and like what sustainability means and and just more of how how much an overlap of like environmental sciences and sustainability is in ornithology. Really, the whole goal is to just take care of their environment. and like That's what we want to do with birds, right? We want to you know make sure that birds are around and that they're being taken care of and
00:05:50
Speaker
So there's a lot of yeah just a lot of overlap and it was I think it was a great fit overall. And just being a steward, I think that's a common theme and something that I've kind of fallen in love with.
Importance of Stewardship
00:06:04
Speaker
The stewardship, taking care of the earth, taking care of birds, taking care of communities, and of even cultures, um that's all important for the coexistence of people and the natural world and and and animals. And I think that idea is what kind of wraps just being able to to take care of of every living thing. Yeah, I like that. i like that in my in I can understand. I mean, I got i got to come clean. I am a biology major or the master's degree in molecular biology. Wow.
00:06:38
Speaker
yeah jason your life i listen no but listen but listen don't for that i would not listen listen um listen When you talk about some of the challenging coursework, i I, you know, I get some little PTSD, some flashbacks, you know, so before the, before the episode, you know, we were talking about, you know, how busy you are in your senior year. And so as that's what I meant when I said, I know, you know, It's a little wild and you got all this knowledge stuffed in your head and you're trying to figure out what am I going to do with it? But it's really inspiring to hear you finding your way because we met you earlier in your college career, right? You were just as enthusiastic, just as energetic, just as joyful, but not here. Now you got a little bit more wisdom about, about where things are and what things can be. Right. And that's, and that's, I mean, it's really, really, really beautiful to see. And, um, you know, I understand you have a, uh, student design concentration and science communication and ornithology. Is that something that a lot of, a lot of folks at your school exercise, like that student design concentration and what made you decide on that? And what do you think you might want to do with it? You know, coming out of
Designing a Flexible Major
00:07:44
Speaker
school. Yes, so the student design was also one of the reasons why the ENS major became more popular than than like bio and like other majors that's in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences because you can have, there's like so much flexibility and like that's one of the great things that lets you be flexible is like you can design your own concentration. So basically like a concentration is When, whenever we establish our major, we have to, you know, there's different, you can specify exactly what, what you're interested in studying and learning about through these concentrations. And there's like different ones. There's this one you can get into like environmental policy. There's like an environmental policy concentration. There's a, this is one called eBay. It's like, wait, eBay? Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what's happening. Is it like selling bird feeders on the internet? like Not like the not like the ah ah the shopping site. It's an acronym. It means like, I honestly kind of forgot. It's like, I think it's business, like environmental business and something. So you get to like economics, but um I didn't really see one that like kind of
00:08:54
Speaker
fit because even with those concentrations, it was similar to like being a biology major because you still had to take three chemistry courses, you still had to do genetics, you'd have to do stat statistics, and it's like kind of calcus it like what like I don't I don't want to take all of these It's unnecessary classes that i
Avoiding Difficult Courses
00:09:12
Speaker
I'm not going to enjoy. like I know I'm not going to be maybe. like i don't I don't need to know how to calculate the velocity of a water flowing through a dam. like i you know like i don't pretime pray and i did i I did take an environmental statistics class.
00:09:31
Speaker
and and um and physics and chemistry and I was like I don't want to take more of that like that was like I was like you know what let me see like what what other option is and so I met with my academic advisor and shout out to my academic advisor his name is Dr. Irby Lovett and he is an amazing researcher in ornithology. And he's he's done he's like, he does it all. like He does studies on the Galapagos with finches. he's Now he works with penguins. And I can go on and on about this, man. But anyways, so we have like our weekly meetings. and And so, yeah, I was telling him, I was like, i you know we have to choose our concentration. I don't even know what but to do, because I don't want to take these hard classes. Like, what else do I do? And he was like, have you heard about
Insights from Ornithology Seminar
00:10:14
Speaker
student design? I was like, no, I haven't. And so he showed me student design.
00:10:18
Speaker
So I took ornithology seminar, which is like a weekly like seminar you can take. um And it's like bring all these different researchers in. It was super cool. And then ornithology like lecture and it's like a class basically all about birds. And that's the one that Professor Irby taught. And um also we also get like this free, the handbook of ornithology textbook, which is awesome. um It's from the corner lab ornithology. And I use that like all the time. That's like the, that's like my ornithology Bible. And I just like
00:10:49
Speaker
what was that what was that what was that first class called you said it was it's called all about birds ornithology lecture and like a seminar and it's and it's um basically in that class it's you it's like a online like half online but also in person and like the online part is it's off it's offered on Um, by the Cornell lab on mythology, like anyone can sign up for it. I forgot the exact name of the program, but it's like, just like a general on mythology. But anyways, and then like, I was going to say, and it's something that's open to the public. I took a, uh, well, I'm in the middle of taking a bird sketching course from Cornell lab, which I am terrible at still. yeah But you know shout out to Cornell for that for that kind of stuff because it does make things pretty accessible. and It's really interesting to hear that the students themselves can pop in and out of those as necessary right for things that they're interested in and bring them joy. That's that's really awesome. I didn't know. We're talking about bird sketches. and I don't know many people that are better at sketching birds than this guy. we got out was gonna say I was going to say.
00:11:54
Speaker
I got some, I got some artwork here in my office from the homie. Oh, really? Wait, really? What is it behind you? I do. No, it's not behind me. I'm going to have to go get it here in a minute, but I'll show you before we do. Oh, wow. I appreciate, appreciate repping the bird art. That's right, man. That's right. If y'all have not seen it, you need to check out Ike's bird art. I know Jason will link it in the show notes for sure. Yes. I want Instagram. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:20
Speaker
All right, when I go to your Instagram, the first thing you see is explore, observe, and learn, right? And you label yourself as an adventure birder.
Importance of Science Communication
00:12:29
Speaker
One thing that stands out to me when you mention explore, you're Azure exploring, Azure observing, Azure learning, you're really good at sharing that with your audience along the way. Can you talk a little bit about why you think it's important for scientists to be able to effectively communicate environmental issues?
00:12:49
Speaker
Yeah, so well I really think it's very important mainly to spread awareness and to, you know, having the public know about environmental issues in order for them to, for solutions to be made and and shared and kind of getting the public in practice of like, oh, okay, we have this issue in our environment.
00:13:10
Speaker
and we may we may not know that it could be something that is like a product or a reaction of you know something that we're doing and how can we how can we fix this? How will we come up with solutions? So I think it's is's very important for coming up with solutions especially when a lot of public opinions can influence and create amazing solutions to environmental issues. And then also like I know and it's interesting I just took a science communication class and just the whole importance of like communicating what your findings and conclusions that you make in your studies or in anything that it's important to share that with the public because
00:13:52
Speaker
for people to just care about and to just generally just have a concern or interest about it and then there was actually there's this great analogy that a professor said in the class and in this class this is also like one of the requirements I made for myself in my college And it's like saying, if you can't explain something or effectively communicate a scientific finding or just any kind of of conclusion to your grandmother or you know just just someone that's still seeing your family, then like why does it even matter? like Who would care? Who would even, why would they want to know this information? So I think it's very important that that the public should care and want to take care of the environment when they're known about these issues that scientists and researchers are like finding. yeah And um like a great example of that is like with window strikes and birds. That's like one of the leading causes of mortalities in migratory bird populations. Millions of birds are, we lose millions of birds every year just to
00:14:58
Speaker
just simple window strikes and so it may not people the public may not know about these about how it's an environmental hazard for migratory birds because it's made like oh well i haven't seen a bird hit my window or or haven't seen that anywhere especially if you like live in more like like rural areas or like not major yeah cities. And I'm kind of, I've also kind of seen this at my home as well, where like when I first learning about like, Oh, there's, you know, there's issues with window strikes with birds and was thinking like, Oh, this is something that seems more prevalent in cities and like, you know, tall buildings. But then there was actually a brown Thrasher that like hit one of my windows and it was okay.
00:15:43
Speaker
at least from the like initially it was okay and and I was like oh wow even this this window in my house and this is a place where I thought like I'll never expect that yeah ah bird in my know it happened yeah so's all over yeah I really think that's um yeah It's important for people that to know about that issue and just to for just the conservation and the protection of birds. I always tell my students, I teach science communication, um and I always tell my students, can you explain your research to somebody like they're a fourth grader?
00:16:23
Speaker
And I'm not saying that you're, and I always tell them, you're not dumbing it down. You're just simply explaining it to a regular person. Why would you do matters to their life, right? They don't care about your research. They don't care about that white paper. They don't care about that data. What they care about is how all of those things that you do impact their life.
00:16:47
Speaker
And if you can explain that to them like a fourth grader, you are now moving the needle because now they understand the importance of your work. And ultimately as a scientist, and that's what I try to communicate to my colleagues, is if you cannot explain what you do at that level, then you're always going to have a communication problem. Then you're always going to have a trust problem. So when I see you you know traveling the world and going to these places and you're burning and you're finding your joy, but in those moments, taking the time to explain what you're seeing to people at a basic joy level, you're not only educating them right on what you're learning in that moment, what you're observing in that moment, which is
00:17:31
Speaker
science, um which is so powerful, man. And I can't tell you enough as a professor how many times when I when I watch what you do and I just smile ear to ear like, I'm like, this dude just gets it. Yeah, like literally, like I just encourage anyone. Check out at Ike's Birding Hikes on Instagram. The homies like hanging out with Galapagos tortoises and penguins and in Colombia feeding hummingbirds like any.
00:17:59
Speaker
And he's educating you as he does it. Right. He's taking you on the journey with him. Right. and and And doing a damn good job at it. And i I always laugh when people say, you know, if you can't explain it to a fourth grader or a five year old, you know, you haven't you haven't quite perfected it yet. And I just got hit this morning. My son, we're on the way to pick some pumpkins. And he like looks across the seat and he goes, he goes, dad, like, why are we human? And I was like, what do you mean? He was like, he was like, well, like, you know, like, why are we human? And I was like, damn. You know, I start trying to figure out how to like, you know, but, you know, in my head, I'm like, oh, I i can go through evolution and natural selection and all these different forces in the environment and dot, dot, dot, dot, but he don't care. He wants an answer that makes sense to him. Right. And like, whether his grandma, fourth grader or my son, right. Like it's it does take a particular skill set. Right. And I and I appreciate, you know, what Dexter said around making it impactful to the person's life. Right. And and that is um
00:18:53
Speaker
I mean we all were sentient during covid right and i've been working in vaccines for almost twenty years and lord have my i just science communication was necessary and it wasn't around in twenty twenty and it was it was wild right and so we can see the impact of misinformation when people on approach with respect.
00:19:13
Speaker
and they're not approached with ah some empathy that they may not know some of this background information and people don't go explain it to them. Right. So it's like it's really cool, like because I learned so much from you. I like any time something comes across my timeline. If I see you standing to the left of the screen, you know. I noticed something on the right of the screen and you're going to explain it to me. You know, the, the, I can't remember which bird it was, but you, maybe it was the penguin, but you're like floating in the water with like snorkel gear. And I'm like, this is crazy, man. This is so awesome. Like that was so cool. Like, but like, that's what.
00:19:45
Speaker
we need today because people try to pretend like social media is like this thing that's that's gonna go away one day like social media is here this is where people do some of their learning and that's not necessarily a bad thing so if you have in this new medium in the last twenty years like if you have the ability to communicate well and transport those ideas in the people's minds like man that's I'm so excited for you, man. That sounds so awesome, you know, that you're going to be able to, to kind of go and go and go and do that for folks. And I know you're working real hard on
Birding Experience at Cornell
00:20:13
Speaker
that. You've seen your year at Cornell, um, grinding, but maybe we can kind of shift a little bit and talk about, uh, not Ike the student, not Ike the science communicator, not Ike the social media mogul. Let's talk about Ike the birder, Ike the birder.
00:20:29
Speaker
How is it you're on what a lot of us would call is like the Mecca of bird knowledge in the United States, at least Cornell University, right? Yeah. Do you just do you sometimes like have to catch yourself and be like, man, I'm literally birding in a place that holds so much knowledge, like these homies got the keys to the e-bird servers, like You ever just walk around, just kind of geek out, right? Do you do you feel like you're like on Mount Olympus walking amongst the gods as a god yourself? Like, like like how does that how does that feel, man? um Yeah, it definitely feels being here at school and going in my day-to-day schedule of classes and meetings.
00:21:11
Speaker
um I sometimes do like, I know we're trying to do like, give me a burger mode. I'm like, just to talk about this, the academic side, just a one more time. I just kind of sometimes it kind of just weighs me down a little bit and just like, Oh, you have all these things going on. stress. And so but then there was like some moments where I just remind myself like, wait, but like literally five or like six years ago, like this was all just like a dream in my head, just like a idea that I didn't really think that was going to happen. And just looking back, like where I started, it's like, man, like I just have a lot to be grateful for. And I have a lot of just amazing people just to like that have helped me get here and just even with my page hikes burning hikes all the followers and supporters and like all the birders like you guys that I've met it's just like man like I just have a lot to be grateful for and so that's Kind of being a burger being a black burger here and even like especially like going to the lab and bird watching Have y'all been to the lab? No, I'm gonna go ahead and uh, I mean listen if anybody from Cornell is listening through you I mean, but if but if but if cornell is listening and they need us to come hang out with you up there I mean we would do that. Listen hit us up. No, we need to tag them tag. Yeah, we will Yeah at cornell birds
00:22:40
Speaker
ah Look Please sign my brothers up here, please.
00:22:56
Speaker
But, uh, yeah, it's just, I mean, every time I go there, I'm just like, wow. Like I was here like, man, wasn't really, huh. Wasn't really like eight years ago, eight or nine. I can't even count, but it was almost a decade ago. I was there as a middle school at the lab and.
00:23:14
Speaker
had, you know, a lot of that was my my first moment where I started bird watching was there. And so always to go back where I started, it's just like, yeah, just to think of, I just all can just think of like, it's just, I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful to be here. And yeah, and so with birding, I tried of actually have been like burdened with binoculars in like the past couple of weeks, but I'm gonna I need to get out, I need to get out and do some more burning.
00:23:40
Speaker
because sometimes like I've sometimes I don't want to take take that for granted like opportunities just to just to be a birdwatcher here not to be like a student here all the time and working and even though it's fun like to well sometimes my mind to try to learn all this bird knowledge like sitting in the classroom and in these classes like there's really nothing like going out to explore just have adventures yeah with my motto, explore, observe, and and that's a really effective learning strategy. It was just the whole conclusion. It was like, what do you learn? And so- Have you, I know you you and I have talked before around um the yeah birding group on campus that you're involved with. Right. Like, I mean, it's got to be interesting trying to do that as still a recreational hobby, more or less. Right. And and do it with friends, of course. Right. um And continue to build that community, especially on campus. But you guys are all still trying to balance your workload. Right. And that that's something that's going to continue, obviously, after college and to professional life, you know, and jobs and stuff and things you got to do.
00:24:43
Speaker
Have you had any, let's say, special moments of birding that you feel like when you think back on your time at Cornell, like just as a birder where you're just like, man, I remember that day we saw soand-so so-and-so where we went on this trip here and did that. Do you have any of those moments that you reflect on now that are like really special to you? Yes. Special birding moments. All the times were like, all like the rare bird chases I've been on up here. Because that's mainly, that's what popular in ah in the birding community here. where I mean, I'm sure that's popular everywhere. It's like, oh, if there's a rare bird. But I think one, I think that kind of tops all of that. That's just very memorable was, I think it was about two years ago. I remember it was like sophomore a year.
00:25:27
Speaker
Yeah, the fall of my sophomore year actually led a birdwatching hike on campus. it was at bbe We had this place called B.B. Lake and it's like this really cool like natural recreational area and it has like a trail and it's really beautiful. In the fall, it's fall now, so like the you know during this time all the bright colors and the trees come out and it's really nice.
00:25:49
Speaker
and um yeah I was there and so I was actually just started to lead just like what we call bb bird walks and it's just like on campus walks where anyone can come out and so I was I even like posted on my um on Ike's burning hikes like trying to get it people out and because I really wanted to just get more because that's because I was As then, I'm now the um chair of diversity, equity, equity inclusion. So just trying to host more just inclusive like events and accessible events. So there it was anyways, at that event, a lot of people like came out, it was like probably like 30, it was like 25, like 30 people came. And this was like, People that there even there wasn't even the students. It was like like grad students and PhD students and even just people that lived around around um ah the city here is called Ithaca. So people around Ithaca just came and just wanted to meet me and wanted to go birdwatching. But it was like the most like
00:26:55
Speaker
largest and just like diverse group of people that I've been birdwatching with here and it was funny this was it was also the only there that was the first time where we actually had a ah black woman come to a birdwatching height And i was just like like it know that that that was just like very memorable to me because it's like there's so many audiences and groups of people that have not been represented in these events that we're hosting. And so that was like a moment where like, wow, there's where being able to we're creating this i atmosphere that feels welcoming to more people. And that's what i that was just like just an amazing moment of just like, I want to keep doing more and
00:27:39
Speaker
and create more opportunities like this for people to come out and to go bird watching. And even also new birders, like people who never went bird watching before. I'm always enjoy when people who never done and get their, like some of their first lifers and, and, um, be showing your life for dances though. Did you, did you, I mean, i hope I hope you're still doing life for dances at Cornell.
00:28:02
Speaker
oh a little bit. I mean, he's like, listen, I got a social life here. I can't be dancing around in the quad. You know, I see most of the birds here. So it's like, I haven't really danced. since the last I think the last lifer actually was man, what was it? I think it was actually like a golden eagle. Oh, Jason talked about one and see one of those.
00:28:29
Speaker
yeah hard to find right like i don' i thought i would see one so you haven't seen one at all jason either i've I've seen them on the West Coast, but we have ah a migratory pathway that comes through the western side of Pennsylvania. And there's a, I think it's in Allegheny County. There's a, there's a Hawk watch out there.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yes. They like come through mid-November. I haven't had a chance to get out there, but um occasionally we have them come you know down through Philly too, like but not literally not a lot. But that's like one of the things that I kind of want to see in Philly or in Pennsylvania. right So in mid-November, I could drive a whole bunch of hours out to the Hawkwatch in Western Pennsylvania, you know but I also could just spend some time watching the skies in mid-November. So like the fact that you got to see that at school is pretty dope, man. Cause like, you know, the West coast, I feel like, okay, you got a golden eagle. Cool. Right. They kind of, there's a lot of them out there. They they move pretty, pretty heavily. Like you got to work for it on the East coast. So it makes it extra special. You know, you were talking about how that, that event specifically, how you were able to bring all these people together of all walks of life and.
Leading Inclusive Bird Walks
00:29:36
Speaker
I kind of see a very similar approach to your content on social media. When you put stuff out, you're putting it out for anybody, right? You could be a seasoned birder, brand new birder, somebody that's never burdened before, somebody that's a little bit curious. You make content for all those people. like And that's that that is not easy to do.
00:29:57
Speaker
My guess is you run your bird walks the same way, is that you you probably lead your bird walks in a very similar, engaging, and inclusive way. Is that your strategy on both? As you're leading bird walks, as you're creating content, are you just trying to get as many people to enjoy birds as possible?
00:30:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've I'm just trying to get just everybody, everybody, especially people that, you know, like black and people of color, like to have more opportunities to go on these hikes and just to learn and have access to this knowledge and information. I think I think it's such a ah beautiful thing for us to know about our natural world and the birds and everything that lives around us.
00:30:41
Speaker
And that kind of just goes back to the whole stewardship. We learn how to take care and coexist. And so that's kind of the end goal with that approach of approaching everyone. Because it shouldn't be just one group that has more advantage or that has more access. It should be very, very equitable. So yeah. I love that. And if there are, you know, you said something that really stood out to me when we're talking about black men and people of color, any advice to other black men or black people or people of color in the world of science in general, do you have any advice for birders or science communicators looking to create more meaningful and fun content of their own to help people learn?
00:31:28
Speaker
one piece of advice is I guess know know the value of the information that you're sharing and how not even just that but like your face and your presence how that is that can be so attractive to people because it's like oh I haven't seen like this you know black science educator or this or black scientist and that representation is is very needed and people are looking for that and so I guess don't be afraid to share any knowledge or what other people think or if anyone thinks that it's you know you're only doing this for whatever to just be confident in what you're want to communicate and your knowledge and yeah that's that's that's like really interesting you say like be confident right because something I talked about and in various forums is this idea of imposter syndrome that that some of us have as black and brown folks in different environments. right and was that i mean Was that something you felt like you had to overcome or you're still trying to overcome in certain situations just to have your own confidence
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
00:32:37
Speaker
in yourself? i mean because
00:32:38
Speaker
a hundred and five followers on instagram seems pretty confident to me but you know let's let's be real about it right like is it something that you still you know are are are cognizant of yourself just making sure that you have a deep breath and your chin up when you're when you're going out to make this stuff Yeah, I think it really, I've definitely like seen some improvement with that and knowing that you know I'm qualified. You're damn right. you know I'm able to to just be a scientist and to be that well. Especially, like I guess, what as a social media scientist, I feel like I'm comfortable. I guess, I that just make that up, social media scientist. Hey, I like it. You might trademark that joint. Go ahead, I'm the social media scientist. Just go ahead and ah make that happen, you know? Yeah, I know how to you know talk about birds and information related to birds on the internet. In some spaces, especially academic spaces, and it can feel intimidating. Like, you know, am I able to do research? Am I qualified to be able to write papers or to do all of these very intense scientific things?
00:33:49
Speaker
Sometimes after I to encourage myself, like, yeah, i I can, I can do these. I did, I was just in Costa Rica, I did a whole scientific research, did a data, come up with a question, data collection, made a presentation and wrote a paper in the span of like five days.
00:34:05
Speaker
And I've now, that wasn't the only time where I've had experiences like that. Like I, I can do this. So I just like, sometimes it's tough, especially there'll be like some people like professors or other students who may think or like.
00:34:19
Speaker
you may think that they don't think that you're qualified. And usually that's just like of like you're making assumptions. And sometimes you have to, to kind of identify, I was like, wait, is this really true? Or am I just limiting myself? Like, Oh, maybe I should just stick with being the black social media kid who just only talks about birds on the internet, not really important information that could be done on like papers or anything. That's that imposter syndrome that Jason talkinging about right is Exactly. We get in our own heads and and it's crazy because even demeaning the the power of the social media presence is a problem.
00:35:05
Speaker
because you're reaching so many more people with that message than a lot of traditional scientists ever would. you know And I think that's the that's the game changer in saying, you know what? It's similar to what a lot of traditional marketers went through when social media first came around, where Now, the their traditional marketing budgets for print and TV and stuff started shrinking. And all of a sudden, now people are doing social media ads to reach these people. But the same is now true for the scientists. Now that you are, and this is what I teach my students, is meet your audience where they are. And you're meeting the audience where they are. And you're taking advantage of trends that come out, whether you're passing the mic and you're elevating other black scientists and people that are um sharing their joy for birds and ornithology and science. And you know it's beyond even just your platform. And what you've been able to do is you've elevated a lot of us, and you've been showing people, hey, it's not just me. Look at all the homies all over the world. that I'm passing the mic to that are doing amazing things too. And I don't even know if you really notice that you're doing it, but you're showing your audience not only what you do and what you observe and what you're learning, but what so many of the homies all over the world are doing too. And I just want you to know, man, that is powerful and it's meaningful. And I want you to just remember that that, that this is important. We say it all the time, right? If you see it, you can be it. And people are seeing a young black man like you really, really changing the game in a field that has not been how can I say this kindly as welcoming to our people as it could be. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And you know, I i thought a couple of things were interesting, right? Like one, the fact that the bird outing you had was as far as you all can tell that that was the first time that a black woman tended a birdwalk at Cornell, right? Like that's That's kind of wild. And it tells people that even in the academic mecca of ornithology, there is still room to grow.
Social Media as a Bridge
00:37:10
Speaker
There's still room to learn. There's still room to bring this to other folks. Because I mean, Cornell has obviously a ton of other amazing academic programs outside of ornithology. So like you're able to influence those folks. right And then the second thing is, people are kind of forgetting. like You talked about seeing a golden eagle. right now
00:37:27
Speaker
Hmm. You could, you know, we could send people to Google scholar to go read these really dense papers about golden Eagles, right? Or they're on ramp to go get there. They're on ramp to even dream about doing it. Could be a real that they saw from Ike's burning hikes were like, Oh, that's, that's crazy. What is this field of ornithology? I've never heard of a golden Eagle, right? There's probably some middle schooler out there somewhere. That's exactly you from nine or 10 years ago. I don't think a lot of people are talking about that. A lot of people, I think, kind of retreat back into this way we've done things in the past in terms of exploring the world, like I said before. So, like, I think you're providing a tremendous service to people to be able to translate that information. You know, we haven't talked about it as much right now, but, like, the joy, too, right? Like, the joy of learning, the joy of finding connection with nature, particularly the birds. And, like, where do you... I'm going to make you use your imagination here. All right. I'm going to make you... We in the time machine. All right. Oh, we just we just put in a Snoop Dogg album. We're about to go on a little journey. We're vibing and we're going 25 years into the future. OK, what is I be doing? Where is Ike finding some joy? I know you are deep in the weeds of academic excellence right now, but just let your brain float up out of that for a minute. And and what when you think about that period in your life, like assuming family's healthy, you're healthy, you know, the world is still intact generally, right? Like, what do you imagine that you would be doing? and And I'm sure it's something joyful. And just like, talk to us about where you see that going.
00:39:05
Speaker
wait first Wait, why Snoop Dogg? Because if I'm going on a road trip, I need i need the dog pound. I need the dog pound. There's, you know, yeah. I mean, like I eat and notice I said, you know, I. I was about to say we you know we slide in a Snoop CD, right? But I might be too old now CDs. Nobody uses those anymore. So I needed to get it together. So I just said we put on the Snoop album. The Snoop reference made you old. That's what was tell you. I mean, he was my Kendrick Lamar. So you know you guys do what you got to do with that. All right. Okay, I mean a Kendrick works, I mean I'm good Kendrick works too 25 years from now Wow, that is such a long time. I haven't been haven't even been alive for 25 years I know that's what I hit you with this is this hopefully I would have graduated from here by now and and then I see myself as a successful
00:40:12
Speaker
science communicator and bird watcher and traveling the world I do want to travel a lot I think by then I would have would like to then at least on all the continents ah maybe and then also just back to more like being like a burger what hopefully would see most not I guess hmm would it be most I guess over a quarter of all the bird genera. um That's what I'm like. Okay. That's like another side thing, but I'm like, ta but I had a goal of like wanting to see all the bird species in the world. oh That's very, very ambitious. Why not? Right? like yeah one And I thought, but like, there's probably some birds I'm just probably not gonna see. There's a lot of inaccessible places in the world. So at least like, at least to the gene, like genera, of the genus level, because it's like, okay, that's like a, at least I could potentially see every type of bird. So, and the and this it's less. There's like, I think there's like only like 4,000 genera of birds, which is, I think like that's easy, that's doable.
00:41:26
Speaker
and Anyways, that's like a goal to see that and then And yes yes that's right praying for it and then also i I really would love to have our my goal. I would love to have a TV show. I see myself I mean, a TV show, or like a series of some sort. I don't know, like, how or what, maybe Nachio or Discovery or... Bookie. Maybe Animal Planet. I don't know. Who knows? Bookie. Tagging them too. We're tagging them too, like... Yeah, yeah. Yes.
00:42:00
Speaker
yeah um And then maybe I would love to even get into like, maybe some cool documentaries about birds. yeah Are you still looking at at some point, you know, trying to raise some money and like purchase some land? Yeah, I've gotten a lot of amazing support so far for that project and still trying to get a nonprofit and everything going for it. And so I may need some help. And here we go. Understandable. Talk about that. That is big picture though, right? Having your own nature preserve, sitting outside and, you know, doing your own drawings of birds that are on your yeah on your preserve.
Future Visions in Birding
00:42:40
Speaker
at Oh, bro. I could just see it, you know, like yeah doing that and bringing people to that preserve and leading walks on this land. And oh, that's life, man. Like, I think i ultimately being a birder full time would be pretty amazing, wouldn't it?
00:42:57
Speaker
Yes, yeah, I think, you know, I think you really can't go wrong with just being a birdwatcher and sharing all the birds you're seeing with other people all day. Like, I think that's, that's definitely something I want to interested in of like, we like when I used to actually lead hikes. um When I first started ice burning hikes, I was always having to, you know, go onto some property that i was already owned by someone and um get permission and that sort of thing. But um if you have your own place, own nature preserve, and not only that, that you can be able to host people and have people come, but you can have an area where you can manage and actually improve the land for you know natural habitat for birds. and And not only just that, but for other animals and and even like just be able to support
00:43:49
Speaker
ah bird populations, like creating nesting habitats and that sort of thing. That would just be wonderful. I would love to have nature preserves all over the world, even somehow. I'm going to speak that into existence, but I'd love to. Just a whole network of Isaiah Scott nature preserves.
00:44:08
Speaker
Man, that is beautiful. That sounds cool. That is beautiful. I want to thank you. We've talked about a lot today. First of all, I want to thank you for joining us. I want to thank you for sharing your joy for birding and the birding community with everybody. You've got some amazing things going on. You're always working. You're collaborating with brands. I just saw, you just did one with, what's the... Oh, Everyman Jack. Every man, Jack, got LL Bean and Knox and all these Ford Ford.
00:44:45
Speaker
I just, you know, you know, where where else, you know, obviously Ike's Burden Hikes is, you know, where you're sharing most of your stuff on IG. You're also on TikTok as well, right?
00:44:56
Speaker
Yes, I have a TikTok, it is still growing, um but I just need to do more posting on TikTok, but I am on TikTok and I have a YouTube, it's just Ike's Burning Hikes. I need to post some videos on YouTube, which will be coming soon if I can edit some videos together sure and upload. I still have a lot of stuff like video from the Galapagos, from I was just in Costa Rica over the summer, documenting my whole experience there. I was there for a month, so yeah.
00:45:24
Speaker
I have a lot to share still, so stay tuned for that. Yeah. Make sure y'all following Ike on IG, on TikTok, checking out his YouTube. I want to thank everybody for joining us today on the Bird Joy podcast. We hope you enjoyed exploring the world of birding with us and Ike from Ike's Birding Hikes.
00:45:56
Speaker
Until next time, our bird nerd homies shout out to In Color Birding here in Philly. In Color Birding