In this edition of FOCUS In Sound, we meet a Burroughs Wellcome Fund grantee who is not only an accomplished scientist, but also a published children’s book author.
Dr. Theanne Griffith has just had the first two of her three-book STEM-themed chapter book series called The Magnificent Makers released, with number 3 scheduled to come out in September 2020.
Griffith is an instructor in the Department of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience at Rutgers University. She is a neuroscientist with a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She completed her postdoc at Columbia University in 2019. In 2017 she was recognized in the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Postdoctoral Enrichment Program.
Transcription of “Interview with Dr. Theanne Griffith”
00;00;02;13 – 00;00;40;21
Ernie Hood
Welcome to Focus In Sound, the podcast series from the Focus newsletter published by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. I’m your host, science writer Ernie Hood. In this edition of Focus In Sound, we meet a Burroughs Wellcome Fund grantee who is not only an accomplished scientist, but also a published children’s book author. Dr. Theanne Griffith has just had the first two of her three book, STEM themed chapter books series called The Magnificent Makers, released with number three scheduled to come out in September 2020.
00;00;42;03 – 00;01;22;01
Ernie Hood
Griffith is an instructor in the Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience at Rutgers University. She is a neuroscientist with a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She completed her postdoc at Columbia University in 2019. In 2017, she was recognized in the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Program, the PDP provides a total of $60,000 over three years to support the career development activities for underrepresented minority postdocs, rural fellows. Theanne Griffith.
00;01;22;09 – 00;01;24;02
Ernie Hood
Welcome to Focus In Sound.
00;01;24;12 – 00;01;26;19
Theanne Griffith
Thank you. I’m really delighted to be here.
00;01;27;10 – 00;01;40;06
Ernie Hood
Then I’d like to start our conversation by getting to know you a bit more. Tell us about your journey and what got you to where you are today. As both an academic researcher and an author.
00;01;40;14 – 00;02;07;23
Theanne Griffith
Well, I’ve definitely always been a science kid. Ever since I was little, I’ve been really fascinated and curious about the world around me and understanding it. When I was younger, I went through phases of wanting to be a vet and then a doctor. But then when I was in high school, I took an AP biology class where I was introduced to neuroscience, and then I absolutely fell in love with neuroscience and went on to pursue my bachelor’s at Smith College.
00;02;08;16 – 00;02;35;05
Theanne Griffith
Subsequently, I got my doctorate at Northwestern University. I’ve always been really excited about research and fascinated by the brain and our nervous system in general. But something that I’ve also always been really passionate about was, you know, reading and writing or storytelling. And so I’ve always had kind of a dream of becoming an author, but I didn’t necessarily know how to accomplish that.
00;02;35;05 – 00;02;56;15
Theanne Griffith
And I think I’ve spent a lot of time just focusing on science, perhaps a more traditional career path. But then when I was working as a postdoc at Columbia University and I was on maternity leave with my first daughter, I kind of had this like epiphany where I decided, now’s the time. If you really want to be a writer, just go for it.
00;02;56;16 – 00;03;18;07
Theanne Griffith
And I always knew I wanted to write children’s books. Children’s books, I feel like, are very special. And you really have an opportunity to engage kids in whatever you’re writing at such an early age when their imagination is really limitless. And so, you know, I started I created a website. I did all of the things to try and kind of pursue this career as an author.
00;03;18;07 – 00;03;39;27
Theanne Griffith
And I was contacted by an editor at Random House. She was really interested in acquiring a STEM themed chapter book series. And given I was a scientist and a writer, she thought that I might be interested in the opportunity. And I was definitely very interested. And so I guess from there this kind of snowballed and the magnificent makers were born.
00;03;40;26 – 00;03;45;00
Ernie Hood
And tell us a bit more about the Magnificent Makers.
00;03;46;21 – 00;04;05;23
Theanne Griffith
Yeah. So the Magnificent Makers are the STEM themed chapter book series. So these chapter books are kind of early readers for recently independent readers ages about 7 to 10. They also kind of work as read aloud for younger children because they’re heavily illustrated. And I just want to give a little shout out to the awesome illustrator of the series, Reggie Brown.
00;04;06;02 – 00;04;31;10
Theanne Griffith
He’s done an amazing job bringing the characters to life and really keeping kids engaged through through the artwork. So these books follow Best Friends, Pablo and Violet on Out of This World Science Adventures in this magical makerspace or laboratory called the Maker Maze. And the Maker Maze is run by this very centered, kind of kooky scientist called Dr. Crist.
00;04;31;23 – 00;04;59;13
Theanne Griffith
And in each book, they cover a different science topic. So they’re transported through this magical portal to the maker maze after receiving a riddle from Dr. Crisp. And then while they’re there, they have a challenge that they need to complete in 120 maker minutes if they’d like to be able to return. And since they love science so much and they really have fun in the maker maze, they’re always kind of rushing against the clock to make sure they finish the challenge in time so that they can return.
00;04;59;17 – 00;05;33;05
Theanne Griffith
And so each challenge has three levels. And again, they have 120 minutes to beat all three levels and finish before time is up. And so, along with a different science theme being part of each book, there’s also kind of a real life lesson that is conveyed. So in the first book, How to Test the Friendship, kind of as the name implies, there’s some friendship issues where one of the main characters, Pablo, feels a little bit jealous by this new kid, Deepak, who ends up going along on the adventure with him and Violet.
00;05;33;05 – 00;06;11;02
Theanne Griffith
And so he has to work through those emotions of jealousy and friendship. And so I’m in book two, which is all about the brain called brain trouble. So not only do they learn about the brain, but they also learn how important it really is to work as a team. Then finally, Book three is called Writing Sound Waves, and that book is all about our senses and the kind of life lesson or whatever, like ultimate storyline is that the kids learn about appreciating and understanding differences because one of the characters that goes along with them to the maker Maze Henry, he reveals at the end that he has sensory processing disorder, and that explains some of
00;06;11;02 – 00;06;31;17
Theanne Griffith
his odd behavior while he was in the maker maze. So yeah, that’s kind of the gist. Like I said, the main characters are Pablo and Violet, but each book always brings in a new group of people that also accompany them to make a maze. So it’s a lot of fun, a lot of action, a lot of learning that also goes along in the story.
00;06;32;02 – 00;06;35;12
Ernie Hood
Tell us about the hands on activities included with the books.
00;06;36;09 – 00;07;04;04
Theanne Griffith
Yeah, thank you for reminding me. So each book at the end comes with two hands on activities, because science is something that is very much a hands on thing. There’s definitely the intellectual side of science, but there’s very much research is literally doing science. So it was important to have that tie in with the books. And so during their challenge, Pablo and Violet are always tasked with making something.
00;07;04;12 – 00;07;33;20
Theanne Griffith
So in the first book, they have to make, for example, a plastic bottle boat. And so at the end of the book, they’re instructions for kids to actually make that same boat. So there’s always instructions where they can make the exact same thing that Pablo and Violet made in the book. And then there’s a second activity as well that maybe is usually a little bit more and maybe steam, So a little bit more arts involved for kids who are having more artistic leanings, they can still have that tie in with STEM.
00;07;33;26 – 00;07;40;17
Ernie Hood
You speak quite affectionately of your characters. Have they really come alive for you as part of this process?
00;07;41;23 – 00;08;07;28
Theanne Griffith
Very much so. And it’s kind of strange how that happens. As I was kind of preparing for my writing journey and trying to inform myself and listening to a lot of podcasts, I heard authors talk about that, how their characters kind of take on a life of their own and and kind of become extensions, like they become their own entity that are almost independent of the author.
00;08;08;12 – 00;08;33;02
Theanne Griffith
And at first I thought that was so cliche, but it’s very true. It’s surprisingly true. You know, especially the more and more you write them, they just kind of take on this world of their own and they just kind of exist almost outside of you. And and I do kind of feel like affection for them, you know? And it’s so nice that Reggie has done such a nice job with the illustrations, because then I have an actual visual.
00;08;33;02 – 00;08;39;25
Theanne Griffith
You know, when I think of, like, it’s a very concrete person, like what they look like and everything, it’s it’s, it’s fun. It’s great.
00;08;41;10 – 00;08;45;25
Ernie Hood
Do you think your characters will help recruit children of color to STEM?
00;08;46;07 – 00;09;20;18
Theanne Griffith
One thing that was really important for me was that the characters that are in these books that are going on, this awesome science adventures are brown and black children. Because as a black woman growing up in the nineties, I had very few examples of black children in general in the books that I was reading, let alone in science books, by having black and brown children at the forefront on the cover, having fun being smart, you know, and and that really necessarily talking about the fact that they’re black and Latino, they just kind of are those that things are just kind of givens.
00;09;20;18 – 00;09;48;17
Theanne Griffith
That was extremely extreme important for me. And I really hope, you know, like kind of two outcomes come from that. One being that black and brown children see themselves feel represented, feel seen, have new role models to kind of look up to. And then also that white children see black and brown children going on science adventures. So it also fits within their conscience that science is for everyone and everyone can be good at science.
00;09;48;17 – 00;09;54;03
Theanne Griffith
There’s no natural tendency to be good at science that’s based on either your gender or your race.
00;09;54;25 – 00;10;01;25
Ernie Hood
Theon What did writing the children’s books bring to your science writing? I would think they would be very dissimilar skills.
00;10;02;23 – 00;10;28;28
Theanne Griffith
I would say that it’s almost the opposite, that a lot of the training that I’ve had writing science has been very helpful for writing these books, and that’s mainly because, one, you’re taught to be a good writer as a scientist, it’s a very important part of your career. You have to write grants, you have to write papers, and you have to be able to communicate complicated ideas effectively and make people excited about them.
00;10;29;05 – 00;11;00;21
Theanne Griffith
And that is more or less what I’ve had to do with magnificent makers. Obviously, there’s huge differences in terms of the language, and there’s again, the creative aspect of it. But the overall story arc the idea of like the beginning, middle and end, all of that translates from science writing. It’s just language is very different. That was probably one of the most challenging things, was writing about these scientific topics at a level that was exciting and digestible for 7 to 10 year olds.
00;11;01;06 – 00;11;14;17
Theanne Griffith
I feel I have gotten some practice now at conveying complicated ideas for even 7 to 10 year olds, so I think it could be helpful in learning how to boil down my science for maybe a more lay audience for sure.
00;11;15;08 – 00;11;21;06
Ernie Hood
So at the end, have you had any pushback from your scientific colleagues about your children’s book writing?
00;11;22;02 – 00;11;42;22
Theanne Griffith
Yeah, that was something I was definitely nervous about, mainly because I think there is a strong appreciation for science outreach, going to museums and doing events or hosting. When I did a bunch of brain fairs when I was in grad school, we did classroom visits and I did a postdoc as well. And I think that kind of outreach is generally looked upon favorably.
00;11;43;06 – 00;12;09;29
Theanne Griffith
But this was different because this is almost like a second career, and I feel like that is not looked upon favorably in science, like you’re supposed to dedicate your full focus to science. And so I was for sure nervous in that regard. That being said, I’ve had basically zero pushback. Everyone just thinks it’s so cool and so needed, and I forgotten such amazing feedback from parents about how much their kids love the books.
00;12;09;29 – 00;12;30;24
Theanne Griffith
And because in the end they’re science books like this is with the goal of getting kids excited about science. And really it doesn’t take up that much of my time. It’s not like I’m writing, I don’t know, 20 books or that I’m writing three novels. These are pretty short, so it fits well into my schedule as kind of like a hobby.
00;12;31;02 – 00;12;40;09
Theanne Griffith
And I think that’s how people are seeing it and appreciating it versus it being this competing career. Or somehow I’m not taking my science seriously because that’s definitely not the case.
00;12;40;28 – 00;12;48;28
Ernie Hood
Well, that’s great to hear the end. We certainly want to spend some time on your scientific pursuits. Tell us briefly about your research program.
00;12;49;09 – 00;13;23;23
Theanne Griffith
As I mentioned earlier, I am trained as a neuroscientist and specifically I’m an electrophysiologist. So I’m really interested in how neurons transmit electrical signals and what the proteins are that are important for a given neuron function. And in transmitting these electrical signals and specifically right now I’m focusing on the peripheral nervous system. So somatic somatic sensation and within the within the somatic senses, I’m most interested in how our peripheral nervous system in cold, cold sensations.
00;13;23;23 – 00;13;48;07
Theanne Griffith
So, you know, when you walk outside and you get a big gust of air in February, how do you know that? That’s cold? And that’s a really important question because we need to be able to perceive our environment and avoid potentially harmful ambient temperatures if we’re confronted with them. So it’s a very important fundamental basic science question How does our peripheral nervous system sense cold sensations?
00;13;48;07 – 00;13;59;17
Theanne Griffith
And so I use again, electrophysiological techniques and transgenic mouse models that lack given ion channels in order to better understand peripheral processing of cold sensations.
00;14;00;08 – 00;14;09;26
Ernie Hood
Thank you for that summary. Then you recently mentioned on Twitter how supportive the Burroughs Wellcome Fund is of their fellows. What has your experience been?
00;14;10;07 – 00;14;41;26
Theanne Griffith
I just feel so tremendously lucky to be part of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund family. They’ve been from day one. Just you can just feel the love. I don’t know if there’s a better way to describe it, but you can just feel the love. So again, I am a post-doctoral enrichment award fellow or PETA fellow, and as part of the program, your first year, they fly everyone out to North Carolina headquarters and you just have a meeting with all of the other fellows and from different awardees from other programs.
00;14;42;05 – 00;15;07;24
Theanne Griffith
And it was just fantastic. And you could tell then. So basically day one, just how invested they were in your success. And that’s proven true with TIME. Last year I reached out to Roswell, confirmed I was helping organize a conference, an international conference with the Society for General Physiologists, and I reached out to see if there would be any way that Burroughs Wellcome Fund would sponsor the meeting in any way, shape or form.
00;15;07;24 – 00;15;27;21
Theanne Griffith
And that was important for me for two reasons. One, because I was really excited about the meeting. I was on the council at the time, so I was helping plan it, but also it was allowed me to show my colleagues that, look, I have connections in science and I can fundraise for scientific meetings. That’s a very kind of important benchmark that scientists who are pursuing independent careers need to demonstrate.
00;15;27;21 – 00;15;48;29
Theanne Griffith
And I was able to do that with the support of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. So that’s just one small example. And then obviously they’ve been so, so supportive and excited about the books and helping me spread the word. I really couldn’t say better things about that. I’m so everyone that I know that is eligible for the program, I’m always encouraging them to apply just because it’s such a wonderful family to be a part of.
00;15;49;11 – 00;16;01;16
Ernie Hood
Then it’s been wonderful speaking with you. Keep up the good work, both scientific and literary. We wish you the best for great success with The Magnificent Maker series. Thanks for speaking with us.
00;16;01;28 – 00;16;04;22
Theanne Griffith
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.
00;16;05;05 – 00;16;21;05
Ernie Hood
We hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of the Focus In Sound podcast. Until next time, this is Ernie Hood. Thanks for listening.
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