How Improv Might Help People Trust the Science

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**Brian Lehrer** (0:40)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Well, the United States' relationship with science is under strain on two fronts. The share of Americans who say science has had a mostly positive impact on society. Well, that share has fallen 16 percentage points since before the coronavirus outbreak, from 73% saying mostly positive impact in 2019, down to 57% in 2023 That according to the Pew Research Center. At the same time, federal science funding has faced an unprecedented political assault, and that's continuing. The exact numbers are complicated to pin down, but here's some stats from a Nature article from January this year. Over the course of 2025, more than 7,800 National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants were canceled or suspended, and the Trump administration proposed historic cuts of 35% to non-defense research and development in its fiscal year 2026 budget request. One program right here in our backyard in the New York area is aiming to tackle the erosion of trust in our scientific institutions in a creative and unconventional way. The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University is a program that uses improv theater training to help scientists talk to the rest of us. The Alan Alda Center, founded by MASH star Alan Alda more than 15 years ago, has now trained more than 35,000 researchers worldwide with clients ranging from Stanford to NASA to AstraZeneca. And joining us now is its director, Laura Lindenfeld. Hey Laura, welcome to WNYC.

**Laura Lindenfeld** (2:28)
Hi Brian, so pleased to be here with you today.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:31)
And our phones and text thread are open for this. If you're a scientist, doctor, researcher, whatever, what are some moments or topics when communication has broken down between you and whoever you consider your public? Are you noticing an increase in skepticism? Fewer people signing up for clinical trials. If you're that kind of researcher, maybe more vaccine skepticism. If you're a physician or maybe there are conversations happening even in your social circles, that you just can't seem to break through to loved ones on, even if you're an expert in the field. So tell us your story, help us report this story, but also tell us what you think works as not just a scientist or a physician or someone scientist adjacent, but what works in communicating.
212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 call or text for Laura Lindenfeld, who is the director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. All right, Laura, what was the insight that made Alan Alda say, wait, these scientists need improv training?

**Laura Lindenfeld** (3:45)
It's such a great concept, isn't it? Alan did Scientific American Frontiers for 11 years. He served as host. We have some really fun footage of that, that we sometimes show in our workshops. And it occurred to him as he was interviewing scientists, just how naturally they would talk with them. I mean, who wouldn't? He's so wonderful and kind. And he had this thought one day, there was a person he was interviewing, and when she could make eye contact with him, everything was going great. And then suddenly, it's like the white lab coat went back on, she kind of froze, looked at the camera, and the connection dropped. And then he got the connection back, and then it happened again, and he thought, oh man, what's going to happen if I'm not here to pull these stories out of people? And he had the idea that improvisational theater, which was the only training he actually had as an actor, might help.
So Alan, in his inimitable style, went around to a bunch of universities in the greater New York City metro area and said, how would you like for me to try improv with your scientists? And Stony Brook said yes, and that's how it got started.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:57)
For people not in theater or who've never participated in or witnessed improv, the core concept you teach is yes and. Explain yes and for people who don't know it.

**Laura Lindenfeld** (5:11)
Yes and is this beautiful mindset of, and I think it comes into play when we talk about science and trust. So I hope we can dig into this. It's the idea that you acknowledge the dignity and humanity of the other person, even if you don't agree with them, and you make that scene, that interaction with them, move forward.