5.4 Passion and curiosity

The fourth reason why dyslexics make powerful communicators is dyslexics are passionate and curious, the Dyslexic Thinking skill of exploring. What really makes dyslexics amazing communicators is our passion and curiosity. We love learning new things, and the energy and passion we use to do it inspires others.

Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock's infectious energy and skill in communicating has made even the most complex concepts of space, faraway galaxies and black holes easy for all of us to understand. As well as being a brilliant space scientist, she has made an incredible career out of communicating on TV through the BBC's Sky at Night and to kids at thousands of events in schools up and down the country. In this way, she's able to pass on her passion and curiosity to millions of us around the world and inspire the next generation of explorers.

I'm fascinated by everything, an ongoing curiosity. And that's what drove me into space science in the first place. When I go out and see kids, I like to get them to have a desire to aspire, to have a big crazy dream and see where it leads them. And so that's why I do so much science communication, going out and and speaking to kids. I think I've seen over 450,000 people in the last 18 years. And a couple of weeks ago to celebrate British Science Week, I saw 50,000 kids in a week. It was knackering.

Wow.

Some of it was online, some of it was live. But also it's the storytelling as well. Because when you go out and see a group of kids and you want to inspire them, what stories can you tell? What can you tell them about the science, to sort of draw them in and make them curious and make them want to join us and find out things themselves?

Yes. Because science is all about imagination, isn't it? It isn't about the boring facts and figures. Some of those things are important, of course, but it's all about imagination and seeing what could be, not what is.

Yes. And what I love telling the kids is, there's so much we don't know and so many challenges we still have to face. My favourite one is that we don't know what 94% of the universe is made of. We know what 6% of the universe is made of, because it interacts with electromagnetic waves. It interacts with light. And so we can see that the other 94%, we don't know what it is. And so I like to inspire kids to think outside the box. What could it be? Why doesn't it interact with light? You know, ask them, sort of get them to grapple with these questions and inspire the next generation of curious scientists.

Like Maggie, many of our most loved TV presenters are dyslexic, and tap into their passion and curiosity for subjects they love to pass it on to others. Whether it's CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper sharing the complexities of international affairs, or the BBC's David Olusoga sharing his love of history, or explorers Bear Grylls and Ben Fogle sharing their love of the outdoors.

In the UK, the BBC produce world-renowned natural history programs, and many dyslexics tap into their curiosity for the natural world to communicate its wonder to a worldwide audience, including dyslexic presenters Hamza Yassin and Megan McCubbin.

I think dyslexic people have a curious mind by nature. We're fascinated by things. For me, it's living things. I want to understand about it. I'm just a bit nosy. I like, you know, sticking my nose into a ladybird's business and figuring out what it's up to. And if I can kind of get someone else to do that and love ladybirds as much as I do, then that's kind of a win.

As a brilliant science communicator, Megan is not just able to use her curiosity and passion to explain the natural world. She's also able to tap into her empathy to feel things deeply, something that many dyslexics excel at. That combination of curiosity, empathy, and insight helps her to inspire her audience to care deeply about those issues, too.

My main job, I suppose, as a science communicator… and that involves digesting lots of new science. It could be about climate change. It could be about biodiversity loss. It could be biodiversity plus. Not as often as I would like it to be about that, but it could be about a whole range of different things. And it's my job to digest that information and kind of reorganise it in my brain, and try to get a new audience to care about it as much as I do. So I try using my Dyslexic Thinking to engage audiences, empower them, motivate them, to make the world a little bit of a better place.

But I was always fascinated by things. I wanted to know how they worked, why they worked, what they were up to. And then as I kind of matured as a scientist, it was also about how to protect it. Because when you love something so much, you quickly become aware of the threats that that faces, and then it becomes more about tackling those threats in order to protect it. My love of natural history has always been there. I think, you know, there is a massive connection with dyslexic minds to, as you said, exploring, but also empathy.

And I've got a lot of empathy. I'm always told that I'm perhaps too empathetic, especially when it comes to animals. You know, I have big emotions when I watch the big, big gorgeous documentaries that Sir David presents. I feel a lot of empathy for their situations and climate change and I feel that weight on myself. I suppose that's kind of what motivates me to do what I do, is because of that heightened sense of empathy perhaps, but also that kind of curiosity about life.

It's not just in the natural world that dyslexic communicators excel. It's in the kitchen, too. Jamie Oliver's love of food and skill in communicating has made even the most complex recipe simple and easy for most of us to have a go at in our own kitchens. In this way, he's able to pass on his passion and curiosity to millions of us around the world.

My main goal is to get people cooking and empowered. And whether it's through fun or or romance, or ‘you can do it’ or ‘this could work for you, just imagine your life with this’ and simplicity and breaking it down. And I've gone to start recipes that could be just quite good, but just breaking it down into a way that feels more graphic and simple and ‘oh, that's how you do it. Oh, that's what a portion of veg is. Oh my god, I got five portions of veg in that one meal and it's still scrumptious and lovely and indulgent and delicious.’

So there's this kind of three-dimensional way that you can make something really sexy. And also that same recipe will mean different things to different people, because they're absorbing it in different ways. So for me personally, the set, the recipe, how it's taught, how it's presented, the cameras, how many cameras, the lenses, the close-ups, the music, the graphics… and if you fight, like really fight fight fight, then hopefully your show will be better than the next person's.

It's so true, isn't it? Everything about the way Jamie chooses to communicate passes on his passion for cooking and makes it simple and easy for the rest of us to have a go. Here are three key takeaways from this section. One, what often makes dyslexics amazing communicators is our passion and curiosity. Two, we love learning new things. And three, the energy and passion we use to do it inspires others.