Ep.5. Flipping science in the Philippines

This is the interview that leaves me no room to say “I have no time to write". Here's a podcast guest who awed me so much with his passion for science communication that I lost my words at one point.
Freelance science journalist (and full time copywriter) Mikael Angelo Francisco runs Flipscience with co-founder Hana Abello. The platform, which he calls a "passion project" reports on science in the Philippines and serves a mainly Filipino audience. Started in 2017, Flipscience now attracts 80,000-100,000 views per month and has just started a podcast called Ask Theory.
Mikael and Hana achieved all these despite having never ever been full-time journalists. Mikael shares his journey, his inspiration, his goals, and plenty of practical advice for science journalists/communicators in Southeast Asia.

Show notes and more goodies at https://scienceilluminates.com/monsoon/

Markers:
02:43 A gap to fill in science communication
06:29 Story behind the name
09:22 Nurturing new writers
12:08 Social media is key
13:09 They will flock to you
13:50 No money to do this full-time
14:34 We pay our writers
15:46 100,000 views per month
16:51 #HowHardDidHumansHitYou
19:06 "So what?"
19:32 Journalist or communicator?
21:27 Too many scientists to highlight
23:41 Why just one Flipscience?
24:33 Inspiring new science communicators
26:06 How to make Flipscience strong (stronger)
29:18 Advice for science writers