S02:E12
Alexa Lamm was a 4-H kid who showed livestock and horses and fully expected to go to vet school. Then she realized she liked working with healthy animals, kids and producers a lot more than sick ones. She spent almost ten years as an extension agent just south of Denver, and it frustrated her for years that Extension kept calling itself the best-kept secret. Today she is a professor of science communication at the University of Georgia, and she has a claim every extension specialist should hear: Extension is the original science communication.
Ping brings the question she wrestles with herself. How do you show impact to people who don’t farm? Alexa’s answer is to tell the stories the public cares about, like water saved on farm that stays available for other uses, or produce on the shelf at a price a mom can balance a meal around. She lays out her four pieces of effective science communication (know your audience, know what they care about, deliver through a source they trust, and use the channel they already use), with a Georgia and Florida example that anyone who owns red and black will recognize. Then she explains why nursery and greenhouse producers want YouTube videos, and why, if scientists stay offline, someone else fills the space.
The second half turns to trust. Alexa puts public trust in science at about forty-three percent and says a lot of that is the scientific community’s own doing: unpublished null results, talk of fact and certainty, and emotion left out of everything. Ping offers a case from her own lab, a student’s Osmanthus fragrans study that found no germination and could only go out as a proceeding. Alexa shares the reason she gets up every morning and fights for science, the surgeon who saved her daughter’s life, and closes with advice for handling online critics, by way of celebrity chef Lazarus Lynch, and for early career scientists who know more about communicating online than they realize.
Listen Time: 55:46 Follow Along with the Transcript
Dr. Alexa Lamm, Professor of Science Communication, University of Georgia. She studies how people communicate about critical issues facing the agricultural industry, much of it in partnership with scientists. She grew up in 4-H, earned an animal science degree and a master’s in extension education, and was an extension agent in Colorado for almost ten years. She earned her PhD at the University of Florida and spent about ten years there, including about eight as an evaluation specialist, before coming to UGA eight years ago, originally as the evaluation specialist. With ag economists, she helped create an evaluation tool that about half of the United States now uses within their extension systems. Her lab, the Lamm Lab, hosts the AgriCurious podcast for early career scientists.
Host: Dr. Ping Yu, UGA Department of Horticulture
“Extension is the original science communication, where we take information from the land grant university out to those who need it the most.” Dr. Alexa Lamm (4:01)
“tell the story they wanna hear, not the one you wanna tell, from the source that they trust on the channel where they’re already present.” Dr. Alexa Lamm, on the four pieces of effective science communication (21:26)
“Because humans are emotional, they’re not logical, and science talks to logic, numbers, facts, figures.” Dr. Alexa Lamm (34:10)
“I just delete the line.” Chef Lazarus Lynch, as Dr. Alexa Lamm recounts his answer to her class (49:57)
“There’s always people that can teach you something, and that might change your whole life.” Dr. Ping Yu, to early career scientists (52:53)
From one-way to two-way. Communication was originally defined as one person delivering a message and another receiving it. Alexa’s field has moved past that to a two-way dialogue: scientists share findings, listen to the end user, and adapt the science, in what she calls a continuous reciprocal relationship.
Knowledge passed down on the farm. Knowledge a farmer inherits from generation to generation usually has a scientific explanation for why it works, even when the farmer can’t give one. A scientist who listens can find that explanation and carry the practice to a whole bunch of other farms.
The four pieces of effective science communication. First, know your audience, and remember that the public is many audiences: a 20-something saving for a first home, a middle-aged woman with a family, a producer who has been doing it for 60 years. Second, know what they care about, whether economics, environmental sustainability, water use or recycling on farm, and build the message around it. Third, deliver it through a source they trust. Fourth, put it on the channel they already use. Alexa calls the audience the foundation, because it drives the other three.
Misinformation and disinformation. As Alexa explains them, one is intentional and one is not, and either can cause harm. Some misinformation traces back to a real journal article whose data was completely misinterpreted. Her two responses are teaching critical thinking and source checking, and being present online with good information.
Null results. A hypothesis that tests false is still a finding. Alexa wants journals to publish non-significant findings as readily as significant ones, because over time they are the record of what has and hasn’t changed.
How impact gets measured. Evaluation tools measure how much knowledge someone gained and their intent to use it. Follow-up observation at six, twelve and twenty-four months shows whether behavior actually changed. The same tools can put an economic value on information and measure emotional well-being, how much more secure or safe something makes people feel. With decision-makers, Alexa pairs the numbers, which they have to have, with the face, story, picture or video that shows what the numbers mean.
Opinion leaders. In every producer community there is one producer everyone else looks up to. If they adopt a practice, others will. If they decide not to, she says, you’re done. Going back to those producers and asking them to tell their stories is, for her, the truer measure of impact.
Genetic modification and genetic engineering. Alexa names GMOs, and now CRISPR and genetically engineered crops, as sticky spaces. The two terms sound similar but are different, and explaining the difference is part of the work. The lesson she takes from past mistakes is open transparency: anything that feels hidden needs to be more open.
Starting with your why. Before the content, tell the room why you are standing in front of them, why you care and why you study this. Alexa calls it making yourself vulnerable, which is not what grad school teaches, and she says it builds immediate trust.
Implicit knowledge. Early career scientists are digital natives. Alexa tells them they already know more about communicating online than she ever will, and that this implicit knowledge belongs in their jobs.
Blooms and Beyond explores plant history, culture, and management through the lens of science. Whether you’re a commercial grower seeking practical solutions, a student exploring careers in horticulture, or simply someone who loves plants and their stories, there’s something here for you. Hosted by Dr. Ping Yu of the University of Georgia, each episode features interviews with experts who share enchanting stories, cutting-edge research, and practical wisdom from the world of horticulture.
Your benefit: After each episode, commercial growers will have at least one useful tip for their operation, and plant enthusiasts will have an interesting fact to share. That’s how we spread plant power to more people and make our environment a little better.
Host: Dr. Ping Yu Producer: Rich Braman Guest: Dr. Alexa Lamm, Professor of Science Communication, University of Georgia
Episode Release Date: October 11, 2026 Episode Length: 55:46
“Till next time, stay healthy and go plants!” 🌱
