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Neuroscience podcast – Breaking down science conversations. Meet UoB entrepreneur Wilf Nelson

Mythos Media Productions

A podcast sharing stories that busts common myths from psychology and neuroscience to give the best tales around the water cooler…

Mythos Media Productions, set up by PhD Psychologist Wilf Nelson is a podcast interviewing career neuroscientists and psychologists. Each episode includes a myth about the brain which the guest disproves, a fun story they have about the brain and their personal and professional biography which culminates in discussing their most recent work. 

The podcast is primarily a public scientific engagement initiative which aims to teach the public the unintuitive and complex ways the brain works.


To do this, Wilf took a different approach. Instead of the usual method for presenting science to the public which focuses on the results and ‘so what’, he has pushed the methodology and styles of research. He explains that he ‘cannot ask people to understand WHAT happened if they can’t understand HOW it happened. It is also unreasonable to expect an audience to understand brain research techniques without being taught them and the podcast does this in an approachable way.’

‘What if there was a podcast where we train you to understand scientists as scientists speak?’


Wilf came up with this idea after discovering an issue. He experienced three years of public engagement with the sciences and was aware of listeners becoming confused about the results of research because they lacked knowledge of the methods.
This not only fostered incorrect understandings about results, but left public engagement with professional scientists in an identical state to misinformed campaigns. Both require the speaker to be taken as an authority, not questioning what they say and believing a statement that was far-reaching and impressive. As he attempted to add more explanations of the techniques used, the time given for talks and demonstrations became shorter coincidentally and the problem exacerbated itself.

So, Wilf left his previous role as a science communicator and started Mythos Media Productions to create the podcast where he could decide the format and reduce the problem.

Running a business
Wilf explains the best aspect of running his own business is that it allows him to have his most interesting conversations of the year. The worst part is production delays which occur for a number of reasons, whilst most can be solved, they get in the way of planned release dates and some even delay the entire release date of a series which is stressful.

When asked what he wished he knew before starting his business venture Wilf said ‘I wish I had known how to build a greater marketing presence earlier on. The podcast is well-received but greater reach through marketing would have been good in earlier series.’
Wilf’s key things to have: 
1. an idea to solve a problem
2. the means and finances to create a professional product 
3. the confidence to stand by what you’ve made 
With these things, the response is likely to be positive. Wilf’s prior insecurities about the appeal of his podcast were eliminated as the podcast grew to hundreds of listeners over the initial series and multiple grants were won as other organisations and people believed in his business.

‘As long as you know what you are talking about, know what you have made is of good quality and it isn’t a poorer version of another product do not listen to naysayers.’
Wilf has been doing his podcast as a PhD which gave him the financial stability to work on the podcast in its early days and also enabled him to approach the podcast as a scientist who could talk to guests on their own terms and as a businessman who could turn those conversations into digestible products.

Start-Up Fund: 
The B-Enterprising team awarded Wilf £500 Start-Up fund which he used to get his own equipment and paid for the first series to be edited along with opening and exiting music for the episodes. 

‘The aim of the podcast was always for it to be an independent business that created episodes to a high professional standard – the grant enabled me to do that.’
The B-Enterprising team also offered business advice on various things such as where to source contractors, which demographics to approach and how to design episodes to talk about very technical topics but in a way that could be understood.

Can the B-Enterprising team help you start your business venture? Contact us benterprising@contacts.bham.ac.uk

For more information about Mythos Media Productions:
watercoolerneuroscience.co.uk
watercoolerneuroscience@googlemail.com

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