Alumna’s authentic curiosity leads to science podcasting success
Alie Ward was unhappy with her career until her love for the sometimes grubby natural world opened new doors
Science communicator Alie Ward (B.A., ’99) has unique advice for anyone starting a new career: “Get in like a cockroach.”
“Don’t wait to be invited in like a vampire,” said Ward, the host of “Ologies,” an award-winning popular science podcast, and a Daytime Emmy Award-winning science correspondent for CBS’s “The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca.” “Get under cracks and doors” — i.e. sending cold emails, asking questions, being authentic, and generally being persistent.
Initially a Biology student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Ward then transferred to a community college after a year, largely due to affordability, and then transferred to San Francisco State University to finish her undergraduate career as a Cinema major.
“I loved science, but I was also really missing the arts aspect. I thought maybe I would go into science illustration, but I was missing performance and writing and humor,” Ward said. She hoped she’d eventually find a way to combine science with film. “I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to pan out but I did it anyway.”