From upcoming to way back, here's a calendar of my speaking events. Some of the past events were recorded and others were in-the-moment only. Hoping to catch you live (best-case) or virtually some time soon! (Some of these events were recorded and I've included links where possible.)
April 16, 2024 I'll be in conversation with Kathleen Blackburn to discuss her powerful debut memoir, Loose of Earth, at Austin's lovely First Light Books at 6 pm. Published by UT Press, this is a book that should definitely be on your "to read" list.
April 5, 2024 I'm so honored to be a keynote at the University of Kentucky's Science and Storytelling Symposium. This is such a wonderful opportunity to pull together so many of the ideas I've been grappling with over the years. I'm very excited for this invitation to Lexington!
March 27, 2024 Texas Tropical Network has invited me to speak about coral at UT Austin, my debut there. How is that possible? Details here.
March 3, 2024 I'm so thrilled for the invitation to return to my alma mater, Amherst College, where I'll be speaking to three classes and then giving an evening talk with the title: What Started in Pratt Gym: Lessons from the Jellyfish and Coral, in which I tell the story of my rookie efforts in marine biology. (Recording of the talk is at the link.) Feels like I'm finally getting to give the thesis I never managed to back in the 80s. This trip is underwritten by Amherst's new sustainability initiative and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that grows.
February 1, 2024 Looking forward to talking jellyfish for my second appearance on Exploring by the Seat of your Pants! The program is aimed at classes of students in 4th to 6th grade at noon EST. But anyone who is interested can join us here.
January 2, 2024 Thanks to the Sun City Nature Club in Georgetown, Texas for a warm invitation to share my stories of coral on a cold day.
November 28, 2023 I'll be featured on Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, a program aimed at classes of students in 4th to 6th grade at noon EST. But anyone who is interested can join us here.
November 11, 2023 After a month of traveling, I'm so excited to come home for my favorite event of the year: The Texas Book Festival! This year (my 13th!) I'll be moderating a dream panel: Susan Casey, whose ocean writing I have admired for years and whose new breathtaking deep sea book should be on everyone's nightstand; and Melissa Sevigny, whose caper down the Grand Canyon's waters with the first two women to successfully surf its currents, captivated me this summer during a visit to the desert. Join us! 3:45 in Capitol Extension E2.030 It's going to be fantastic!
September 18, 2023 Really pleased to have been invited to join a daylong event in Waco about our environment ant our future. Join me at the Green Communities Conference.
September 7, 2023 Delighted for to mosey up I-35 to talk treasures of the sea at a gem of a bookstore, The Lark and Owl, in Georgetown, TX.
May 13, 2023 Excited to speak to the Austin Regional Sierra Club, 7 pm. Free and open to the public. More information here.
April 24, 2023 Back once again in the room where I defended my dissertation, I'll be speaking at TRW at USC, 12-1, all about coral and science writing.
April 22, 2023 Sometimes life spins a full circle. I'm beyond honored to be a finalist for the LA Times Book Award, which will be announced at a ceremony at USC, where I worked (ahem, toiled) on my PhD, often feeling just as low as the cockroaches that kept me company as I left the lab late at night. So it's an incredibly joyous feeling to return to that same campus to share in a celebration of authors and books, and to bring the coral along with me. Join me if you can at the LA Festival of Books for my panel Climate Science: Love Your Mother (Earth) at 1:30 along with an unbelievable group of writers: Jessica Hernandez, John Perlin, Leila Philip and moderator Rosanna Xia.
March 22, 2023 The wonderful film Chasing Coral will be screened at the Alamo Drafthouse in Mueller as part of a fundraiser for several local environmental groups in Austin and I'll be heading up a Q&A afterwards. For tickets and more information, here's a link.
March 3, 2023 I'm moderating a lunchtime conversation with the celebrated Ed Yong, Molly Cummings, and Michael Ryan about animal senses and behaviors as part of the Texas Science Festival. It's virtual - join us!
November 17, 2022 Looking forward to talking about coral at the McKinney Public Library as part of their non-fiction speaker series.
November 16, 2022 I'm really excited to return to Book Woman and share the stage with the absolutely brilliant Dr. Kate Musemeche. This event was also recorded for KOOP's People United in Austin.
November 15, 2022 Oh yeah! I'm getting a second appearance at Nerd Nite! Sharing the stage with the incomparable Nic Bennett! The event will also be live-streamed.
November 8, 2022 Thrilled for the invitation to speak to the Environmental Science students at Baylor University.
November 6, 2022 Texas Book Festival is one of my favorite things! Can't wait to be part of it again this year. I'll be appearing in two sessions. At 11 am, join me on a panel with celebrated scientist and writer David George Haskill and his book, Sounds Wild and Broken. You can find us in the Capitol Auditorium E1.004. And I also have the privilege of moderating a panel with Brett Ashley Kaplan's Rare Stuff and Ray Naylor's The Mountain in the Sea in which we discuss Yiddish-speaking whales and genius octopuses as characters in their wonderful books of fiction. That's at 3:30 pm in Capitol Extension Room E2.036. This event was recorded and available for viewing here.
October 19, 2022 An incredible honor to be invited to be part of the Hawai'i Book and Music Festival and part of Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology's Better Tomorrow Speaker Series. This extremely special event was recorded and the link is embedded in the announcement page.
October 12, 2022 Looking forward to speaking with St. Louis divers at Y-Kiki Dive Shop! 7 pm
October 6, 2022 I'm honored to be giving a talk at the great natural history museum Naturalis in Leiden, Netherlands on coral an my favorite invertebrate scientist duo, Gustav and Gerarda Stiasny. 2 and 4:30 pm.
September 28-29, 2022 Brain Bar in Budapest! For real! So excited to be talking about the future of coral at this incredible festival about the future in Hungary.
September 27, 2022 Back to where LIFE ON THE ROCKS all started for its first live event since 2018. Reef Futures 2022 in Key Largo, FL. This was an incredible honor especially given the threat of Hurricane Ian bearing down. My heart goes out to all those who were so terribly affected. (Starts at about 1:00 in the link.)
September 3, 2022 National Book Festival in Washington D.C. It's such an honor to share the stage with Edie Widder, brilliant deep sea scientist and explorer. Edie's writing about her life and what she's discovered is right up there with Jacques Cousteau. If you are in the area, join us or if you're not, here's a recording. This one was a true gift!
August 7, 2022 Pittsford Community Library (near my husband's hometown of Rochester, NY) has invited me to be part of their speaker series: Oceans of Possibility!
July 7, 2022 Brazos Bookstore with the delightful Joseph Campana. If you're in Houston, come talk about coral!
June 20, 2022 The Saint Louis Zoo! So excited for the opportunity to talk about my work in a place that held such wonder for me as a child. This one is really meaningful. 7 pm in the Anheuser Busch Theater at the Zoo's North Entrance.
June 7, 2022 The Sierra Club of Austin Join me at the Sierra Club's first in-person meeting in over two years. Live streaming available too. (Link through The Austin Common, which is an amazing resource for all things eco in Austin - check it out if you live in Austin and aren't familiar with it!)
May 21, 2022 The San Antonio Book Festival! It's an absolute a pleasure to speak with the brilliant Chaitali Sen for CSPAN Book-TV. Join us live at 1:30 pm in the Hawn Holt Family Auditorium or check out the recording here.
May 10, 2022 Delighted to be asked back for a second time to speak to the Down Under Divers Club of North Carolina.
May 5, 2022 Join us to talk coral and craft, with a few craft brews, perhaps. Hosted by ATXSciWri at Buddy's on Burnet in Austin.
April 27, 2022 Delighted to share words about corals under the trees as part of the Rooted Words Speaking Series at Stanford University in lovely northern California. Free to attend, but Covid protocols require pre-registration. 
April 21, 2022 Austin's one and only Book People! I'll be in conversation with my dear friend and brilliant author Brittani Sonnenberg, who provided powerful insight into LIFE ON THE ROCKS all along its way into the world. Come join us! 7 pm. (Note: this is a ticketed event. The price is 1 book. Please reach out to me if you need help with tickets.)
April 13, 2022 Tips and Sips hosted by the Texas Book Festival. What a complete honor to be in conversation for the first time LIVE with Dalia Azim whose debut novel Country of Origin I have been dying to read. Join us at Ani's Day & Night on East Riverside at 6 pm. In-person and Free!
April 11, 2022 The iconic Elliot Bay Books. This will be my LIFE ON THE ROCKS speaking debut!! So excited to be in conversation with the brilliant and thoughtful James Nestor. This is a virtual conversation and it was recorded, so everyone can join us.
April 5, 2022 Book Launch Day!! LIFE ON THE ROCKS will be on bookshelves everywhere bookshelves are found. And on your e-readers and audiobook apps - read by yours truly - wherever they exist as well.
April 1, 2022 Society of Environmental Journalists Annual Meeting. I'll be joined by Jace Tunnell, Luke Metzger, Joshua Baca and Assistant Secretary of State Monica Medina to discuss Ocean Plastics. Please join us at 2 pm in the Champions II room if you're planning to be at the meeting.
January 25, 2022 What a pleasure to talk about how small changes can have big impacts--a perfect theme for coral--with Michelle Rubin and the St. Louis J Associates.
January 13, 2022 REEF's Into the Blue Book Club invited me to talk about Spineless with an incredible crowd of marine science aficionados.
November 22, 2021 Save Barnegat Bay, home to many jellyfish, invited me to talk jellyfish. Wonderful surprise guests Dana Restaino and Paul Bologna, featured in Chapter 13 of Spineless made for an incredible night.
October 29,2021 Everyday Science at Texas Book Festival, in which I had the true pleasure of speaking with Kate Biberdorf about her book It's Elemental and Jude Stewart about our sense of smell, Revelations in Air.
October 3, 2021 ATXSciWri Loved chatting about Spineless with the science writers in Austin. Thanks to Book People too!
December 11, 2020
Billed as TED's scrappy cousin, I'm honored to have been invited to speak at Austin's Creative Mornings meeting. The theme: Biophilia
November 12, 2020
Cal Academy of Sciences Nightschool invited me to their jellyfish party!
November 11, 2020
Texas Book Festival goes virtual! And I get to speak with Jennifer Ackerman and Carl Safina about their new books, which explore how much more alike we vertebrates are than we ever thought. Join us for a conversation about birds, whales, monkeys and more!
October 14, 2020
Delighted to join Katharine Hayhoe, Julie Oliver, and Louisa McDaniel, moderated by Martin Leucke of the Windsor Park Climate Crisis Committee, to talk about climate change and what we need to do now to support the health of our planet.
June 2, 2020
Was a complete blast to speak to Kara Grace Muzia about the winding pathway of my career for her wonderful, wide-ranging podcast So You Want to Be a Marine Biologist.
April 30, 2020
Tune in to Instagram at noon for a Texas Book Festival Literary Lunch Break. I'll be speaking with Russell Gold, journalist and author of the brilliant book Superpower: One Man's Quest to Transform American Energy. I plan to ask him a question he asked on Twitter: What do you say when the market gives you free oil? Answer: No tanks!
April 7, 2020
I taught a quaran-class on creative science writing for a group of really terrific students at the Young Scientist Academy. Thanks to jellyfish scientist Rob Condon for the invitation!
March 8, 2020
Bookwoman in Austin, as part of an unbelievable lineup for the International Woman's Day Extravaganza. I'll be reading coral works for the first time.
January 23 and 25, 2020
I'll be in Georgia, home of the largest jellyfishery in the US, for Augusta College's Literary Augusta, with a stop at the Columbia County Library.
October 26, 2019
Texas Book Festival! I'll be speaking two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Gilbert Gaul about climate change and risk (recorded here on CSPAN's Book-TV at the Texas Book Festival) and with Catherine Chung and Karen Olson about women and math. We need more of all of both of these kinds of conversations.
April 7, 2019
I have the honor of giving the 9th Environmental Science Program Guest Lecture at the amazing Rochester Community & Technical College in the place of my birth.
February 26, 2019
Book Tips and Sips. I get to talk with Texas Book Festival's Julie Wernersbach about books at Prohibition Creamers! Come have fancy cocktails.
February 5, 2019
Join me at the actual magnificent Writing Barn for a benefit for Women for Women International called Words with Wine. I'll be reading letters from women in countries recovering from war and their journeys to social and economic empowerment.
February 3, 2019
I'm trying my hand at my first online class at the magnificent Writing Barn. Join us from 2 to 5 before the Superbowl to talk about Science as Metaphor and Motivation.
January 26, 2019
Austin Public Library St. John Branch. What could be more fun than a jellyfish and narwahl party - with waffles, of course!
January 13, 2019
San Antonio Jewish Book Festival. Such a joy to visit my neighbor to the south. (Though we have better tacos!)
November 13, 2018
Friends of the Round Rock Library Literary Locals with a whole slew of fabulous Austin-area authors.
November 12, 2018
St. Louis Jewish Book Festival I'm beyond thrilled I get to take part in one of the oldest and best Jewish Book Fairs around. I remember seeing Chiam Potok there as a kid.
November 7, 2018
Book Lover's Luncheon at the Austin Jewish Book Fair This is a big deal for me. I think the seeds that I might one day be able to write a book started when I volunteered for the AJBF over a decade ago. And wow!! the centerpieces!
November 5, 2018
Detroit Jewish Book Festival at 11 am The mother of all Jewish Book Fairs. Honored to take part.
October 27, 2018
Texas Book Festival at 2:30 in Capitol Extension. Honored to be interviewing Sy Montgomery about her delightful new memoir in 13 animals: How to Be a Good Creature
October 20, 2018
Oklahoma Book Festival at 1 pm. In the boathouse, appropriately!
September 22, 2018
ATXSciWri Collaborative Workshop: Bridging the Space Between the Lab and the Press Come to this one if you're a science communicator. I'm thrilled to have the chance to share great conversations about scientists and writers with Susan Hovorka and Marc Airhart, both from UT.
September 3, 2018
Such a joy to take part in the Tumble Podcast Live Splash Jam!! If you've got kids, you can subscribe here for loads more science fun from the brilliant people at Tumble.
September 1, 2018
THE National Book Festival!!! In conversation with the one, the only, the fabulous Sy Montgomery!! Washington, D.C.
May 24, 2018
Austin Public Library. In conversation with Jack Davis who wrote the extraordinary, Pulitzer Prize-winning The Gulf.
May 23, 2018
Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey.
May 21, 2018
My East Coast debut! Astoria Bookshop in Queens, NY
May 17, 2018
Thinkery 21. Come for the Tito's and the Drunk Goggles; stay for the demo of jellyfish swimming. There will be jetting! (Austin,TX)
April 7, 2018
I'm really looking forward to being part of San Antonio's Book Festival! Join us at 11 am.
March 9, 2018
7 pm at Malvern Books. So thrilled to be part of the Borderless series on art, action, and justice. Because what's more borderless than the seas? (Austin, TX)
February 16, 2018
AAAS comes to Austin! I'll be doing a reading at 4:30 and hosting a meet and greet at 2:30 in UT's Austin Lounge. Stop by!
February 21, 2018
Speed Spineless at Pecha Kucha Austin. My speed-talk starts at about 51:00.
January 24, 2018
Chevaliers Books at 7 pm. Here I come Hollywood? Delighted to have the chance to speak about jellyfish at this lovely bookstore in the heart of LA! (Los Angeles, CA)
January 24, 2018
12 pm at University of Southern California. Back where I defended my dissertation, I'll have the chance to go to the podium once again. (Los Angeles, CA)
January 22, 2018
Eliot Bay Book Company. Along with talking jellies at this terrific book store, I'm hoping to get a jellyfish in the foam of my latte while I'm in coffee country! (Seattle, WA)
January 21, 2018
Powells Bookstore. The mother ship! So excited to be able to talk about Spineless at this most iconic bookstore. (Portland, OR)
January 9, 2018
Stanford University at 7 pm. This is going to be EPIC! And how freaking cool is this event poster?
January 8, 2018
Bookshop Santa Cruz at 7 pm. Thrilled to travel to the other weirdest bookstore in the world to talk Spineless.
January 6, 2018
San Francisco JCC at 6 pm. Science on the Screen features the gorgeous movie Ponyo and we'll talk about the way jellyfish are depicted on film. You can buy tickets here!
November 21, 2017
Left Bank Books at 7 pm. Bringing the jellyfish back to my home town! (St. Louis, MO)
November 18th, 2017
Science Mill at 2 pm. I'm so excited to talk jellyfish in the hill country where they used to swim 50-odd million years ago. (Johnson City, TX)
November 14, 2017
Interabang Books at 7 pm. Help Keith and me celebrate our wedding anniversary (really!) with some jellyfish stories in Cowtown. (Dallas, TX)
November 9, 2017
Book People Book Launch at 7 pm! Come for the Electric Jellyfish IPA and stay for the jellyfish trivia - there will be prizes! (Austin, TX)
November 4, 2017
Texas Book Festival! I'll be talking at 1 pm with polar scientist Peter Wadhams and geneticist Spencer Wells in the CSPAN/Book TV Tent about climate change, ice, jellyfish, and what the future holds. (Austin, TX)
November 6, 2016
Texas Book Festival! C-SPAN Book Discussion "Key to Conservation" with Jane Alexander and Miriam Horn (Austin, TX)
October 27, 2013
Texas Book Festival! C-SPAN Book Discussion with Alan Weisman, "Countdown"
October 16, 2010
Texas Book Festival! C-SPAN Book Discussion with Molly Caldwell Crosby and Rebecca Skloot, "Humanizing Medical Mysteries"