Robin Ince: ‘We need to get science in the mainstream’

We catch up with the multi-award winning comedian, writer, broadcaster and populariser of scientific ideas ahead of his speech at IMarEST’s Annual Dinner in March.

First and foremost: how excited are you by the prospect of speaking to a room full of maritime and marine professionals?

The sea, to me, is the perfect place to sum up the concept that “the imagination of nature is far greater than the imagination of humans”, also to be in a room with people who have interrogated the sea, what lies within, its possibilities and mysteries can only be a delight.

What is your maritime background? Are you a good friend of the seas and oceans?

I have had many ice creams by the sea and read many books sat on shingle, but I am a paddler not a scuba diver. Nevertheless, I am an avid paddler and will take any opportunity I can to be near the sea but not under it. 

How much comic potential is there in the maritime and marine world?

Now that is what we will find out – let us start with the blob fish and see where we go from there. 

Out of all the people you have collaborated with, who would be the most proficient at sea?

My friend Helen Czerski [oceanographer and co-host of BBC Radio 4’s Rare Earth podcast] is brilliantly clever and passionate about all things marine. 
 
You are known for adopting a scientific approach to much of your work – how important is science when it comes to some of the big issues facing our seas and oceans, namely the decarbonisation of shipping and making the most of underwater resources?

I think it is vital for the solution of the problem physically, but I think it is finding the emotional stories that we must use so that governments and corporations realise they cannot continue as they have been.

You are also a Fellow of the British Science Association. Would a scientific approach to the many land-based issues our species face be beneficial?

What we need to do is get science in the mainstream. It powers so much of our world and yet it takes up so little space in the mass media. It is vital for people to know of the fragility of the beauty around us, that we are rare, and the planet is rare. 

How do you get young people excited in scientific thinking as a method of general problem solving?

Stories and also by showing that science is not separate to the rest of their world; there is a story in everything and there is science in everything.

And finally, what projects do you have coming up?

I have two new books. A non-fiction book [called] Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, which looks at neurodivergence via experts and my own life, and I have decided to visit 300 public libraries. I also have a poetry collection imminent [called] Ice Cream for a Broken Tooth. Plus, Monkey Cage and all the usual.

Hear Robin Ince’s after-dinner speech at IMarEST’s Annual Dinner which takes place at Plaisterers' Hall in London on Thursday 27th March, starting at 18.30 GMT. 

Image: Robin Ince; credit: Specialist Speakers.