139. Interview with scicomm researcher and evolutionary linguist Dr Hannah Little

About this episode

Dr. Hannah Little discusses her research in science communication and evolutionary linguistics.

This week we were lucky enough to have an absolutely fascinating conversation with Dr Hannah Little. Hannah has been researching science communication for nearly 10 years, first as a Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at UWE Bristol and now in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool. Previously, she did her PhD in the field of evolutionary linguistics at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, and went on to a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. Throughout her career, she has endeavoured to share her love for evolutionary linguistics as a science communicator herself with well-received appearances at, among others, the British Science Festival, TEDx and on BBC Radio 4. Her work as a science communicator influences her research, especially in terms of exploring how storytelling, comedy and science fiction can influence public perceptions and understanding of science. In her spare time does competitive speed puzzling, stand-up comedy, and is writing a popular science book about linguistics and aliens. She is a member of the UK SETI Research Network and the SETI Post…

People in this episode

Host: Unimelb SciComm

Guest: Dr Hannah Little

Topics covered

• science communication
• evolutionary linguistics
• storytelling
• public perception
• science fiction
• stand-up comedy

Keywords

• science communication
• evolutionary linguistics
• storytelling
• public understanding of science
• TEDx
• BBC Radio 4
• SETI

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UWE Bristol, University of Liverpool, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, UK SETI Research Network, SETI Post Detection Hub, BBC Radio 4

Places: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Netherlands, University of St Andrews

More episodes of Let's Talk SciComm

• 140. Listen To This If...You Want To Up Your Email Game · May 21, 2026 · 7 min
• 138. Listen To This If… You Want to Disagree with Someone Effectively · May 7, 2026 · 7 min
• 137. Interview with ecologist and author Professor Deb Bower · April 30, 2026 · 34 min
• 136. Listen To This If… You Need To Prepare for Question Time · April 23, 2026 · 7 min
• 135. Interview with parasitologist and artist Dr Tommy Leung · April 16, 2026 · 33 min
• 134. Listen To This If…You Get Invited To Talk With A Journalist · April 9, 2026 · 7 min