For very many years I’ve been a big fan of writer-performer Sandra Tsing Loh. I’m a radio addict, as you may have gathered from other posts, and along wiith NPR’s standard news programmes, and Stardate, her brief monologues “The Loh Down” have been things I have sought out for a long time (and before that, when she used to appear on This American Life). She’s funny, smart, intelligent, sharp, irreverent, funny… and uh, did I mention funny? I love her voice acting in her delivery, tone, timing, etc. So I was already wrappable around her finger quite a fan of her work – and then I learned (a while ago now) that she was a physicist too! Great!…which explains why she occasionally pops physics references into her work, of which I approve (for reasons I’ve spoken of here …too many times). So it seemed a disaster in 2004 when she was fired from KCRW when her technician forgot to bleep out the f-word in one of her monologues, but she got lot of publicity from the event (rightly so) and furthermore, to my delight she was picked up by my preferred local station, KPCC, where she has been ever since. (Stories here and here, for example.) (Podcasts and streams of her KPCC-based monologues here. Google for others.)
Many times while listening to her I’ve actually thought it would be great if she combined her science background with her work, becoming a powerful sort of special-ops soldier in the army to bring science to everyone…..
…Well, her alma mater, Caltech, seems to have thought it too! I just this minute heard her on KPCC in a trailer for a new show of hers (in collaboration with Caltech)…. “The Loh Down on Science”. Wow! I hope it is good….I can’t wait. For those of you who don’t get KPCC, you’ll be able to download podcasts and streams from the programme’s page, or go here.
-cvj
[Update: Oh dear. I just heard the first one. It is way too short! The theme tune, combined with the commercial for Caltech, and the other sponsors is longer than her part. I'm worried that they're going to be afraid to have actual science in there so as not to "scare" the public....Come on guys (the various scriptwriters and editors mentioned on the homepage)! This is a great opportunity...don't squander it. Give Sandra Tsing Loh something to get her teeth into. She'll make it work! Use the MacDonald Observatory's Stardate as your model, read daily by the excellent Sandy Wood. It is short but not too short and just a perfect daily taste of astronomy. Come on....try harder. Please.]
December 5th, 2005 at 9:53 am
The Loh-Down on Science
I’ve been a fan of Sandra Tsing Loh’s NPR & Marketplace commentaries for years. I had no idea she had training as a physicist. And now, via Cosmic Variance, I find out she’s got a new show called The Loh-Down on Science. There…
December 5th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
See her hilarious 2005 Caltech commencement speech. Her father is also a Caltech grad:
December 5th, 2005 at 2:04 pm
God that’s funny!! And she manages to keep this standard in her monologues every week. I don’t know how she does it.
Thanks,
-cvj
December 5th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
I had no idea Sandra Tsing Loh was a Techer!
Her speech was way better than Ray Bradbury’s. He started my commencement address with
and it was all downhill from there.
Now I expect to get at least 10 hits from people reading your blog to see who this crazy Techer-turned-lawyer-hair obsessed woman is. Only, except we Caltech “grad turkeys” don’t call ourselves Techers.
December 5th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
That’s funny!
Ok….. I’ll permit ten hits. Just ten, mind you!
Cheers,
-cvj
December 5th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Just updated the main post with this:
[Update: Oh dear. I just heard the first one. It is way too short! The theme tune, combined with the commercial for Caltech, and the other sponsors is longer than her part. I'm worried that they're going to be afraid to have actual science in there so as not to "scare" the public....Come on guys (the various scriptwriters and editors mentioned on the homepage)! This is a great opportunity...don't squander it. Give Sandra Tsing Loh something to get her teeth into. She'll make it work! Use the MacDonald Observatory's Stardate as your model, read daily by the excellent Sandy Wood. It is short but not too short and just a perfect daily taste of astronomy. Come on....try harder. Please.]
-cvj
December 5th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
woah. that was really. really. short. does brevity count in science?
December 6th, 2005 at 4:04 am
did you know that the program Sandra Tsing Loh got bad reviews on (because of the f-word) was about KNITTING?!?!?!? so cool! physics + knitting = fun! wiki says so!
February 15th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Yes, I am a librarian at Blanco High School in Blanco, Texas. One of our students wants to do a reading from Sandra Tsing Loh’s Aliens in America for a UIL event. We need written proof that her book is non-fiction. I am having difficulty getting that information. Do you know if she has a website? I thought that I could possibly email her. Please let me know if you can be of any assistance.
Thank you,
Ellen Johnson