Want to Build Trust in Science? Start Here
Lessons from “From Ideas to Impact” by Michael Sheldrick on turning science into trust and action
A few weeks ago, Dr.
’s Talking Climate newsletter landed in my inbox with the subject line: Can a coal town become a climate leader? It was a guest edition written by , co-founder of Global Citizen, about his home state of Western Australia.The story of Collie, a town once dependent on coal, now reinventing itself with batteries, bike trails, and green steel, stuck with me. Not because it was easy or perfect, but because it was messy and real.
At the end, Dr. Hayhoe mentioned that Michael had written a book called From Ideas to Impact. Since I’m right now very interested in the topic of creating Impact, I promised him I’d read it.
Now, as a busy parent, “read” in this case meant “listen to the audiobook while hiding in the car line, stirring pasta, or folding the fifth load of laundry.” But I kept my promise, and I came away with ideas that apply just as much to scientists building trust online as they do to governments transitioning away from coal.
Here’s my puzzle: If science is built on long, peer-reviewed, empirical processes, and misinformation is often just opinion wrapped in fear and emotion, why does the latter still travel faster and further?
Why do careful posts stall while clickbait sprints?
Michael’s first clue: change rarely fails because the idea is bad; it fails because the path is muddy. We often jump from “raise awareness” to “world fixed,” skipping everything in between.
For scientists, that means a viral post is not a win condition. A win is when awareness translates into an action: someone signs a letter, cites your work, adds your resource, or shows up to a hearing. It has to be specific, visible, and owned by someone with a deadline.
To make that happen, Sheldrick says successful changemakers rotate through three roles. The Visionary sets a concrete goal. The Diplomat builds a coalition that often looks strange on paper: a nurse influencer, a PTA lead, a librarian, and the local meteorologist, but it works in practice. The Implementer follows through relentlessly, turning intentions into receipts.
Coalitions are what really stood out to me. Stop asking one audience to move a mountain; ask three audiences to each move a rock. Trust builds when no one carries the load alone.
And here’s the mechanism that lets science outpace misinformation: specificity, pre-wiring, reciprocity, and receipts.
“Myth-busting” is vague.
“By Friday, the library adds a ‘Trusted Health Info’ tag to five books plus a QR code to the state dashboard” is specific.
Pre-wiring means you don’t blindside a decision-maker in public; you call first, learn their constraints, and co-design the fix.
Reciprocity means giving credit when someone meets you halfway.
And receipts? Keep a visible impact ledger: “On Sept. 5, the clinic added our FAQ to its website. On Sept. 12, the PTA sent our link to families.”
That kind of record grows trust.
How do we bring this into our science brands online?
Think in series, not one-offs. An “Ask a Scientist Friday” with the same rules each week builds familiarity. Keep a living FAQ pinned and updated monthly with your clearest answers and best links.
Partner with a local institution: your credibility is contagious when it shows up on a library shelf or a park district flier. And set yourself a target of five micro-receipts a month: small, visible changes someone else adopted because of you.
Of course, systems wobble. Trolls arrive, algorithms shift, a partner drops out. That’s normal. Michael’s advice is to design for wobble: do a pre-mortem (“what could go wrong and what’s Plan B?”), spread risk across more than one platform, and keep your coalition bigger than your own handle. Momentum survives when it doesn’t depend on one person’s stamina.
If that all sounds familiar, it should. It mirrors patterns we already know from science and daily life: compounding beats bursts, redundancy beats fragility, and small, repeatable actions beat grand, rare gestures. Misinformation spreads by repetition and belonging; so should science, but with clearer outcomes.
The trick isn’t copying misinformation’s content, but its cadence: steady beats, clear asks, public receipts.
Listening to From Ideas to Impact while juggling parenting reminded me of something crucial: being right isn’t the finish line, it’s the starting block. (And I know the parents reading this are now nodding alongside me).
If we want science to outpace misinformation, our personal brands can’t just be loudspeakers; they have to be switchboards. Places where ideas get routed into actions, actions into receipts, and receipts into trust.
None of this is flashy. All of it is cumulative. And in a feeds-are-forever world, cumulative wins.
That’s the lesson I carried out of Katharine Hayhoe’s newsletter, Michael Sheldrick’s book, and the quiet in-between moments of parent life.
If you’re ready to turn your science into outcomes people can see, join me in Outreach Lab School. We’ll practice the roles (Visionary, Diplomat, Implementer) design for wobble, and keep receipts. Because the next time your post goes viral, it won’t just be noise.
It will nudge something real.
With Love,
Silvia P-M, PhD — Climate Ages
P.S. One last note:
I’m opening the first Outreach Lab School cohort on October 6, and enrollment is now officially open.
This program is designed to help you build a profitable and scalable science newsletter that attracts collaborations, brings funding, and increases your impact as a scientist.
If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, you can now take the next step:
Book a free call with me to see if the program is a good fit for you.
Spots will fill quickly, and I’d love for you to be part of this first group.
This was super helpful. No one moves a mountain alone.
Thanks so much for this generous review and taking the time to listen to From Ideas to Impact Silvia. Grateful for these insights. Anyone interested in the book can check it out at michaelsheldrick.com/book