It’s more important for people in technical fields to become better communicators, as the barriers for who has a platform get lower and lower
Highly underrated comment.
At the present and upcoming critical junctures (be them conversations related to Alzheimer's, stem cells, GMOs, climate change, evolution, vaccines, consciousness, cancer), where scientific literacy is as rare as it is critical to our way forward, Earth needs ... well, a hundred thousand Carl Sagans wouldn't be too many to lead the way.
Niel De Grasse Tyson is "neat" enough to lend my ear from time to time, but he doesn't reliably supply a tenth of what I'm talking about. The need isn't just for inspiration without dumbing down. Or the ability to connect and blossom minds to massive ideas. We also need something much harder: for all of that to come packaged with the skill to relate, be likable, friendly. Worthy of the audience. Never above the audience.
There aren't many like that who are rockstar leaders of their field. In fact, after puzzling for a half-minute, I can think of zero whose voice is also mainstream. So we have to go deeper until we end up with a list of countless nameless, uncelebrated types. For every thousand high school, university, or unassociated-with-school teachers, there's one or forty who do their work this kind of well.
As mankind's most precious resources go, they share the top of my list.
