At the heart of everything we do at Liminal is our conviction that science communication is not just one art, or one science: it’s many arts and many sciences. So if there’s one thing we’re sure about, it’s that we cannot do the work of science communication, and science communication training, alone. Which is why we’ve been working hard to expand Liminal beyond just the two of us, into a collective of science communication professionals with diverse expertises and perspectives. Two questions come to mind immediately: how and who.  

HOW:

Liz and I have both spent much of our careers working in traditional, hierarchical workplaces, starting out in the most junior positions and eventually occupying top leadership roles. After our many years at different rungs of the ladder, we have come to crave something different. 

The organizational structure we’re creating at Liminal is deeply inspired by worker-owned cooperatives. We’re weaving collective decision making, profit sharing, and as little hierarchy as possible into the very fabric of Liminal, while accounting for the complicating reality that our collective is comprised of two very different kinds of workers: those of us who are working full time on our core offerings (and who officially own the company; we’re calling these core members) and those of us with thriving science and scicomm careers bringing our expertise to Liminal in a more time-limited capacity (cloud members). We’re working hard to bring these two types of workers into productive collaboration, with the hope of creating a true sense of belonging, and a genuine capacity to influence the future of the organization, in all of Liminal’s members. 

We’re so grateful to the California Center for Cooperative Development and the Sustainable Economies Law Center for their many wonderful resources on how to begin building a collective workplace, and to the phenomenal Alix Devendra at Aligned Law for helping us to translate our vision into the formal structure of an LLC’s Operating Agreement. 

WHO:

With no further ado, here are the founding cloud members of Liminal!

Neil Lewis Jr. is a behavioral scientist and science communicator whose work connects individual psychology, social and community context, and government policy in powerful ways, with the goal of undoing inequality and moving us closer to justice.  If you read just one thing by Neil, make it What Counts As Good Science? How the battle for methodological legitimacy affects public psychology. 

Julie Lowndes is a marine ecologist and founding lead of Openscapes, where she works to revolutionize the culture of science from within, starting with our technological workflows and moving us all towards greater openness, efficiency, and kindness to ourselves and each other. If you read just one thing by Julie, make it Our path to better science in less time using open data science tools. 

Sara Yeo studies how we communicate about risk and science, and the formation of public opinions on science and technology, with a particular focus on the role of humor (!). If you read just one thing by Sara, make it Emotion and humor as misinformation antidotes.

Ed Yong is a science journalist and writer whose work spans complexities of all kinds—from the tiniest microbes living within us to the sensory capacities of all kinds of animals to the multidimensional social, political, and biological systems that made up the COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it. If you read just one thing by Ed, make it An Immense World.

In some ways, bringing this group of people into the Liminal fold is simply formalizing our longstanding collaborations and admirations. If you've seen us talk, you've already witnessed the ideas and influence of these incredible people upon us. Nonetheless, we know that creating a dedicated space for us all to converse, collaborate, and make decisions together is going to transform  the work we do at Liminal. If you want to work with our amazing team, drop us a line at inquiries@liminalcreations.com (if you’re looking to work with one of our cloud members only and not with Liminal, please reach out to them or their agents directly). 

We will grow Liminal slowly and intentionally, beginning with conversations and collaborations. We take what’s called ecosystem development very seriously—we want to continue nurturing our relationships with people who create things that we find valuable, and whose ways of moving through the world align or resonate with ours. We trust that we will find future members of Liminal in this organic way. 

If the work we’re doing here speaks to you, reach out! Follow us on Bluesky or subscribe to this newsletter and engage us in discussion, invite us to your events and into your collaborations, or ask to chat or join our Slack! We can’t wait to see what happens next.