I'm Alan Olver and this is Clear In Vivid, conversations about connecting and communicating.

You know I tried to make my home in astronomy, at MIT, and in the sciences.

And there was something missing.

It's like a dream never goes away.

It just, if you leave it, it's still on the side of the road as I say in my book.

You know, it was lying on the side of the road somewhere and I was down the highway

and eventually it caught up with me.

And it was like, hey, what about me?

You know that acting thing?

Don't you still love me?

And the answer was yes.

That's a Omo-Wa Shields.

And the tussle for her attention between astronomy and acting has both dominated and enriched

her life.

She's now the leader of a team checking out newly discovered planets beyond our solar

system for the likelihood they could support life.

As an African-American woman in a field traditionally dominated by white males, that already makes

her unusual.

What makes her unique is that much of her life has been spent furthering her other passion,

acting.

And that's put her skills in connecting and communicating on Vivid display in her new book, Life on

Other Planets, a memoir of finding my place in the universe.

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