This program is sponsored by the Kavli Foundation based in Los Angeles, California.

The Kavli Foundation is dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity. I'm Alan Alda, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

I really wanted to talk about the elements with people

because I know people have heard this idea that we're all made of star stuff as Carl Sagan famously said and so

Tic-Toc seemed to be a really great way to make quick videos and get them out there to an audience that's interested in learning tidbits very quickly and a great way to just connect with them in that way and then bring them, perhaps to longer form, content.

That's Sanjana Curtis.

She's probably one of the very few PhD astrophysicists with her own Tik-Toc channel.

On it, she posts brief but captivating videos that bring the universe closer to all of us

non-PHDs. Her most recent posts are a series she calls

Star Dust, which is the story of how every element in the universe is created in

explosions and collisions out there in the vast reaches of space, and how we and other

creatures use those elements down here on Earth for our very existence.

I was interested in how she's able to make such a complex

story so appealing. It's so great to be talking with you in person like this virtually

because I love your Tik-Toc series. You're so good at that.

Thank you so much.

As well as being learned, you're so animated and passionate about astrophysics.

I love the one with the cat where you're explaining the

history of the universe well a cat is crawling all over you. That is my cat

cinnamon and it's impossible to keep her away from me if I'm speaking.

That's why I'm recording this at work in the physics building at Berkeley.

Hiding from the cat.

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