The blurb for this book promised a "practical and entertaining guide to communicating science" explaining "how to engage your audience and explain why a particular finding matters". I was hoping for tips on how to write and speak when communicating scientific information to people who are not themselves experts in the field. You know, advice for public lectures, wide-appeal books, magazine articles – things like that. Unfortunately it turns out the 'explaining' was quite literal; while I was expecting a writing advice book, this is all about how one should talk to journalists or politicians.

Most of Escape from the Ivory Tower concerns how to give interviews, how to sound good on the radio, and what to do if a journalist misquotes you. I am sure this is helpful to those in the intended audience, but since I don’t see myself being called upon to testify to Congress anytime soon, I found it a bit useless. There was extremely little that was relevant to scientists who want to directly address the public themselves: about two pages on how to set up a blog and five on how to write and submit an op-ed. As for how to write books or give lectures, the main reasons I picked up the book – those topics were not addressed at all. But if you want tips for how to adapt yourself to TV interviews versus print interviews, or how to set up a meeting with a senator, this is the book for you!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2130148369