Friday evening, tinkerer, television producer, special effects artists, cosplay enthusiast and science communicator Adam Savage spoke to a packed crowd in Cox Auditorium in the Alumni Memorial Building.
Savage is the fourth guest in the Mossman Lecture series, a program made possible through an endowment by the late Ken and Blaire Mossman, who met at the University of Tennessee in 1968.
Previous lecturers of the series include Bill Nye of “Science Guy” fame, autism researcher Dr. Temple Grandin, and Alan Alda, an accomplished actor and science communicator.
Savage’s appearance coincided with the dedication of the new Mossman Building, led by Chancellor Wayne T. Davis, occurred at 3:30 p.m.
Savage entered stage to a full house—before the event, UT students and others formed long lines outside the doors of the auditorium onto the street.
Before jumping into a moderated discussion, Savage presented a trailer teasing Mythbusters Jr., a new show that will premiere on The Discovery Channel. The reel featured plenty of explosions, fascinating contraptions and Adam Savage and his six teenage co-hosts.
He was most excited about working with the next generation of scientists. In an interview, Savage said, “The myth that kids can’t be Mythbusters is totally busted…they have hungry, beautiful minds, and creating a space around them this summer…it [was] delightful.”
After the promotional video, Savage entered a moderated discussion. He described his childhood, how he is
the son of a psychotherapist and a celebrated painter, artist and filmmaker. Due to his parents’ influence, Savage was encouraged to design and experiment from a young age. Though he’s sent two children of his own off to college, Savage says he’s still “clearly a kid at heart”.
Following the moderated discussion, the floor was opened to audience questions, with questions being as lighthearted as a student asking Savage to don a pair of goofy glasses and pose for a picture, which Savage did enthusiastically.
“For me as a science communicator, figuring out a way to explain something so that I understand it is thrilling, and I find it really entertaining…it feels good, it’s an endorphin rush for me. Explaining a science fact for me is the same as a comedian crafting a joke,” Savage said.
At the same time, Savage addressed issues, such as the importance of diversity in the field of design, as well as the need for science education to focus on more than just memorization.
“[Science] is too often taught as a series of facts to be memorized by Thursday…those facts don’t mean anything unless you put them in context, and when you do put them in context, you get a great story and that’s what you remember…[stories] are the best way to trade information,” Savage said.
Above all, Savage emphasized the world’s need for a generation of thinkers and “makers”—borrowing the term from the Maker Movement, in which he is a pioneer—to be deeply, unabashedly interested in their fields of study.
“Each one of our own personal obsessions…are the gateway to our own excellence…I want to promote to everybody that you can reach out and make something: it’s rap, it’s dance, it’s poetry, it’s furniture making, it’s playing the organ at church. Making is any time you reach out with your own hands and your mind and you manipulate the world and change it a little bit. My goal is that everyone gets to experience the pleasure of doing that just as I do,” Savage said.
Amalia Kappel, a freshman majoring in biomedical engineering, attended the lecture and said that the talk was “emotional” for her.
“[Savage] is one of my idols,” Kappel said.
She also noted that Savage’s words on obsession reassured her:
“When you’re in a place, you’re always going to have that imposter feeling,” Kappel said. Especially as a freshman here, I have felt like I don’t belong… if I put in the effort, I think I’m being ‘obsessed’, and so I do belong here.”
At the conclusion of the lecture, the UT Makers Club presented the senior Mythbuster with a small-scale replica of the Torchbearer statue made by the club themselves, being followed by applause and Savage accepting the statue.
