Well, as a follow-up to a timestream post sent a little more than a year ago, I’m writing today to ask the future about the ultimate merits and/or penalties of having engaged in the National Geographic television show “Chasing UFOs,” which as it would turn out is a great deal less scientific than I’d originally hoped/been led to believe. Not for lack of trying, mind you. It just wasn’t up to me. But then again, you know about all that.
My real question is this: It seems there is a fraternity of professional scientists who wanted to try and engage in mainstream media with varying amounts of success. I myself don’t like the trend toward less-informative television that I seem to have involuntarily become a part of, and I’m considering taking a more vocal stand on behalf of science in the media.
So… What happens? This is all very new territory for me. What do I decide to do, and what doors do these decisions open and/or close?
Very anxious to learn more,
Ben
July 25, 2012; 03:20p.m. PT
Chronicles of an Atomic Astrowright 
The best scientific thinkers were never very popular, especially in their own time. And reality TV (an oxymoron if there ever was one) is just not a media that can support science and reason (at least in its current incarnation). I personally think that the truth is way more interesting than fiction, but fiction tends to be more predictable or maybe more deliverable to an audience. And real science… real cutting edge science is typically too messy to fit inside the box provided by TV. Good luck with you endeavours.
To Ben from 2012:
Spoiler Alert: Everything turns out all right.
You may have inadvertently participated in the slow withering of intelligent television, but it’s nothing that wouldn’t have happened without you getting your small slice of fame.
In fact, in the intervening time, you’ve scored your dream job. If you need more details, let me refer you to my friend Ben from 2014. He’ll be happy to tell you all about it.