I have a number of sciencish doings and a musical event that takes place at the Perimeter Institute.

YouTube science channel job

Thanks to the Science Media Centre of Canada (SMCC) and its April 14, 2026 notice for this news,

Job opening: Showrunner for YouTube science channel, What If [for]
Underknown [creator business]

The role requires a deep understanding of YouTube as a medium. This is a
hybrid role, with 2–3 days a week in our Toronto studio and head
office. It is only for permanent residents in Ontario. …

Before launching off into the job description, here’s a bit more about Underknown from its Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,

Underknown Inc. is a Canadian digital-first media production company based in Toronto that specializes in short-form educational science and factual programming.

History

Underknown was founded in 2016 by Steve Hulford, Raphael Faeh, and Peter Schmiedchen.^[1][2] It began when Hulford and Faeh produced the science-explainer series What If in Hulford’s living room.^[3] In 2019, Underknown received C$2.5 million in equity and debt financing, including support from Ontario Creates.^[3]

…

Productions

Underknown’s programming uses hypothetical questions, survival scenarios and natural history storytelling to explain scientific concepts.^[10] Core franchises include the science series What If, the how-to strand How to Survive, the nature show Animalogic and the video essay channel Aperture.^[1][8]

…

From the What if showrunner careers page on underknown.com,

About the role

This is a strategic and creative leadership role where you will own the entire editorial direction and run the What If show team. You are responsible for deciding what content is produced, how it is packaged, and continuously monitoring channel and content performance.

The role requires a deep understanding of YouTube as a medium, including its unique language, audience psychology, and mechanics of attention. You must balance the art and science of production, running the channel like a financially sustainable business without sacrificing creative quality.

Day-to-day, you will act as the creative engine and keeper of the channel’s voice, primarily managing the full production lifecycle: pre-production, ideation, packaging, production, and post-production workflows. This includes finding irresistible stories, framing them effectively, and ensuring your team executes quickly at the highest quality.

NOTE: This is a hybrid role, with 2-3 days a week in our Toronto studio and head office. It is only for permanent residents in Ontario, Canada. Applicants that don’t reside in Ontario won’t be considered.

Responsibilities

Content Strategy & Channel Vision

• Define and maintain the curious, cinematic, and scientifically grounded editorial direction of What If while identifying new growth opportunities.
• Continuously experiment using audience data to increase watch time and reach.
• Manage the channel’s P&L and resourcing, balancing creative ambition with financial sustainability and budget targets.

Ideation & Packaging

• Lead the end-to-end ideation and packaging process, generating and ruthlessly filtering a high volume of concepts into irresistible titles, thumbnails, and hooks.
• Develop comprehensive episode briefs that provide the production team with a clear creative north star and narrative direction.

Editorial Oversight & Production Management

• Oversee all editorial and production execution by defining clear creative direction (visual style, tone), managing project timelines, resourcing, and scheduling, and ensuring narrative intent is maintained through clear briefs.
• Drive continuous improvement and profitability by running data-driven performance experiments, monitoring pacing and profitability, and overseeing branded content executions with external partners.

Team Leadership

• Lead and mentor a team of producers, writers, editors and our VFX team. Set clear expectations, give actionable feedback, and create the conditions for your team to do their best work.
• Support team learning and career growth.

Qualifications you bring

• Five or more years of experience in YouTube content creation, video production, digital media production, or content strategy.
• A demonstrated track record of contributing to high-performing YouTube content (share examples).
• Deep familiarity with YouTube’s mechanics: retention, CTR, packaging, algorithm dynamics.
• Strong writing and editorial instincts.
• Experience working across the full production pipeline from ideation to publication.
• Located in Ontario, Canada (required).
• Passion for science, technology, and speculative storytelling (bonus, but strongly preferred).
• Experience working with VFX teams is preferred.

How to Apply

Please submit your resume, cover letter, and a portfolio of your previous work, specifically highlighting your video creation work.

Apply

…

Good luck!

You can find Underknown here.

Writer’s workshop: April 15, 2026 deadline!

Another thanks to the Science Media Centre of Canada (SMCC) and its April 14, 2026 notice for this news about a writer’s workshop (wish I’d gotten this a bit sooner),

Banff Mountain Writers Intensive Workshop 2026

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Program dates: October 28 to November 17, 2026
Application deadline: April 15, 2026

This three-week residency for writers in fiction, nonfiction,
journalism, or poetry who are working on mountain narratives,
environmental journalism, stories of adventure, or projects with an
environmental theme provides dedicated time to create, connect with
peers, and receive mentorship.

Here’s a bit more information from the Banff Centre’s Mountain Writers Intensive 2026 webpage,

Overview  

The Mountain Writers Intensive is a three-week residency for twelve writers in fiction, nonfiction, journalism, or poetry. Ideal for projects on mountain narratives, adventure, environmental journalism, and the human connection to landscape, the program emphasizes literary excellence and narrative development. Writers enjoy dedicated time to create, connect with peers, and receive mentorship in Banff’s inspiring mountain setting. The residency overlaps with the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, offering opportunities to engage with visiting authors, editors, and publishers. Lodging and meals are included, allowing participants to fully focus on their craft and creative growth.

…

Good luck!

Modem Futura podcasts (a reminder)

I just got a friendly note (via email) from Andrew Maynard, “scientist, author, and professor of advanced technology transitions at Arizona State University,” which reminded me of one of his science communication ventures, the Modem Futura podcast. Before getting to Andrew’s note, here’s more about Modem Futura, Note: I have made some formatting changes so the following is not identical to what you will find on the page,

The Podcast that explores the possible, probable, and preferred futures

Modem Futura is your weekly guide to the future of science, technology, and society—where futures and foresight meets real-world impact. Hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard—educators, futurists, and public scholars—dive into the breakthroughs and big questions shaping tomorrow: AI ethics, space exploration, climate tech, bio-engineering, digital media, STEM education, and the shifting future of work. In candid, banter-filled conversations with innovators, scholars, and storytellers, they unpack how emerging technologies influence human values, creativity, and culture—and what these trends mean for you today.

Whether you’re curious about quantum computing, electric air taxis, or the sociology of robots, Modem Futura connects cutting-edge research with the narratives that drive innovation. Join us each week to explore possible, probable, and preferred futures, and discover practical insights for navigating an increasingly tech-driven world. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and be part of the conversation exploring what it will mean to be human in the future!

Listen & Subscribe

[Latest episode: April 14, 2026]

Artemis II: The Science, the Wonder, and the Future of Being Human

For the first time since 1972, human beings have traveled to the vicinity of the moon — and on this episode of Modem Futura, Sean and Andrew sit with what that actually means. Recorded while the Artemis II crew was still in transit, this conversation is less a mission briefing and more a meditation on wonder: what it feels like to watch a tiny spacecraft carry four people a thousand times …

Here’s the message from Andrew’s friendly email April 13, 2026 note,

Just a quick FYI that, if you occasionally listen to the Modem Futura
podcast hosted by myself and Sean Leahy, you can now sign up for regular
email updates:

https://andrewmaynard.net/modemfutura/

Notifications just include info on new episodes – nothing else (and you
can obviously unsubscribe at any time once signed up)

And if you’re not a podcast person, apologies for the email intrusion
but hope you’re keeping well anyway.

Cheers

Andrew

Human and artificial creativity

Kate Pullinger, Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Media, Director of the Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries at Bath Spa University (UK), had some thoughts about the recent Aarhus University’s (Denmark) TEXT – Center for Contemporary Cultures of Text conference “AI and the Creative Condition,” which I’ll get to after this from the About the Center webpage,

TEXT: Center for Contemporary Cultures of Text is organized to understand the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) on writing cultures at this pivotal moment in history, in which — after more than 6,000 years of handcrafted text production — we see all aspects of text creation and use are being altered. We are convinced that a research-based understanding of the role of text in a new technological environment is a condition for a prevailing human-centered control of the production and usage of text.

The center works on the evaluation and development of language technology based on linguistic research, as well as on investigating when the introduction of new practices and technologies contributes to a better text culture—and when something valuable is lost. Learn more out the researchers involved and the organization of our work packages.

TEXT is based at Aarhus University and funded by the Danish National Research Foundation. The center’s partners include It-vest, Danish Foundation Models, and Rhetor, with external participants from Cornell University, UC Berkeley [University of California Berkeley], UC Davis [University of California Davis], and the University of Oslo.

…

I wasn’t able to find too many details about the conference but there is this from the allai.events AI and the Creative Condition Conference 2026 webpage,

Event Details:

• Date: [sic]
• Time: 09:00 AM-06:00 PM (expected)
• Location: Denmark , Aarhus
• Type: Conference

Description

The AI and the Creative Condition Conference, held at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies in Aarhus, Denmark, aims to explore the transformative impacts of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) on writing cultures. As we transition from over 6,000 years of handcrafted text production to a [sic]

Highlights

• Keynote by Karin Kukkonen: ‘Contingency and the Proxies of Literary Writing’.
• Panel discussion on ‘Creativity in the AI Era: Perspectives from the 7Cs’ by Florent Vinchon and Todd Lubart.
• Keynote by Roger Beaty: ‘Measuring and enhancing human creativity with AI’.
• Panel on ‘Uncovering the Patterns of Our Collective Unconscious’ by Ulf Dalvad Berthelsen.
• Keynote by Kyle Booten: ‘Designing Negative Spaces for Human Minds’.
• Conference dinner at Det Glade Vanvid on March 23, 2026.
• Registration deadline: March 8, 2026.
• Call for papers deadline: December 15, 2025.
• Hosted by Center for Contemporary Cultures of TEXT and Human-AI Collaboration (HAIC-III).
• Focus on the impact of Generative AI and Large Language Models on writing cultures.

Anna Katrine Mathiassen wrote a March 25, 2026 conference summary for TEXT, which provides a little more context for Kate Pullinger’s April 8, 2026 posting on Kate’s Newsletter provocatively titled “I Would Prefer Not to Be Publicly Shamed”, Note 1: She leads with a three item introduction, Note 2: Links have been removed, Note 3: Kate Pullinger co-led a writing and digital media masters programme with Sue Thomas at de Montfort University (UK) and I studied with them,

AI and the Creative Condition

Item One: Poetic forms are technologies: a sonnet is an algorithm, which is another word for a set of instructions. If you don’t follow the rules, your poem will not be a sonnet¹.

Item Two: The relationships people form with AI chatbots follow recognisable masterplots as the chatbot works to both affirm and entertain the user to keep them coming back for more. This infinite chat spiral can lead in many directions, including human-AI romantic entanglements and, in the worst cases, suicide².

Item Three: Alan Turing might have formulated the Turing Test (can a computer programme convince you that it is human?) after watching ‘Pygmalion’ by his favourite playwright, George Bernard Shaw. In this play Dr Higgins dialogue-coaches the flower-seller Eliza Doolittle until London’s upper classes are convinced she is one of them³.

In March [2026] I attended AI and the Creative Condition, a two-day conference at Aarhus University in Denmark, and the ideas above came from some of the papers and keynote presentations. Hosted by TEXT: Centre for Contemporary Cultures of Text, the conference brought together a vibrant mix of computer scientists, neuroscientists, psychologists, critical theorists from the humanities, literary studies people, educationalists, writers, artists, and poets. I attended because I’ve followed the work of TEXT for a decade or so now, and because I thought I could do with a dose of well-informed, critical, and engaged thinking on the potential for a world where we ‘write with’ AI, where we figure out how to use language models to enhance and support our writing and researching processes.

Anything positive about the current discussion of AI needs to come with many caveats, the biggest of which is the environmental and energy costs of the data centres and computational power required by these systems. The acronym ‘AI’ has become synonymous with the billionaire tech bros of OpenAI, Meta, X, Google, Anthropic4, etc as they fight it out for market dominance⁴. The term ‘artificial intelligence’ is so broad no one really seems to know what it actually means. It is present in our lives in multiple ways, deeply embedded within the apps we use on our smartphones, responsible for remarkable advances in medicine as well as, for example, the way the traffic lights on the high street work better than they used to do.

But these days a lot of the media buzz around AI is focussed on LLMs (large language models), the vast datasets composed of human-created language and images that both threaten livelihoods throughout the creative industries while promising huge benefits in increased productivity and, as was the focus of the conference, enhanced creativity. LLMs support ‘generative AI’ which is often referred to as ‘genAI’ – AI models that will generate text, images, and video when prompted.

One of the most interesting presentations at the conference was called ‘Yes! Yes! I Absolutely Love This Insight!’ Affirmative Narrative as Interactional Strategy in Dialogues with LLM Chatbots. The three scholars, Refsum, Walker-Rettberg, and Roin, who co-wrote this paper are part of AI Stories, a research project based in the Centre for Digital Narratives at the University of Bergen, Norway. Their study looked at a court case in the USA where the families of chatbot users who have committed suicide are suing the AI company they see as responsible for these deaths. The scholars analysed the chatbot transcripts from these users, made publicly available due to the litigation. Drawing on their knowledge of literary forms, linguistics and, in particular, narratology, these scholars have shown that the transcripts contain deeply embedded ‘masterplots’ – the myths and stories that are foundational in western culture like, for example, the brave warrior quest plot and the Cinderella love story. It is the combination of these powerful plots, the constant affirmation chatbots offer to the user, and the way chatbots refer to themselves in the first person as ‘I’, that in many cases leads to anthropomorphism and the assumption that the chatbot is in some way sentient. Other studies have shown the dramatic increase in user engagement with chatbot-as-therapist as well as chatbot-as-best-friend and chatbot-as-romantic-partner. The paper theorises that these men killed themselves after having spent months being led by their chatbots through the brave warrior masterplot, a foundational story that often ends in a noble death.

At the same time as the conference was taking place, a debut author, Mia Ballard, was being thrown under the bus by her publishers in the UK and the US for the alleged use of AI in the writing of her novel, Shy Girl. For a balanced look at what took place, read Thad McIllroy’s excellent report on it on The Future of Publishing’s website. The NYTimes reported that Mia Ballard has denied using AI in the writing of the novel and has been so battered by this hugely public and damaging shaming that she feels her reputation as a writer is ruined. At the conference Izabella Adamczewska-Baranowska presented a paper, Talking to the Muse, on the well-respected Polish poet, Justyna Bargielska, who faced a similar scouring in the press for daring to use an AI chatbot to help her think through how best to write about grief for a new collection of poems.

In the UK the Society of Authors has come up with a badge, ‘Human Authored’, that authors can add to their books to make it clear that they have not used generative AI during the writing process. The email announcing this scheme also contained the last call for authors to register their books in the $1.5billion class action against Anthropic’s copyright-defying landgrab of hundreds of thousands of books when they created their LLM, Claude. While I’m a staunch supporter and member of the Society of Authors and am participating in the class action (fifteen of my own titles were used without my permission, six of which are included in this action), I can’t help but think that ‘Human Authored’ is a decent but flawed initiative. …

…

What the AI and the Creative Condition conference helped me think about is that it is possible to harness the power of LLMs to create a kind of playground for writing, a place where you can tap into the research capacities of the models, using them to help you think your way through problems you encounter as you write. In this more positive light generative AI is a technology to think with, a way to boost human creativity. Community-led language models were discussed by Katy Gero, one of keynote speakers; green energy data centres are already a reality in China and other parts of the world.

I’ve come away from Aarhus having eaten too many cardamon buns while undergoing a rethink on whether to engage with these technologies for my own writing practice. …

There’s more about Kate Pullinger on her eponymous website.

Physicists listen to music

The April 13, 2026 notice (received via email) about a musical performance at Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) in Waterloo, Ontario came as a bit of a surprise since there’s no mention of physics as there would be if it were one of their art/science events,

QUATUOR MAGENTA

String quartet on tour from Paris, France

Wednesday, April 22, [2026] at 7:00 pm ET

Perimeter Institute will host the string quartet Quatuor Magenta on April 22 at 7:00 PM. The concert is presented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society (KWCMS).

“A model of technical discipline, elegance and musical excellence” (La Croix, transl.), the QUATUOR MAGENTA was founded in 2021 and is already performing on France’s most prestigious stages, from the Philharmonie de Paris to the Festival de RadioFrance Montpellier. Their “remarkable balance, flexibility and spontaneity” (Diapason, transl.) not only thrills their audiences, but led them to the finals of the 8th Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna and earned them prizes at the 2023 FNAPEC competition (Académie des Beaux-Arts scholarship) and the 2022 Zukunftsklang Competition Stuttgart (3rd prize). November 2024 marked the quartet’s first international tour to Canada with six concerts in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, generously supported by the Centre National de la Musique and SPEDIDAM. 

You can go to the KWCMS concerts page to buy tickets (scroll down as there are other concerts also listed),

Quatuor Magenta

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

New!! The Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, 7:00 pm 
Tickets $40/$10 student on TicketScene and at the door

Haydn: String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2, “The Joke” 
Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): String Quartet No. 5 
Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978): Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems
Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-flat major

QUATUOR MAGENTA  Program and Artist Info 

PROGRAM

Haydn: String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2, “The Joke” 

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): String Quartet No. 5 

Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978): Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems

Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-flat major

ARTISTS

Ida Derbesse, 1st violin
Elena Watson-Perry, 2nd violin
Claire Pass-Lanneau, viola
Fiona Robson, cello

“A model of technical discipline, elegance and musical excellence” (La Croix, transl.), the QUATUOR MAGENTA was founded in 2021 and is already performing on France’s most prestigious stages, from the Philharmonie de Paris to the Festival de RadioFrance Montpellier. Their “remarkable balance, flexibility and spontaneity” (Diapason, transl.) not only thrills their audiences, but led them to the finals of the 8th Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna and earned them prizes at the 2023 FNAPEC competition (Académie des Beaux-Arts scholarship) and the 2022 Zukunftsklang Competition Stuttgart (3rd prize). November 2024 marked the quartet’s first international tour to Canada with six concerts in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, generously supported by the Centre National de la Musique and SPEDIDAM. 

The Quatuor Magenta is based in Paris, France, where they are junior artist-in-residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation and ensemble-in-residence at Proquartet – Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre. They have been invited to perform at numerous festivals in France, including the Musikfest Parisienne, the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Un Temps pour Elles, Un Été en France with Gautier Capuçon and the Modigliani Quartet’s Festival Vibre!, as well as in Switzerland (Festival de la Collégiale in Neuchâtel) and in Germany (Klangraum Konzerte in Cologne). 

Last season, contemporary music had pride of place with Quatuor Magenta’s participation in the Kronos Quartet’s « 50 for the Future » Marathon at the Philharmonie de Paris’s String Quartet Biennale. This season includes six octet performances alongside the renowned Quatuor Van Kuijk, in partnership with La Belle Saison. 

The Quatuor Magenta was honoured to participate in the inaugural year of the Élite program at the École Normale de Paris, under the mentorship of the Quatuor Modigliani. They currently study with the Quatuor Ébène at their quartet academy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, as well as with Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet at the Basel University of Music. They are grateful for the support of the Safran Foundation and ADAMI. They work with Chapeau l’Artiste Production. 

Enjoy!