Born on the southside of Chicago, Justin Shaifer – science communicator, TV host, producer, STEM-ambassador, and creator of Fascinate House in L.A. – remembers being asked what made him light up as a kid.
“Talking about fun science facts”, he shared in an exclusive interview with the L.A. Sentinel. “That’s what made me light up, but I feel like that voice got drowned out after years on the southside. There was a great sense of community, but not great intellectual opportunities.”
While he did not perform exceptionally well in high school, his superb test scores propelled Justin forward and out of Chicago, to Hampton University on a full ride scholarship as a STEM major. By graduation, Justin was student body president with the highest GPA in the department.
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Despite a full-fledged belief that he was going to become an environmental lawyer, the all-too-familiar quarter-life crisis rattled his inner-knowing and subsequently pulled him in a different direction: entrepreneurship.
In 2017, he found himself in New York City “totally employable with no job” and decided to bet on himself. Seven years later, his successful business and personal brand thrive, employing multiple people and defying the sole-entrepreneurship pseudo-curse that permeates 96% of Black-owned businesses.
A turning point in Justin’s career was deciding to become the Bill Nye of STEM. Colloquially known as Bill Nye, The Science Guy, Nye is a famous American science communicator and hosted the PBS science show, “Bill Nye The Science Guy.”
“My dream was to excite kids about science and tech,” Justin explained. Listed as Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education, this dream was easily within reach for Justin.
“My first job [as an entrepreneur] was an afterschool science workshop and educational program for middle school kids and high school STEM programs in the Bronx. I had one kid hack into my quiz, and I ended up doing a Ted Talk on ‘How to Speak ‘Generation Z’ and I told that story. It ended up going viral with half a million views. It was the beginning of my speaking career, and that led me to think of myself as a personality in this STEM space,” he said.
This defining moment for his personal brand inspired Justin to hone his speaking talents as science educator “Mr. Fascinate,” resulting in over 150 keynote speeches for corporate stakeholders, students, and educations, as well as TV hosting opportunities with multiple networks, including PBS.
While he enjoyed being in front of the camera, he noticed voids that pushed him to move to Los Angeles and create his own media production company, Fascinate Media. His goal was to take control of the narrative and educate in the way he wished he was educated as a younger kid on the southside of Chicago.
“When I was working on these other sets, every person behind the camera was white. They even told me to have more ‘urban swagger’ [onscreen]. There were no Black-owned media production companies in the science field. And that’s why you didn’t see a lot of Black talent [as STEM communicators],” recalled Justin.
“It trickles down to the Black community and them not knowing a lot about science. In the back of my mind, I knew I needed my own production company.”
Justin’s company, Fascinate Media, uses “casual, accessible lingo with high-tech production” as a metaphorical antidote to this issue by elevating approachability and digestibility for the audience.
Some of the topics Justin and his company have broached through speaking opportunities, animated TV, and media include AI and its future in the workforce, winning the war on information through science, phenotypic and genetic explanation for a range of Black characteristics including pigmented skin and curly hair, and myth-debunking. The purpose is to increase the understanding of STEM topics and get more Black kids interested in pursuing STEM careers.
“We have to get more Black folks in STEM. Without early exposure to these topics and terms, [Black kids] find them more intimidating later in life. Our community needs an overhaul with science. We need this literacy, because this is where the power is…some of these massive, trillion-dollar tech companies are more influential than some politicians in D.C.,” he insisted.
“Even in the medical field and just looking at postpartum mortality, we don’t have enough Black doctors caring for these mothers. We need Black folks in all of these STEM fields, and that starts with this type of education.”
Learn more about Mr. Fascinate, Fascinate Media, and STEM at www.fascinate.media
