Better PR for Sharks - Jasmin Graham and the Rise of Minorities in Shark Sciences

In 2019, there was exactly one Black member of the American Elasmobranch Society — the leading U.S. society for shark and ray researchers — out of 500. Then a single tweet during Black Birders Week changed everything.

Join us as we sit down with Jasmin Graham, President and CEO of Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), the organization she and three other Black women scientists built from a viral tweet into a global community with members across four continents — launched just three weeks after that first message, timed deliberately for Juneteenth.

Jasmin studies bonnethead sharks and the critically endangered smalltooth sawfish, one of the last "lifeboat populations" left on Earth, now facing a mysterious new spinning disease that's already claimed an estimated 80 animals in Florida. She's also the author of the memoir Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist, which draws striking parallels between shark conservation and the fight for Black liberation.

In this conversation, Jasmin shares her "scientific meet-cute" origin story, why she walked away from a traditional academic career, how local fishers and Indigenous oral histories are reshaping what scientists thought they knew about bull sharks and red tide, and what she'd tell any young woman of color who loves the ocean but isn't sure science was built for her.

Whether you're drawn to marine science, representation in STEM, or just want to hear from someone whose stated goal in life is to be sharks' PR person, this episode is a reminder that the people best equipped to change a field are often the ones it wasn't built for in the first place.