How Jennifer Frazer got a Sloan Foundation science book grant to write “The Slime Mold’s Guide to World Domination”

In this episode of Questions of the Day on CivicSciTV, I sit down with Jennifer Frazer, science writer and author of the upcoming book The Slime Mold’s Guide to World Domination, supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Public Understanding of Science & Technology funding program. The program’s goal? “To build bridges between the two cultures of science and the humanities and to develop a common language so that they can better understand and speak to one another–and ultimately to grasp that they belong to a single common culture.” As such, the program has funded books, theater, film, television, radio, new media, and more.

Frazer recalls the spark for the book: a paper showing that slime molds could solve mazes. “That exploded my mind,” she says. “I thought at the time, I want to write a book about this one day.”

Frazer shares her full journey. She candidly describes her fear of writing a book—“pure terror”—and the mental hurdle of starting: “I wanted to know every step before I started… and that was just paralyzing.” A turning point came when she decided to write without waiting for permission. “That was probably the best piece of advice I got.”

“Winning the Sloan grant was such a psychological boost,” Frazer says. “It helped me feel like I was contributing to feeding my family and earning the ability to write my book.” The funding allowed her to hire professional translators for interviews. “One of the things I knew was going to be an issue from the beginning was that I needed a Japanese translator. I needed a German translator. And later on, I found out I also needed Latin and Polish.”

Frazer shares that she was already well into the book process when she discovered the grant opportunity. ‘Neither my agent nor editor had mentioned it.” Now, she urges others to be proactive: “Start early, ask questions, and talk to past recipients.” Her advice to fellow science writers? “Pick a topic you’re utterly passionate about. The world has to know about this—and you have to be the one to tell them.”

Useful Links:

The Slime Mold’s Guide to World Domination

Sloan Foundation’s Public Understanding of Science & Technology Program

Connect with Jennifer Frazer

Fanuel Muindi

Fanuel Muindi is a former neuroscientist turned civic science ethnographer. He is a professor of the practice in the Department of Communication Studies within the College of Arts, Media, and Design at Northeastern University, where he leads the Civic Science Media Lab. Dr. Muindi received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and PhD in Organismal Biology from Morehouse College and Stanford University, respectively. He completed his postdoctoral training at MIT.