How I Started: Creating NotiPHied Podcast & Consulting with Lois King
Photo of Lois King
Some of the readers, may not know you. Please share a bit about your background, your academic background, your previous academic and work experience, any career highlights or awards so far, or anything else you want to share about yourself.
I am a 28 year-old final year PhD student with the Global Health Governance Programme at the University of Edinburgh, UK. My PhD project is called “Governance of Childhood Pneumonia: Assessing the Effect of Global Narratives on National Priorities and Implementation in Bangladesh”. I also have a Masters in Public Health, with a background in Biomedical Sciences. I have written on a range of public health issues for Black Ballad UK, BBC Science Focus, Think Global Health and peer-reviewed academic journals. I love science communication and have recently started the podcast 'NotiPHied', all about making global public health accessible. Finally, I am Scotland's only Ambassador for The Sumaira Foundation, dedicated to generating global awareness of rare neuroimmune diseases.
Could you share details on how you started consulting?
It was actually one of my supervisors who had heard from a colleague that her organisation was looking for consultants: so I applied, submitted an example case study and attended an interview and the rest is history. Currently, I have one year of experience working as an Associate Consultant at Impact for Health International, where we used strategic facilitation, technical analysis, and information design to help our clients optimize their development work; this was a combination of research and seeing more hands-on impact than you typically do in academia. It was a small but mighty team, and the exposure was incredible – I got to work directly with clients like the World Health Organization, Ipas, USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with a rare neurological autoimmune disease in May 2023 at the very end of my first-year contract, which meant I couldn’t renew my contract.
Could you share more about NotiPHied Podcast, what you do, and why/how you started?
The tagline for NotiPHied (where PH stands for public health) is ‘making public health accessible’. It was my autoimmune diagnosis that inspired me to start podcasting. When I came out of the hospital, for the first time in my adult life I actually had time and remember wanting to catch up on what I’d missed in the public health space but couldn’t find anything comprehensive, concise or accessible. I immediately noticed there was a huge gap that still hadn’t been filled. The piece-meal podcasts I had come across were usually linked to American medical schools and were so stuffy that it was a bit uncomfortable even for me to listen to. I also knew it was too soon to go straight back into my PhD work and my speech was one of the things that had been really affected by brain inflammation. So, I thought starting a podcast would help me practice my enunciation and it’s been a great experience so far. I’ve learned how to plan/write/research scripts, do and edit interviews and market the episodes. This is why NotiPHied’s aim is simply to bring public health to the public, who have a right to be well-informed on how research, policies and social issues can affect their health. We can also all do with less jargon and more emotion in academia generally!
“But I will say - it’s so important to learn to say NO. There are so many exciting demands on your time and you’re surrounded by like-minded people so it’s easy to get distracted.”
How do you balance your academic work with creating podcast episodes and when you were consulting?
Honestly, I’ve been on an interruption of study from my PhD and NotiPHied is less than a year old, so we’ll see how the juggling goes from 2025…! I’m going to do as much planning as I can before I officially go back. But I will say - it’s so important to learn to say NO. There are so many exciting demands on your time and you’re surrounded by like-minded people so it’s easy to get distracted. And when I was doing the PhD and full-time consulting, in hindsight it was definitely exhausting and unsustainable, so remember to listen to your body.
Where should young professionals look to start their consulting journey?
Right under their noses! For example, if you are in an academic programme, make sure to set aside time to speak to your lecturers about your interests – they might just have something in mind either in the same department or through their international network of colleagues. Consulting contracts are usually temporary and fixed-term, so you could discuss with your supervisors about setting aside time to pick up those skills, then go back to focus on your programme.
What can people expect for the future of NotiPHied Podcast?
I am super excited with the range of issues I’m looking to delve into. Topics in the pipeline include manufacturing capacity in Africa, antimicrobial resistance, health issues affecting Black people like sickle cell disease, and the experiences of frontline health workers!
What advice would you have for someone who wants to start a podcast and/or become a consultant?
One of the best things about running a podcast is that it gives you the ability to just reach out to anyone, anywhere in the world. That, coupled with the growing value of being a science communicator in our ‘post-COVID’ world, is a great combination as you’re looking to build your career.
Where can people stay connected with you (as an individual) and the NotiPHied Podcast?
Lois’ website: loisemilyking.com
NotiPHied links (including Instagram page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Patreon): linktr.ee/notiphied
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/loisemilyking
