What is it you want to talk about? (It can be an object, a piece of music, a story, a family tradition, etc.)

I’m going to talk about a family tradition/story about M&M histograms.

What is the story behind it?

I grew up in a family with a habit of making histograms of M&Ms separated by color every time we ate them. It’s something my grandmother started. She was the first female physics PhD at Vanderbilt and worked on this degree while pregnant with my dad in the 1960s. Growing up, whenever we visited her house, we could rely on there being a glass bowl full of M&Ms. I’d grab a handful and, by habit, start separating them out by color in my hand. My grandma, Grandmom, encouraged me and my siblings to make histograms out of the colors. Which colors were more common?

Grandmom has since passed, and there is now an annual talk at Vanderbilt given by a female physics researcher in her memory. At the beginning of the talk, they hand out M&Ms and tell this story.

What does it say about you, your family, or the associated people?

The M&M histograms say a lot about how I grew up and what my family values. This tradition taught me about sampling, taking data, and noticing patterns. More broadly, it taught me to be curious and ask questions – with intent to find an answer.

It also highlights the education- and science-focused atmosphere I grew up around. On my mom’s side, my grandpa was an architect. On my dad’s side, both his parents were physicists that taught college students. My parents were both engineers for several years but have been working in high schools for 15 years now.

Lastly, M&Ms are a way for me to connect with and remember my grandma, who I wish I had gotten to know better.

How are you going to present this story? How are you going to engage the listeners throughout the podcast?

• First, I will hook the audience with a short description of M&Ms.
• Then, I will briefly profile my grandma, who she was, and what she accomplished. (linked by M&M founding year and her birth year).

• Then, I will ask the audience what the relationship between Grandmom & M&Ms is?

• Then, I will introduce the histogram – probably through an interview with my sister. I will describe how we made the histograms (using movement descriptions).

• I’ll discuss the impact this had on me and my siblings. Teaching us to be curious, learn about our surroundings… and also how we now feel connected to her after her death.

• To conclude, I’ll ask the audience if they have similar experiences with objects or activities that shaped how they look at the world? Or how they remember and feel connected to the dead? They can leave comments on the blog.

Do you plan to interview other people?

I will interview my sister, and possibly my brother and dad.