Underground Science. Underground Stories.
Why does data alone fail to move people — and what actually makes science stick?
Convened by the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), this session brings together a magazine founder, a scientist, a data designer, and a digital storyteller to explore how they transform little-known facts into compelling stories that resonate with people.
The session will also examine misinformation in science communication and conclude with the launch of Underground Creators, a new initiative pairing storytellers with scientists mapping Earth's underground fungal networks.
SPEAKERS
Willow Defebaugh, Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief, Atmos
Willow Defebaugh is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Atmos, an award-winning climate and culture magazine that seeks to re-enchant people with nature. She is the author of The Overview, a deep ecology newsletter and book, and host of The Nature Of podcast, named a top ten show of 2025 by Apple Podcasts. She is a lifelong student of nature and graduated with a degree in creative writing from the University of Michigan. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Teen Vogue, V Magazine, Interview, i-D, BBC, The Guardian, Them, New York Magazine, and more. She lives in Brooklyn on unceded Lenape territory.
Toby Kiers, Co-founder & Executive Director, SPUN, and 2026 MacArthur Fellow
Dr. Toby Kiers is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). She is a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, where her lab studies the flows of carbon and nutrients inside fungal networks. Kiers’s research is globally recognized for using high-resolution robotic imaging to pioneer the mapping of plant-fungal networks. Kiers is the youngest woman to win both the Spinoza Prize, the highest honor in Dutch academia, and the Tyler Prize, known as the Nobel Prize for the Environment. She has earned a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship, a 2025 Climate Breakthrough Award, and a place on the TIME100 Next list. She writes op-eds for the New York Times, The Guardian, and other outlets about her expeditions mapping fungi across Earth's most remote ecosystems.
Moritz Stefaner, Data Visualization Designer, Truth & Beauty, and Co-host of the Data Stories podcast
Moritz Stefaner (Truth & Beauty) helps organizations find truth and beauty in relevant and meaningful data.
An independent designer, consultant and researcher, he has spent two decades turning complex data into insight — from seminal data communication work like the OECD Better Life Index through data-heavy applications for Deutsche Bahn and Salesforce to data artworks on display at SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica and the Venice Biennale.
As the record winner of the Information is Beautiful Awards, co-host of the acclaimed Data Stories podcast, and a frequent keynote speaker, he never ceases to get excited by the magic that can emerge when art and science meet.
Alesssandra Yupanqui, Co-founder & Editorial Director, Sapiens
Alessandra Yupanqui is a storyteller, Andean activist, and TEDx speaker recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sapiens, a digital media platform making sustainability information more accessible through an Indigenous lens. Her work highlights Indigenous cultures as living, contemporary, and deeply sophisticated, bringing perspectives that are essential to navigating the complex challenges of our time.
She has collaborated with organizations including Oxfam, the Pulitzer Center, Amnesty International, Amazon Frontlines, Oceana, and the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Her work has been featured by El País, Forbes, BBC, and Deutsche Welle.
Based in Cusco, Peru, she works at the intersection of storytelling and journalism, translating complex topics into clear, human narratives that connect science, culture, and our relationship with the biosphere.
MODERATOR
Mandy Nguyen, Award-winning journalist and producer
Mandy Nguyen is an award-winning journalist and producer covering science, the environment, and culture. Her roots are in public radio: reporting and co-hosting KTOO's Juneau Afternoon from Alaska's temperate rainforests, before producing KQED's flagship daily show Forum. She then came on as an early producer at Vox's Unexplainable, a Webby and AAAS Kavli Award-winning podcast about scientific mysteries reaching hundreds of thousands of listeners. Her work has since aired on NPR and PRX, and she works across audio, video, and print to tell stories that reconnect us to the natural world and each other.