Our Origin Story
In 2012, Laura Berland, the CMO of StarTalk Radio, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s radio show/podcast, had an idea that the best way to build a podcast audience was by using social media to build a community of science loving fans. She hired Jeffrey Lee Simons as Social Media Director, who proceeded to build a social media team out of fans of the show. Together, this team of part time consultants, volunteers, and interns helped Neil and the show’s producers build one of the leading science and education brands on the internet. In support of the show’s mission, we helped StarTalk become a Webby-award winning, top 50 podcast (Top 5 in science!), with the TV version on National Geographic nominated for 4 consecutive Emmys and a YouTube channel with over 1.3 million subscribers.
Fast forward to 2020. We decided to keep the band together, and to take the skills we honed at StarTalk Radio and other companies and put them to use for other podcasts and brands that want us to build the same kind of devoted, engaged fan base for them that we helped build for StarTalk Radio.
The photo above was taken by Justin Starr Photography at the annual holiday party we held for our superfans who supported us on Patreon. From left to right, back row: Stacey Severn, Sarah Cotten, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Elliot Severn, Ben Ratner, Laura Berland, Jeffrey Simons. Front row: Benjamin Schoenfeld, Kirk Long, Jennifer Walsh, Alex Hanson.
Meet Your Social Media Squad
Community Conductor
Stacey Severn
An advisor to The Explorers Club’s Space Advisory Committee, Stacey Severn is the co-chair of their annual Space Stories event, a member of the Boothe Memorial Astronomy Society, and engages in science education through public astronomy events in NY and CT, where she resides. Until recently she was the Community Manager for StarTalk Radio, responsible for their Facebook channel and their Patreon community. She has written for StarTalk Radio, LiveScience and various other publications, reporting from rocket launches and sharing news events and stories about people in science and technology.
Stacey is also an award-winning musician, and plays flute and piccolo in various community bands, orchestras and chamber groups. She is a Masters Level Real Estate Agent at Century 21 Scala Group in Fairfield County.
Social Sensationalist
Sarah Cotten
Sarah fell in love with internet communities during the heyday of Geocities fansites and LiveJournal roleplaying groups. Since teaching herself to code on MySpace in the early 2000's (yes, she's dating herself right here), Sarah's continued to expand her social media presence, trying out new platforms and keeping her finger on the pulse of the social world. Sarah was the StarTalk Radio Instagram Community Manager, where she created and maintained the platform, starting with 0 followers, and growing the account to 115K. Using tactics to engage the fanbase, sharing content, and responding to comments, Sarah created a robust community that supported StarTalk Radio through podcast growth and convention events. Working with Ben Ratner, Sarah helped to coordinate and manage several New York Comic Con Events, which always opened to a packed house.
While she may default to the old reliable (Twitter & Instagram), you can usually find Sarah watching TikToks until the wee hours of the morning, scrolling fun sub-Reddits, and yes, even Facebook gets a nod once and awhile. Recently, she's dived into the world of email marketing, and while she's not an expert (yet!) she's happy to support her clients as best as possible.
Uber-YouTuber
Jennifer Walsh
Jennifer Walsh is a Webby Award-winning strategist, writer, and producer with a knack for telling stories through digital media. She‘s worked with major entertainment and lifestyle brands such as Comedy Central, NBCUniversal, A24, Revlon, New Era, and StarTalk Radio to cultivate strong social followings. She received a Bachelor's degree from Ithaca College and has a Master's in Arts Administration from Baruch College.
In her spare time, she volunteers with the Climate Reality Project, educating citizens about the climate crisis, and keeps bees.
King of Content Creation
Ian Mullen
Ian is an independent filmmaker, writer, and graphic designer living and working in Chicago, IL. He has most recently worked with StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson and The Second City creating content for their respected brands. His latest play, The West Wing Musical: Uncensored, Unauthorized was staged at The Annoyance Theatre in Chicago and his films have screened at the Atlanta Comedy Film Festival, The Chicago Comedy Film Festival, and the Music Box Theatre.
Marketing Maestro
Josef Katz
A for-profit education marketing veteran, Josef was employee #3 at StraighterLine where he grew the business to a $20MM/year. He held senior level management roles with Kaplan Test Prep and has consulted for reputable brands in education, including The Princeton Review, Golden Key National Honor Society and The Student Research Foundation. He was responsible for growing these businesses and put marketing plans, strategies, partners and systems in place to bring new programs to market and drive revenue. His proven track record of success is sought after by EdTech companies and nonprofits looking to reach students and young adults.
Josef has a diverse background of other marketing experiences including: providing direct marketing and data strategy for FinTech, HRTech, and MedTech companies. He has done work for leading brands including Intel, NASDAQ, Nestle, Volvo, Philips Electronics, New Balance, and Rogaine while working for Draft Worldwide and Euro RSCG agency network.
Josef was elected to serve on the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Ethics Operating Committee. He was a member of the DMA’s CRM Segment Advisory Committee and has presented at the DMA’s annual conferences. Josef has judged the DMEF Collegiate Echo awards and was a member of Direct Marketing Idea Exchange.
With over twenty years of direct marketing experience in both business to business and business to consumer marketing, Josef has become a master at aligning technology with data to deliver results..
Visual Alchemist
Jeff Pate
Jeff Pate has been an Art Director/Graphic Designer for 20+ years since graduating with honors from UNH. He has covered the spectrum of print projects and developed the full array of web assignments up to the point of hand-off for coding and programming.
The solutions he creates for clients are original, results oriented, response getting and budget conscious. Jeff's expertise at delivering creative that embodies a client's marketing strategy - while remaining relevant to their brand positioning - has led to many successful projects and partnerships.
His clients have included IBM, Motorola, MasterCard, Parke-Davis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, PepsiCo, Nestlé Waters North America, Readers Digest, the United Nations, StraighterLine and others.
When not in a working in a creative capacity he enjoys boating, restoring 60’s Schwinn muscle bikes, the joy of playing music and discovering the history of all things Van Halen.
Techno Wizard
Brian Pennington
If there’s a technical problem, Brian Pennington will solve it. He’s built and maintained websites for major sports brands, cable networks, and universities, as well as for individual clients from circus performers to makeup artists. Unlike many tech professionals, Brian excels at communication, so he’s often been in charge of training and documentation, both online and in person. He’s also handled audio production for the StarTalk podcast network and for his own content. As a DJ, Brian has recorded and streamed audio on platforms including Twitch, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, and online radio. Currently he’s producing multiple streams each week, with themes like “music for robots” and “dancing in the dark.”
Brian has been booking and promoting events for twenty years. He has filled dance floors at scores of clubs, music venues, warehouses, and museums in New York City and across the country, even sharing the stage with mashup artist Girl Talk. Brian collects a wide range of music: indie, electropop, synthpop, disco, regular funk, future funk, synthwave, new wave, and many other -waves..
Twitch — Soundcloud — Mixcloud — LinkedIn — Twitter — Instagram
Captain Crowdfunding
Stefanie Diaz
Stefanie Diaz is an Emmy-nominated Executive Assistant, Associate Producer, and Crowdfunding Manager living in New York City. She has produced media packages for online and television broadcast.
She has worked as an Associate Producer on the post-production phases for award winning documentaries by directors Abby Disney and Gini Reticker (The Trials of Spring), Michelle Memran (The Rest I Make Up), Chris Cassidy (Dennis and Lois), and Jennifer Fox (The Tale). Besides receiving an Emmy Nom for Coordinating Producer on Jennifer Fox’s documentary, My Reincarnation, Stefanie also assisted in its record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, taking in $150,000 above its $50,000 goal. She has since gone on to facilitate 16 fundraising campaigns, raising $1 million to date for campaigns in narrative and documentary film, music, theatre, and convention events.
When she isn’t working on new media, Stefanie likes to read, write, and cosplay in her spare time!
Squad Leader
Jeffrey Lee Simons
Jeff is a storyteller who has spent his life focused on the things people do for fun, from games and hobbies to comic books and podcasts. He loves building and managing teams of incredible people and empowering them to do the best, most fun and fulfilling work of their careers. He is also a senior level marketing executive with a unique blend of over 34 years of podcast marketing, social media community building, promotional partnerships, advertising, interactive, branding, marketing, paid and organic search, direct response, analytics, and game design. Along the way, he’s built a leading podcast brand and a million-plus-subscriber YouTube channel at StarTalk, created multinational promotions for global brands as the Creative Director for Corporate Marketing at Marvel,, and co-designed critically acclaimed collectible card and role-playing games.
Oh yeah, and he writes science fiction.