We rarely think clearly about energy, even though it underpins almost everything we take for granted in modern life. Public debates about energy are often dominated by fear, misinformation, and intuitive but misleading ideas about risk, cost, and environmental impact. This talk explores how those misunderstandings arise, why they persist even among scientifically literate audiences, and what a more evidence-based view of energy looks like. Along the way, it looks at nuclear energy, energy transitions, and the psychology of risk perception to ask a simple question: why do we keep getting energy so wrong, and how can we fix it?

Zion Lights is an award-winning science communicator, author of Energy Is Life: How Environmentalism Went Nuclear, and a content creator with an audience of over half a million across social platforms. Her work focuses on making complex scientific and technical topics accessible and engaging, with a particular emphasis on addressing misinformation, energy myths, and public understanding of science. Her “Science with Zi” video content reaches millions of viewers worldwide.
Zion’s website. Blog at Everything is Light. Links to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X.
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