The YouTube player loads when you press Play.
Talking with Jay Flores: Give People a Reason to Get Excited About Science
Our September 2022 conversation about curiosity, representation and the path to Ninja Warrior.
Article published November 4, 2026.
I know math becomes a lot more interesting to me when I need it to make a game work. During this conversation with Jay Flores, I bring up trying to make something face a camera in 3D: suddenly, the equation has a reason to matter.
That is a big part of what we talk about—giving young people a reason to be curious before asking them to work through the difficult parts.
Start with the question
Jay explains how he developed It’s Not Magic, It’s Science during the pandemic, when access to museums, labs and visiting engineers had changed. A surprising experiment could catch someone’s attention and make them want to know how it worked.
We also discuss answering children’s questions through Mystery Science and presenting the explanations in a way intended for that audience.
Who gets to see themselves in science?
The conversation moves into representation, including language and seeing people from different backgrounds in engineering. Jay describes why that matters to the work, and we talk about English and Spanish versions of the project’s branding.
The athletic side belongs in the story, too
Jay talks through the long process of applying for American Ninja Warrior and what his 2022 season meant to him. We discuss training, setbacks and getting to bring science into that setting.
He also describes Make48 and plans for live science events as they stood at the time. Those are parts of this September 2022 interview, rather than a current television or tour schedule.
Find the original conversation
The interview begins around 4:38 in the embedded stream recording. Jay’s original references are @JayFloresInspires, @jayfloresinspires, http://www.jayfloresinspires.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/jayfloresinspires. The channel-membership link is below.
Links from the video
Affiliate disclosure: These links may earn me a commission at no extra cost to you.
Links and offers are from the video description. Availability, prices and offer terms may change.
Some links to other products on this page are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you buy through them. It costs you nothing extra, and it has not changed what this article says — where a competitor is the better answer, we say so.
