VALDOSTA, Ga. — Ira Flatow, renowned host of public radio’s Science Friday, has a particularly timely and relevant message celebrating intelligence and brainpower: “Smart is the new sexy.”

From comedy TV to Congress, Flatow’s message provided a number of takeaways this week at Valdosta State University’s STEAM Center for Applied Creativity and Innovation:

Science and the arts go hand in hand, and together they’re making nerds hip again, Flatow said.

Being a geek is cool again, and the business and entertainment industries are capitalizing on that trend and driving it forward, Flatow said.

Science is found everywhere in the pop culture arts these days, Flatow said, from movies to TV shows to commercials to Broadway plays.

TV’s biggest comedy, “The Big Bang Theory,” on which Flatow has twice co-starred, is all about a group of nerdy, brilliant scientists. Several recent blockbuster movies are also built around science: “Hidden Figures,” “Interstellar,” “Gravity” and the 2017 Oscar nominated “Arrival.”

Even car and tire companies are running commercials featuring scientific concepts, because they know the wonder of science sells, Flatow said.

Flatow, who built an extensive legacy rooted in science through radio work with National Public Radio and Public Radio International, knows firsthand the public interest in the science that affects everyday life. In addition to hosting and speaking, Flatow also serves founder and president of the Science Friday Initiative — a 501 (c)(3) non-profit entity dedicated to creating media projects that make science more accessible and “user-friendly.”

“What’s really interesting is that people love to talk about science. They may not know what scientists do, they may not know how they work, but they love science,” Flatow said.

More and more, people are learning about science outside of the classroom, which is great for the field as a whole, Flatow said.

By building science into various art forms, according to Flatow, people are educated and entertained at the same time, which is a powerful combination.

The hot topics in science right now are global warming and your gut, Flatow said.

“The hottest topic is global warming…get it?” Flatow said with a laugh.

All puns aside, Flatow said global warming is no longer a distant worry but rather something that is “slowly sneaking up on us.”

“The weather is changing, the climate is changing, it’s affecting everything that we do — everything from the food to our health to our cities to our economy,” Flatow said. “I don’t think it’s getting as much attention as it should be talked about.”

Something else he’s hearing a lot about is microbiomes, which are bacteria found in every human.

“Inside of each of us, there’s a colony of bacteria that inhabit our gut,” Flatow said. “These are trillions and trillions of bacteria living there, so many that the DNA in our body is mostly made up of foreign DNA.

“We’re learning that they affect everything that we do. When they get hungry and want to eat, they’ll tell your nerves to make you hungry and you might eat the wrong thing.

“If it’s unhealthy bacteria, they may make you sick. They may lead to obesity, they may lead to even mental illness, depression (and) things like that.

“Just about every week you hear something new about microbiomes.”

Flatow said scientists are even experimenting with taking microbiomes from healthy people and putting them — through “poop pills” — into unhealthy people to measure the effect.

One of the biggest threats to scientific advancement right now is Congress, Flatow said.

Flatow said Congress has decided “it knows how to science better than scientists.”

“Congress is now trying to tell scientists what they need to study and how to study it. These are from congressmen who are not very big fans of science,” Flatow said.

“When you have people like that who really have no appreciation for science or don’t understand the value of basic research, then science is in trouble.”

Yes, he knows Bill Nye.

Bill Nye is one of Flatow’s favorite scientists right now, but he’s also a friend. They’ve met a few times, Flatow said, and he even has a selfie with the Science Guy whom millions of children watched on TV while growing up.

Stephen writes for the Valdosta, Georgia Daily Times.