In February 2020, Oertelt became the Chief Content Officer of Science Friday, an American radio program about science.[5][6]
Oertelt is also the co-founder and CEO of Massive Science, a science media company.[7][8][9][10] She works to train scientists to communicate more clearly with the public about science.[1][9][11][12] Before becoming CEO, Oertelt was the chief content officer.[13]
Prior to founding Massive Science, Oertelt produced science videos for outlets like Mashable, Vice, BuzzFeed, and Vox.[3][11][14][15] She publicly shared her frustration after being laid off from Mashable during mass layoffs in 2016.[16] She continues to serve as senior producer on science-related videos.[17]
Oertelt produced The Fundamentals of Neuroscience, one of the first MOOCs, for Harvard University.[9] Oertelt also co-directed and co-produced Unorthodox, a documentary about Modern Orthodox Jewish culture, with Anna Wexler, now a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.[18][19][20][21][22][23]
Oertelt is also involved with TEDMED.[13][24] In 2017, she gave a talk at the TEDMED conference about her work on science literacy.[13] She was part of the editorial advisory board for the 2018 and 2020 conferences.[24][25]