Brian Southwell wears many hats, including those of a researcher, teacher, media personality, and youth basketball coach.

He is director of the Science in the Public Sphere Program in the Center for Communication Science at RTI International, an independent, nonprofit research institute. He is also an adjunct professor with Duke University, where he has taught through the Social Science Research Institute and Energy Initiative, and is a  research professor (of mass communication) and adjunct associate professor (of health behavior) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Southwell hosts The Measure of Everyday Life, a weekly public radio show produced by WNCU in the Raleigh-Durham, NC, media market.