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Storytelling

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Stories from the Story Collider team

Adventure stories from badass women scientists

Stories by Women in STEM

True, personal stories about science and the sea

Stories about the Ocean

Erin Barker's attempt to save a college relationship leads her to a plant biology class where the professor brought an ax to class.

Erin Barker is senior producer of The Story Collider and a host of its live show in New York. She is the first woman to win The Moth's GrandSLAM storytelling competition twice and has appeared in its Mainstage and shows in cities across the country, as well as on its Peabody Award-winning show on PRX, The Moth Radio Hour. One of her stories was included in The Moth's New York Times-bestselling book, The Moth: 50 True Stories. She considers herself a Gryffindor.

Erin Barker: Plants And People

Maryam Zaringhalam's scheme to cheat her way into the smart class makes clear a huge flaw in the education system.

Maryam Zaringhalam is a molecular biologist and graduate student at The Rockefeller University. In the lab, Maryam tinkers with parasites and computers to understand how small changes to our genetic building blocks can affect how we look and function. When she's not doing science, Maryam runs ArtLab, a series that pairs scientists with artists, and podcasts with Science Soapbox, exploring science and policy.

Maryam Zaringhalam: Cheating My Way To Smart

In high school, Emily Mullin dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist -- until her voice mysteriously begins to disappear.

Emily Mullin is a freelance science writer interested in telling stories that explore the intersection of health and humanity. She is a regular contributor at Forbes, and her reporting frequently appears in The Washington Post. She has also written for publications like The Atlantic, The Baltimore Sun, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. She holds an MA in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University and is based in the Washington, D.C. area, where she performs with and writes short plays for The Coil Project, a nonprofit theater company.

Emily Mullin: Losing My Voice

Newborn and premature baby specialist Nitin Ron learns a surprising lesson from one of his young patients.

Nitin Ron is a neonatologist (baby doctor) and loves high altitude trekking and mountaineering. He is an associate professor of pediatrics at New York Methodist Hospital, and loves to use innovative methods to teach medical students. He is leading a research project in the Himalayas, including the Mt. Everest region, involving ultrasound of the eye and the body to predict mountain sickness. He also volunteers as an art guide at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in New York City, and this is a reminder that medicine is so much of an art as well as a science!

Nitin Ron: Babies and Mountains

Aaron Wolfe seeks meaning through labor at a kibbutz dairy farm -- and finds himself tackling some rather unexpected tasks.

Aaron Wolfe is a moth grandslam winning storyteller, writer, filmmaker, and obsessive fan of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. He is the screenwriter of the Academy Awards Shortlisted “Record/Play” and yet still somehow hasn’t won his friend's Oscars Pool. He has, however, taught his son to love soccer so there’s that. His work has been featured on The Moth radio hour, the NYTimes, and Slate. You can find out a lot more at aaron-wolfe.com

Aaron Wolfe: The Inseminator

Neuroscientist Paula Croxson is determined to finish her first open-water swimming race -- despite the dangers.

Paula Croxson is a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she researches the brain mechanisms and chemicals that are responsible for memory. She's particularly interested in complex, autobiographical life memories. Paula is from the UK and before coming to New York she received an M.A. in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford. When she's not doing science, she plays the flute, and she blogs for Psychology Today.

Paula Croxson: How Cold Is Too Cold?

While completing a community service requirement in high school, comedian Wyatt Cenac puts a drunk driving simulation to the test.

Wyatt Cenac is a comedian and a former correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” He has also released multiple standup specials, most recently on Netflix, and appeared on film and TV. He regularly hosts a standup evening in Brooklyn called “Night Train with Wyatt Cenac.” Follow him on Twitter @wyattcenac.

Wyatt Cenac: Driving Drunk for Science

Large portions of San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Seattle, Hong Kong and Marseilles were built on top of human made land. What is now Mumbai, India, was transformed by the British from a seven-island archipelago to one contiguous strip of land. The most extraordinary example of land reclamation and manufacture may be the Netherlands. As early as the 9th century A.D., the Dutch began building dykes and pumping systems to create new land in places that were actually below sea level. But the historic scale of land manufacture is minuscule compared to the rate at which it is taking place today. 

228- Making Up Ground

Who decides that the color this season is “mint green” or that denim jackets are “back?” Of course, there’s top-down fashion, where couture houses and runway shows set a trend that trickles down through the rest of the industry. Then there’s bottom-up - where street photographers hunt down grassroots ways that people are wearing clothes, which then comes to influence popular fashion.
But these two methods are for the relatively cutting-edge. For the mass market,  for retailers, designers, and marketers working in major clothing chains, there’s a middle path to determine what’s “in.” And often times, it is through a  company called WGSN.

229- The Trend Forecast

Ecologist Evon Hekkala travels to Madagascar to help protect a village from a man-eating crocodile.

Evon Hekkala was born just outside of Fossil, Oregon, population 200. How she ended up living and working in NYC and traveling around the globe studying wildlife is all a bit of a big crazy fluke, set in motion by a mixture of really good, bad parenting and the naive ability to never see her own boundaries. Now she spends her time teaching and researching at Fordham University and the American Museum of Natural History where she and her students explore a century of change in the wild world of animals.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on March 17, 2017, in an episode titled "Habitat Loss." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2017/3/17/habitat-loss-evon-hekkala-stan-stojkovic

Evon Hekkala: Catching a Man-Eating Croc

After being discouraged from pursuing science, Katy Rodriguez Wimberly searches for her place in the military and as an actor.

M. Katy Rodriguez Wimberly is a first year graduate student at University of California, Irvine (UCI) in their Physics Department. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and the first Junior Board Fellow of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science degree, with a math minor, from California State University, Long Beach in May 2015. At UCI she is working with Dr. Michael Cooper on galaxy evolution research, which studies the coming together of satellite galaxies onto massive clusters of galaxies by comparing large cosmological simulations to observational data. Katy’s research interests lie in galaxy evolution and observational cosmology. Additionally, she loves and conducts astronomy outreach with underrepresented minorities, focusing primarily on K-12 Special Needs students (including children on the Autism Spectrum and those with Down’s Syndrome).

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on May 5, 2017, in an episode titled "Hard Science." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2017/5/5/hard-science-sarah-demers-katy-rodriguez-wimberley

Katy Rodriguez Wimberly: Changing My Life for Science

Writer David Dickerson’s grad school hopes for romance leads to a dark ocean at 3am.

David Dickerson: Innocence

An expert in oxytocin, the hormone released during birth,  Bianca Jones Marlin is determined to have a natural birth — even as the hours of labor add up…

Bianca Jones Marlin is a neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University. She holds a PhD in neuroscience from New York University, and dual bachelor degrees from St. John’s University, in biology and adolescent education. As a graduate student, with Dr. Robert Froemke, Dr. Marlin examined how the brain adapts to care for a newborn and how a baby’s cry can control adult behavior. Her research focused on the vital bond between parent and child, and studied the use of neurochemicals, such as the “love drug” oxytocin, as a treatment to strengthen fragile and broken parent-child relationships. Dr. Marlin is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard Axel, where she investigates transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, or how traumatic experiences in parents affect the brain structure of their offspring. Her research has been featured in Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Scientific America and Discover Magazine’s “100 Top Stories of 2015.” She is the recipient of the 2016 Society for Neuroscience Donald B. Lindsley Award, which recognizes the most outstanding PhD thesis in the general area of behavioral neuroscience and was named a STAT Wunderkind in 2017. She is currently a Junior Fellow in the prestigious Simons Society of Fellows. A native New Yorker, Dr. Marlin lives in Manhattan with her scientist husband, Joseph, their daughter, Sage, and their cat Santiago Ramon y Cajal, who is named after the famed neuroanatomist. Her website is www.biancajonesmarlin.com

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on Nov. 9, 2018, in an episode titled "Pregnancy." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2018/9/3/pregnancy-stories-about-having-a-baby

Bianca Jones Marlin: This Is Not the Way Beyoncé Made It Look

Marine biologist Liz Neeley is excited to be a part of a coral conservation project in Fiji, but her colleagues keep forgetting her.

Liz Neeley is the executive director of The Story Collider. She's a marine biologist by training, and an optimistic worrier by nature. As the oldest of five children, she specializes in keeping the peace and not telling Mom. After grad school, Liz stumbled into ocean conservation. She focused on coral reef management and restoration in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and dabbled in international trade policy on deep sea corals. Next, she spent almost a decade at COMPASS helping scientists understand journalism,  policymaking, and social media. Follow her at @lizneeley

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on October 13, 2017, in an episode titled "Invisibility: Stories about hiding in plain sight." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2017/10/13/invisibility-stories-about-hiding-in-plain-sight

Liz Neeley: Forgotten in Fiji

Honeybee nutritional ecologist Rachael Bonoan begins to worry she's allergic to the bees she studies.

Rachael Bonoan is a Ph.D. Candidate studying honey bee nutritional ecology in the Starks Lab at Tufts University. She is interested in how seasonal changes in the distribution and abundance of flowers (i.e. honey bee food!) affect honey bee health and behavior. Rachael is also the President of the Boston Area Beekeepers Association and enjoys communicating her research and the importance of pollinator health to scientists, beekeepers, garden clubs, and the general public.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on November 24, 2017, in an episode titled "The Bats and the Bees: Stories about winged wildlife." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2017/11/14/the-bats-and-the-bees-stories-about-adventures-with-winged-wildlife

Rachael Bonoan: A Dangerous Job

Ecologist Cylita Guy finds unexpected adventure when she studies bats in the field.

Cylita Guy is a PhD candidate and ACM SIGHPC/Intel Computational and Data Science Fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Broadly interested in zoonotic diseases and their wildlife reservoirs, Cylita’s research focuses on bats and their pathogens. Using both field surveys and computational methods she is investigating why bats seem to be good at carrying viruses that they sometimes share with humans, but rarely get sick from themselves. When not in the field catching bats or at her computer analyzing data, Cylita looks to help others foster their own sense of curiosity and discovery about the natural world. In conjunction with the High Park Nature Centre Cylita has started a Junior Bat Biologist program to engage young, future scientists. She also works as a Host at the Ontario Science Centre, educating the public about diverse scientific topics. Finally, Cylita’s hilarious field exploits are featured in a general audience book titled Fieldwork Fail: The Messy Side of Science! In her down time, you can find your friendly neighborhood batgirl chasing her next big outdoor adventure.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on November 24, 2017, in an episode titled "The Bats and the Bees: Stories about winged wildlife." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2017/11/14/the-bats-and-the-bees-stories-about-adventures-with-winged-wildlife

Cylita Guy: A Shirt Full of Bats

Marine ecologist Kirsten Grorud-Colvert bonds with her diving buddy when they have an unexpected encounter with a hammerhead shark. 

Kirsten Grorud-Colvert is a marine ecologist at Oregon State University, where she has studied ocean organisms in the Oregon nearshore, the Florida Keys, and California’s Catalina Island, along with other marine systems from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. She uses data from different species and habitats to ask, What happens when you protect an area in the ocean? And what can we learn from those areas to design even better protection? She also directs the Science of Marine Reserves Project and loves learning from her creative colleagues in science, communication, and graphic design. Kirsten has always been obsessed with water—that’s what growing up in the 120 degrees Arizona desert will do to you!

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on February 9, 2018, in an episode titled "Heartbreak: Stories about times science breaks our hearts." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2018/2/2/heartbreak-stories-about-times-science-breaks-our-hearts

Kirsten Grorud-Colvert: A Prehistoric Feeling

Climate scientist Kim Cobb is exploring a cave in Borneo when rocks begin to fall.

Kim Cobb is a researcher who uses corals and cave stalagmites to probe the mechanisms of past, present, and future climate change. Kim has sailed on multiple oceanographic cruises to the deep tropics and led caving expeditions to the rainforests of Borneo in support of her research. Kim has received numerous awards for her research, most notably a NSF CAREER Award in 2007, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2008. She is an Editor for Geophysical Research Letters, sits on the international CLIVAR Pacific Panel, and serves on the Advisory Council for the AAAS Leshner Institute for Public Engagement. As a mother to four, Kim is a strong advocate for women in science, and champions diversity and inclusion in all that she does. She is also devoted to the clear and frequent communication of climate change to the public through speaking engagements and social media.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on April 13, 2018, in an episode titled "Fight or Flight: Stories about confronting threats." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2018/4/12/fight-or-flight-stories-about-confronting-threats

Kim Cobb: The Gift of Mojo

Journalist Arielle Duhaime-Ross finds common ground with an Alaskan community struggling with the effects of climate change.

Arielle Duhaime-Ross is the environment and climate correspondent for VICE News Tonight — the Emmy award-winning nightly newscast from VICE Media and HBO. Prior to joining VICE, she was a science reporter at The Verge, where she was granted the 2015 Herb Lampert Science in Society Emerging Journalist award for her coverage of a radical 1950s scientist who suggested memory could be stored outside the brain. Duhaime-Ross has previously written for Scientific American, Nature Medicine, The Atlantic, and Quartz. Originally from Canada, she has a bachelor's in zoology and a master’s in science, health, and environmental reporting.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on June 22, 2018, in an episode titled "Unfamiliar Territory: Stories about journey to new places." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2018/6/19/unfamiliar-territory-stories-about-journeys-to-new-places

Arielle Duhaime-Ross: Finding Common Ground

When The Colbert Report calls about her research, marine biologist Skylar Bayer finds an unexpected collaborator and friend in the fisherman helping her get scallops.

Skylar Bayer is a marine biologist, a storyteller, and a science communicator. She completed her Ph.D. in the secret sex lives of scallops, a subject that landed her on The Colbert Report in 2013. Since then she has dabbled in a diversity of science communication activities, all of which you can read about on her website. She's an alum of the D.C.-based Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program. Currently, she is a National Academy of Sciences NRC post-doctoral Research Associate at the NOAA Milford Laboratory and is the Secretary of the Ecological Society of America's Communication & Engagement Section. Her heart, husband, house, two dogs and a grumpy cat all reside in Maine. She also enjoys Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the gentle art. Follow her on Twitter @drsrbayer. 

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on April 12, 2019, in an episode titled “Limelight: Stories about being the voice of science”. Find the transcript and other information here: 
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/4/8/limelight-stories-about-being-the-voice-of-science

Skylar Bayer: My Friend Andy

Christine Gentry's rural, Vietnam vet father rarely talked about important issues, but a series of remarkable moments with animals and nature teach her four lessons she'll never forget.

"Lesson number 2: Aint no use crying about things you can't do nothin' about."

Christine Gentry: Four lessons from my dad

As a grad student, Ari Daniel Shapiro has to tag some narwhals to collect data. The problem: it's in the arctic, the devices have never been tested, and if he fails he'll never be able to do research again.

"The thing is, you have to get the tag back to get the data."

Ari Daniel Shapiro: Narwhal tagging in the arctic

With only two days to find and extract a sample from one of the oldest coral colonies in the world, Konrad Hughen finds himself at the bottom of the ocean with a broken drill bit.

Konrad Hughen is a Senior Scientist in the department of Marine  Chemistry and Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  (WHOI).  He received a double B.Sc. in Biology and Geology at the  University of California, Santa and was awarded a NASA Graduate Research  Fellowship, leading to his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado,  Boulder.  Konrad was also awarded a NOAA Climate and Global Change  Postdoctoral Fellowship, which he pursued at Harvard University before  joining the scientific faculty at WHOI. As a geochemist and  paleoclimatologist, Konrad’s research interests involve the development  and application of proxy indicators for reconstructing climatic and  environmental change, focusing on materials from modern coral tissues to  centuries-old coral drill cores.  His investigations have taken him all  over the world, including recent expeditions to Micronesia, Red Sea,  Maldives, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Cuba.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on June 7, 2019 in an episode titled “Underwater”. Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/6/3/underwater-stories-about-swimming-deeper

Konrad Hughen: The Heart of the Earth

Barbara Abernathy has always felt at home in the ocean, but when she undergoes a bone marrow transplant, her doctor tells her she can't go into the water for a year.

Barbara Abernathy, PhD, LMHC, is the President and CEO of the Pediatric Oncology Support Team, Inc. (POST), a nonprofit helping children and their families cope with the devastating effects of cancer. Being a cancer survivor herself, she brings a personal touch to the children and families battling childhood cancer. She has 30 years’ experience in nonprofits, 21 of those years at POST. She has a PhD in Counselor Education and Leadership from Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Master of Education in Counseling from the University of South Alabama, A Master of Science in Biology from FAU, and a Bachelor of Education in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University. She is adjunct faculty at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and FAU. Other professional experience includes pediatric AIDS, bereavement, family counseling, parent education, and treatment of severely abused children. Barbara has presented as an invited speaker at many national and international professional conferences and numerous community and school settings. Her interview with Heal magazine was published in the Spring 2018 issue under the title: “Surviving Survivorship.” She has authored three scholarly peer-reviewed articles. She was awarded the Giraffe Award for women “who stick their neck out for others” by the Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Palm Beach County. She also won the 2017 Heroes in Medicine Award presented by the Palm Beach Medical Society and the 2018 MPN Heroes award given by the American Society of Hematology in December.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on June 7, 2019 in an episode titled “Underwater”. Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/6/3/underwater-stories-about-swimming-deeper

Barbara Abernathy: Coming Home

Whether we wear a lab coat or haven't seen a test tube since grade school, science is shaping all of our lives. And that means we all have science stories to tell. Every year, we host dozens of live shows all over the country, featuring all kinds of storytellers - researchers, doctors, and engineers of course, but also patients, poets, comedians, cops, and more. Some of our stories are heartbreaking, others are hilarious, but they're all true and all very personal. Welcome to The Story Collider!