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Weird Things Happening to Brains

Stories from the Story Collider team

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Brain Awareness

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Story Collider archive

Suze Kundu is forced to abandon dancing for materials science, until materials science comes to the rescue.

Suze Kundu is a Teaching Fellow at Imperial College London, where she shares her love of Materials Science and Engineering with anyone that will stand still for long enough. In addition she presents many Outreach and Public Engagement workshops and demo lectures, and pops up on TV fairly regularly, getting excited about everything from aerogel to zirconia. She is also fresh off the stage from Irreverent Dance's annual Showcase, where she danced as a zombie scientist, a Time Lord and a girl obsessed with the glitz and glamour of Strictly Come Dancing - #typecasting?

Suze Kundu: A New Pair Of Shoes

The joys and dangers of getting pregnant for Tara Clancy and her wife.

Tara Clancy is a writer and performer. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review and The Rumpus. She is also a winner of The Moth GrandSlam storytelling competition and was recently featured on their podcast. Originally from Queens, Tara now lives in Manhattan with her wife and two sons. More at www.taraclancy.com

Tara Clancy: Adventures In Babymaking

Sports writer David Epstein tracks down some surprising health claims circulating in the football world.

David Epstein is author of the recent New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene, an exploration of the genetic basis of athleticism. He is currently an investigative reporter at the non-profit ProPublica. Up until September, he was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He has been a crime reporter at the New York Daily News, and an education reporter at Inside Higher Ed. In his past life, David was a geology grad student. He has lived in the Sonoran Desert, on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, in the Arctic in Alaska, and -- like every other writer -- in Brooklyn.

David Epstein: Holographic Supplements

Neuroscientist Indre Viskontas and her friends turn to science to find the right way to date.

Indre Viskontas is a neuroscientist and opera singer. She is also the host of Inquiring Minds, an in-depth exploration of the place where science, politics, and society collide. http://www.motherjones.com/inquiringminds

Indre Viskontas: The Man Chart

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

Ecologist Jessica Henkel finds the keys to her research truck missing, as it's parked on a remote beach with one of the biggest tides of the season about to come in.

Jessica is a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the National Academy of Sciences and a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University. She has a B.A. in English from Stony Brook University and a M.S. in Conservation Biology from the University of New Orleans. Jessica is interested in how environmental and anthropogenic change and habitat degradation are impacting the coastal habitats of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the communities that rely on them. Her dissertation research investigates the migration ecology and physiology of near-arctic breeding shorebirds that stopover in coastal habitats on the Gulf of Mexico. When not wearing mud boots or waders, Jessica can be found advocating for coastal issues or marching in the Mardi Gras parades of her adopted city of New Orleans.

Jessica Henkel: Stuck

While being treated after an accident, Rachel Fairbank struggles with not being the researcher.

Rachel Fairbank received her bachelor's in biology from Cornell University, did some graduate work in the developmental biology program at Baylor College of Medicine, and is currently working on an MFA in creative writing at the University of Houston, where she also works as a science writer. In her spare time, she likes to box. 

Rachel Fairbank: Scientist Or Subject?

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

Neuroscientist Amanda Duffy gets some surprising news about her brain when she volunteers to be a control in an MRI study.

Amanda Marie Duffy is a graduate student at Brown University pursuing her Ph.D. in Neuroscience. Her research is focused on understanding mechanisms that underlie ALS disease progression and therapeutic intervention with the use of molecular, cellular, and behavioral techniques. In 2015, Amanda was named a fellow in the Society for Neuroscience’s Neuroscience Scholars Program. In 2014, Amanda was elected as Graduate Student Representative where she managed recruitment and served as a member of the admissions committee. Prior to graduate school, Amanda worked as a research assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Division of Neurotherapeutics. Amanda graduated from Brown University with a Sc.B. in Neuroscience in 2009. 

Amanda Duffy: A Picture of My Brain

Jeff Sparr finds an unexpected purpose after his life is torn apart... by a case of jock itch.

PeaceLove co-founder Jeff Sparr is a man on an audacious mission -- a mission to make mental illness cool. Not cool to have, but cool to support. A family man, mental health advocate, teacher and self-taught artist, Jeff is above all a survivor, battling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) much of his life. Inspired by a simple, powerful image signifying “peace of mind and love for yourself,” Sparr set out to build the first symbol for mental health and bring expressive arts to millions of people to help them create peace of mind.

Jeff Sparr: Obsession

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

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?

Deborah Berebichez was told she couldn't study physics because it wasn't for girls -- until she got assistance for an unexpected reason.

(En Español: http://soundcloud.com/the-story-collider/deborah-berebichez)

Deborah Berebichez: Passing on the gift

As a young man Tom Levenson tries to follow his deceased father's advice, and takes a wide detour that leads him to contemplate life at the base of Newton's tree.

Tom Levenson: Wide open spaces and the long road home

While hunting for fossils of some of Earth's oldest organisms, paleontologist Phoebe Cohen and her geologist friend encounter a problem with one of Earth's more recently evolved organisms.

Phoebe Cohen: Chasing rocks and bears

In 2007, Matt Danzico engages in a massive project to show that strangers on the internet can be trusted -- and finds himself in the middle of nowhere with a broken-down bus and a stranger with a gun.

Matt Danzico: Strangers on the Internet

When science writer David Dobbs is suddenly unable to remember how to drive his kids to school, he sets off on a quest to understand his own brain, and makes a shocking discovery.

David Dobbs: Lost in your brain

A neuroscientist tests the limits of wonder when his own father suffers a stroke.

David Carmel: The coolest thing in the world

As Ed Gavagan watches medical students practice sutures on the subway, he remembers his own traumatic experience.

“The surgeon comes in with five of his friends, also surgeons, and he whips the sheet back as if he’s just restored a ’57 Chevy.”

Ed Gavagan: They did that to me

At ten years old, David Gelles finds himself abandoned and swimming in an ocean with a storm coming. Alone. Except for the pod of dolphins.

“I had this little disposable plastic camera and I’d put it up to my eye and look through the lens, and a whole dolphin head would fill the frame.”

David Gelles: Have fun, be safe... in an ocean

In a high-stakes race in high school, Jim O'Grady draws from his mother's Bronx background for inspiration.

“Why am I a pussy? Is it nature? Is it nurture? I need to know.”

Jim O'Grady: Running from the Bronx

In the IBM pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair, Jamy Ian Swiss encounters a computer that reveals a piece in personality, although maybe not in the way it's inventor intended.

"I was outraged, with all the moral outrage an 11 year old can muster."

Jamy Ian Swiss: The universal personality reading machine

Erin Barker struggles with a disease that only makes her give up four things; they just happen to be the four things worth living for.

Re-issued specially for our Women In Science magazine issue. Check it out at magazine.storycollider.org

Erin Barker: Oh, just those four things?

Having fallen in love with the ability of chemists' to learn about elements by separating them down to their essence, Eli Kintisch has just two obstacles to becoming a scientist: a machine, and another intern.

"I would go to the fridge, and there was this bottle of mustard. And I don't even like mustard, but I would spread it on bread. And that was my snack."

Eli Kintisch: Separating chemistry

With her epilepsy medication failing, Sara Peters checks into a hospital with one goal: make the scariest thing in her life happen again.

Sara Peters: Waiting for a seizure

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

A science writer is challenged when her dog comes down with a case of heartworm -- and then the medication goes wrong.

"As I'm leaving, the vet says, 'Oh, by the way: Don't go on the internet. It'll only freak you out.'"

Brooke Borel: My dog's heart

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

A neighbor's gift of two baby rabbits leads Robin Abrahams to a new view of, and fascination with, personality.

"Do you not understand that I am a nine year old girl? ... Of course I want the bunnies!"


Robin Abrahams: A rabbit's personality

Journalist Jon Ronson is excited when he hears about some 'sentient' robots, but when he goes to interview them he finds both less and more than he ever expected.

Jon Ronson: A journalist interviews a robot

A Remix from the Chrono Trigger OST.
Actually I'm planning to make a whole album filled with Chrono Trigger Remixes. 

Corridors Of Time (ochisuite Edit)

Writer Jess Zimmerman discovers the dangers of dating a philosopher of neuroscience who thinks he knows what's really happening in her head.

Jess Zimmerman: The Gorilla In the Room

When Paula Croxson began to study memory as a neuroscientist, she also learned a new way of thinking about her grandmother's failing memory.

Paula Croxson: When your grandmother forgets who you are

After a career as a theater manager, Stuart Firestein takes a biology class, which leads him to a completely new life, and a lot of salamander noses.

Stuart Firestein: A mentor with a nose for science

While visiting Guatemala Sarah Everts is bitten by a dog, so she goes looking for a rabies shot. But coming home to Canada is when the real problem started.

Sarah Everts: Bitten in a foreign country

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!