Stories from the Story Collider team

Marine biologist Skylar Bayer faces her fears to go on a deep-ocean dive aboard the Alvin submersible, and ends up getting more than she expected.

Skylar Bayer is a native to the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. She has been pursuing a career in marine science since the age of eight and is currently working on her PhD in marine reproductive ecology at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine. She manages, edits and writes for the blog, Strictlyfishwrap (www.strictlyfishwrap.com), sharing anecdotal science stories, and writes for the National Shellfish Association newsletter. This past year she was featured on the Colbert Report in a field report piece on the epic case of the missing scallop gonads.

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Skylar Bayer: Phoning Home From Alvin

While teaching a math class, Nisse Greenberg is troubled by his student's name, and his own.

Nisse Greenberg is an educator and storyteller who eats mostly vegetarian. Sometimes he eats wings because wings are really good. When he applied for a visa to go to India he tried to type "atheist" into the proposed slot for religion, but he accidentally typed "matheist." He found it more appropriate anyway. He teaches high-school math to high-schoolers and math philosophy to adults. He creates art with spreadsheets and quantitative analysis. He also curates storytelling for The Tank, and hosts the shows Bad Feelings, VHS Presents, and Drawn Out Storytelling. Here is his playground: nissegreenberg.com

Nisse Greenberg: What's In A Name

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

Skylar Bayer's dreams of a career in scientific scuba diving are put in jeopardy when her heart begins acting strangely.

Skylar Bayer is a PhD candidate studying the secret sex lives of scallops in the great state of Maine. Due to a mishap involving a fisherman, buckets of gonads, and an unlocked Chevy, she once lost all her research samples, but gained a segment on The Colbert Report. She has also appeared as a guest on MPBN's Maine Calling and manages the blog and podcast, Strictlyfishwrap. Skylar has produced and hosted shows for The Story Collider throughout Maine.

Skylar Bayer: The Hummingbird of Doom

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?

A series of unfortunate events reveals something off about molecular biologist Maryam Zaringhalam’s sense of smell.

Maryam Zaringhalam is a molecular biologist who just received her PhD from 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. You can follow her science-ish musings on Twitter @webmz_

This story originally aired on Jan. 27, in an episode titled "Outliers": https://soundcloud.com/the-story-collider/outliers-maryam-zaringhalam-hillary-savoie

Story Collider

Maryam Zaringhalam: A Whiff of Danger

Biologist Maryam Zaringhalam is visiting her family's home country of Iran when the travel ban goes into effect in January 2017.

Maryam Zaringhalam is Story Collider DC's newest co-producer. She's a molecular biologist who traded in her pipettes for the world of science policy. She comes to DC from the concrete jungles of New York, where she received her PhD from The Rockefeller University. She co-hosts the science policy podcast Science Soapbox, and her words have appeared in Slate, Scientific American, and Quartz. Her cat is named Tesla, after Nikola and not Elon Musk's car. For insights like this and more, follow her on Twitter @webmz_.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider's podcast on Sept. 29, 2017, in an episode titled "Migration." Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2017/9/29/migration-stories-about-science-and-immigration

Maryam Zaringhalam: My Parents' American Dream

Tracy Rowland searches for company in a town full of parties. 

Tracy Rowland: The monkey cages

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?

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

Comedian Zack Stovall reevaluates his past battles with his mother in light of a new diagnosis.

Zack Stovall is a writer, producer, cartoonist, and comedian. He currently produces the Story Collider and has performed stand-up and sketch comedy across the South, Midwest, and New York. Zack has written for St. Louis Magazine and Vulture, and is the author of a collection of cartoons, 'Fancy Things.' He currently lives in New York City with his wife, Rebekah, and their goldendoodle, Newman. Zack tweets as @zstovall and lost most of his hair sometime in 2009

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on May 24, 2019, in an episode titled “Mental Health: Stories about having crises of the mind - Part 2”. Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/5/20/mental-health-stories-about-having-crises-of-the-mind-part-2

Zack Stovall: Completely Untethered

Audrey Kearns' big opportunity to appear as a panelist at a "nerd-convention" turns disastrous when she has an unexpected reaction to a new antidepressant.

Audrey Kearns is a writer, actor and producer. She majored in both theatre and political science at the University of Florida. The political science degree was to make her mother happy because her mother thought that living as an actor would be god-awful. She was right. Audrey is the founder and editor-in-chief of the influential pop culture website, Geek Girl Authority. She hosts and produces the podcasts Geeky Fun Time, Kneel Before Aud and 5 Truths and a Lie. She is a Los Angeles producer and host of The Story Collider. She also wrote, produced and performed in the successful one-person comedy Obsessively Okay which somehow managed to combine her battles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with her love for Star Trek cosplay. If that's not nerdy enough for you, then just ask her to show you the two separate inhalers she carries with her at all times 

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on May 24, 2019, in an episode titled “Mental Health: Stories about having crises of the mind - Part 2”. Find the transcript and other information here: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/5/20/mental-health-stories-about-having-crises-of-the-mind-part-2

Audrey Kearns: Fighting a Dragon

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

After finding out her mother has breast cancer, high school teacher Nakeysha Roberts Washington gets hit with the news that one of her students has a brain tumor.

Nakeysha Roberts Washington, M.S. Ed is the owner and Creative Director of Genre: Urban Arts (GUA), a platform where artists can become published digitally and in print. Nakeysha spends much of her time preparing opportunities for creatives to share their art as part of the necessity for inclusion. All of this with the knowledge that working in the space of developing yourself as a creative is often seen as a privilege. Pop-up galleries and performances organized by Nakeysha via Gene: Urban Arts allows everyone in the creative community the ability to develop themselves as artists, become published and showcase their art through performance and exhibition. GUA is now a playground for 85+ creatives, all who have their own medium in which they create— Their own Genre. Nakeysha has been published in Routledge, various literary journals, and anthologies. In Spring 2018, she was honored with having a monologue performed in Brooklyn, New York, at the Billie Holiday Theater as part of a showcase entitled 50 in 50: What Place Do We Have in this Movement? Also in Spring of 2018, Nakeysha was a presenter at the UWM National Writing Project in which she conducted a creative writing workshop for educators. In June of 2018, a piece of her creative nonfiction entitled, “No Cream” was published in Wisconsin’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Nonfiction. In 2019 Nakeysha happily accepted a position as a producer with her favorite podcast The Story Collider as the “Midwest Connect” as she will be producing shows in Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI. Additionally, she will begin work on obtaining a doctoral degree in Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Looking forward to July 2019, Nakeysha will be part of a panel at Modern Language Association’s 2019 International Symposium in Lisbon, Portugal as part of a panel to discuss culturally responsive pedagogy in relationship to the teaching of writing, an opportunity afforded to her through her connection with the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee’s ACCESS program. Nakeysha’s writing and other work centers around social justice issues because she believes that it is a creative’s responsibility to interrogate and reveal the intricacies of social constructs through art.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on July 12, 2019, in an episode titled “Concern: Stories about being worried”. Find the transcript and other information here:
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/7/8/concern-stories-about-being-worried

Nakeysha Roberts Washington: Our Deal

After getting hit by a car, Ph.D. student Reyhaneh Maktoufi must navigate the recovery and paperwork as an immigrant from Iran.

Reyhaneh is a Ph.D. candidate in Media, Technology, and Society at Northwestern University. Her main fields of interest are science communication, curiosity, and public engagement with scientists. She is a visiting researcher at the Adler Planetarium, where she studies science communication and facilitates workshops on communication skills. Before starting a Ph.D., Rey has been working as a health communication facilitator and campaign manager in Tehran, Iran. She also produces comics and videos about science and the science of science communication. In her free time, Rey enjoys staring at a wall and making up stories in her head or play bad ukulele and scare off birds while singing high pitch.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on November 22, 2019, in an episode titled “Outsiders: Stories about seeing things from the outside”. Find the transcript and other information here:
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/11/18/outsiders-stories-about-seeing-things-from-the-outside

Reyhaneh Maktoufi: Planet Nine

Away from her boyfriend for grad school, Meisa Salaita starts to fall for a chemistry classmate who's her complete opposite.

Meisa Salaita is enamored with the beauty of science. Through her work founding and directing the Atlanta Science Festival and as a producer for the Story Collider, she spends her days trying to convince everyone else to fall in love with science as well. To that end, Meisa also writes, has produced radio stories, and hosted tv shows - all in the name of science. Meisa has a Ph.D. in chemistry, has birthed two humans, and has a bizarre level of enthusiasm for shoehorns. If she had the stamina and talent, she’d be dancing hip-hop 24/7.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on November 1, 2019, in an episode titled “Crushes: Stories about scientists in love”. Find the transcript and other information here:
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/10/28/crushes-stories-about-scientists-in-love

Meisa Salaita: "Hey, Can I Borrow Your Notes?"

As a marine biology student, Liz Neeley loves the order of science, but when a research expedition takes an unexpected turn, she must deal with the messy reality.

You can find the original version of Liz’s story here.

Liz Neeley is the executive director of Story Collider and new cohost of our podcast! She started her career studying the color patterns of tropical fish. (It was in fact even better than her childhood dream of working in a crayon factory.) She surprised herself more than anyone when she left the research path and went into ocean conservation and policy. For the past decade, she has been helping scientists around the world tell more compelling stories about their work. Most recently, she helped commission and edit the 2018 series "Stories from the Front Lines" at PLOS Biology. She is a lecturer at Yale in conjunction with the National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative. Follow her on Twitter @LizNeeley.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on September 24, 2019, in an episode titled “Before and After: Stories that evolve over time”. Find the transcript and other information here:
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/9/9/bonus-before-and-after-stories-that-evolve-over-time

Liz Neeley: The Wrong Test

When Erin Barker is diagnosed with two chronic illnesses, she has to say goodbye to four of her favorite things.

You can find the original version of Erin’s story here.

Erin Barker is the artistic director of Story Collider and cohost of its weekly podcast. As a storyteller, she is the first woman to win The Moth's GrandSLAM storytelling competition twice. She has appeared on PRX's The Moth Radio Hour, and one of her stories was included in The New York Times-bestselling book The Moth: 50 True Stories. Erin has lived with interstitial cystitis and vulvodynia for more than ten years. Read more about her thoughts on storytelling about chronic illness here. Follow her on Twitter @ErinHBarker.

This story originally aired on The Story Collider’s podcast on September 24, 2019, in an episode titled “Before and After: Stories the evolve over time”. Find the transcript and other information here:
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2019/9/9/bonus-before-and-after-stories-that-evolve-over-time

Erin Barker: Just Those Four Things

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

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!