606 episodes

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!

The Story Collider Story Collider, Inc.

    • Science
    • 4.4 • 784 Ratings

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!

    Checking On You: Stories about concern for others

    Checking On You: Stories about concern for others

    There are many ways you can ask someone “Are you okay?” In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers navigate the complexities of human connection and how we show concern for those we love.
    Part 1: Dave Kalema keeps lying to his sick mother about how bad his knee injury is.
    Part 2: Dionne C. Monsanto doesn’t know how to help her daughter with her mental illness.
    Dave Kalema is a Ugandan-American documentary filmmaker who tells stories of belonging, identity, and personal transformation. He got his start as the founder of Coin Flyp Media, a video-first media company for the untold, personal stories of change that athletes experience after sports. Dave has filmed NBA, NFL, Olympic, and college athletes as well as artists at various institutions including New York’s famed 92NY and The Moth. In 2021, Dave was chosen for Video Consortium’s Sony Mentorship Program, an initiative for 16 emerging filmmakers to develop projects with professional support. Dave is also a Moth GrandSlam Story Champion and has performed all over the New York City and Philadelphia areas.
    Dionne C. Monsanto is a bestselling author, speaker and holistic wellness coach that creates the space for her clients to realize their goals and build better versions of themselves. As the Chief Joy Connector and founder of Joyous Ocean, she’s taught thousands of yoga/dance classes. She has appeared on TV, radio, podcasts, print ads and magazines. She leads the way calling us to live life INjoy. Her belief is that we can collectively change the world if we each build a joy-filled body to support the lives we want to live. Dionne has inspired communities and transformed clients all over the world to right-size their bodes and lives. The “Dionne effect” has reshaped lives in 6 of the 7 continents. She is a native New Yorker and global citizen that has appeared on TV, radio and in print, including features on CBS, PBS, NPR, Essence magazine and Time magazine. She sits on the National Chapter Leadership Council for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and is an active volunteer with her local chapter as well. She is a helper who loves cooking, music and laughter. She sees them all as moving meditations.
    Dionne C. Monsanto's story does include mentions of suicide, self-harm, and childhood sexual abuse. In case you’d find them helpful, now or at any point in the future, we have some resources available on our website.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 30 min
    Pi vs. Pie: Stories about Pi Day

    Pi vs. Pie: Stories about Pi Day

    Happy Pi Day! In honor of upcoming Pi Day on March 14, this week’s episode features two stories about the nerdy celebration. Both of our storytellers will whisk you away on a journey filled with equal parts math and pastry, proving that whether you're calculating circumference or slicing into a sweet treat, there's always a story to be savored.
    Part 1: After her colleagues make fun of the pie she brings on Pi Day, Desiré Whitmore decides she will never again celebrate Pi Day.
    Part 2: Math teacher Theodore Chao goes all out for Pi Day at his school.
    A Blaxican American and Southern California native, Dr. Desiré Whitmore, aka “LASERchick”, began her education in Community College and holds degrees in Physical Sciences, Chemical Engineering, and Chemical and Material Physics. Formerly, she has worked as a scientist in a national lab, a K-8 science curriculum developer, and a community college professor. She now works as the Exploratorium’s Staff Physicist Educator, where she bridges the gap between hands-on science, teacher education, and science communication. 
    Theodore Chao is an associate professor of mathematics education at The Ohio State University. He loves using video and storytelling to get kids to share about how they really do math, not what someone told them they need to do. He is a former filmmaker, startup founder, and middle school teacher who now spends his time supporting teachers, writing articles, and using research funds to show that kids hold tremendous math power.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 30 min
    Temperature Rising: Stories about forest fires

    Temperature Rising: Stories about forest fires

    Wildfires can impact so many things, from ecosystems to the air quality, to even the economy. But in this week’s episode, both of our storytellers take a look at the more personal impacts of forest fires.
    Part 1: In college, Nick Link almost burns down the entire neighborhood when he and his friends set some Christmas trees on fire.
    Part 2: After moving to America from Mumbai, Urvi Talaty feels like she has finally escaped the heavily polluted air that choked her as a kid.
    Nick Link is a second year PhD student at Northern Arizona University and part of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society. His research broadly focuses on wildfires - and how we can apply our scientific understanding of the ecosystem to protect communities across Alaska and the Yukon.
    Urvi Talaty is an environmental consultant and creates life cycle assessments and carbon footprints for clients. She is also a dancer, a poet and a self-proclaimed funny woman who likes to read and travel the world. Urvi holds a Master’s degree from Yale and a Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and an MBA in technology management from NMIMS University in Mumbai, where she is from.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 25 min
    Am I The Problem?: Stories from CZI's Rare As One Project

    Am I The Problem?: Stories from CZI's Rare As One Project

    The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)'s Rare As One Network brings together rare disease patients and advocates in their quest for cures. Both of this week’s stories are from Rare As One grantees who are sharing their stories and experiences navigating diagnoses and organizing their communities to accelerate research, identify treatments, and change the course of their diseases.
    Part 1: When Riley Blevins’ son gets diagnosed with a rare disease, it changes his life.
    Part 2: Heidi Wallis becomes completely obsessed with trying to fix her daughter.
    After spending years in the corporate world in media relations and corporate branding, a rare disease diagnosis for his first-born son changed -- and very well saved -- Riley Blevins' life. Today, he is the senior director of global community engagement of Cure HHT.
    Heidi is the Executive Director of the Association for Creatine Deficiencies and parent of four children, two of which have GAMT Deficiency- a rare brain creatine deficiency syndrome. Prior to working for ACD she was as a grant analyst and project manager in the Utah Public Health Newborn Screening program and served as an ACD volunteer board member. Heidi's vision is that one day all creatine deficiencies will be diagnosed at birth, through routine newborn screening, and will be treated with an effective and appropriate treatment before the onset of symptoms.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 30 min
    Love Story: Stories with a happily ever after

    Love Story: Stories with a happily ever after

    In honor of Valentine’s Day, this week’s episode features two stories where love finds a way.
    Part 1: Scientist Bruce Hungate yearns to find someone who cares about the tiny details as much as he does.
    Part 2: Science reporter Ari Daniel and his wife are at odds when it comes to moving their family to Lebanon, but the pandemic changes things.
    Bruce Hungate conducts research on microbial ecology of global change from the cell to the planet. His research examines the imprint of the diversity of life on the cycling of elements, how ecosystems respond to and shape environmental change, and microbial ecology of the biosphere, from soils to hot springs to humans. Bruce is Director of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University, where he holds the Frances B McAllister Chair in Community, Culture, and the Environment, and is Regents Professor of Biological Sciences. He is an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and member of the American Academy of Microbiology. Bruce plays classical piano and writes narrative non-fiction at the intersection of science, the environment, family, and people. He hopes to share ideas about ecology and to find humor, connection, and solutions in the face of global environmental change.
    Ari Daniel is a freelance contributor to NPR’s Science desk and other outlets. He has always been drawn to science and the natural world. As a graduate student, he trained gray seal pups (Halichoerus grypus) for his Master’s degree in animal behavior at the University of St. Andrews, and helped tag wild Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca) for his Ph.D. in biological oceanography at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. For more than a decade, as a science reporter and multimedia producer, Ari has interviewed a species he’s better equipped to understand — Homo sapiens. Over the years, Ari has reported across six continents on science topics ranging from astronomy to zooxanthellae. His radio pieces have aired on NPR, The World, Radiolab, Here & Now, and Living on Earth. Ari is also a Senior Producer at Story Collider. He formerly worked as a reporter for NPR’s Science desk where he covered global health and development. Before that, he was the Senior Digital Producer at NOVA where he helped oversee the production of the show’s digital video content. He is a co-recipient of the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award for his radio stories on glaciers and climate change in Greenland and Iceland. In the fifth grade, he won the “Most Contagious Smile” award.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 24 min
    Peer Review: Stories about other people's opinions

    Peer Review: Stories about other people's opinions

    In science, peer review plays a critical role in figuring out if research is good enough, robust enough. In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers find themselves looking for outside feedback on if they’re good enough.
    Part 1: At her NASA summer internship, Kirsten Siebach feels completely out of place among the Mars mission scientists.
    Part 2: Alison Spodek’s need to be seen as smart takes over her life.
    Kirsten Siebach is an Assistant Professor in the Rice University Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and calls herself a Martian Geologist. She is currently a member of the Science and Operations Teams for the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance and the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, and previously worked on the science and engineering teams for the Phoenix Lander and the two Mars Exploration Rovers. She uses the images, chemistry, and other data that the rovers send back from Mars to study ancient environments on the Red Planet and compare them to ancient and modern environments on Earth. She received her bachelor’s degree in Earth and Planetary Science and Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and her Ph.D. in Geology from Caltech. Kirsten is actively engaged in science education and outreach and loves sharing the stories and images from Mars with students and the public. She has been interviewed in multiple documentaries and TV shows related to Mars exploration and has given over one hundred talks to students and interest groups around the world. Outside of professional interests, she loves travel and photography (on Earth as well as Mars), and enjoys swimming, hiking, and puzzles.
    Alison Spodek is a flamingo, majestically awkward in some circumstances, moderately graceful in others. A fierce competitor in her extended family’s daily Wordle competition, she is also an associate professor and chair of the chemistry department at Vassar College. There, her research focuses on the behaviors of all the most fun elements in the environment, particularly arsenic, mercury, lead, and uranium, but her real passion is helping people understand the world around them, particularly those who think they are “not good at science.” She lives in Beacon, NY with her husband, two kids, and a crotchety old dog.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 26 min

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5
784 Ratings

784 Ratings

emmanoodles3 ,

Where have you been all my life!?

This podcast is truly inspirational. As a PhD student in a STEM field myself, I find it can be very difficult to relate my work and passions to those who are not in the same area of research. This podcast is not only entertaining, but really serves to bridge the gap between the science community and the general public in a way that is both engaging and entertaining. My favorite part of the podcast, however, is the host Erin Barker. She is FANTASTIC! Her commentary and personal stories add a whole new level of empathy and comedic relief that really make this podcast stand out from all the others.

BCHOWN13 ,

Science?

Really not sure how social justice equals science but however, you can push your narrative to indoctrinate the minds of the masses. So please by all means wrap your social justice in a scientific bow so our youth can continue to be victims and oppressed.

YourGrandmom ,

It went too far when a fake doctor gets to give advice as a real doctor

I normally enjoy this show and appreciate that it has a lining of science to the stories. I enjoy listening to something that can educate or inspire me and possibly change my view point. But I am signing off this podcast after the latest episode with “Dr.” Howard Lieberman. He is not a doctor and admits it in the first sentence, yet goes about telling his Covid story and promoting vaccines as a doctor. While I don’t care if someone promotes Covid vaccines, I care that the show has stooped low enough to dangerously give medical advice from an imposter who even goes as far as saying he is now a specialist. This is absolutely wrong.

Top Podcasts In Science

Hidden Brain
Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam
Radiolab
WNYC Studios
Ologies with Alie Ward
Alie Ward
Something You Should Know
Mike Carruthers | OmniCast Media | Cumulus Podcast Network
StarTalk Radio
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Sasquatch Chronicles
Sasquatch Chronicles - Bigfoot Encounters

You Might Also Like

The Moth
The Moth
Selected Shorts
Symphony Space
Snap Judgment
Snap Judgment and PRX
This American Life
This American Life
Radiolab
WNYC Studios
Grown, a podcast from The Moth
Grown