The Story Collider

Part 1:   After turning down a tenure position, Sarah Brady struggles to adapt to her new life as the spouse of a physician. Part 2:   As he grows up, Ed Greco's two great loves -- his high school sweetheart, and physics -- come into conflict. Sarah Brady is a storyteller, teaching artist, and writer who relocated to England from the United States a year and a half ago due to her paediatrician hus...

This week we present two stories about people making choices informed by the naïvety of youth. Part 1: On a dull night in Orlando, young Josh Flaum decides to experiment with drugs he can buy over the counter. Part 2: After Will Tran accidentally cheats his way to a high school math award, he has to grapple with whether or not to come clean. Josh Flaum is a comedy writer local to Los Angeles. He h...

This week we present two stories of scientists having to find a strength within themselves. Part 1: BiologistH eather Hamlin leaves the safety of the lab for her first field assignment: tagging alligators. Part 2: As an unconsenting "face of diversity," Dan Simpson contemplates the role of his gay identity in his academic life. Heather Hamlin earned her BS in Biology, and an MS in Marine  Bio-reso...

This week we share two stories from people who have go on wild goose chases to find their dads. Part 1: In his last year of medical school in Colombia, Gabriel Duran Rehbein finds out his father has been kidnapped. Part 2: After seeing her dad lose control of his mind, art student Minerva Contreras decides to study the brain, in hopes of understanding him. Gabriel Duran Rehbein, MD describes himse...

This week we present two stories from people who were underwater both literally and metaphorically. Part 1: 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. Part 2: With only two days to find and extract a sample from one of the oldest coral colonies in the world, Konrad Hughen find...

This week we bring you two stories of people who had to reckon with the fact that their first choice wasn’t available. Part 1 : When the local science museum looks to hire performers, David Nett believes he's the perfect man for the job. Part 2 : After finding out her uterus never developed, scientist Chivonne Battle searches for an alternative way to become a mother. David Nett has spent over 20...

This week we present two more stories about people who need help to deal with mental health. Part 1: Comedian Zack Stovall reevaluates his past battles with his mother in light of a new diagnosis. Part 2: 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. Zack Stovall is a writer, producer, car...

This week we present two stories about people’s struggles with their own mental health. Part 1: After passing out on the NYC subway, comedian Mike Brown is forced to take a deeper look at his mental health. Part 2: Emily Yarrison survives her suicide attempt and has to ask herself a whole new set of questions. Mike Brown is a New York comic who travels the country and still doesn’t know how to dri...

This week we present a story of scientist becoming a mother. Part 1: Heather Williams trades in her physicist labcoat for motherhood, and wonders if she can return. Heather Williams is a principal medical physicist at The Christie hospital in Manchester, UK, where she oversees imaging and therapy in the Nuclear Medicine Department and specialises in Positron Emission Tomography. Heather is an advo...

This week we present two stories about people finding strength in their own voice. Part 1:  A parent-teacher conference leads Eugenia Duodu to question whether she can be a scientist. Part 2: At 13 years old Misha Gajewski has to undergo a jaw surgery to fix a face she is just getting used to. Eugenia Duodu is the Toronto-based CEO of Visions of Science, which  inspires kids from low-income and ma...

This week, for National Pet Parents day, we bring you two stories of our relationships with our cats. Part 1:  In a battle over her apartment's air quality, cat foster mom Tracy Rowland discovers how to use her kitten's parasite as a weapon.  Part 2: Gianmarco Soresi learns more about cats than he ever wanted to when his girlfriend adopts five. Tracy is a 3-time Moth StorySLAM champion who first a...

This week we present two stories of the children we used to be and how they grew up. Part 1: As a sixth grader, Anna Neu decides she's going to fall in love at science camp. Part 2: At age nine, Anicca Harriot plans to study both the heart and space, but as she gets older, that plan becomes more challenging than she expected. Anna Neu has several interests including improv, sketch  comedy and voic...

This week we present two stories about scientists who became the face of the scientific community. Part 1: When conservation scientist Laura Kehoe writes about a surprising chimp behavior, the media takes it wildly out of context and the situation spirals out of control. Part 2: When The Colbert Report calls about her research, marine biologist Skylar Bayer finds an unexpected collaborator and fri...

The week we present two stories of people being confronted with chaos and looking for peace. Part 1: Overwhelmed by setbacks as she pursues her academic ambitions, Tricia Hersey discovers an unexpected solution to her stress. Part 2: Cell biologist Sarah Hird's first pregnancy becomes a crisis in her scientific faith when doctors warn her that there may be something severely wrong with her baby. T...

This week we present two stories about being the new one in a new place. Part 1: After moving to a brand-new school in the seventh grade, Edith Gonzalez struggles to maintain her straight-A status with a new, scary biology teacher. Part 2: When social scientist Meltem Alemdar leaves her home in Turkey to pursue her education in the US, she struggles to find her identity. Edith Gonzalez is a native...

This week, we are presenting two stories from people who took to the open ocean. Part 1: As an irresponsible 17-year-old, Brian D. Bradley volunteers to spend two days living at the bottom of the ocean for a research study. Part 2: As an undergrad, Beryl Kahn takes a semester at sea after a bad breakup and gets rocked by the swells of the sea -- and her emotions. Brian Bradley started writing beca...

Part 1: A power outage on campus leads physics student Zoya Vallari to take a stand against her university's female-only curfew. Part 2: Firefighter Nick Baskerville is eager to prove himself when he arrives on the scene of his first fire. Zoya Vallari is a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech where she studies  fundamental particles called neutrinos. She received a PhD in particle  physics from Stony...

This week we present two stories about times in which everything came full circle. Part 1: In the middle of a school day, science teacher Brittany Beck passes out in her classroom, leading her to reflect on what got her here. Part 2: Inspired by her grandfather, Kitty Yang becomes a math teacher, but soon realizes she misses being a student. Brittany Beck is a science teacher at the High School of...

Part 1: As a brand-new professor of physiology, John Redden is eager to help students, but soon realizes it’s more complicated than he thought. Part 2: Biologist, Sarah Fankhauser’s relationship with her adviser changes when she joins her lab as a grad student. John Redden is an Assistant Professor in the Department  of Physiology and Neurobiology. His research focuses on understanding  the molecu...

This week, we’re presenting two stories from scientists about the people and places that inspired them. Part 1: Just before she leaves for her dream opportunity to teach marine science on the Red Sea, Latasha Wright gets a call that puts her plans in jeopardy. Part 2:  Growing up, Sheena Cruickshank's teenage older brother inspires her love of science, but then one summer he returns from universit...

This week, we present two stories about people understanding their links to their past. Part 1: A question that Laura Spink asked her parents as a kid comes up again when her own child begins to ask similar questions. Part 2: After Denise Coberley brings up her doubt in the Bible to her adoptive religious parents, she finds herself on a journey of self-discovery. Laura Spinkis a  vocalist/percussi...

This week, we’re presenting two stories from people who made science their one and only.. Part 1: Parmvir Bahia struggles to appease her parents’ desires for an Indian son-in-law while also satisfying her own desires to be a scientist. Part 2: Monica Dunford’s finds physics cold and boring until she gets a summer job in a lab that changes everything. Parmvir Bahia is a short, British-Indian, neuro...

This week, we’re presenting two stories from scientists who found themselves in potentially life-threatening situations. Part 1: Ralph Bouquet goes off script during a psychology research study with uncomfortable and revealing consequences. Part 2: Ali Mustafa finds that the scars of war stay with him even at his new job in the lab. Ralph Bouquet is the Director of Education and Outreach for NOVA,...

This week, we’re presenting stories about the courage to be the person you were meant to be. Part 1: The lessons that Margaret Rubega learns from her dad about fighting back are put to the test when he becomes the one she must stand up to. Part 2: In following her dream of studying chemistry, Charlotte Istance-Tamblin sees how to break the toxic patterns in her relationships. Margaret Rubega is a...

This week, we’re presenting stories about the struggle to find acceptance — whether it’s at Space Camp or in the United States of America. Part 1:   Computer scientist LaShana Lewis’s childhood dream of attending Space Camp starts to feel far away — until she gets the Christmas surprise of a lifetime. Part 2: When Guizella Rocabado leaves her home in Bolivia to pursue her education in the United S...