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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: Concern: Stories about being worried
Pub date: 2019-07-12

This week we present two stories from people gripped with concern for others.

Part 1: When biologist Andrew Holding’s new baby stops feeding, his scientific instincts are put to the test.

Part 2: 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.

Andrew Holding is a Senior Research Associate at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Institute and a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. His research programme brings together his experience of cutting edge mass spectrometry, DNA and RNA sequencing techniques with computational biology to investigate the function of the nuclear receptors. Andrew has worked on many science outreach and public engagement projects including founding and organising Skeptics in the Pub in Cambridge, which holds monthly talks by various speakers with the aim of highlighting the application of critical thinking and scientific method.

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.

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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: Proving Myself: Stories about fighting distrust
Pub date: 2019-09-06

This week we present two stories from people who have to prove themselves in science acedemia.

Part 1: When there’s an explosion in the chemistry lab, graduate student Chanté Summers springs into action.

Part 2: When Adriana Briscoe’s professor accuses her of cheating, she scrambles to save her reputation and her spot on the biology lab’s field trip.

Chanté Summers is a research chemist at Pfizer Inc where she supports the development of conjugate vaccines. Chanté first became interested in science during high school. Pursuing that dream, she completed a MS in Chemistry from SIUe where her thesis focused on the synthesis of potential biologically active compounds. Outside of the lab, Chanté is proud to engage the community through volunteer work, promote diversity within the sciences, and inspiring local youth to explore STEM fields. With all that extra time, Chanté enjoys traveling, being outdoors, and unwinding with her dog.

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe is an evolutionary biologist and lepidopterist. Her research has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic, Scientific American, and on public radio. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the California Academy of Sciences, and was recently honored with the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the first woman and third person overall to have been given all three of these awards. She is working on her first book, a memoir about butterflies.

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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: Marriage: Stories about making it work
Pub date: 2019-07-05

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 husband’s job. To say that science has had an impact on her family would be an understatement.

For the last ten years, Ed Greco has taught physics at Georgia Tech where he has been active in the development of new curriculum for undergraduate students. A native Floridian, he moved to Atlanta in 2000 with his high school sweetheart to attend graduate school. When not in the classroom, he coordinates the outreach activities for the school of physics and serves as radio show co-host “Fat Daddy Sorghum” on WREK’s Inside the Black Box where he enjoys sharing his passion for science with the Atlanta community. Photography, Conchology, foraging for wild edibles, and exploring Appalachia on a motorcycle are just a few of his varied pastimes. Mostly, however, he enjoys spending quality times with his loving family.

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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: The College Years: Stories about leaving home for university
Pub date: 2019-08-16

This week we present two stories from people who left home for university and discovered something unexpected.

Part 1: After Kenny Kinds begins lying to his parents about his grades, he has to question why he is in engineering school in the first place.

Part 2: After a tragedy, Brianna Shaughnessy discovers a different way to heal at the Great Barrier Reef.

Kenny Kinds is an application developer/comedian and yes, those two things pair together nicely. He also co-hosts the monthly storytelling show Sorry Please Continue at The Heavy Anchor in St. Louis.

Brianna Shaughnessy is a PhD Student in Environmental Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Prior to joining Jarrett Byrnes’ lab as a Coasts and Communities Fellow, she completed a Master’s of Professional Science through Northeastern University’s Three Seas Program. Her past research focussed on surveying kelp forests with the purpose of assessing the impacts of global change on such critical ecosystems. As a native of Cape Cod, MA, an integral part of Brianna’s upbringing involved constantly questioning and developing a deep respect for coastal communities. Her current research focusses on the development of sustainable fisheries practices in hopes of acting as liaison between the community that raised her and the scientists aiming to understand and protect it.

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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: Leadership: Stories about responsibility
Pub date: 2019-10-18

This week we present two stories from people who had to become leaders whether they liked it or not.

Part 1: Neurologist BethAnn McLaughlin reckons with her past failures to adequately address the sexual harassment she witnesses in science.

Part 2: Eager to show off their new job testing water quality, Prof.Ound takes their friends out on a boat for the first time.

Dr. BethAnn McLaughlin is an assistant professor in the departments of Neurology and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt specializing in mitochondrial and redox stress signaling in neurological injury and disease. She has received major research funding from the NIH, the DoD, the Dan Marino Foundation, the AHA and IARPA. Her career was sidetracked in 2014 when she experienced retaliation after being a witness in a Title IX investigation. Recently, the National Academy of Sciences gold ribbon panel revealed that her experience was all too common for women in science and medicine. The majority of women in these fields are sexually harassed, very few report, and the consequence of reporting is almost always retaliation. The rates of assault and harassment of those we seek to include most including people of color, LGBTQI and individuals with disabilities are far higher and even more devastating.

Prof.Ound is a Bronx-born and raised spoken word artist, actor, writer, educator and environmentalist. Prof.Ound’s creative work is notable for its Afrocentric emphasis on audience participation and conveying moral/ethical lessons. Merging these aesthetic values into their ecological restoration work and background, Prof.Ound has been developing and workshopping a culturally responsive arts-based outdoor education pedagogy. Prof.Ound strives to ensure the full participation and autonomous leadership of marginalized communities in environmental movements.

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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: Confidence: Stories about finding your voice
Pub date: 2019-05-03

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 marginalized communities to pursue  careers in STEM. As a youth born and raised in a low-income community,  she strives to maintain a strong connection to her local and global  community by being a mentor and advocate. Her goal is to help make a  long-lasting positive impact in communities through STEM engagement and  in-turn allow youth to unlock their potential. Eugenia holds a PhD in  Chemistry from the University of Toronto. 

Misha is a freelance journalist whose work has been featured on Vice,  BBC and CTV News, among others. She is also a journalism Professor at  Seneca College and a scriptwriter for the popular Youtube channel  SciShow. Misha has a degree in business and psychology from Western  University and a Masters in science journalism from City University  London. She also has a cat named Satan and when she’s not writing in her  pyjamas she can be found exploring the world or repurposing old  furniture. She is @mishagajewski 

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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: Dream Deferred: Stories about hitting roadblocks
Episode pub date: 2019-07-26

This week we present two stories about people who had to accept a delay in their personal journeys.

Part 1: Veterinarian Rodrigo Solis thinks he’s found the perfect job — taking care of horses in the Mexican Army — until a new commander takes over.

Part 2: Weeks before an important performance, opera singer Laura Crocco notices there’s something wrong with her voice.
Rodrigo Solis received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in Mexico in 2006 and spent one semester abroad studying at the University of California-Davis. He then went on to earn a Master’s of Sustainable Development at the Technological Institute of Higher Studies Monterrey. He’s currently a 5th year PhD candidate in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University in Canada where he studies monarch butterfly conservation. Since 2018, he has been a fellow at the ReNewZoo graduate training program. He recently started a part-time position with eButterfly, an online citizen science platform that tracks butterflies across North America.

Laura Crocco is an Australian researcher in music performance and human movement science. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Voice Performance) and a Master of Applied Science (Health Science) from The University of Sydney and is now preparing to commence doctoral studies in 2020. The demanding nature of elite music training that she encountered during her undergraduate studies prompted her research interest in how the science of human motor learning may improve the way we train musicians. Laura aims to provide evidence-based professional development for music performance teachers in higher education so as to encourage student autonomy, improve performance and nurture the wellbeing of our future musicians. She is passionate about encouraging music teachers and students to recognise the current issues in one-to-one training, and showing them through her published works, presentations and masterclasses how more systematic and objective research may serve as an ally to the field. Laura often presses buttons on an accordion and hopes to one day convert an old upright piano into a mini-bar.

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Podcast: The Story Collider
Episode: Plan B: Stories about people needing a backup plan
Episode pub date: 2019-05-31

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 years in Los Angeles writing, producing,  and acting in TV, film, and theater. Currently, he’s the writer for Geek  & Sundry’s “Starter Kit,” the VP of Entertainment Development for  ArcMedia, co-owner of Hero’s Journey Fitness with his wife, Christy, and  the Dungeon Master for two ongoing Dungeons & Dragons campaigns,  one that he’s been running since 1987. He wants to thank his parents,  who did not utter a single angry word (to his face) when he left his  academic scholarships behind to study acting. 

Chivonne Battle is a VT graduate student with a B.S. in Material Science  & Engineering (VT, ’05), ultimately in pursuit of a Planning,  Governance, & Globalization Ph.D. Her career is based in  engineering, however, growing up unexposed and embedded in the cyclic  behaviors resulting from poverty, lives in her heart. Chivonne’s life  changed when she connected her background to the social engineering  world, in hopes of tackling the physiological and psychological impact  of socio-economic despair. On this team, she seeks and unveils truth in  working with communities/local governments with infrastructural  concerns; while journeying on to reverse the effects of poverty. 

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