The Story Collider

Daniel Engber risks derailing his PhD by constant daydreaming, until his neuroscience research gives him a idea that will revolutionize the NBA, and doomed to be the waterboy after tearing his ACL, engineering student Baratunde Cola is determined to make it back to his college's football team.

With her truck stuck in the mud in the Serengeti, Aerin Jacob learns three important lessons, and at four years old, Daniel Miller became one of the youngest people in the state of Texas ever to testify in court -- against his own mother, for sexual assault. As an adult, he struggles for stability, but finds hope in physics.

While everyone around Anthony Digrado is impressed with his plant PhD research, he isn’t sure if he actually knows what he’s doing, and scientist Jessica Brinkworth turns to gardening in the midst of a burnout.

With the looming possibility of a double mastectomy, Connie Henderson considers her options for reconstruction and, growing up Dhruti Shah struggles to accept her dark body hair.

A college course forces John Rennie to confront a furious rat, and himself, and as a kid, comedian Gastor Almonte seeks answers about some of the scientific terms he hears around school.

After a troubling personal experience with the health care system, Heng Ji decides to try to fix it, and when Brendan Harley is diagnosed with leukaemia in high school, it changes everything.

César Nufio's childhood experience as a Guatamalan immigrant shapes his life in science, and seeking acceptance as a child of Kurdish immigrants in Denmark, Cansu Karabiyik decides to become a scientist.

While Renee Joshua-Porter is in labor, she starts feeling a horrible stabbing pain in her back, and despite being in excruciating pain, Gretchen Douma worries getting a knee replacement will ruin her blossoming acting career.

In order to score extra credit in her high school anatomy class, Amy Segal embarks on a journey to build a cat skeleton, and Dave Coyle goes on a smelly mission to find the endangered American burying beetle for his undergraduate project.

While shooting a TV show about the brain, producer Esther Stone gets the opportunity to interview a notorious serial killer, and as someone who’s seen every single episode of Mayday, Sara Mazrouei considers herself an expert in all the ways you can die on a plane until she takes a flight to Australia.

On the top bunk in her childhood bedroom, Kayla Hernandez makes plans to escape her home life and become a scientist and, as a teenager, Marc Abbott dreams of finding a wife and having kids, but a case of testicular torsion could ruin it all.

When pediatric oncologist Sam Blackman gets called for a consult by the obstetrics department, he’s convinced they have the wrong number, and after 25 years of teaching, Matthew Dicks questions whether or not he should still be a teacher.

Neuroscientist Pardeep Singh feels more than out of place when he ends up as a contestant on The Bachelorette and when Thiago Arzua comes to the United States from Brazil to study science he doesn’t know how to fit in.

Geography and Environmental Sciences Professor John Aubert is having a hard time connecting to his now teenage daughter, and Sarah Luchini may be in over her head, literally, as she tries to cross a river while hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

As a new, super competitive, graduate student Aditi Nadkarni thinks she has the perfect way to impress her advisor and labmates ... until one night it spirals a tiny bit out of control and while completing a community service requirement in high school, comedian Wyatt Cenac puts a drunk driving simulation to the test.

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 and when The Colbert Report calls about her research, marine biologist Skylar Bayer finds an unexpected collaborator and friend in the fisherman helping her get scallops.

Biologist Latasha Wright is at work one day when she suddenly begins to experience intense pain and 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.

Steve Whyte decides to try exposure therapy to overcome his fear of germs.

Kevin Allison’s ADHD diagnosis sheds new light on why he always feels like he’s left out of the loop, and Diana Li feels isolated while studying squid in Mexico.

As a kid, Lauren Soares can’t understand why her parents are making such a big deal out her brain tumour and Gerry Downes sees his research in a new light when his daughter is diagnosed with a rare genetic disease.

Adam Ruben desperately wants to be seen as more than a junior scientist in his lab and when Larissa Zhou says she wants to make better food for outer space, no one takes her seriously.

This week, we present a very special episode, entirely in Spanish!

When biologist Melina Giakoumis can’t find a single sea star she starts to worry she’s not cut out to be a scientist and one question from a conference attendee sends math teacher Nancy Buck into panic spiral.

During the pandemic, science journalist Maddie Bender signs up to be a contact tracer and veterinarian Leslie Brooks decides to make an exception to the rules for one pet owner.

Science journalist Nicholas St. Fleur spends two years preparing for what is to be an epic solar eclipse and chemical engineer Jason Raines finds himself leading the underdog team in a high school underwater robotics competition.

When Rachel Gross winds up with a chronic vaginal infection she refuses to believe her new favorite IUD is the culprit and Bryan Berlin discovers a mysterious bump on his butt but is too self-conscious to get it checked out.

Coral reef conservationist Emily Darling is at loss when a journalist asks her if she still has hope for coral reefs and James Gordon readies himself for another one of his daughter’s heart surgeries.

While Nadia Osman is growing up, her father is determined to get her to pursue a career in STEM and Josh Silberg finds a new appreciation for his dad’s embarrassing antics when he’s forced to be an aquarium mascot.

Comedian Josh Gondelman is terrified when he gets a call that his father doesn’t remember there’s an ongoing pandemic, growing up Ken Ono dreams of being anything but a mathematician, and as a teenager, Eric Jankowski is inspired when he meets his science heroes.

Sabrina Imbler encounters strange blobs in the ocean and becomes obsessed with figuring out what they are and while visiting a new eye doctor, Derek Traub wonders if his Duane Syndrome and uneven vision are somehow connected.

After being bullied for his sexuality as a kid, Scott Taylor hesitates to bring his full self to his identity as a scientist and Kamryn Parker’s high school history teacher unwittingly influences her scientific journey.

Curtis Chou becomes dogmatic in his quest to correct a person’s incorrect fact on the internet and Richard Cardillo is determined to uncover a priest’s secret to keeping a thriving cactus collection.

In anticipation of our upcoming Proton Prom, this week we’re re-airing the first Story Collider stories from two of the storytellers who will be performing at the event.

It’s almost magical how a combination of just A, C, T, and G entirely determine who we are. In this week’s episode both our storytellers look at how their genes impact their lives.

Heather Galindo studies her lab mates in hopes of understanding what it means to be a scientist and when Rob Ulrich leaves their small town to study science, they keep waiting to feel like they belong somewhere.

During a visit to her doctor, comedian Angel Yau finds herself answering “always” to every question on the mental health evaluation and scientist Valerie Bentivegna doesn’t know what to do when her PhD supervisors tell her that her thesis isn’t good enough.

When neuroscientist Macayla Donegan's partner is diagnosed with brain cancer, she's forced to make some tough decisions and when Anant Paravatsu struggles in school, his mother comes to his rescue.

Neuroscientist B. Blair Braden is confused as to why her neighbour doesn’t pick up on any of her social cues and for her entire life Behavioral Neuroscientist Susan Rapley doesn’t understand why she can’t fit in.

Comedian Riley Silverman attempts to use science to change the course of puberty and comedian Ang Buxton explores the differences in gender expectations from the football field to the middle school cafeteria.

Diabetes runs in Michele Carlo’s family and she’s determined not wind up like them and comedian Gastor Almonte comes to terms with his new diabetes diagnosis.

Math teacher Theodore Chao goes all out for Pi Day at his school and Debbie Char learns what a flash point is while cooking a meal for her date.

After a gruelling residency shift, Natalia Khosla starts questioning how medical students are trained and Mateus F. Carneiro doesn’t know what to do when his paycheck still hasn’t show up three months into his new research job.

Gregory Gedman wonders if he made the right choice in pursuing a career in research and after selling all of her old math books, Gioia de Cari vows to never look back.

Adrian Demeritte struggles to find a reason to stay in science after he loses his biggest inspiration and after years of a chronic disorder make Becky Feldman feel like she’ll be single forever, she finds acceptance from an unusual source.