“We all have a story about science, and at The Story Collider, we want to hear those stories.” That’s been part of our standard blurb since our inception a year and a half ago, and it’s true. We've been lucky to feature many stories. Over 150 people have told stories on our stage, and 70 of those have appeared on our podcast.

But there are a lot more personal science stories out there. A lot a lot.

However, one lesson we've learned is that not everyone wants to stand at a microphone in front of an audience of a hundred people. Shocking, we know.

And that’s important, because not only are there more stories than those we get at our live shows, but there are other kinds too. There are stories that can’t — or shouldn’t, or won’t — be told in 10 minutes on stage. There are stories that work better as essays or as videos or as comics. And if we’re serious about our mission to explore the personal aspects of science (and we are), then we need a way to find those and publish them.

And now we have a way. Welcome to The Story Collider Magazine.

Every week for the next eternity (give or take), we’ll be publishing a new story. Some will be feature-length essays — like our lead-off piece, “Awake” by Nicole Ferraro. Some will be comics, or audio, or video. Sometimes we’ll have pieces about the nature of science stories — as in Steven Berkowitz's interview with Two Men Talking on the importance of narrative in medicine.

And that brings us to our first issue: Bad Medicine. It might seem strange to start off a series of experiences of science with something that is not only medical, but also looks at the darker side. That was intentional, and it comes from the other biggest lesson we’ve learned from a year and a half of collecting science stories. Our storytellers aren’t all (or even mostly) scientists, or even all science nerds or science aficionados. They’re people from all different backgrounds whom we’ve asked to share their stories about science. And if you ask people what their personal science story is, the overwhelming majority will start by telling a story of medicine gone wrong.

It makes sense: medicine is the most direct, most personal, and most important way that science intersects with most people’s lives. In future issues, we’ll be exploring a wide range of science topics, but to start, we’re diving into the central topic of most people’s personal experiences of science.

Our first stories are going live January 12th. We hope you'll come back and enjoy them! And if you've got a science story you'd like to share with us, we'd like to hear from you.