I’m so pleased to announce that The Story Collider is welcoming several new producers onto its team this month.

In addition to launching new shows in Atlanta and St. Louis, we’ve also been searching for new folks to help with our existing shows in New York, LA, and DC. I sincerely wished we could have hired everyone who applied for these producer posts -- they were all so lovely, so talented, and so excited to share stories about science. But our executive director, Liz Neeley, informed me that as a small nonprofit, we’re unable to hire fifty new producers, and I think that’s probably a fair point.

So I’m excited to share with you that Paula Croxson, Audrey Kearns, Maryam Zaringhalam, Eli Chen, Zack Stovall, Kellie Vinal, Meisa Salaita, and Emma Yarbrough will be joining us for our 2017-2018 season.

Paula Croxson will be working with me on our New York-based show. Paula is a neuroscientist and professor from Mt. Sinai who’s assisted us in the past with our annual Brain Awareness Week shows every March. If you’re an avid listener of our podcast, you may recognize her as an Alzheimer’s researcher or an insane open-water swimmer. She’s also a rock flautist in alternative rock band Marlowe Grey and nerdy rock band Pavlov’s Dogz. Catch her hosting her first show with me next week at the Kraine Theater!

Molecular biologist Maryam Zaringhalam will be working with producer Shane Hanlon to continue production of our bimonthly show in D.C. Maryam, who recently received her PhD from Rockefeller University here in New York, also co-hosts the science policy podcast Science Soapbox. Again, if you’re an avid listener of our podcast, you may recognize her as a connoisseur of fine snack foods who cheats on tests or someone who once pooped under her bed.

Writer and actor Audrey Kearns is joining Cassie Soliday in producing our L.A.-based show. Audrey is founder and editor-in-chief of the website Geek Girl Authority, and also hosts and produces the podcasts Booze and Phasers, Kneel Before Aud and 5 Truths and a Lie. Look for their first show together this August!

Eli Chen and Zack Stovall will be working with St. Louis Public Radio to launch our first regular show in the Midwest! We debuted there in May as part of the St. Louis Storytelling Festival, and hope to follow it up with a show this October. Eli is a science and environment reporter with the radio station, and Zack is a local comedian who also produces STL Sketchpad.

Biochemist and science communicator Kellie Vinal will be leading the charge in Atlanta! For years, we’ve traveled down south every year for the Atlanta Science Festival and we’re excited to now have a permanent residence in this amazing science and storytelling community. Chemist and sculptor Meisa Salaita, who co-founded and co-directs the Atlanta Science Festival, will coproduce our debut show this fall, and Emma Yarbrough, a local performer and theater program coordinator at Emory University, will be working with Kellie for our spring festival show.

Please join me in welcoming them! I hope you will check out their shows as they debut this summer and fall.

And stay tuned for upcoming news about future shows in Toronto!

-- Erin Barker, artistic director