Join us in the back patio of Smitty’s Bar in Washington DC for four true personal stories about science.
Hosted by Maryam Zaringhalam and Shane Hanlon
Stories By:
Leslie Brooks is a veterinarian by formal training. She is a writer, humanitarian, and advocate by informal experience. Her goals as a veterinarian are to contribute to improving human relationships through enhancing the human-animal bond and promoting the concept of One Health. She worked as a “cat and dog doctor” for a decade, including volunteering much of her time working with individuals experiencing homelessness or crisis who have pets. She is currently a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the US Agency for International Development, where she is using her transferable skills as a veterinarian in the policy realm and a humanitarian context. A goal of hers is to talk more openly about mistakes and failures to change the narrative of how we view success. She lives in the DC-metro area with her husband and 5-year-old son, Mehdi. She loves to paint abstractly, bike around the city, being an amateur photographer, and dancing.
Kennedy Lamb is a Baltimore-based science writer and Strategic Communications Associate at Kaiser Permanente. When she’s not writing, you can find her hiking, playing beach volleyball or snuggling with her pets.
Carol Moore is a storyteller and public speaking coach who has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, served as a speaker coach for TED speakers through TEDxTysons, and won the title of Moth StorySLAM Champion. She is a member of both the National Storytelling Network and the National Communication Association. As a general rule, Carol loves classic musicals, caramel lattes, and crocheted blankets. She also enjoys alliteration.
Vijai Nathan is an Indian-American comedian and storyteller making people laugh across America & internationally too. Vijai's stories have been featured on NPR’s “Snap Judgment” & "Invisibila" Live. She's a contributing writer to The Washington Post Magazine’s Date Lab. You can catch her on an episode of Netflix's "Lady Dynamite, " starring comedy legend Maria Bamford, and in the film "Meet the Patels, " which Variety calls "Sharp" & "Riotously Funny." She has performed throughout the U.S. and was featured at festivals in Montreal, Singapore, South Africa, London, and Trinidad. Locally, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian & Constitution Hall.
Vijai's humor springs from her experiences of growing up as a "foreigner" in America- despite the fact she was born and raised in a suburb of Washington D.C. She lovingly and hilariously talks about growing up “Brown” in America, dating, cultural clashes with her parents, and the racism she dealt with as a child and now as an adult.
She's the creator of three solo-shows: “Good Girls Don’t, But Indian Girls Do,” “McGoddess: Big Macs, Karma, & The American Dream,” & “Give Them Vagina: Tips from Mom, Dad & Cosmo.” She’s excited to share a story from her new project:, "I'm Not Racist, But...".