LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!
On December 6th at 7:00 pm ET The Story Collider is hosting the ULTIMATE story slam showdown. All-Star storytellers from far and wide–all members of our Board of Directors– compete for the grand prize of being able to say they are the storytelling champion and to raise money for The Story Collider.
Donate to vote for your favorite storyteller (or storytellers) throughout the night and see who will emerge as the story slam winner! All proceeds from the night go to support The Story Collider’s programs.
Hosted by Executive Director Erin Barker and Education Director Lily Be.
Register for free and get ready for a night of amazing storytelling!
If you can’t join us on December 6 or don’t know who to vote for, please make a donation to Story Collider to support our work in 2023!
THE ALL-STAR LINEUP
Natalia Reagan is an anthropologist, primatologist, comedian, host, producer, podcaster, professor, writer, and monkey chasing weirdo. Her training was in a four-field approach to anthropology and she often examines topics through a bio-cultural lens. Natalia was a comedy writer and correspondent on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk, regular host of the StarTalk All-Stars podcast, a science correspondent on Thrillist’s Daily Hit, a science expert on History’s UnXplained, skeptic on Travel Channel’s Paranormal Caught on Camera, and she was the co-host on Spike TV’s 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty. Natalia was also a writer and host for Discovery’s DNews, Seeker, and TestTube as well as an animal expert on Nat Geo Wild’s Everything You Didn’t Know about Animals. For her master’s fieldwork, she conducted a survey of the Azuero spider monkey in rural Panama. She has also published chapters in the Wiley Encyclopedia of Primatology (including “The CopulatoryPostures of Nonhuman Primates”), ACS’s Hollywood Chemistry, and Congreso de Antropología Panameña. After grad school, Natalia began producing science comedy videos covering such titillating topics as the evolution of boobs, butts, balls, and Bigfoot. Her passion includes combining science and comedy to spread science literacy while inducing spit takes. She currently lives a pants-optional lifestyle in LA and produces science comedy content for herself and others.
Gastor Almonte is a stand-up comedian and storyteller from Brooklyn, NY. He's appeared on Comedy Central's This Is Not Happening, Risk! podcast and the Story Collider Podcast. Timeout magazine named him one of your "New Comedy Obsessions." He's been featured on the New York Comedy Festival, The People's Impov Theater's SoloCom and Cinderblock Comedy Festival. His new album, Immigrant Made, was released in March 2019. He is also a Senior Producer for The Story Collider.
Andrea Jones-Rooy is a scientist, comedian, and circus performer. She's a professor of data science at NYU, where she also directs their undergraduate program in data science. When she's not doing that, she's regaling audiences around NYC, the world, and the Internet with her Opinions in the form of standup comedy. When she's not doing either of those things, she's hanging from some kind of aerial apparatus (usually, but not exclusively, a trapeze) and/or holding something that is on fire. When she's not doing ANY of those things, she's either hosting her podcast Majoring in Everything, losing to her mother on Words with Friends, or eating Dr. Cow's raw vegan nut cheese.
Steve Zimmer started attending story shows in 2004, and telling stories in 2006, and successfully competed in numerous Moth story slams. He has won 33 Moth StorySLAMS, and seven Moth GrandSLAMs, and has appeared on the Peabody Award-winning Moth Radio Hour eight times. He also performed in many other storytelling shows, including the Story Collider, where he became friends with Erin Barker and Ben Lillie. He was impressed with their energy and intelligence, but more importantly their commitment to the art of storytelling, even as they sought to establish an identity for Story Collider.
Originally from the Midwest, Zimmer attended Northwestern on the Evans Scholarship, the same one referenced in the film ‘Caddyshack.’ He subsequently earned a PhD in Economics, mathematical focus, from Harvard. Steve had seriously considered switching to a career in science, and at one point spent 7 years working in a biochemistry lab at NYU.
Latasha Wright, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer of Biobus. She received her Ph.D. from NYU Langone Medical Center in cell and molecular biology. She continued her scientific training at Johns Hopkins University and Weill Cornell Medical Center. She has co-authored numerous publications, presented her work at international and national conferences. BioBus enables Latasha to share her love of science with a new generation of scientists. Latasha spearheaded the creation of the first BioBase community lab, the BioBus internship program, and our Harlem expansion. Everyday that Latasha spends teaching students about science in this transformative environment helps her remember that science is fun. She loves sharing the journey of discovery with students of all ages.
Eric Jankowski is an associate professor in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State University. He earned a PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan where he also got pretty into bicycles, storytelling, and playing go. Eric's research leverages high performance computing to engineer new materials for sustainable energy production.
C. Brandon Ogbunu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. Previously, he was assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Brown University. He is a computational biologist whose work focuses on disease genetics and genomics. In addition, Brandon has a life as a writer and content creator at the intersection of science, culture and society. He was featured on the Grammy Award award winning web series "Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings," and his writing has appeared in Wired Magazine, The Conversation, and ESPN's The Undefeated.
Ken Haller is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. He serves on the boards of the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis, the Saint Louis University Library Associates, and the Gateway Media Literacy Project. He has also served on the board of the Missouri Foundation for Health and as President of the St. Louis Pediatric Society; the Missouri Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization; the Gateway Men’s Chorus, St. Louis’s gay men’s chorus: and GLMA, the national organization of LGBT health care professionals. He is a frequent spokesperson in local and national media on the health care needs of children and adolescents. Ken is also an accomplished actor, produced playwright, and acclaimed cabaret performer. In 2015 he was named Best St. Louis Cabaret Performer by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and he has taken his one-person shows to New York, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco. His special interests include cultural competency, health literacy, the relationship of medicine to the arts, the effects of media on children, and the special health needs of LGBT youth. His personal mission is Healing.
John Rennie has worked as a science editor, writer and lecturer for more than 30 years. Currently, he is deputy editor at Quanta Magazine. During his time as editor in chief at Scientific American, between 1994 and 2009, the magazine received two National Magazine Awards. He co-created and hosted the 2013 series Hacking the Planet on The Weather Channel. Since 2009, he has been on the faculty of the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program in New York University’s graduate journalism school.