Join us for a special online edition of The Story Collider, featuring true, personal stories from the talented producers who usually make the magic happen behind the scenes!
This isn’t your typical showcase—it’s a rare peek behind the curtain at the people who coach, edit, and craft the stories you love, now stepping up to the mic with their own. Expect a night full of laughter, heart, and a few delightful surprises.
It’s also a celebration of the storytelling community that fuels The Story Collider—and your chance to support our mission to share the human side of science, one story at a time.
Hosted by comedian, actor, musician, cat dad extraordinaire, and St. Louis Story Collider producer, Sam Lyons!
Stories by:
Originally from the Bronx, Juan Carlos Martinez Jr. dissects data by day as a Data Analyst and dissects human folly by night through stand-up and improv comedy. Armed with a Bachelor of Arts from Stony Brook University, where he double majored in Political Science and History, and an MBA from Iona University in Information Systems and Marketing, he's well-versed in the art of academic survival. A trivia aficionado, Juan Carlos leads the top team at his local brewery, and by lead, he means letting his wife tackle the hard questions. His obsession with punctuality once led him to wake up in a cold sweat, believing he was late, only to discover he was 12 hours early—proof that even his panic attacks are ahead of schedule. Follow his existential musings and comedic exploits at @Juancarloscomedy on all platforms.
Maryam Zaringhalam is a molecular biologist who traded in her pipettes for the world of science policy and advocacy. She comes to D.C. from the concrete jungles of New York, where she received her PhD from The Rockefeller University. She co-hosts the science policy podcast Science Soapbox, and her words have appeared in Slate, Scientific American, and Quartz. Her cat is named Tesla, after Nikola and not Elon Musk's car.
Christine Gentry joins BBQ on the list of good things to come out of Texas. She currently serves as the inaugural director of the Yale Teaching Fellowship, a fully funded teacher pipeline for New Haven Public Schools. Prior to her current role, Christine spent a decade directing teacher residency programs in Boston, Southern California, and New York City. Her career began in the public schools of Boston and New York City, where she taught English, creative writing, and oral storytelling for thirteen years. In what little spare time she has, Christine performs in oral storytelling shows and leads workshops for The Story Collider. Her stories have been featured on PBS, The Moth Radio Hour, and This American Life. She is also a Moth Mainstage performer and three-time Moth GrandSLAM champion.
Saad Sarwana also know as “The Standup Physicist” has been a comedian for 25+ years. He has performed in every major comedy club on the east coast, and over 25 states. As a certified geek, Saad hosts the “Science Fiction and Fantasy Spelling Bee”. Saad is also a four time MOTH StorySLAM champion. As a Physicist/Engineer, Saad has 40+ peer reviewed papers, 3 patents and is the past president of the US Committee on Superconductor Electronics. Saad had appeared on multiple Scifotainment (Scientific Entertainment) shows on Discovery / Science Channel, including over 100 episodes on the TV show “Outrageous Acts of Science
Skylar Bayer is a marine biologist, a storyteller, and a science communicator. She completed her Ph.D. in the secret sex lives of scallops, a subject that landed her on The Colbert Report in 2013. Since then she has dabbled in a diversity of science communication activities, all of which you can read about on her website (skylarbayer.wordpress.com). She’s an alum of the D.C.-based Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program. She is the co-editor with fellow MIT alum, Gabi Serrato Marks, of the book Uncharted: how scientists navigate health, research, and bias. When there isn’t a pandemic going on, she also enjoys Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the gentle art. Follow her on Twitter @drsrbayer.
Ari Daniel is an independent science reporter who contributes regularly to National Public Radio among other outlets. Ari has always been drawn to science and the natural world. As a graduate student, he trained gray seal pups (Halichoerus grypus) for his Master’s degree in animal behavior at the University of St. Andrews and helped tag wild Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca) for his Ph.D. in biological oceanography at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. For more than a decade, as a science reporter and multimedia producer, Ari has interviewed a species he’s better equipped to understand – Homo sapiens. Over the years, Ari has reported across six continents on science topics ranging from astronomy to zooxanthellae. He formerly worked as a reporter for NPR’s Science desk where he covered global health and development. Before that, he was the Senior Digital Producer at NOVA where he helped oversee the production of the show’s digital video content. Ari’s radio pieces have also aired on The World, Radiolab, and Here & Now. He is a co-recipient of the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award for his radio stories on glaciers and climate change in Greenland and Iceland. In the fifth grade, Ari won the “Most Contagious Smile” award. He is ari@storycollider.org and @Mesoplodon
Shane Hanlon is a conservation biologist turned science communicator who earned a PhD by studying frogs and turtles (seriously). He is Executive Editor of C&EN BrandLab, the American Chemical Society’s custom content studio, where he helps scientists communicate and tell their stories. He takes a few weeks each summer to get back out in the field and catch frogs. Find him on LinkedIn.