The Story Collider

What does it actually mean to “be a man”? In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers grapple with masculinity and are forced to confront what manhood means to them.

Part 1: As a teenager, Mike McFadden realizes one part of his body isn’t developing like the other boys his age.

Part 2: Ricky Ortiz believed that to be a good husband, father, and provider, he could never show weakness.

Mike McFadden works in the television industry, based out of NYC. He is also indie arts producer intersecting storytelling, clown, and film. 

Ricky O...

In a perfect world, getting the health care you need wouldn’t require fighting for it. But in this week’s episode, both of our storytellers discover just how hard they have to push to get the treatment — and validation — they need and deserve.

Part 1: Cooper Joslin is determined to get a hysterectomy to finally stop the debilitating symptoms of endometriosis but all the doctors won’t seem to let them make decisions about their own body.

Part 2: As a PTSD survivor, Adrianne Frost assumes her dissociative episodes are simply part of living with trauma.

Coope...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers come face to face with one of their deepest fears: the ocean.

Part 1: When the children’s TV show host Carly Ciarrocchi is assigned a scuba diving episode, she’s forced to confront a lifelong fear of the ocean.

Part 2: Growing up, Darcie Little Badger was wary of the ocean. But when she takes an oceanography class in college, she begins to question her fears.

Carly Ciarrocchi (she/her) is an Emmy-nominated host, writer, musician, and producer. A true multi-hyphenate, she has spent most of her...

In this week’s Best Of episode, we present stories from people who navigated our changing relationship to technology.

Part 1: As a kid, Samy Kamkar discovers his superpower -- hacking.

Part 2: When Jordan Bush's father-in-law-to-be is diagnosed with cancer shortly before her wedding, she finds a creative way to help him attend.

Samy Kamkar is a hacker-turned-security researcher building tools to highlight security implications of everyday technologies. Exiled from computers and the Internet as a teenager by court-order for developing the fastest-spreading virus of all time, his work post-ban has been cited by the NS...

In this week’s episode, both storytellers discover just how far people will go for the ones they love.

Part 1: When Bailey Swilley’s dad goes into cardiac arrest, she watches her mom care for him and starts to reevaluate what love really looks like.

Part 2: At rock bottom, Pam Stepansky turns to her dad for support with her alcoholism.

Bailey Swilley is a writer, comedian and storyteller from Memphis, Tennessee. She is a Moth StorySLAM winner and hosts the monthly storytelling show We ❤️ a Theme at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. In 2026, sh...

In this week’s episode, storytellers share stories about carbs, control, and the unexpected ways bread shapes our lives.

Part 1: When everyone in Rich Tackenberg’s family is diagnosed with celiac disease, he’s forced to confront a terrifying possibility: life without his emotional support carb.

Part 2: During the pandemic, Aditya Surendran sets out to conquer making a 36-hour baguette.

Rich Tackenberg has now lived in Los Angeles longer than he grew up in New York. He is a Managing Director in executive search, specializing in media, entertainment, and nonprofit placements. He has been m...

In this week’s episode, we’re bringing you two stories about navigating the uncertainty, hope, and heartbreak of trying to have a baby.

Part 1: After a pregnancy loss, Annie Tan channels her grief into rescuing an injured mockingbird.

Part 2: Kibby McMahon is convinced she can will her way into pregnancy, but her body refuses to follow the plan.

Annie Tan is an educator, activist, writer and storyteller from Manhattan's Chinatown. Annie’s work has been featured in Huffington Post, New Republic, PBS’ Asian Americans, RISK! and twice on The Moth Radio Hour on NPR...

In this week’s Best Of episode, we present two stories of people who had to leave home to find a new home.

Part 1: When Ph.D student Ali Mattu's girlfriend tells him she is moving to New York City, he has to make some tough decisions about where home is.

Part 2: Arlo Pérez Esquivel struggles to define his boundaries with his father while he is pursuing his education in another country.

Ali Mattu is a cognitive behavioral therapist who helps kids and adults with anxiety disorders. Through YouTube, Dr. Mattu teaches a g...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers reflect on the ways we try to hold onto the people we love.

Part 1: Gwendolyn Napier is left heartbroken when harsh Atlanta weather destroys the trees planted to honor her family members.

Part 2: Bimini Wright looks back on her childhood spent aboard a research boat, studying tuna alongside her larger-than-life fisherman father.

Gwendolyn J. Napier aka “Miss LuvDrop”. Native of Atlanta, Georgia. Retired Educator from Fulton County Schools. Founder of LuvDrop Productions - The “Heart of Storytelling” sharing One Story at a Time. Fun Educational...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share tales about whales.

Part 1: As a child, Brittany Munson dreams of growing up to be a whale trainer.

Part 2: As a marine scientist focused on living creatures, Maya Santangelo is convinced that diving to explore an old whaling shipwreck in the Antarctic will be boring.

Brittany Munson is a Lead Educator at the California Science Center, where she engages public audiences in exploring various science topics and activities. With a degree in Aquatic Biology from UC Santa Barbara, she has chased her passion fo...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers are forced to confront the terrifying unknown and decide how to live in the shadow of what might come.

Part 1: After three generations of women in her family develop Alzheimer’s disease, Mary Jo Pollack enrolls in a study that could reveal whether she’s next.

Part 2: When Sabrina Samuel is diagnosed with a brain aneurysm and told to wait a year before surgery, she must choose between living in fear or embracing the time she has.

Mary Jo Pollack lives life out loud, not on...

When her twenty-five year marriage unexpectedly fell apart, science writer Florence Williams (author of Heartbreak) felt shocked and blindsided. Such heartbreak led to a new range of intense feelings and, trained as a journalist, Florence set out on a journey to understand the science of heartbreak. She tried novel forms of therapy, immersed herself in nature, and consulted cutting-edge research on the science of awe. But her greatest discovery came when she tried an alternative to “hacking” heartbreak. This episode is from A Slight Change of Plans, hosted by cognitive scientist and bestselling author Dr. Maya Shankar. On A Slig...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers build shields to protect themselves and discover what happens when those defences fail.

Part 1: As a lonely teenager searching for connection, Christopher Moncayo-Torres turns to an unlikely disguise—a giant Clifford costume—in hopes of bridging the gap between himself and the world around him.

Part 2: JP Flores has always been the family’s “smart kid,” a role that becomes his armor in college—until the pressure of living up to that identity begins to crack.

Christopher Moncayo-Torres is an Ecuadorian-American writer, actor, teaching artist and liv...

Oxygen sustains almost every living thing on the planet and the air we breathe is meant to be invisible. But industrialization has changed that. In many cities around the world, the air is no longer clean. Polluted air affects our health, contributes to rising global temperatures, and harms ecosystems in ways we are only beginning to fully understand.

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share how polluted air shaped their lives and changed the way they see the world around them.

Part 1: After witnessing toxic fumes pouring from a nearby factory, Virginia Ki...

Wildfires have become more frequent and more destructive in recent years, increasingly threatening communities on the edges of — and sometimes within — our cities. What was once considered a distant risk is now a reality for millions of people living in urban areas.

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share their experiences with wildfires and the ways those encounters impacted them.

Part 1: When wildfires erupt in Los Angeles, Tracy Drain’s work on the Europa Clipper mission is suddenly at risk.

Part 2: As a child, Victoria Dinov lives through a historic wildfire...

Water covers roughly 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface and is essential for human survival. But it can also unleash devastating consequences.

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share tales about water — from flooding to polluted groundwater. Through their stories, we explore how water shapes our cities, our safety, and our sense of security in a changing climate.

Part 1: While researching flood risk and insurance costs in California, international student Hannah Melville-Rea is shocked by just how unprotected many people are.

Part 2: Patricia Schuba is determined to stop coal and wa...

Climate change doesn’t happen in the abstract. It happens where we live, work, and raise our families.

In this special Story Collider series, each episode explores a different element of urban climate change — from fire and air to water and earth — through powerful, true stories from the people experiencing it firsthand.

In this episode, our storytellers turn their attention to earth, exploring the ways humans shape the land around us — and how a changing environment shapes us in return.

Part 1: While filming a wildlife documentary, filmmaker Mae Dorricott begins to notice just how prof...

This week, in honor of Women's History Month, we're presenting two stories from our archive about women in science and the unique challenges they face.

Part 1: Alison Williams' blossoming passion for chemistry is sidetracked by a professor's thoughtless comment.

Part 2: Climate scientist Sarah Myhre becomes embroiled in conflict after speaking out against a senior scientist's problematic statements about climate change.

Alison Williams is the Associate Provost for Diversity and Intercultural Education at Denison University. She received her Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from the University of Rochester where she was a NSF graduate f...

This April, The Story Collider presents a special series on urban climate change.

Through eight true, personal stories about science, we explore how the forces shaping our planet — earth, water, fire, and air — show up in the places most of us actually live: our cities.

From flooded streets and wildfire smoke to shifting ground and the air we breathe, these are the moments when climate change stops feeling distant — and becomes deeply personal.

Eight stories. Four elements. One planet in crisis.

Subscribe now and follow along all month long.

See Pri...

In this week’s episode, both storytellers explore the surprising connections between dance and science.

Part 1: Learning a modern version of her childhood Indian dances puts Sumitra Mattai’s brain and body to the test.

Part 2: When people doubt that dance can empower girls to pursue STEM careers, Yamilée Toussaint sets out to prove them wrong.

Sumitra Mattai is a writer, storyteller and textile designer. She holds a BFA in Textile Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Her essays have been...

In this week’s episode, both storytellers share stories that illustrate why empathy, kindness, and humanity are essential to healthcare.

Part 1: After feeling betrayed by the very systems meant to protect her, Karen McCaffrey chooses to become the advocate for survivors she once needed herself.

This story does include mentions of sexual assault and rape. In case you’d find them helpful, now or at any point in the future, we have some resources available on our website.

Part 2: In her twenties, Mary Cyn endures a string of gynecological problems, and the lack of c...

Hair might seem trivial, but for many of us it carries history, identity, and meaning far beyond keratin. In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers explore the unexpected power their hair holds.

Part 1: Being half Navajo and half white, Carissa Sherman turns to genetics to better understand her identity. As she questions where she belongs, her hair becomes a quiet but powerful marker of how she sees herself.

Part 2: Growing up, Ria Spencer believed “good hair” meant long hair but when a medical condition forces her to shave it all off, she’s challeng...

This week we present two stories from Black people who were dealing with the ramifications of our racist systems.

Part 1: As a science teacher, Mamoudou N'Diaye was supposed to have all the answers, but he struggles to explain being Black in the USA.

Part 2: Rhonda Key fights to be taken seriously by her white co-workers and students when she gets a job at a middle school.

Mamoudou N'Diaye is a Mauritanian American comic, writer, filmmaker, activist, DJ, and former teacher. N'Diaye has been a correspondent for digital media companies Mic and Seeker, a...

Science can feel isolating when you don’t see yourself reflected around you. This episode brings together two stories about the search for representation, connection, and belonging in STEM.

Part 1: Graduate student Angelique Allen doesn’t fully understand the strong connection she feels to the 2015 animated film Home.

Part 2: Growing up in segregated 1950s Baltimore, Ken Phillips learns early who society says he can’t be.

Angelique Allen is a graduate student at the University of Oregon, the founder of Dreams of a Scientist, and an aspiring dirtbag. She spends most of her time t...

Valentine’s Day may be all about couples, but this week’s episode celebrates heartbreak, breakups, and proudly being single as a Pringle.

Part 1: Getting dumped is the push psychologist Jiawen Huang needs to step outside his comfort zone.

Part 2: While completing her PhD in neuroscience, Leslie Sibener is determined to fix her relationship. 

Jiawen Huang obtained his PhD in Psychology from Columbia University, where he studied how prior knowledge provides a scaffold for prediction and memory. He grew up in China, and did his undergrad at University College London where he scanned peopl...

Both of this week’s stories come from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Rare As One Project grantees, who share their deeply personal experiences with rare diseases and illustrate how research is so essential in the search for better treatments and cures.

(For more stories like these, you can also check out our previous episode The Story Collider produced with Rare As One in 2019, 2021, 2023, and 2024, as well as our Rare Disease playlist.)

Part 1: After multiple relapses, Carlos Guerrero-Anderson takes a chance on an experimental treatment for his rare cancer.

Part 2: Angie Weaver holds onto an u...

This week we present two classic stories from people who found an intersection between numbers and their sex life.

Part 1: When online dating isn't working out for him, Tristan Attwood decides to analyze the data himself.

Part 2: In search of a deal, Gastor Almonte ends up with an unmanageable number of condoms.

Tristan Attwood is a recovering analyst working for the airline industry. Originally from the Portland, Oregon, area, Tristan relocated to DC more than a decade ago after serving as a field organizer for a Senate campaign. Having been "unschooled" as a ch...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers confront the real-world consequences of misinformation—and how it can spread faster than the truth.

Part 1: Growing up, Modesta Abugu knows firsthand the challenges rural African farmers face. But when she discovers that misinformation is making things worse, she sets out to change the narrative.

Part 2: While living in South Africa, Fiona Tudor Price witnesses how AIDS misinformation devastates an entire nation.

Modesta N. Abugu recently obtained her Ph.D. in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University, where she conducted rese...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers find themselves reckoning with the choices they’ve made—discovering how a single decision, whether made years ago or in the chaos of a crisis, can shape who we become and the responsibilities we carry.

Part 1: When Misha Gajewski’s grandfather has a stroke while the rest of her family is out of town, she suddenly becomes the emergency contact.

Part 2: After learning that her mother gave up on her dream of becoming a musician, Paula Croxson vows never to give up on her dream of being a...

In this week’s episode, both our storytellers come face to face with the growing power—and pitfalls—of artificial intelligence.

Part 1: When AI takes over comedian Kyle Gillis’s job, he takes it personally.

Part 2: While researching an AI model, engineer Omiya Hassan discovers one major problem: the amount of energy it’s consuming.

Kyle Gillis is a Brooklyn-based comedian, musician, and Guinness World Record holder from Atlanta, GA. His stand-up highlights the contradictions of modern life—work that feels meaningless, a culture obsessed with productivity, and the absurd ways people cope with both. H...

In this week’s episode, like Icarus, both our storytellers fly a little too close to the sun—and learn the hard way that confidence doesn’t always equal competence.

Part 1: As a kid, JR Denson is determined to master the art of homemade french fries—but then his kitchen experiment goes up in flames.

Part 2: Faced with a looming Science Olympiad deadline, Adam Ruben is sure his last-minute “clock” made from a bag of water will do the trick.

JR Denson --a Washington, DC native-- is a full-time college educator and a part time em...

In this week’s “Best Of” episode, we present two stories of people having to navigate a new world.

Part 1: Sean Bearden has never been interested in education, but when he's incarcerated at the age of 19, he finds a passion for physics.

Part 2: When Victoria Manning decides to get a cochlear implant, she fears losing her identity as a deaf person.

Sean Bearden is a Ph. D. candidate in Physics at UC San Diego, researching the application and development of memcomputing systems, a novel computing paradigm. Identifying as a nontraditional student, Sean went from d...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers look back on moments that might have deserved a little more drama than they got at the time.

Part 1: When Jess Nurse feels a throbbing pain in her gut, she chalks it up to heartbreak.

Part 2: When Maryam Zaringhalam’s physician mother goes in for brain surgery, everyone insists there’s nothing to worry about.

Jess Nurse is a Boston born, NYU graduate and Los Angeles transplant. Her writing career began at the tender age of eight when she wrote a play about a horse...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers reckon with what happens when success doesn’t come so easily anymore.

Part 1: After years of academic achievement, newly minted professor Stephanie Rowley is caught off guard when every paper she submits is rejected.

Part 2: Growing up, Kate Schmidt always thought of herself as the “smart kid,” but that identity is shaken when she gets to university and receives her first C.

Stephanie J. Rowley is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Education and dean of the School of Education and Human Development at the U...

Attitude is everything—and this week’s storytellers prove it. Even when life throws challenges their way, they show how perspective and perseverance can make all the difference.

Part 1: Paralyzed but undeterred, Scott Imbrie is on a mission to regain movement.

Part 2: After an accident leaves them with severe burns on over a third of their body, Emily Hespeler works to find their way back to themselves.

Scott Imbrie, BCI Pioneer, Scott is an incomplete quadriplegic with fine motor skill limitations. His spinal cord injury (C4 through C6) happened from a car accident in 1...

This week we present two classic stories from people who got called into action to save an animal they didn’t know they’d be called to save.

Part 1: While running an errand, Andrea Azarian happens upon a lost horse that needs her help.

Part 2: Left in charge of the farm for the first time, Gwynne Hogan panics when a goat goes into labor.

Andrea Azarian has an undergraduate degree in Public Administration and Political Science from UW-LaCrosse. She completed her teacher certification and Master’s degree in Education at Alverno College. Andrea taught E...

In this week’s episode, both storytellers must navigate heartbreaking dilemmas as they try to figure out how to convey crushing news.

Part 1: While doing fieldwork in the Congo, Stella Mayerhoff must track down a local researcher to deliver devastating news.

Part 2: During his second year of residency, Sam Blackman is tasked with caring for a dying child whose mother’s unwavering faith clashes with his scientific approach.

Stella Mayerhoff is a primatologist turned science communicator. As a scientist, Stella traveled the world—from Puerto Rico to the Democratic Republic of Congo—studying various...

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers bite off a bit more than they can chew.

Part 1: Fresh out of college and in what seems like her dream job, drug and alcohol coach Rhana Hashemi quickly realizes she has no idea how to connect with the high school students she’s supposed to help.

Part 2: When Paul Davis and his wife struggle to get pregnant, they decide to foster a pregnant dog—and things escalate quickly.

Rhana Hashemi is a Bay Area–based drug educator, national expert in youth overdose prevention, and Ph.D...

This week, we’re teaming up with Silenced Science Stories, a volunteer project that shines a light on scientists whose work has been derailed by federal budget cuts and mass firings. In this episode, both of our storytellers share deeply personal accounts of how these political decisions upended their work—and the science itself.

Part 1: When an epidemiologist dedicated to preventing violence against children is suddenly fired from the CDC, she is left grappling with both the shock of losing her job and the uncertainty of what comes next.

Part 2: At a global climate conference, clim...

This week, in honor of Halloween, we're presenting two classic stories about facing fears for science.

Part 1: As a newly minted PhD student in geology, Erik Klemetti starts to question his decisions when Aucanquilcha, a 20,000-foot volcano in Chile, proves difficult to tame.

Part 2: Explorer George Kourounis finds himself growing increasingly anxious as he prepares to enter a fiery sinkhole known as the “Doorway to Hell.”

Erik Klemetti is an associate professor of Geosciences and volcanologist at Denison University. He works on volcanoes all over the planet, from Chile to New Zealand to the Ca...