The Story Collider

A near-fatal accident on a mountain leads exoplanet hunter David Kipping to a new goal. David Kipping is an astronomer based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), where he researches extrasolar planets and moons. He is currently fulfilling a Donald Menzel Fellowship at the CfA with the Harvard College Observatory. He is best described as a "modeler," combining novel theoretical modeling with modern statistical data analysis techniques applied to observations. This story was produced as part of the Springer Storytellers series. Hear and read more at http://www.beforetheabstract.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Geneticist Chris Gunter worries about passing on a rare condition to her son. Chris Gunter is a human geneticist by training, and a science communicator by choice. She earned her Ph.D. at Emory University and then moved up and down the east coast, ending up as a Senior Editor at the journal Nature. Currently she serves as the Associate Director for Research for the Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and as an Associate Professor in Pediatrics for the Emory University School of Medicine. If she had any spare time, she would probably garden or bake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bradford Jordan finds there's more to the brain his dad brings to show his class than just how cool it is. Bradford Jordan is an actor, improviser, storyteller and facilitator. He is a lead teacher at the Peoples Improv Theatre in New York, where he has introduced hundreds of students to the art of improvisation. As an actor, director, and teacher with the national arts and literacy organization, The Story Pirates, Bradford teaches creative writing workshops to school kids and works with his creative team to adapt their stories into musical sketch comedy shows. Bradford is a Moth story slam winner and his stories can be heard on The Moth Radio Hour on NPR. In addition to his artistic pursuits, Bradford is a New York City Bike Ambassador with Transportation Alternatives, working to create safer streets and public places for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

An offhand sexist comment enrages Renee Hlozek, and leads her to dig into how her colleagues really view people who aren't the stereotypical scientist. Dr. Renee Hlozek is the Lyman Spitzer Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow in Theoretical Astrophysics in at Princeton University; the Spitzer-Cotsen Fellow in the Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and is currently a Senior TED Fellow. Her research focuses on theoretical cosmology; as a member of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope she measures the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation to decipher the initial conditions of the universe. When not investigating the cosmos, she loves to sing (loudly), read and bake. She makes a mean Negroni. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A simple interview about a bacon sandwich turns into a national, then international nightmare. Elin Roberts is Head of Public Engagement at the Centre for Life in Newcastle. She is a passionate science communicator producing activities and programs for visitors. She has worked with scientists, presenters and teachers helping them direct their messages. As a hands-on practitioner she still enjoys the sensation of dried PVA on her fingertips and the smell of freshly applied sticky back plastic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Jon Ronson discovers a twitter account pretending to be him, he sets off to find it's creators. Jon Ronson is a British nonfiction author, documentary maker and screenwriter. His books, Them: Adventures with Extremists, The Men Who Stare At Goats, The Psychopath Test, and Lost At Sea, have all been international bestsellers. He's a regular contributor to the PRI show This American Life, and has appeared at TED, and on The Daily Show. His new book, “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” is available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A summer job in Yellowstone National Park isn't quite what Molly Payne Wynne had been expecting. Molly is the Monitoring Coordinator for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, an unprecedented collaborative effort to restore 11 species of sea-run fish in New England's second largest river, the Penobscot. Molly has pursued a variety of research topics in fisheries; most recently, river herring habitat use patterns through otolith chemistry at the University of Southern Maine and otolith growth and microchemistry as a research assistant at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, NY. She loves the water and exploring Maine and awaits her next scientific adventure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On the first day of grad school for her PhD, a fellow student tells Bianca Jones Marlin that she doesn't really belong there. Bianca Jones Marlin is a neuroscientist and doctoral candidate at New York University, School of Medicine. She received dual bachelor degrees in biology and adolescent education from St. John's University. Her time as a high school biology teacher led her to the laboratory, where she now studies the neurochemicals that govern communication and dictate social memories. Bianca investigates how the brain changes in the presence of the "love hormone," oxytocin. Her research aims to understand the vital bond between mother and child, and uses oxytocin as a treatment in strengthening fragile and broken parental relationships. Bianca, a native New Yorker, lives in Manhattan with her scientist husband, Joe, and their cat Santiago Ramon y Cajal, who is named after the famed neuroanatomist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hillary Rea enjoys her job as a "standard patient" helping to train medical students, until she's asked to sub in on a birth gone quite wrong. Hillary Rea is a Philadelphia dwelling comedian and storyteller, and the host of the storytelling shows Tell Me A Story and Fibber. She is a NYC Moth StorySLAM winner and was featured on The Soundtrack Series and How I Learned podcasts. She was a 2011 Artist-in-Residence for Elsewhere Artist Collaborative in Greensboro, NC. For more info, please visit: hillaryrea.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Adam Becker realizes a visiting film crew is made up of geocentrists, he has to prevent them from exploiting his adviser's work. Adam Becker is a cosmologist, a journalist, a programmer, and a science publishing troublemaker. He hails from a tiny town in northern New Jersey, and he has a PhD in physics from the University of Michigan. He strongly believes that scientific research should be open, that the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is nonsense, and that David Tennant was the best Doctor. He lives in Oakland, California, with his fiancee, Elisabeth, who is a writer, and their pet rabbit Copernicus, who is not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.