The Story Collider is a US-based non-profit group dedicated to telling true, personal stories about science. Their mission is to empower both scientists and nonscientists alike with the skills they need to tell these stories and share them through their live shows and podcast, with the goal of exploring the human side of science.

Programs

Live events

Every year, The Story Collider produces between 40 and 50 live storytelling shows across the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada featuring stories about science that are both "stand-up funny and powerfully confessional," according to ''The Wall Street Journal''. The organization now regularly holds shows in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta, Toronto, Vancouver, and Wellington, New Zealand. In addition, The Story Collider has worked with various partners to produce one-off shows in other locations. Past and current partnerships include public radio's Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, St. Louis Public Radio,

Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

, the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

, the

Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science The Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1973. It is the largest multicultural STEM diversity organization in the United States, with a mission to advance the success ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative,

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle phys ...

, and universities such as Yale, Cambridge and many more.

Podcast

The weekly podcast, which started in October 2010, features two stories from the live shows in each episode and has generated over nine million downloads to date. In 2017, the podcast was included in Salon's "13 Science Podcasts for Short Attention Spans"; Business Insider's "Best Science Podcasts That Make You Smarter"; Popular Science's "The Best Science Podcasts to Make You Smarter"; The Scientist's 11 Best Science Podcasts; and Audible Feast's "Best Podcast Episodes of 2017." In 2019, The Washington Post called the stories, "devastating, delightful, and endlessly listenable." A recent study in the journal Life Sciences Education found that college students who listened to a selection of Story Collider stories over the course of a semester shifted their perception of what types of people can be scientists, and came away with better grades in the class, increased interest in science, and a vision of a possible future in it for themselves.

Workshops

In addition to live performances, the Story Collider also conducts workshops at universities and conferences around the world with the goal of empowering scientists as storytellers. The Story Collider has worked with elite institutions like Yale, Cornell, and Cambridge University, powerhouse state schools, and small community colleges alike.

Leadership

The Story Collider is currently led by Erin Barker, a Moth GrandSLAM-winning storyteller and writer who also produces the weekly podcast along with Zhen Qin and Misha Gajewski.

Storytellers

As of Spring 2018, more than a thousand stories have been told at The Story Collider. Notable storytellers include:

Comedians and actors

Wyatt Cenac Wyatt John Foster Cenac Jr. ( ; born April 19, 1976) is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He was a correspondent and writer for ''The Daily Show'' from 2008 to 2012. He starred in the TBS series '' People of Earth'' and in Bar ...

, comedian, actor, writer, director *

Aparna Nancherla Aparna Nancherla (born ) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She has had recurring roles on television series including ''BoJack Horseman'' and ''Corporate'' and has written for ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' and '' Totally Biased w ...

, comedian, actress *

Josh Gondelman Joshua Lyons Gondelman (born January 15, 1985) is an American author, comedy writer, producer, and stand-up comedian. He was a supervising producer and writer for '' Desus & Mero'' on Showtime. He was previously a writer on ''Last Week Tonight wi ...

, comedian, writer for HBO's ''

Last Week Tonight A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts come in many styles and sizes, depending on the exact job they are designed for. Common variations ...

'' *

Jo Firestone Joanna Firestone (born December 8, 1986) is an American actress, comedian, and television writer. She played Sarah Conner on the television series '' Joe Pera Talks with You''. Biography Joanna Firestone was born in 1986 to Jewish parents Fred an ...

, actress, comedian, writer *

Hallie Haglund Hallie Haglund (born September 5, 1982) is an American comedian, Emmy-winning writer, and producer. She is currently head writer and executive producer on Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas. Career Haglund worked as an NBC Studios page in Los Angele ...

, comedian, writer for ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...

'' and head writer for Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas *

Myq Kaplan Myq Kaplan (; born October 7, 1978Myq Kaplan
at

Mara Wilson Mara Elizabeth Wilson (born July 24, 1987) is an American actress. As a child, she played Natalie Hillard in the film ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' (1993) and went on to play Susan Walker in ''Miracle on 34th Street (1994 film), Miracle on 34th Street'' (19 ...

, writer, actress *

Elna Baker Elna Baker (born January 21, 1982) is an American writer and comedian. She has worked for the radio program ''This American Life'' since 2010, and is currently a producer. She has made appearances on ''The Moth'', BBC Radio 4 and ''Studio 360''. ...

, writer, performer *

Ophira Eisenberg Ophira Eisenberg (born 1972) is a Canadian American comedian, writer, and actress. She is from Calgary, Alberta. She has been living in New York City since 2001 and obtained American citizenship in April 2021. Eisenberg hosted the weekly NPR a ...

, comedian and host of NPR's Ask Me Another *

Dave Hill Dave Hill may refer to: * Dave Hill (baseball) (1937–2018), American Major League Baseball pitcher * Dave Hill (golfer) (1937–2011), American golfer * Dave Hill (American football) (1941–2022), American football player * Dave Hill (automot ...

, comedian, radio host, writer, musician, actor

Journalists and media

Ira Flatow Ira Flatow (; born March 9, 1949) is a radio and television journalist and author who hosts WNYC Studio's popular program ''Science Friday''. On TV, he hosted the Emmy Award-winning PBS series '' Newton's Apple'', a television science program f ...

, host of ''

Science Friday ''Science Friday'' (known as ''SciFri'' for short) is a weekly call-in talk show that broadcasts each Friday on public radio stations, distributed by WNYC Studios, and carried on over 500 public radio stations. ''SciFri'' is hosted by science ...

'' *

Jon Ronson Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker. He is known for works such as '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'' (2001), '' The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004), and '' The Psychopath Test'' (2011). H ...

, author *

Carl Zimmer Carl Zimmer (born 1966) is an American popular science writer, blogger, columnist, and journalist who specializes in the topics of evolution, parasites, and heredity. The author of many books, he contributes science essays to publications such ...

, author *

Ed Yong Edmund Soon-Weng Yong (born 17 December 1981) is a British Americans, British-American science journalist and author. In 2021, he received a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series on the COVID-19 pandemic. He is the author of two ...

, author *

Joe Palca Joe Palca is an American correspondent for National Public Radio. He specializes in science, and is the backup host for Talk of the Nation Science Friday. Palca was also the president of the National Association of Science Writers from 1999 to ...

, journalist * David Epstein, author *

Deborah Blum Deborah Leigh Blum (born October 19, 1954) is an American science journalist, and the director of the Knight Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

, author *

Susannah Cahalan Susannah Cahalan (born January 30, 1985) is an American writer and author, known for writing the memoir '' Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness'', about her hospitalization with a rare autoimmune disease, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. She publis ...

, author *

Seth Mnookin Seth Mnookin is an American non-fiction author and journalist. As of 2025, he is a science writing professor at MIT, where he is also the Chair of Comparative Media Studies/Writing department and the Director of Institute's Graduate Program in S ...

, author *

Andrew Revkin Andrew C. Revkin (born 1956) is an American science and environmental journalist, webcaster, author and educator. He has written on a wide range of subjects including the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and ...

, journalist * Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, authors *

Amy Harmon Amy Harmon (born September 17, 1968) is an American journalist.
''nytimes.com''. Retrieve ...

, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist *

Emily Grossman Emily Grossman (born 7 July 1978) is a science communicator and populariser, was a resident expert on ''The Alan Titchmarsh Show'', and has been a panellist on the Sky1 television show '' Duck Quacks Don't Echo''. She has hosted events and given ...

, endocrinologist, British science TV personality *Arielle Duhaime-Ross, podcast host * Ari Daniel Shapiro, journalist

Scientists and mathematicians

Sara Seager Sara Seager (born 21 July 1971) is a Canadian-American astronomer and planetary scientist. She is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known for her work on extrasolar planets and their atmospheres. She is the auth ...

, astronomer, planetary scientist *

Jo Handelsman Jo Emily Handelsman (born March 19, 1959) is the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also a Vilas Research Professor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Handelsman was appoint ...

, microbiologist and former associate director for science under

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...

Alan Guth Alan Harvey Guth (; born February 27, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is the Victor Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Along with Alexei Starobinsky and Andrei Linde, ...

, physicist *

Ken Ono Ken Ono (born March 20, 1968) is an American mathematician with fields of study in number theory. He is the STEM Advisor to the Provost and the Marvin Rosenblum Professor of Mathematics at the University of Virginia. Early life and education Ono ...

, mathematician * Moon Duchin, mathematician *

Margaret Geller Margaret J. Geller (born December 8, 1947) is an American astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. Her work has included pioneering maps of the nearby universe, studies of the relationship between galaxies and their ...

, astrophysicist *

Scott Barry Kaufman Scott Barry Kaufman is an American cognitive scientist, author, podcaster, coach, and popular science writer. His writing and research focuses on intelligence, creativity, and human potential. Most media attention has focused on Kaufman's attempt ...

, psychologist *

Alan Lightman Alan Paige Lightman (born November 28, 1948) is an American physicist, writer, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is currently a professor of the pra ...

, physicist, author *

Esther Perel Esther Perel (; born August 13, 1958) is a Belgian-American psychotherapist, known for her work on human relationships. Perel promoted the concept of "erotic intelligence" in her book ''Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence'' (2006), ...

, psychologist, author *

Stuart Firestein Stuart J. Firestein is the chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, where his laboratory is researching the vertebrate olfactory receptor neuron. He has published articles in ''Wired'' magazine, ''Huffington Post'', ...

, neurobiologist, author * Sean Carroll, cosmologist, author *

Raychelle Burks Raychelle Burks is an associate professor of analytical chemistry at American University in Washington, D.C., and science communicator, who has regularly appeared on the Science Channel. In 2020, the American Chemical Society awarded her the Grad ...

, analytical chemist *

Frances Colón Frances Colón is an American science diplomat and environmental policy expert most notably having served at the United States Department of State between September 2008 and January 2017. In her work, she promotes the integration of science and t ...

, science diplomat and former Deputy Science & Technology Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State

References

External links

*
The Story Collider
on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Story Collider Science communication Storytelling events Non-profit organizations based in the United States