This hour we talk to Alice Dreger, author of Galileos Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science (Penguin Press, March 2015). As both a scientist and activist, Dreger has found herself in the middle of controversies surrounding the intersex movement, transsexual identity, and the biology of rape (among other issues). Contributing editor Mark Hay fills us in on the deaths (real and fabricated) of ancient trees. And we meet the real-life Chef Boyardee—who actually spelled it Boiardi.

Music this hour:

wherever by Jahzzar, from the album Sketches

Soldiertype (militarised) by Ketsa, from the album Whats Withouts Within

“Elle va au Japon” by Nic Bommarito, from the album A Quiet Age

The story Remaking the Science Fair is a production of the PRX STEM Story Project, distributed by PRX and made possible with funds from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.