In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers experience a shift in how they see themselves.

Part 1: Fangfang Ruose fears that her prosthetic legs will exclude her from becoming a fashion model.

Part 2: When engineering student Devan Sandiford runs into an old friend from his former college, he desperately wants her to think he’s cool.

Fangfang Ruose is originally from a small village in China and grew up in a Chinese Catholic orphanage, where she received her first prosthetics at the age of three. Later, she was adopted by an American father and a Spanish mother, and moved to Miami as a teenager. She graduated from FIU with a Bachelor’s in Finance and is now pursuing a Master’s in International Real Estate and Finance, focusing on development. Alongside her studies, she models, proudly showcasing her prosthetics and embracing her unique journey to advocate for body positivity and self-acceptance.

Devan Sandiford is a published writer, award-winning storyteller, and community activist. His stories have been featured in The Washington Post, NPR, The Moth Podcast, Story Collider, Simple Families Podcast, Speak Up Storytelling, and elsewhere. He is an alumni of and former writer-in-residence at the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA), a finalist for The Kenyon Review Developmental Editing Fellowship for Emerging Writers, and a recipient of the Corporeal Writing Scholarship for Writing Trauma Toward Healing and Joy with Terese Maria Mailhot. He has a poem in the anthology Excitement and Talisman (2023) and an essay in the anthology Bodies of Stories (2022). Devan has contributed his opinions on race, identity, grief, parenting, and storytelling for articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Slate Magazine. He has received acclaim from multiple New York Times bestselling authors, including Roxane Gay, who called him "an excellent writer who will be endlessly interesting to his readers." Devan lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and their two sons and works as a story developer at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He loves brunch, biking in a morning chill, bookstore crawls, and being roasted on his birthday.

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While love and science don’t often go hand-in-hand, this week, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, both of our stories are about finding love using scientific methods.

Part 1: After Tony Dahlman plucks up the courage to ask out a fellow statistician, he consults the Survey Administration Manual for guidance on how to construct the perfect date.

Part 2: When engineering student Heather Monigan asks liberal arts major Michael Berger on a date he’s completely unaware that she's interested in him.

Tony Dahlman is a numbers guy. He has spent nineteen years as a statistician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Tony is a native Minnesotan who enjoys running, biking, public speaking, college football, and is obsessed with State Fairs. A few years ago he got hooked on storytelling and has told stories with Story District in Washington, DC, the Des Moines Storyteller’s Project, TellersBridge in Cedar Rapids, IA, and The Moth in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. Tony lives with his wife in Des Moines, Iowa.

Heather Monigan is a resilient lady with a sharp wit who has learned to laugh in the face of adversity. Her hobbies include staying happily married, keeping two teens alive and spontaneous home remodels. In her spare time, she is an Engineering Executive in the semiconductor industry for over 24 years and active in the tech community. She currently serves as Chair of the IEEE Phoenix Section and is the Phoenix Section’s International Development Lead for Engineers Without Borders. Heather also serves on the Grand Canyon University President’s STEM Advisory Board and the GCU Engineering Advisory Council. She is an adjunct engineering professor for Grand Canyon University. Ms. Monigan holds an MBA and BSCE and never got the memo to “relax”.

Michael is married to Heather Monigan, which is what got him this gig. He also considers that his greatest achievement. Like most everyone else out in Phoenix he is an ex-Midwesterner, hailing from Dayton, Ohio. Since moving to Phoenix in 2004 he acquired a son, a daughter, a doctorate, and too many cats. Since his parents were both in education he decided to start his career there and never left, now working as the Dean of the College of Doctoral Studies for Grand Canyon University. In his limited free time he enjoys playing games of all kinds, the odd bit of creative writing, working out, and attempting ridiculous obstacle course races. Michael doesn’t mind public speaking but has difficulty memorizing scripts. Hopefully this won’t be a problem for Heather. 

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In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share stories about times their deepest secrets were discovered.

Part 1: Growing up in Ghana, Pauline Owusu-Ansah hides her secret desire to study lizards.

Part 2: Saad Sarwana’s secret identity as a standup comedian threatens to ruin his burgeoning physics career.

Pauline Owusu-Ansah is a first year PhD student whose passion for evolutionary biology didn't fade off despite growing up in a place where scientists are known to be just medical doctors or engineers. Her story, "The lizard's leap..." capture's a journey from curiosity in Ghana, West Africa to becoming a scientist in this part of the world.

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, has appeared on the Story Collider podcast six times, and is Arizona Story Collider producer. As a Physicist/Engineer, Saad has 40+ peer reviewed papers 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.”

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This week, we present two stories about science intersecting with love -- in both fortunate and unfortunate ways.

Part 1: Nothing can come between Lindzi Wessel and her new boyfriend, David -- except maybe herpes.

Part 2: Marine biologist Skylar Bayer and first mate Thom Young find love on a boat.

Lindzi Wessel is a science and health journalist who recently graduated from the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. Before turning her sights on journalism, she studied the mind, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s in neuroscience from UC Davis. She has covered topics ranging from wildfire management to Zika transmission for outlets including The San Jose Mercury News, Alzforum, and STAT. For the moment, she resides in DC where she is writing for Science. Lindzi is a traveler who enjoys spending time outdoors and in the presence of dogs, whenever possible.

Thom and Skylar Young-Bayer live in Juneau, Alaska with their four rescue dogs, Millie, Echo, Zoey, and Atlas, and their cat Mistletoe. Thom Young-Bayer has worked in various careers including as a marine biologist, a tall ship sailor, an organic farmer, and an EMT. Skylar Young-Bayer has a Ph.D. in Marine Biology and is on the storyboard of Mudrooms, a local storytelling show in Juneau.

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Few things sting more than being on the outside looking in. In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share deeply personal accounts of feeling rejected.

Part 1: At school, Natalie Ayala can’t understand why she and the other dual-language kids are treated differently.

Part 2: As a photographer on a research expedition in Antarctica, Marley Parker can’t seem to break into the scientist inner circle.

Natalie Ayala is a third-year mechanical engineering student at Boise State University. Her goal is to pursue a career in the space industry, have hands-on involvement in human space flight missions, and advocate for minorities in STEM! 

Marley Parker has been working as a professional science communicator for over a decade. At the beginning of 2018, Marley left a full-time position at a tier one research university to start her own business as a freelance photographer, videographer, and science writer. Over the past seven years, Marley has found a special niche: documenting deep sea research. She has joined 25 expedition teams on eight different vessels, highlighting projects sponsored by NOAA, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Ocean Exploration Trust, and many others. When she is not documenting ocean science in remote parts of the world, Marley loves sharing the lessons she has learned from pursuing an unconventional career path.

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Being able to change to meet one’s circumstances is essential to survival. As HG Wells famously wrote: “adapt or perish.” In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers find themselves in unfamiliar territory and need to change course.

Part 1: As the only American, microbiologist Chris Robinson struggles to make friends with the other researchers in Chernobyl.

Part 2: In his quest to study the adaptability of stickleback fish, neuroscientist Ashwin Bhandiwad keeps needing to adjust his experiment with each new hurdle.

Chris Robinson is a published writer and PAm-Costco USA Scholar in the midst of his PhD at Indiana University. His research uses the honey bee as a model to study the ecology and evolution of the gut microbiome and how evolutionary adaptations, such as antibiotic resistance, are transmitted by mobile genetic elements. Originally from the Lowcountry of South Carolina, Chris has harvested watermelon with the USDA, spent a few years as a line cook in Charleston kitchens, and was formally a Fulbright Research Fellow in Ukraine. When not staring at a computer screen, Chris can be found deep into a bicycle ride, playing in the garden, or lamenting the failure of some baking experiment.

Ashwin Bhandiwad has spent a remarkable amount of time trying to understand how the brain is organized. Once called "the most handsome boy in the world" by his mom, Ashwin is now a scientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science working on developing tools to create maps of the brain. Ashwin received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Washington where he investigated how loud noise causes damage in the inner ear. Simultaneously, he disregarded that research by attending many loud concerts. Ashwin also loves swimming, starting projects that he’ll never finish, and talking in silly voices to his young children.

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From bizarre job requirements to downright horrible bosses, sometimes our jobs just don’t fit. In this week’s episode, both our storytellers share stories about what happens when work doesn’t work.

Part 1: When fertility research scientist Sarah Adelman gets a job at a sperm bank, she’s apparently the only one who finds it funny.

Part 2: In her new job at a neuroscience lab, Anna Zhukovskaya’s boss starts to pick on her.

Sarah Adelman is a born and bred New Yorker, former fertility research scientist, and stand up comedian. She performs regularly at all the top NYC comedy clubs and independent shows, can be seen on two episodes of HBO Game Theory and has over 35,000 followers across her platforms . Her content has been featured on The Today Show, NBC News, Meta, the 92nd Street Y, and more. Sarah graduated Cum Laude from Dartmouth College in 2019 and earned her Masters of Public Health from Columbia University in 2021. She trained as a research scientist in NYC where she studied fertility and ran human subjects trials at a sperm bank. Her one hour comedy solo show, EGG, brings audiences through her hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age journey to her present-day career in science, the day-to-day of studying male reproduction, why she started comedy, and culminates in an earth-shattering clash of her two worlds. EGG premires in June 2024.

Anna Zhukovskaya is a neuroscientist studying the role of somatosensation in social behavior and its effects on stress. She is currently doing a postdoc in the Abdus-Sabor lab in Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute. She did her PhD at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute in Ilana Witten's lab.

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When life throws challenges our way, sometimes the most surprising people—or even baked goods—step up to save the day. In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers remind us that heroes can come in all shapes, sizes, and forms.

Part 1: While on a bike ride with her daughter, Rebecca Stronger comes across an unconscious stranger on the ground.

Part 2: The only thing standing between Ruby Mustill and being trampled by elephants is a tent.

Rebecca Stronger was born and raised in Brooklyn, and she wants you to know that she HAS left the neighborhood a few times. She is a retired acrobat, a veterinarian, a single mother and is just about ready to start calling herself a writer.

Ruby Mustill is an evolutionary biology PhD student at Texas A&M University. Before moving to Texas, she graduated from Columbia University with a BA in anthropology, studied monkeys in Puerto Rico, and managed a remote field site in Kasanka National Park, Zambia. Outside of research, Ruby spends her time knitting and talking at length about her elderly cat, Muffin. She hopes to work at a natural history museum in the future.

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This week, we bring you two stories about the science of morality. Or morality in science. Either way you want to look at it.

Part 1: Political scientist Ethan Hollander interviews a Nazi war criminal as part of his research.

Part 2: As a graduate student, Cather Simpson is excited to present her work -- but then her adviser lies about it.

Ethan J. Hollander is a professor of political science at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He is also the author of Hegemony and the Holocaust: State Power and Jewish Survival in Occupied Europe. Hollander’s published scholarship also includes research on democratization in Eastern Europe and on the Arab Spring. At Wabash, Dr. Hollander teaches courses on the Politics of the Middle East, Ethnic Conflict and Genocide, European Politics, and Research Methods and Statistics. He is a native of Miami Beach, and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2006.

When Cather Simpson graduated from high-school in the USA, she was certain she was going to become a neurosurgeon. She was very, very wrong. In her first year at uni, she discovered scientific research and got completely hooked. She is now a Professor of Physics and Chemical Sciences at the University of Auckland, where she started and directed a super-fun ultrafast laser lab called the Photon Factory. These days, she’s morphed into an entrepreneurial academic. The first company she co-founded, Engender Technologies, uses lasers to sort sperm by sex for the dairy industry. The second, Orbis Diagnostics, uses lasers for infectious disease testing at point-of-care – she is currently CEO there. The latest, Luminoma DX, uses light to screen more effectively for skin cancers. When she’s not enjoying the pleasure and satisfaction from using lasers to solve the knotty problems presented by Mother Nature, she’s doing 5000 piece puzzles and being “Schrodinger’s Mom” – simultaneously the world’s best and worst mother – to two lovely sons.

Note: Ethan's story was produced as part of our partnership with Springer Nature's Springer Storytellers program. Find out more at beforetheabstract.com. Cather's story was produced as part of our partnership with SCANZ, Science Communicators Association of New Zealand. Find out more at www.scanz.co.nz. And look for more Story Collider shows in Wellington, New Zealand, in 2018!

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Whether you're playing a game of poker or a taking a leap of faith with your future, everything has its risks and possible rewards. In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share moments when they took a chance.

Part 1: Beatriz Perez’s parents want her to use her first pay check to gamble on the slot machines.

Part 2: Dave Piontkowski is on a winning streak in Vegas when his severe ulcerative colitis rears its ugly head.

Beatriz Perez: I'm a Mexican-American computer engineer working in Massachusetts. I thrive on finding new things to try out and putting myself outside of my comfort zone, hence my new interest for story telling. I have a deep passion for empowering women and young girls in STEM. During the weekends you'll find me traveling to a random country, crafting, working on a new project, or reading a good book.

Dave Piontkowski is an NYC based stand-up comedian who performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023 and 2024 with his one man show 3 Kidneys No Colon which he is currently touring with.

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