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 University of Virginia. Before returning to UVA, where she earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology, she was provost and dean at Teachers College, Columbia University. Rowley has won numerous awards for her research, teaching, service, and mentorship. Among her most valued awards have been those received for her outstanding mentoring of students. She currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband, Larry, whom she met when they were graduate students at UVA.

Kate Schmidt is an early childhood educator and planetarium pilot at the American Museum of Natural History who specializes in teaching 8 year olds astrophysics. She has worked in the museum field for over a decade, is on the board of the New York City Museum Educator Roundtable, and has finally figured out that her job is just: Museum. Outside of work, she is the host and producer of Astronomy on Tap and Biology on Tap - monthly events that bring scientists and the public together at the bar. Most importantly, Kate is a deeply unserious person who firmly believes in the power of whimsy. Oh, and her favorite planet is Jupiter.

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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 1985 when the seat belt failed. Today Scott is a participant in spinal cord injury research at the University of Chicago where he controls a robotic arm and hand with sensory feed-back. The goal of this study is to restore independents to people with spinal cord injuries. His story is about hope and determination. 

Emily Hespeler is a certified therapeutic recreation specialist (CTRS), burn survivor, speaker, and storyteller based in New York City. Drawing from their experiences after a major burn injury, Emily combines professional expertise in recreation therapy with powerful storytelling to inspire others to embrace their inner strengths. In their everyday life, Emily finds joy in simple routines: daily walks, spontaneous conversations with strangers, and their weekly jar of peanut butter.

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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 English, Math, Reading, and Family and Consumer Education in grades 5-8 in Milwaukee Public Schools before coming to UWM. She has been at UWM as an Academic Advisor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for twelve years. Her time outside of work is spent traveling with her friends and family laughing and being present in the moment.

Gwynne Hogan is a reporter and producer in the WNYC newsroom who seems to keep ending up covering disease and communities from measles to COVID-19.

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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 primate species. She now draws inspiration from her time in the field, writing to share the sense of adventure and real-world impact that science offers. Stella has written for Georgia State’s College of Arts & Sciences, Georgia State University Research Magazine, and Science ATL, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Science Communication at UC Santa Cruz. When she’s not chasing a story, Stella enjoys spending her time with her cat, TBD, who owes his perfectly odd name to a moment of writer’s block.

Sam Blackman is a physician-scientist and pediatric oncologist. He's was founder and former head of research and development at Day One Biopharmaceuticals, a company focused on drug development for childhood cancers. He’s currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures. Sam is an avid storyteller, baker of bread, and recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Sam lives on Orcas Island with his wife, having successfully launched their first and only child off to college.

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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. candidate in Social Psychology at Stanford University. Her research adapts Lifting the Bar for youth who use substances. This intervention, called More Than That, elevates youth voices to show educators that a student is "more than" their substance use. By reducing stigma and strengthening student–teacher relationships, she demonstrates how seeing and empowering students can protect against risky drug use. Rhana is also the founder and Executive Director of Know Drugs, the first youth-focused harm reduction organization in the United States, which advances evidence-based drug education for young people. Bridging social psychology with community partnerships, she works to reduce drug misuse and promote more compassionate, effective responses to youth substance use.

Paul Davis writes and directs horror movies. His last short won Screamfest and Ravenheart, two of the biggest horror film festivals in the U.S. and Europe. He is currently raising funds to expand it into a feature. Paul is passionate about storytelling. He has had stories air on NPR and published in Reader's Digest. He is also working on a solo-storytelling show. You can reach him on Instragram @pauldavisfilmmaker or [email protected]

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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, climate scientist Tom Di Liberto learns that Trump has been re-elected—and feels the weight of what that means for him and the fight against climate change.

Tom Di Liberto is a climate scientist and award-winning science communicator working as a public affairs specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Communication (as of March 29. He's been caught up in the government purges and is on administrative leave). As part of NOAA’s Ocean Today’s studio, he wrote and starred in NOAA’s first ever animated series Teek and Tom Explore Planet Earth. Previously he served as the senior climate scientist for NOAA’s Climate.gov and social media editor for the NOAAClimate accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. In addition to his work at NOAA, Tom also served as the lead of the Department of State’s U.S. Center at the United Nationals climate change conference COP29 in 2024. The U.S. Center is the premiere public face of the U.S. government at the UN Climate conference. As lead, Tom designed every aspect of the center from the build to the schedule to planning every event that took place. He previously served as emcee of the Department of State’s U.S. Center at the United Nations climate change conferences COP21, COP22, COP26, COP27, and COP28 Fun fact: Tom performs regularly at the Washington Improv Theater on two house teams including the Hypothesis, a team Tom started and is full of scientists and science-lovers.

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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 Cascades of Oregon and California. His research focuses on how crystals record the events inside a volcano before and between eruptions. For the past 9 years, he’s been teaching all the “hard rock” classes at Denison. He also writes for Discover Magazine. His blog, Rocky Planet, have been running since Fall 2017. Before that, he wrote Eruptions, a blog about volcanoes, for Wired Science for 9 years. You can also find him on Twitter (@eruptionsblog), variously tweeting about volcanoes, baseball (mostly Red Sox and Mariners) and his love of punk.

George Kourounis is a renowned global explorer and storm chaser who specializes in documenting extreme forces of nature including: tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, deserts, caves, avalanches and more. He is an Explorer In Residence for The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, served as the Chairman of the Explorers Club Canadian Chapter, and has received several awards and medals for his efforts. He frequently finds himself driving into the eye of fierce storms, or descending ropes into actively erupting volcanic craters, often while hosting television programs including “Angry Planet” and others. He has given five TEDx talks, and has addressed the United Nations Environmental Emergencies Forum. George’s expeditions have taken him to over 80 countries on all seven continents to such far-flung places as: Madagascar, Turkmenistan, Vanuatu, Greenland, North Korea, Myanmar, and Antarctica.

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In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers learn the hard way that getting high doesn’t always mean having a good time.

Part 1: At his friend’s bachelor party, Andrew McGill joins in on a mushroom trip that quickly spirals out of control.

Part 2: In an attempt to calm his nerves about going on an Alaskan cruise, Will Clegg turns to marijuana.

Andrew McGill is a storyteller born and raised in Brooklyn, NY when not on stage is a English teacher at a high school in Brooklyn.

Will Clegg is a filmmaker, storyteller, and new dad living in Westfield, NJ. He’s the co-creator and sometimes host of the long-running storytelling show “Awkward Teenage Years” as well as the writer and performer of two solo shows: “The Lonely Road” and “Syncope.”

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In honor of OCD Awareness Week, this episode features two deeply personal stories about living with obsessive compulsive disorder.

Part 1: For Hannah Hedelius, a classmate’s hiccups trigger an overwhelming reaction she can’t hold back.

Part 2: As a graduate student, Rachel Hostetler begins to realize that her intrusive thoughts may be more than just regular stress.

Hannah Hedelius was born and raised in Idaho. She received her Bachelors of Psychology from Boise State University and is currently working on her Masters in Biomolecular Sciences. Hannah plans to attend medical school where she will work towards a dual doctorate for a career as a medical scientist. Hannah is a graduate assistant for the Dean of Students Office where she works in substance misuse prevention. She focuses on creating alcohol and other drugs education and awareness. Hannah is also doing research at Boise State where she studies cholera toxin and its potential in treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. In her free time, Hannah enjoys reading and spending time with her family.

Rachel Hostetler is a scientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and her role focuses on providing scientific training to users of the institute’s tools and datasets. Prior to working at the institute, she completed a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at West Virginia University, where she used many Allen Institute datasets to guide her research on somatostatin inhibitory interneuron diversity. She completed her B.S. at the University of Minnesota, double-majoring in Neuroscience and German Studies. Now living in Seattle, she yells out in excitement whenever she sees a mountain (not just Mt. Rainier but literally any mountain) after growing up in the Midwest. When not yelling at mountains, she spends her free time trying new seafood restaurants with her partner, snuggling with their very needy cat, and exploring the beauty of the PNW.

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In this week’s episode, we wade into the bloody (and sometimes gory) side of science.

Part 1: Shawn Musgrave wants to donate blood, but runs headfirst into the FDA’s lifetime ban on gay men as donors.

Part 2: While working with the condor recovery program, Molly Astell opens a freezer to find every researcher’s nightmare.

Shawn Musgrave is a lawyer, journalist, lawyer-who-represents-journalists, and somewhat recent transplant to New York. His work has appeared in The Intercept, POLITICO, The Verge, VICE, and the Boston Globe, among other publications, as well as in the Netflix docuseries How to Fix a Drug Scandal.

Molly Astell is a wildlife biologist who originally never wanted to be one of those "bird people", yet went on to exclusively work with endangered birds in their career. Fourteen of those years were spent working as part of the California condor recovery program in a variety of different roles, mostly with the wild condors in southern California, but also with the captive breeding birds in Boise, ID. Currently, they are a graduate student at Boise State University doing research with condor data they helped to collect, and is discovering the joys of teaching biology to undergraduates.

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