The Story Collider

When Dawn Fraser’s twin is diagnosed with Down syndrome, their parents decide to raise them as equals — a task that produced a new twist on the racetrack.

“If there is anything my family’s really good at, it’s surprises.”

A teacher and his study of the zebra mussel reproductive system inspire Charlie Foster to make a dramatic change in himself.

“’Sex,’ he would say, raising his eyebrows up and down. ‘This is what it’s all about.’”

Adam Becker’s communications with Neil deGrasse Tyson about an error at the Hayden Planetarium lead to an unexpected correction.

“I go storming off to the front desk. I’m going to fight for truth and justice in the universe! …I’m going to sound like a crazy person.”

As a teenager, Daily Show writer Hallie Haglund had a complicated relationship with her English teacher — one that became even more complicated when they ventured into the wild.

“I could never understand the bizarre signals she was sending me, but the fact that she was sending them at all made me feel so visible.”

Maija Niemisto is a director of education on the Clearwater, America’s environmental flagship. But when a stranger comes to the side of the ship, it heralds a discovery about her city and herself.

“He’s giving me a mission. I love missions. I’m so excited, it’s like CSI: Yonkers.”

Maija was born to a family of musicians in the heartland, far from the sea. Minnesota was her first hailing port. School, university and adventures took her to Finland, Wisconsin and Lebanon. After receiving her B.A. in International Relations and Environmental studies, she followed the smell of sweet salt air and ran away to see the sea aboard her 28-foot sloop. In 2008, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater appeared on the horizon and she jumped at the chance to combine her interests in music, sailing, teaching, science, water ecology, environmental advocacy and pumping the bilge.

Every week the Story Collider brings you a true, personal story about science. Find more and subscribe to our podcast here: http://storycollider.org/

Mark Sam Rosenthal‘s father teaches him about the birds and the bees, but leaves out the one lesson he never learned himself.

“He wasn’t just at one performance of every school play I was in, he was at every performance of every school play I was in. And the dress rehearsal.”

Guy Schaffer wanted to understand the brain, but the only job he could find was in a monkey lab– a lab where a monkey attack leads to deeper set of crises.

“The verbiage that was used in the video was ‘melting your brain,’ so that’s exactly what I was worried about as I scrubbed my cut with an iodine solution.”

Two stories of women who confront the craziness of scientists in their lives: one by talking to a stranger, the other by being born to her parents. (explicit)

What do you do if you’re a trans woman about to transition, and you might someday want children? Elana Lancaster tells the story of a partner’s quest to freeze her sperm. (explicit)

“Change is kinda tricky. Even when it’s something that’s really welcome, and that you’re looking forward to, it’s also scary as shit.”

In high school, speechwriter Mark Katz made a mockery of the political process when he ran for president of Mu Alpha Theta.

“In the context of mathematic achievement my name is a stand-alone punchline.”