The Story Collider

This week we present two stories from people who left home for university and discovered something unexpected.Part 1: After Kenny Kinds begins lying to his parents about his grades, he has to question why he is in engineering school in the first place.Part 2: After a tragedy, Brianna Shaughnessy discovers a different way to heal at the Great Barrier Reef.Kenny Kinds is an application developer/comedian and yes, those two things pair together nicely. He also co-hosts the monthly storytelling show Sorry Please Continue at The Heavy Anchor in St. Louis.Brianna Shaughnessy is a PhD Student in Environmental Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Prior to joining Jarrett Byrnes' lab as a Coasts and Communities Fellow, she completed a Master's of Professional Science through Northeastern University's Three Seas Program. Her past research focussed on surveying kelp forests with the purpose of assessing the impacts of global change on such critical ecosystems. As a native of Cape Cod, MA, an integral part of Brianna's upbringing involved constantly questioning and developing a deep respect for coastal communities. Her current research focusses on the development of sustainable fisheries practices in hopes of acting as liaison between the community that raised her and the scientists aiming to understand and protect it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we share two stories from scientists who had to take on a new role with their parents.Part 1: As the scientist in the family, Steve Scott takes on a new role when his dad must undergo heart surgery.Part 2: Tajana Schneiderman struggles to live up to the expectations and sacrifices of her brilliant scientist mother.Steve is a science communicator and public engagement professional working at the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge in the UK. He has a passion for helping scientists to find ways of sharing their stories, and a particular interest in engaging people with genetics and genomics. Steve also loves musical theatre, exploring nature, music that gets you dancing, and seeing the best in people!Tajana Schneiderman is a PhD student in planetary sciences at MIT. Although she thought astronomy would be a career that let her look up, she finds she spends a lot of time reading papers, writing code, and analyzing data. She’s interested in detecting and characterizing exoplanetary systems to better understand the way systems form and evolve. In her free time, she knits, reads, and goes on backpacking adventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present two stories from people who ran into roadblocks trying to save the world.Part 1: When pharmacy professor Lindsay Acree volunteers at a local needle exchange, her beliefs about addiction are challenged.Part 2: Engineering PhD student Jeannie Purchase sets out to help a couple in rural South Carolina who have endured dirty tap water for a decade.Lindsay Acree, Pharm.D., AE-C is an assistant professor at the University of Charleston School of Pharmacy. She received her pharmacy degree from the University of Charleston School of Pharmacy in 2013 and completed a PGY1 residency in academia/ambulatory care also with the University of Charleston. Dr. Acree provides patient care in several clinics throughout the Charleston area including the City of Charleston Wellness clinic and the Family Health Associates of South Charleston. Dr. Acree is a board certified asthma educator. Her involvement with the Harm Reduction Clinic located within the Kanawha Charleston Health Department includes teaching the naloxone training to patients, caregivers, and members of the community as well as assisting with Harm Reduction Clinic services. In addition to clinical services, Dr. Acree teaches several topics within the University such as substance use disorders, asthma, COPD, and tobacco cessation.Jeannie M. Purchase is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. Jeannie received her bachelor’s degree from Clemson University in Biosystems Engineering and her master's from Virginia Tech in Construction Engineering and Management. Her research focuses on examining the efficacy of point-of-use and point-of-entry filters when exposed extreme corrosion conditions and investigating the barriers hindering the widespread adoption of these technologies in at-risk communities. Her interdisciplinary work is at the intersection of citizen science, water quality, remediation, and public health. Through her research, Jeannie collaborates with residents to pursue solutions community-based problems. Jeannie switched between engineering disciplines in pursuit of finding ways to better serve communities through effective communication and collaboration when designing solutions to relevant everyday problems. She believes that it is important for engineers to communicate and engage with the community to understand their needs. Jeannie loves to teach, mentor and inspire students, and work with communities like Denmark, SC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present two stories about people who had to accept a delay in their personal journeys.Part 1: Veterinarian Rodrigo Solis thinks he's found the perfect job -- taking care of horses in the Mexican Army -- until a new commander takes over.Part 2: Weeks before an important performance, opera singer Laura Crocco notices there's something wrong with her voice.Rodrigo Solis received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in Mexico in 2006 and spent one semester abroad studying at the University of California-Davis. He then went on to earn a Master’s of Sustainable Development at the Technological Institute of Higher Studies Monterrey. He’s currently a 5th year PhD candidate in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University in Canada where he studies monarch butterfly conservation. Since 2018, he has been a fellow at the ReNewZoo graduate training program. He recently started a part-time position with eButterfly, an online citizen science platform that tracks butterflies across North America.Laura Crocco is an Australian researcher in music performance and human movement science. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Voice Performance) and a Master of Applied Science (Health Science) from The University of Sydney and is now preparing to commence doctoral studies in 2020. The demanding nature of elite music training that she encountered during her undergraduate studies prompted her research interest in how the science of human motor learning may improve the way we train musicians. Laura aims to provide evidence-based professional development for music performance teachers in higher education so as to encourage student autonomy, improve performance and nurture the wellbeing of our future musicians. She is passionate about encouraging music teachers and students to recognise the current issues in one-to-one training, and showing them through her published works, presentations and masterclasses how more systematic and objective research may serve as an ally to the field. Laura often presses buttons on an accordion and hopes to one day convert an old upright piano into a mini-bar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present two stories from people who had disastrous moments with their own genitals.Part 1: Lonely after her move to New York City, Adrien Behn finds a friend in her copper IUD.Part 2: While recovering from prostate cancer surgery, Dana Strout finds a creative solution to his incontinence.Adrien Behnis a triple threat storyteller: she is a podcaster, writer, and live story performer. She has been featured in the New York Times and has self-produced her first podcast, Strangers Abroad, a narrative travel podcast. You can find her performing around the city or in her kitchen making pies.Dana Strout is a Maine native, with roots in this state going back over 300 years. He is a practicing attorney in the Camden/Rockport area, specializing in construction law. He is a photographer working in 19th and early 20th century processes, and was an on air programmer for many years on WERU Community Radio. He currently lives with his wife Dorie and two cats in Camden, and enjoys gymnastics, a warped sense of humor and a good story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present two stories from people gripped with concern for others.Part 1: When biologist Andrew Holding's new baby stops feeding, his scientific instincts are put to the test.Part 2: After finding out her mother has breast cancer, high school teacher Nakeysha Roberts Washington gets hit with the news that one of her students has a brain tumor.Andrew Holding is a Senior Research Associate at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Institute and a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. His research programme brings together his experience of cutting edge mass spectrometry, DNA and RNA sequencing techniques with computational biology to investigate the function of the nuclear receptors. Andrew has worked on many science outreach and public engagement projects including founding and organising Skeptics in the Pub in Cambridge, which holds monthly talks by various speakers with the aim of highlighting the application of critical thinking and scientific method.Nakeysha Roberts Washington, M.S. Ed is the owner and Creative Director of Genre: Urban Arts (GUA), a platform where artists can become published digitally and in print. Nakeysha spends much of her time preparing opportunities for creatives to share their art as part of the necessity for inclusion. All of this with the knowledge that working in the space of developing yourself as a creative is often seen as a privilege. Pop-up galleries and performances organized by Nakeysha via Gene: Urban Arts allows everyone in the creative community the ability to develop themselves as artists, become published and showcase their art through performance and exhibition. GUA is now a playground for 85+ creatives, all who have their own medium in which they create— Their own Genre. Nakeysha has been published in Routledge, various literary journals, and anthologies. In Spring 2018, she was honored with having a monologue performed in Brooklyn, New York, at the Billie Holiday Theater as part of a showcase entitled 50 in 50: What Place Do We Have in this Movement? Also in Spring of 2018, Nakeysha was a presenter at the UWM National Writing Project in which she conducted a creative writing workshop for educators. In June of 2018, a piece of her creative nonfiction entitled, “No Cream” was published in Wisconsin’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Nonfiction. In 2019 Nakeysha happily accepted a position as a producer with her favorite podcast The Story Collider as the “Midwest Connect” as she will be producing shows in Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI. Additionally, she will begin work on obtaining a doctoral degree in Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Looking forward to July 2019, Nakeysha will be part of a panel at Modern Language Association’s 2019 International Symposium in Lisbon, Portugal as part of a panel to discuss culturally responsive pedagogy in relationship to the teaching of writing, an opportunity afforded to her through her connection with the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee’s ACCESS program. Nakeysha’s writing and other work centers around social justice issues because she believes that it is a creative’s responsibility to interrogate and reveal the intricacies of social constructs through art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Part 1:  After turning down a tenure position, Sarah Brady struggles to adapt to her new life as the spouse of a physician. Part 2:  As he grows up, Ed Greco's two great loves -- his high school sweetheart, and physics -- come into conflict. Sarah Brady is a storyteller, teaching artist, and writer who relocated to England from the United States a year and a half ago due to her paediatrician husband's job. To say that science has had an impact on her family would be an understatement.For the last ten years, Ed Greco has taught physics at Georgia Tech where he has been active in the development of new curriculum for undergraduate students. A native Floridian, he moved to Atlanta in 2000 with his high school sweetheart to attend graduate school. When not in the classroom, he coordinates the outreach activities for the school of physics and serves as radio show co-host “Fat Daddy Sorghum” on WREK’s Inside the Black Box where he enjoys sharing his passion for science with the Atlanta community. Photography, Conchology, foraging for wild edibles, and exploring Appalachia on a motorcycle are just a few of his varied pastimes. Mostly, however, he enjoys spending quality times with his loving family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present two stories about people making choices informed by the naïvety of youth. Part 1: On a dull night in Orlando, young Josh Flaum decides to experiment with drugs he can buy over the counter.Part 2: After Will Tran accidentally cheats his way to a high school math award, he has to grapple with whether or not to come clean.Josh Flaum is a comedy writer local to Los Angeles. He has written for G4 Network's 'Attack of the Show', Nerdist, Legendary Entertainment, has worked as a consultant for Disney Imagineering, co-created the award-winning web series 'Written By A Kid', and is currently working for Caffeine.tv writing for a partly-scripted, partly-improvised, live, weekly, interactive hour-long comedy chat show done entirely in virtual reality called 'Live From The 8th Dimension'. He recently shattered his right anterior sinus bone, so that's why he looks the way he does (if you were wondering). If you like photos of cats, you're welcome to follow him on Instagram at @joshflaum.Will Tran is not a scientist, but he got close a few times. In high school, he interned at the National Institute of Mental Health working on a study of Alzheimer’s. He matriculated to New York University as a neuroscience major, but then quickly switched to the art school. Whoops. Will is a creative director in Los Angeles. He enjoys sunsets, long walks on the beach, and standing on stage to share profoundly personal stories with hundreds of strangers for no discernible reason other than the temporary appeasement of some deep, dark, inner desire to please. He also has a dog named Finch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present two stories of scientists having to find a strength within themselves.Part 1: BiologistH eather Hamlin leaves the safety of the lab for her first field assignment: tagging alligators.Part 2: As an unconsenting "face of diversity," Dan Simpson contemplates the role of his gay identity in his academic life.Heather Hamlin earned her BS in Biology, and an MS in Marine  Bio-resources from the University of Maine before working as a Senior Biologist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota Florida. She earned her  Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2007, and then worked as a  post-doctoral scholar at the same institution studying the effects of  environmental pollutants on the endocrine system of aquatic animals. In  2010 she joined the Medical University of South Carolina’s School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor examining how contaminants can alter maternal-fetal health. Eager to get back to Maine, she returned in 2011  to the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences, where she is an  associate professor. Heather’s current research seeks to understand how  human-induced changes in the environment, whether it be climate change,  ocean acidification, or pollutants can affect the reproduction and  development of aquatic animals, many of which are important to Maine’s economy.  Dan Simpson is a statistician. He left Australia for Europe after his PhD in 2009 and is currently an Assistant Professor and the Canadian  Research Chair in Spatiotemporal Modelling at the University of Toronto.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we share two stories from people who have go on wild goose chases to find their dads. Part 1: In his last year of medical school in Colombia, Gabriel Duran Rehbein finds out his father has been kidnapped.Part 2: After seeing her dad lose control of his mind, art student Minerva Contreras decides to study the brain, in hopes of understanding him.Gabriel Duran Rehbein, MD describes himself as a huge nerd and a pathological optimist. He is currently making full use of both those characteristics as a Research Fellow in the Viviane Tabar Lab at MSKCC, where his work focuses on the development of a novel real-time drug screening platform for primary brain tumors using patient-derived three-dimensional explant cultures. He obtained his MD from Universidad de los Andes in his native city of Bogotá, Colombia. When he is not in the lab, Gabriel enjoys reading, attending concerts and spending time with friends. He is always on the lookout for places to go salsa dancing.”  Minerva Contreras is a senior at Universidad Autonoma  de Queretaro, where she is majoring in Biotechnology Engineering with a  focus in Biomedical Sciences. Her undergrad research has lead her to  explore different areas within neurobiology such as the molecular  biology of glioblastoma at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, and  neurodegenerative diseases at UCSD Sanford Consortium for Regenerative  Medicine. Before discovering her passion for science, Minerva completed  an AA in Filmmaking; she believes this was an important contribution to  her appreciation for diversity and humanities. Her future goals include  pursuing a doctoral degree in Neurosciences, as well as creatively  communicating science to the general public, especially future  generations, in a relatable fashion. As of next fall, she will be a grad student in the Neurosciences PhD program at UCSD.  In her spare time, she enjoys going  on hikes with her dogs, strength training, and spending time with her  family and friends.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.