The Story Collider

The Story Collider
Presentation
Hosted byErin Barker
GenreStorytelling
LanguageEnglish
Production
ProductionErin Barker, Liz Neeley, Zoe Saunders
Opening themeghost
No. of seasons8
No. of episodes370
Related
Websitewww.storycollider.org

The Story Collider is a US-based non-profit group dedicated to telling true, personal stories about science. Their mission is to empower both scientists and nonscientists alike with the skills they need to tell these stories and share them through their live shows and podcast, with the goal of exploring the human side of science.[1][2]

Programs

Live events

Every year, The Story Collider produces between 40 and 50 live storytelling shows across the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada featuring stories about science that are both "stand-up funny and powerfully confessional," according to The Wall Street Journal.[2]

The organization now regularly holds shows in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta, Toronto, Vancouver, and Wellington, New Zealand. In addition, The Story Collider has worked with various partners to produce one-off shows in other locations. Past and current partnerships include public radio's Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, St. Louis Public Radio, Springer Nature, Scientific American, the American Geophysical Union, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, Fermilab, and universities such as Yale, Cambridge and many more.[3]

Podcast

The weekly podcast, which started in October 2010, features two stories from the live shows in each episode and has generated over nine million downloads to date.[4][5] In 2017, the podcast was included in Salon's "13 Science Podcasts for Short Attention Spans";[6] Business Insider's "Best Science Podcasts That Make You Smarter";[7] Popular Science's "The Best Science Podcasts to Make You Smarter";[8] The Scientist's 11 Best Science Podcasts;[9] and Audible Feast's "Best Podcast Episodes of 2017."[10] In 2019, The Washington Post called the stories, "devastating, delightful, and endlessly listenable."[11] A recent study in the journal Life Sciences Education found that college students who listened to a selection of Story Collider stories over the course of a semester shifted their perception of what types of people can be scientists, and came away with better grades in the class, increased interest in science, and a vision of a possible future in it for themselves.[12]

Workshops

In addition to live performances, the Story Collider also conducts workshops at universities and conferences around the world with the goal of empowering scientists as storytellers.[13] The Story Collider has worked with elite institutions like Yale, Cornell, and Cambridge University, powerhouse state schools, and small community colleges alike.

Leadership

The Story Collider is currently led by Erin Barker, a Moth GrandSLAM-winning storyteller and writer who also produces the weekly podcast along with Zhen Qin and Misha Gajewski.[14]

Storytellers

As of Spring 2018, more than a thousand stories have been told at The Story Collider.[5] Notable storytellers include:[15][16]

Comedians and actors

Journalists and media

Scientists and mathematicians

References

  1. ^ Revkin, Andrew C. (10 June 2018). "Story Collider: Where Science is a Story Well Told". Dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b Beta, Andy (21 May 2011). "Gamut of Lives Viewed Under A Microscope". Wsj.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Events". The Story Collider. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Podcast". The Story Collider. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Press". The Story Collider. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  6. ^ "13 science podcasts for short attention spans". Salon.com. 26 November 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  7. ^ "15 of the best science podcasts that will make you smarter". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  8. ^ "The best science podcasts to make you smarter". Popsci.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  9. ^ "Opinion: 11 Best Science Podcasts". The Scientist. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  10. ^ "Audible Feast's 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2017 - Audible Feast". Audiblefeast.com. 29 December 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  11. ^ Blakemore, Erin. "Here's an 'article' accelerator that produces the funny, dramatic, human side of science". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  12. ^ "Scientist Spotlight Homework Assignments Shift Students' Stereotypes of Scientists and Enhance Science Identity in a Diverse Introductory Science Class | CBE: Life Sciences Education". doi:10.1187/cbe.16-01-0002. PMC 5008894. Archived from the original on 2021-03-10. Retrieved 2018-05-16. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ "Workshops". The Story Collider. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  14. ^ "Our Team". The Story Collider. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  15. ^ "The Story Collider Podcast". Archived from the original on 2016-01-06. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  16. ^ "Shows". The Story Collider. Retrieved 10 June 2018.