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The Story Collider

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Latest EPISODES

Story Archive by Category
Episode Archive by Date
Featured
Green Thumb: Stories about gardening
Jul 18, 2025
Green Thumb: Stories about gardening
Jul 18, 2025

Feeling lonely after a move to New York City, Kofi Thomas finds connection, purpose, and community through a neighborhood garden, and As he fights to stay sober, Michael Hudgins throws himself into an unusual form of therapy: pulling invasive plants from a city park.

Jul 18, 2025
Wired Lives: Stories about brain-computer interfaces
Jul 11, 2025
Wired Lives: Stories about brain-computer interfaces
Jul 11, 2025

As his Parkinson’s symptoms worsen and medications take a toll, Brandan Mehaffie faces a life-altering decision: continue down a difficult path or undergo brain surgery to implant an electrode to stimulate deep areas of his brain, and after an accident leaves Ian Burkhart with complete tetraplegia, he grapples with losing his independence — until he’s offered a chance to participate in a groundbreaking clinical trial using muscle stimulation controlled by a brain implant to help restore movement.

Jul 11, 2025
Mishaps: Stories about unintended mistakes
Jul 4, 2025
Mishaps: Stories about unintended mistakes
Jul 4, 2025

In fourth grade, Ro Moran is thrilled to be trusted with the class pet iguana, Iggy, for the night. But by morning, something is very wrong, and as an exchange student studying superconducting oxides, Karoline Mueller tries to save money by gold-coating a cheap crucible instead of using a solid gold one.

Jul 4, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Pride
Jun 27, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Pride
Jun 27, 2025

Science educator Charlie Cook experiments with coming out to students, and marine biologist Shayle Matsuda adapts to his new identity as a transgender man while on assignment in the Philippines.

Jun 27, 2025
Red Flag: Stories about toxic relationships
Jun 20, 2025
Red Flag: Stories about toxic relationships
Jun 20, 2025

Carlos Maza uses the plague to analyze his brutal breakup, and Panagiota Vogdou refuses to see her boyfriend as toxic until a stranger on the bus tells her to go to therapy.

Jun 20, 2025
Coming Out: Stories about sharing one's identity
Jun 13, 2025
Coming Out: Stories about sharing one's identity
Jun 13, 2025

After years of struggling with their gender identity, Parker Sublette finds inspiration in marine life, and bullied as a kid for the sound of his voice, Garret Glinka begins to reclaim his confidence thanks to biology class.

Jun 13, 2025
Pseudoscience: Stories about scientific misinformation
Jun 6, 2025
Pseudoscience: Stories about scientific misinformation
Jun 6, 2025

When Lydia Greene’s infant daughter has a troubling reaction to a routine vaccine and her concerns are dismissed by a healthcare professional, she turns to an online parenting forum for answers, and after moving to a new town and feeling isolated, Sarah Ott looks for connection through talk radio and a local church—only to find herself pulled into a world of climate denial and conspiracy thinking.

Jun 6, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Celebrating 15 Years
May 30, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Celebrating 15 Years
May 30, 2025

Maryam Zaringhalam's scheme to cheat her way into the smart class makes clear a huge flaw in the education system, and on the first day of grad school for her PhD, a fellow student tells Bianca Jones Marlin that she doesn't really belong there.

May 30, 2025
Moving On: Stories about letting go of a relationship
May 23, 2025
Moving On: Stories about letting go of a relationship
May 23, 2025

Stuck in a monsoon on Kauai, Belinda Fu unintentionally ruins a friendship with a classmate, and Matt Storrs blames a dinosaur scientist’s theory for the end of his marriage.

May 23, 2025
Hyperfixation: Stories about intense focus
May 16, 2025
Hyperfixation: Stories about intense focus
May 16, 2025

After being diagnosed with breast cancer and opting for bilateral mastectomies, Jenna Dioguardi becomes beholden to her cancer to-do list, and as an 11-year-old kid, Luke Strathmann makes it his life mission to get rich off of Beanie Babies.

May 16, 2025
A Mother's Love: Stories honoring mothers
May 9, 2025
A Mother's Love: Stories honoring mothers
May 9, 2025

Rita Rigano always had a complicated relationship with her mother, and it becomes even more fraught when her mother’s dementia worsens, and in the midst of writing her PhD dissertation, Jordyn Rice embarks on one last road trip with her mother, who is dying of lung cancer.

May 9, 2025
Missing Pieces: Stories about an unremembered friendship
May 2, 2025
Missing Pieces: Stories about an unremembered friendship
May 2, 2025

Thomas Dixon and Rachel Robinson manage to build a friendship, despite not remembering the exact moments they shared.

May 2, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Justice
Apr 25, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Justice
Apr 25, 2025

After a car crash alters Emily Winn's life forever, she must relive the trauma when she testifies in a deposition, and geneticist C. Brandon Ogbunu contemplates the role race has played in his academic career after he is confronted by the police.

Apr 25, 2025
Freak Accident: Stories about highly unusual incidents
Apr 18, 2025
Freak Accident: Stories about highly unusual incidents
Apr 18, 2025

When teenage Ron Hart accidentally walks through a glass door, he lands in the ER on the worst possible day: a tornado drill, and after a car accident leaves all of her teeth bent inward, Di Cai begins to rethink her life as a scientist.

Apr 18, 2025
Breaking Barriers: Stories about succeeding despite the odds
Apr 11, 2025
Breaking Barriers: Stories about succeeding despite the odds
Apr 11, 2025

Determined to become an academic, Rajyashree Sen must take on a broken system to secure a spot in a PhD program in Vienna, and Josh Barber dreams of studying fish, but when his father goes to jail and his mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, he’s left to care for his nine younger siblings.

Apr 11, 2025
Not The One: Stories about ill-fated partners
Apr 4, 2025
Not The One: Stories about ill-fated partners
Apr 4, 2025

When Mark Pitzer gets splashed with methyl cyanide, he turns to his new girlfriend in hopes of comfort, and hoping to impress his scientist date, Adam Selbst plans the perfect outing: the Central Park Squirrel Census.

Apr 4, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Fight or Flight
Mar 28, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Fight or Flight
Mar 28, 2025

Climate scientist Kim Cobb is exploring a cave in Borneo when rocks begin to fall, and neurobiologist Lyl Tomlinson is startled when he's accused of stealing cocaine from his former lab.

Mar 28, 2025
Loss for Words: Stories about troubles communicating
Mar 21, 2025
Loss for Words: Stories about troubles communicating
Mar 21, 2025

After living with a stutter all her life, Sara Street thinks coding might be the solution to her communication problems, and electrical engineer Anna Fox longs to share her work with her family, but struggles with how to explain it.

Mar 21, 2025
Spiritual Crossroads: Stories about conflicting beliefs
Mar 14, 2025
Spiritual Crossroads: Stories about conflicting beliefs
Mar 14, 2025

Neuroscientist Lauren Vetere is excited to see if real life will mimic science at an interfaith event, and growing up as a devout Jew, Fred Gould’s relationship with God is shaken by existential philosophy and science.

Mar 14, 2025
Family Ties: Stories about our roots
Mar 7, 2025
Family Ties: Stories about our roots
Mar 7, 2025

As a teenager, Mark Pagan worries that having an old dad is affecting his social development, and curious about his DNA, Christopher Rivas takes his father on a journey to the Dominican Republic to learn about his family history.

Mar 7, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Representation
Feb 28, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Representation
Feb 28, 2025

While serving on a diversity panel, biologist Latasha Wright is asked if representation in STEM matters, prompting her to reflect on her experiences, and LFC’s childhood experiences with nature – and with bigotry – come together to inform her career in environmentalism.

Feb 28, 2025
Self-Image: Stories about how we see ourselves
Feb 21, 2025
Self-Image: Stories about how we see ourselves
Feb 21, 2025

Fangfang Ruose fears that her prosthetic legs will exclude her from becoming a fashion model, and when engineering student Devan Sandiford runs into an old friend from his former college, he desperately wants her to think he’s cool

Feb 21, 2025
Will You Be My Valentine?: Stories about using science to find love
Feb 14, 2025
Will You Be My Valentine?: Stories about using science to find love
Feb 14, 2025

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, and when engineering student Heather Monigan asks liberal arts major Michael Berger on a date he’s completely unaware that she's interested in him.

Feb 14, 2025
Top Secret: Stories about things we hide
Feb 7, 2025
Top Secret: Stories about things we hide
Feb 7, 2025

Growing up in Ghana, Pauline Owusu-Ansah hides her secret desire to study lizards, and Saad Sarwana’s secret identity as a standup comedian threatens to ruin his burgeoning physics career.

Feb 7, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Chemistry
Jan 31, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Chemistry
Jan 31, 2025

Nothing can come between Lindzi Wessel and her new boyfriend, David -- except maybe herpes, and Marine biologist Skylar Bayer and first mate Thom Young find love on a boat.

Jan 31, 2025
Excluded: Stories about being left out
Jan 24, 2025
Excluded: Stories about being left out
Jan 24, 2025

At school, Natalie Ayala can’t understand why she and the other dual-language kids are treated differently, and as a photographer on a research expedition in Antarctica, Marley Parker can’t seem to break into the scientist inner circle.

Jan 24, 2025
Adapt: Stories about adjusting to new conditions
Jan 17, 2025
Adapt: Stories about adjusting to new conditions
Jan 17, 2025

As the only American, microbiologist Chris Robinson struggles to make friends with the other researchers in Chernobyl, and in his quest to study the adaptability of stickleback fish, neuroscientist Ashwin Bhandiwad keeps needing to adjust his experiment with each new hurdle.

Jan 17, 2025
Tough Gigs: Stories about unsuitable jobs
Jan 10, 2025
Tough Gigs: Stories about unsuitable jobs
Jan 10, 2025

When fertility research scientist Sarah Adelman gets a job at a sperm bank, she’s apparently the only one who finds it funny, and in her new job at a neuroscience lab, Anna Zhukovskaya’s boss starts to pick on her.

Jan 10, 2025
Unlikely Heroes: Stories about coming to the rescue
Jan 3, 2025
Unlikely Heroes: Stories about coming to the rescue
Jan 3, 2025

While on a bike ride with her daughter, Rebecca Stronger comes across an unconscious stranger on the ground, and the only thing standing between Ruby Mustill and being trampled by elephants is a tent.

Jan 3, 2025
Best of Story Collider: Good and Evil
Dec 27, 2024
Best of Story Collider: Good and Evil
Dec 27, 2024

Political scientist Ethan Hollander interviews a Nazi war criminal as part of his research, and as a graduate student, Cather Simpson is excited to present her work -- but then her adviser lies about it.

Dec 27, 2024

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Thank you to our listeners, storytellers, workshop participants, sponsors, donors, and funders. We couldn't do this without you! 

We are grateful for the support of the New York State Council on the Arts and The Richard Lounsbery Foundation, as well as past support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Science Sandbox, The National Association of Science Writers, The Kavli Foundation, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, which seeks to preserve the world’s most treasured landscapes and seascapes.

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