logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2024
32m 52s

Best of Story Collider: Trials by Fire

Story Collider, Inc.
About this episode
This week, we're presenting stories from scientists who faced unusually difficult paths to science. We all know it's hard work to become a scientist. But for some folks, even getting to that point where you can pursue your science education can seem like an impossible dream. Part 1: When Evelyn Valdez-Ward discovers that she's undocumented, she fears her dre ... Show More
Up next
Today
Blood & Guts: Stories about hemoglobin and intestines
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 fr ... Show More
24m 37s
Oct 3
Close Calls: Stories about near misses
In this week’s episode, our storytellers face life-or-death moments they’ll never forget.Part 1: On a trip to Colombia for a research conference, biologist Stephanie Galla must rely on her fight-or-flight instincts when she is cornered by a mugger with a knife. Part 2: An ordinar ... Show More
28m 56s
Sep 26
Best of Story Collider: Hypothesis
This week we present two classic stories from people who had hypotheses. Part 1: Teaching sixth grade science becomes much more difficult when Xochitl Garcia's students start hypothesizing that fire is alive. Part 2: When journalist John Rennie is assigned to cover an entomologic ... Show More
35m 31s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2024
The Life Scientific: Conny Aerts
Many of us have heard of seismology, the study of earthquakes; but what about asteroseismology, focusing on vibrations in stars?Conny Aerts is a professor of Astrophysics at the University of Leuven in Belgium - and a champion of this information-rich field of celestial research. ... Show More
26m 28s
Jul 2024
Overcoming the Science and Religion Divide | Prof. Karin Öberg
This lecture was given on November 2nd, 2023, at University of California, Santa Barbara. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Karin Öberg is Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. Her specialty is a ... Show More
47m 48s
Mar 2025
The Life Scientific - Ijeoma Uchegbu
Imagine a nanoparticle, less that a thousandth of the width of a human hair, that is so precise that it can carry a medicine to just where it’s needed in the body, improving the drug’s impact and reducing side effects.Ijeoma Uchegbu, Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at Uni ... Show More
26m 28s
Jan 2025
Make science great again
Nasa's OSIRIS-REx mission to collect a sample from an asteroid has been a great success. Asteroid Bennu's sample yields a watery pool of history, thanks to an international team of scientists including the London Natural History Museum's Sarah Russell. Also, in a week of tumultuo ... Show More
40m 41s
Mar 2024
Molding the Future of Wellness: Synthesizing Spirit and Science – Dr. Christina Rahm : 1148
I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Christina Rahm, who has an inspiring journey from a pharmaceutical executive to an advocate for integrating holistic health solutions with rigorous scientific methods. We dive into the impact of spirituality on wellness, the transformative p ... Show More
1h 16m
Jan 2025
How to be a brilliant ally to your neurodivergent lab mate
Charlotte Roughton says she developed a deep-rooted shame and resentment towards her autism diagnosis, causing her to mask the condition during her biosciences degree at the University of Durham, UK.But socially camouflaging and striving to appear as neurotypical to others led to ... Show More
29m 9s
May 2025
We Need More Embodied Education! A Conversation with Arawana Hayashi, Prof Guy Claxton, Dr Akhil K. Singh, Emily Poel and Caroline Williams
This week we're exploring embodiment science in education with some of the worlds leading embodiment practitioners and cognitive scientists! We believe that this is one of the most important shifts happening in education globally, which is simultaneously so simple, and yet so har ... Show More
1h 13m
Nov 2024
Lauren D. Olsen, "Curricular Injustice: How U.S. Medical Schools Reproduce Inequalities" (Columbia UP, 2024)
Medical schools have increasingly incorporated the humanities and social sciences into their teaching, seeking to make future physicians more empathetic and more concerned with equity. In practice, however, these good intentions have not translated into critical consciousness. Hu ... Show More
53m 10s