The Story Collider LIVE: An Evening of True, Personal Stories About Science

Join us on December 7 for a special partnership with The Story Collider. It’ll be a night of hilarious, heartbreaking, and heartwarming stories about science. Whether you haven’t touched a test tube since high school or have a closet full of lab coats, this is for you.

Most widely known for a weekly podcast that The Washington Post has called “delightful, devastating, and endlessly listenable,” The Story Collider brings together scientists, performers, and everyone in between to share true, personal stories about how science has impacted their lives.

Hosted by Bryan Kett (he/him) and Leslie Berntsen (she/her). Stories by science communicator/educator Shein Ei Cho (she/her), writer/performer David Crabb (he/him), storyteller Kevin McGeehan (he/him), and NASA Project Data Systems Engineer Sirina Nabhan (she/her).

In partnership with:

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The Story Collider

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HOSTS

BRYAN KETT (he/him)

Bryan Kett is a former high school science teacher from outside of Chicago. He got tired of telling his students not to drink the chemicals in chemistry lab, so he began taking writing classes at Chicago’s famed Second City, which led to him earning his master’s degree in Creative Writing from DePaul University.

Bryan serves as Producer for The Story Collider and instructor for The Story Studio. His work, which blends science, humor, and personal narrative, has been featured on various NPR stations, Rainn Wilson’s SoulPancake, TED.com, RISK!, and The Moth Podcast. He is still an advocate for not drinking chemicals in chemistry lab.

LESLIE BERNTSEN (she/her)

As The Story Collider’s inaugural Director of Education and Research, Leslie oversees our workshop programming, trains and supervises our team of instructors, and fosters interdisciplinary research collaborations focused on the impact of personal narratives. In her former life as a college professor, she specialized in inclusive pedagogy and teaching for social justice and garnered four national teaching awards from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Leslie holds a Ph.D in Psychology (with concentrations in Brain & Cognitive Science and Social Psychology), and her writing has been published in the Chronicle of Higher Education and The Huffington Post. She is also the doting human to two (flawless) rehabilitated street pups and a long-suffering fan of the New York Mets.

TELLERS

Shein Ei Cho (she/her) is a science communicator, educator and two-time winner of Story Collider’s Science Story Slam. She holds a Masters degree in Biology from Stanford University and currently works in scholarly communication to make science accessible and equitable. Originally from Myanmar, she grew up writing silly rhymes for her friends. Her poetry career peaked when she wrote her first poem in English: “An Ode to Potatoes”. In her free time, she can be found in local improv jams and in the kitchen making a mess.

David Crabb (he/him) is a writer, performer & storyteller from San Antonio, Texas, where he spent his teenage years as a gay Goth, which was just as much fun as it sounds. David is a member of the Groundlings Main Company and the host of Risk! at Lyric Hyperion in LA. He's the creator of the solo show “Bad Kid” (New York Times Critics’ Pick) and writer of the memoir “Bad Kid" (Harper Perennial). David has performed solo works in LA, Australia, Scotland, Texas & NYC and his storytelling has been featured on NPR, BuzzFeed & The Moth. You can currently hear him playing multiple weirdos on Wondery’s "This Job is History" with Chris Parnell.

Kevin McGeehan (he/him) is an award-winning storyteller, including 8 Moth StorySlams and the 2019 New York GrandSlam Championship. He worked as an actor, writer, and teacher for Chicago’s famed Second City theater for over 20 years. His autobiographical stories can be heard on The Moth Radio Hour and the RISK podcast, as well as read in Men’s Health magazine and The Moth’s 20th Anniversary book, All These Wonders.

Sirina Nabhan (she/her) is a Project Data Systems Engineer for the Deep Space Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where her team processes the data that helps spacecraft communicate with Mission Control back on Earth. She has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Riverside, where she served as the President of the campus chapter of the Society for Women Engineers. Sirina is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Space Systems at Johns Hopkins University and also serves as the Professional Development Chair of JPL’s Advisory Council for Women to help foster equity in space exploration through outreach and social events.

ACCOMMODATIONS

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