---
title: "The Story Collider"
chunk: 1/1
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_Collider"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:17:22.289777+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

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.


== 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.
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.


=== 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. In 2017, the podcast was included in Salon's "13 Science Podcasts for Short Attention Spans"; Business Insider's "Best Science Podcasts That Make You Smarter"; Popular Science's "The Best Science Podcasts to Make You Smarter"; The Scientist's 11 Best Science Podcasts; and Audible Feast's "Best Podcast Episodes of 2017." In 2019, The Washington Post called the stories, "devastating, delightful, and endlessly listenable." 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.


=== 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. 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.


== Storytellers ==
As of Spring 2018, more than a thousand stories have been told at The Story Collider. Notable storytellers include:


=== Comedians and actors ===
Wyatt Cenac, comedian, actor, writer, director
Aparna Nancherla, comedian, actress
Josh Gondelman, comedian, writer for HBO's Last Week Tonight
Jo Firestone, actress, comedian, writer
Hallie Haglund, comedian, writer for The Daily Show and head writer for Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas
Myq Kaplan, comedian
Mara Wilson, writer, actress
Elna Baker, writer, performer
Ophira Eisenberg, comedian and host of NPR's Ask Me Another
Dave Hill, comedian, radio host, writer, musician, actor


=== Journalists and media ===
Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday
Jon Ronson, author
Carl Zimmer, author
Ed Yong, author
Joe Palca, journalist
David Epstein, author
Deborah Blum, author
Susannah Cahalan, author
Seth Mnookin, author
Andrew Revkin, journalist
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, authors
Amy Harmon, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Emily Grossman, endocrinologist, British science TV personality
Arielle Duhaime-Ross, podcast host
Ari Daniel Shapiro, journalist


=== Scientists and mathematicians ===
Sara Seager, astronomer, planetary scientist
Jo Handelsman, microbiologist and former associate director for science under President Obama
Alan Guth, physicist
Ken Ono, mathematician
Moon Duchin, mathematician
Margaret Geller, astrophysicist
Scott Barry Kaufman, psychologist
Alan Lightman, physicist, author
Esther Perel, psychologist, author
Stuart Firestein, neurobiologist, author
Sean Carroll, cosmologist, author
Raychelle Burks, analytical chemist
Frances Colón, science diplomat and former Deputy Science & Technology Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State


== References ==


== External links ==
Official website
The Story Collider, on SoundCloud
Andrew, Revkin (31 January 2012). "Story Collider: Where Science is a Story Well Told". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
Locker, Melissa. "Listen to this: Story Collider reveals the human stories behind the science". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
Hough, Susan. "A Seismologist's Guide to Storytelling". Before the Abstract. Springer Nature. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
TEDMED (24 June 2013). "TEDMED: The importance of storytelling in science". YouTube. Retrieved 17 May 2018.