From a journalism teacher donating her kidney to a total stranger to a middle school teacher traveling to Africa to study human fossils, people shared their stories in front of a live audience about how science has affected their lives.
The Story Collider science and storytelling event made its way to Dallas’ Wild Detectives on Nov. 6 for the second time this year. The event featured five storytellers from different backgrounds. Since launching in 2010, Story Collider events have been held around the nation and even abroad.
The Dallas Morning News’ science writer, Anna Kuchment, and Dallas-based television producer Aparna Kumar were the hosts, sharing anecdotes between speakers.
A wide range of speakers made the packed bar and coffeehouse laugh and cry with their stories. The featured speakers were Amanda Masino, an associate professor of biology at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin; John Mead, who teaches science with a specific interest in evolution at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas; Leah Waters, a multiplatform editor at The Dallas Morning News and a high school journalism educator; Ellen Fultz, who works in sales and marketing and is also a comedian; and Myria Perez, a Southern Methodist University graduate who has been fascinated by dinosaurs since she was a child.
Starting the night off was Masino, who talked about a time during her graduate studies when she was working with radioactivity and accidentally exposed part of her skin to it. After calling campus safety officials to help her clean up, she was cleared, but she couldn’t shake her worries. She began to check, clean and recheck herself over and over again for weeks. After several quizzes and visits to her therapist, she was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Following Masino was Mead, who made it clear that he has a fond appreciation for learning about evolution. The middle school teacher talked about various experiences he’s had as a teacher of evolution in Texas and the struggles that have come with it. It wasn’t until 2012 that he connected with Lee Rogers Berger, a well-known paleoanthropologist. After a visit to St. Mark’s School, Berger invited Mead to South Africa the following summer, where the duo spent two weeks handling fossils that were up to 2 million years old. A few years later in 2015, new fossil discoveries were made, and Mead was invited back to South Africa, but this time to interview the anthropologists involved with the discovery of the new fossils.
Waters gave a detailed account about the time she decided to donate one of her kidneys to a high school student named Neelam. She didn’t know anything about her future kidney recipient except that she was well-known in the high school journalism world. After practically saving the girl’s life, being released from the hospital and getting cleared to return to work, Waters struggled with anxiety and depression — much like she had when she was younger. Little did she know that Neelam had similar struggles, but also struggles of her own.
“Vulnerability is gross. I can’t think of anything worse than crying about something,” Fultz said, starting off her story about the Christamases she spent visiting her grandparents and spending time with her cousins. While Fultz said she hates emotions, she admitted that smells get to her — smells associated with people and memories. A belated Christmas gift she received from her mother was a quilt her late grandmother had made. The quilt smelled of Christmas, reminding her of playing with her cousins and other nostalgic moments.
Perez ended the storytelling event with a little bit of fossil fever, as she put it. Learning about dinosaurs and studying these creatures was a dream turned reality when she attended SMU. Things took a dark turn when she found herself in a toxic relationship her sophomore year. She found comfort in working with fossils, which were later featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
She eventually broke out of the toxic relationship.
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If you’re interested in learning more about The Story Collider, you can find a list of upcoming shows and listen to its podcast at www.storycollider.org.