The Story Collider is coming to ScienceWriters2015, and they want you as their next storyteller.
The Story Collider is a national show featuring true stories about science. They’ve recruited researchers and journalists around the world to appear live on stage, where they share their first-person experiences in science, medicine, and related areas—whether those experiences are poetic, tragic, funny, inspiring, horrifying, or all of the above. Their podcast has over one million downloads.
David Carmel, a cognitive neuroscientist who gave a Story Collider talk in 2012 about his father’s stroke, wrote in Nature: “The experience was incredibly cathartic, and having people come up to me afterwards and tell me how interesting and moving they found my story was as gratifying as any compliment I have ever received about my research.”
Today we’re thrilled to announce that as part of this year’s ScienceWriters2015 conference here in Cambridge, MA, meeting-goers will be able to enjoy a special ScienceWriters edition of The Story Collider at the Oberon Theater in Harvard Square (Monday, October 12, 2015).
And some of the people you see on stage may be your own colleagues. That’s because we here at Knight Science Journalism at MIT (the local organizers of ScienceWriters2015) are cooperating with the producers of The Story Collider to put out a call for volunteer storytellers.
If you’re feeling bold and you’d like explore the booming world of spoken-word performance, this could be your chance to put theory into practice. You’ll have plenty of help; the producers at The Story Collider will work with you personally to make your story great.
So if you’re planning to attend ScienceWriters2015 and you’d like a chance at telling your story on stage, send a short pitch to stories@storycollider.org with “ScienceWriters Pitch” in the subject.
The producers are looking for true stories about your personal experiences with science. Stories are not lectures—they have a beginning, middle, and end, in which the storyteller goes through a change. Stories are typically 8-10 minutes long and can be about anything from how you first fell in love with science to how your work has affected your personal life to challenges you’ve faced in your work to something else completely different.
For examples of great stories browse the Story Collider archive at storycollider.org/podcast. The deadline for pitches is September 4.
Your stories will make this show worthwhile, and we can’t wait to hear them.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on sciencewriters2015.org this summer for more information about the conference agenda, this year’s workshops and New Horizons speakers, and the panoply of trips, tours, and parties we’re organizing.
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