#storycollider

[edswisconsin-blog]

Thank you @storycollider for the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and work with some other AMAZING individuals to share our stories and hopefully help others. @genesisrenji thank YOU for spending so much time with me developing my story. Your encouragement and patience meant a lot to me. You are a true leader and professional! #Autism #science #researchers #storycollider #GenesisRenjii #nakitaroberts #thankyou https://www.instagram.com/p/BymcsXKAvAP/?igshid=bzcwcohsbw5s

[longcoolwoman]

SUPER EXCITED to announce the lineup fo the May 16th Los Angeles @storycollider show! Join us for 5 true, personal stories about changing the conversation in science from Beth Pratt, Kim Evey, Erika Hamden, Xander Jeanneret and Aaron Yazzie! Hosted by me and @josephscrimshaw! Copy and paste this link for tix and show info - bit.ly/2X20Nm7 . . . . . #storycollider #science #stem #changingtheconversation #womeninstem #p22 #relicsandrarities #storytelling #livestorytelling #storyteller #storytellers #astrophysics #jpl #gamer #nwf #nasa #insight #marsrover #nasainsight #wildlife https://www.instagram.com/audreykearns_/p/BwDVgqQgJN_/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=rv5xtjv0krl3

[longcoolwoman]

Last night I hosted a very incredible @StoryCollider w/ @JosephScrimshaw. Our storytellers just killed it! Each brought their uniqueness and their own truth to the show. We laughed, we cried. Thanks @davidnett @msnadiaosman @volcano.jess @visiongene for bringing it! I shared a story too and it was an amazing experience! Yay for Story Collider audiences! . . . . . #storycollider #science #storytelling #storytellers #livestorytelling #storycolliderla #stem #womeninstem #volcanologist #lepidopterist  #comedian #hosting #scicomm #truestory #truestories #podcast #losangeles #la #livestory #volcano #butterfly https://www.instagram.com/p/BuNMEnbgjhi/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=r5pau5za1u5t

[longcoolwoman]

The first LA @storycollider of the year will be February 21st! I'm so excited to be back with @josephscrimshaw to produce and host! I'm even throwing my storyteller hat in for this show and will be sharing a true, super personal story about science! I'd love to see your faces for support!! Plus, this line-up is phenomenal! . Copy and paste this link for ticket information! bit.ly/2QS2Yoy . . #storytellers #storytime #storytelling #livestorytelling #storycollider #science #stem #womeninstem #volcano #comedy #trials #scicomm #lyrichyperion #gga https://www.instagram.com/p/BsrTXrag8wa/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2278ebpuwxwk

[longcoolwoman]

Amazing folks sharing amazing stories at @storycollider LA. These 5 storytellers gave a little piece of themselves last night and the folks in that audience are now the better for it. Thanks @astvintagespace @alizapearl @joshflaum @rmalena @evildorina. Myself and @josephscrimshaw are incredibly lucky to produce this show in LA! . . . #storytellers #storytelling #storycollider #losangeles #la #science #lyrichyperion @lyrichyperion #truestory #podcast #livestory https://www.instagram.com/p/BrGUN5knzP0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1x584tqh6wlhm

[erinbarkerstories]

Security

Every time I travel, I always put my Zoom recorder in my carry-on because I live in terror that the airline will lose my luggage and the show recording will be gone forever. Because this recorder essentially looks like a high-tech explosive device, I’ve learned it’s best to take it out of my bag when going through security and open it up, to prevent my bag being pulled for inspection.

Today, in Boise:

TSA guy, spotting the recorder: Whoa! What the heck is that?

Me: It’s a recorder. (Not a bomb!)

TSA guy: Oh! Do you do podcasts?

Me: Yeah.

TSA guy: Are you one of those murder girls?

Me: No, sorry.

TSA guy: Oh that’s too bad. My sister listens to them like every day.

Me: Me too.

Side note: This airport has an unusual number of reminders not to bring guns on planes.

[erinbarkerstories]

Story Collider visits Saturna Island

On Wednesday night, around 10 pm, I arrived on Saturna Island, where MEOPAR (Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response) had invited Story Collider to lead a workshop for marine scientists. Story Collider’s Vancouver-based producer, Kayla Glynn, and I had taken the last ferry of the day from the mainland. Pictured here: Your jetlagged hero departing from Victoria’s Swartz Bay ferry terminal after a very long day of travel.

(Until I took this photo I had thought maybe I looked unusually good today because people had been super nice to me for no good reason. But after this, I realized it was just that I was in Canada.)

A gentleman from a local conservation organization picked us up at the dark, quiet dock when we arrived. Saturna Island has a population of only about 350 people -- significantly less than the population of the block I live on in New York City -- and because of the cover from the dense trees and mountains, it feels like even less. He nodded toward a nearby empty police car and said, “There aren’t any police on this island -- they just leave that car here to let us know they’re keeping an eye on things.”

There aren’t any schools or hospitals either, he told us. The few students on Saturna take a water taxi to a school on another island. If you have a medical emergency, you have to be helicoptered to the mainland. I made a mental note to try not to break my neck over the course of the next 36 hours.

There were many “firsts” for me for this workshop. First time conducting a workshop on an island (other than, you know, Manhattan and England, which don’t really count, I think). First time taking a ferry to a workshop location. This was also the first time I’d ever stayed in someone’s home, rather than a hotel, while conducting a Story Collider workshop. I definitely wasn’t complaining, in part because this was the view I woke up to:

The next morning, we were picked up on a tiny bus, which went around to the other homes where workshop participants were staying. I was incredibly jealous of the two who were staying in a home with two corgi dogs. Their names were Maggie and Ruff Ruff (the corgis, not the workshoppers), and frankly, I’m still not over it. They sat at the gate and saw the workshoppers off, like parents seeing their kids onto the school bus. (I’m so incredibly sorry that a photo of this event is not available. Please forgive me. I hope I have painted an adequate picture with my words.)

The group from MEOPAR was incredible, and another big reminder to me of how the stereotype of scientists as nerdy “indoor kids” couldn’t be further from the truth. (Well, except for maybe physicists...) Conservation scientists are the closest modern-day, real-life analog to Indiana Jones in my opinion. Except with better sweaters.

Another first -- this was the first time (to my knowledge) that we had a couple in the workshop together. Justine Ammendolia and her partner, Jackie Saturno, work in ocean conservation together in Newfoundland, investigating plastic and other trash that washes ashore. I asked what it was like to work together as a couple, and they told me that, unlike other couples that go to the movies and stuff like that, they mainly spend their time together cutting open fish. I suggested that if one of them ever proposes, they should put the ring inside a fish. I feel like they took it under advisement.

That night, after the workshop, they took us all out to East Point to watch fruitlessly for whales that sadly never came. However, I think you will agree the view, pictured below with my esteemed associate Kayla looking on, was worth it anyway.

Lauren McWhinnie, a Scottish postdoc at the University of Victoria working with MEOPAR, pictured below, told us all about the MIA orcas as the sun set. The first captive orca, Moby Doll, was captured off Saturna Island in 1964. The Vancouver Aquarium had commissioned a sculptor to kill an orca and build a model of it for display, but when he harpooned the whale, it survived. So they towed him back to Vancouver instead, as a living model, his family trailing behind. In case you’re wondering, yes, I also find this incredibly depressing.

But I sleep better at night knowing how much our knowledge of orcas has expanded since then -- and knowing that scientists like Lauren and the rest of the folks at MEOPAR are hard at work protecting them.

[erinbarkerstories]

Fall Travel Season Begins

Today begins the onslaught that is Story Collider’s fall travel season! (For those of you that don’t know, The Story Collider is a podcast and live show featuring stories about science, and I am its artistic director. Find out more here: storycollider.org.)  In fact, as we speak, I am 35,000 feet in the air. 

Between today and and the holidays, we will be holding workshops and more than twenty shows in our regular Home Stage cities of New York, Boston, DC, LA, Atlanta, St. Louis, Vancouver, Toronto, and Wellington, but also in:

Saturna Island, British Columbia

Wilmington, Delaware

Bar Harbor, Maine*

Ocean City, New Jersey (our first ever producers’ retreat!)

Hartford, Connecticut

San Antonio, Texas

Ames, Iowa*

Manchester, UK

Cambridge, UK

Berlin, Germany

Charleston, West Virginia

Boise, Idaho

And more!

Over the course of the season (I’ll be present for most of the above, aside from those starred), I’ll be documenting our travel and work behind the scenes here, to give you a sense of some of the amazing stories behind the stories. And also to challenge myself to write every day, something that I’ve been inspired to do by my friend, the great writer and storyteller Matthew Dicks. (So please direct your complaints to him, thanks.)

I also want to note that at the close of this travel season, I’ll be donating my air miles to Miles4Migrants, an organization that accepts donations of frequent flyer miles to help reunify families.

More soon, as I arrive on Saturna Island tonight!