The Story Collider

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers uncover cracks in the education system that prove harder to ignore than they expected.
Part 1: While teaching a summer school math class in Texas, Justine Ang Fonte realizes that many of her students have never received even the most basic sex education.
Part 2: Guilherme Lichand uncovers a flaw in Brazil’s education system that leaves thousands of children with invisible disabilities unidentified and unsupported.
Justine Ang Fonte, M.Ed, MPH is the child of Philippine immigrants and an award-winning sex educator, international keynote speaker, and professor based in New York City. She received her Master’s in Education in Teaching from the University of Hawai’i and her Master’s in Public Health in Sexuality from Columbia University. She has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, Glamour, and the BBC and Hulu docuseries, Planet Sex. Justine is the author and voice of the Audible Original, How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex and is the co-editor of the award-winning book, Fundamental Concepts and Critical Developments in Sex Education.
Guilherme is proudly Brazilian. His research focuses on the sources of educational inequities in the global South and on solutions with the potential to overturn them. He is co-director at the Stanford Lemann Center and a faculty affiliate at the Stanford King Center on Global Development and at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. He holds a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. He was previously the UNICEF Professor of Child Well-being and Development at the University of Zurich. Guilherme is also a co-founder of Brazilian EdTech Movva, a student success management system supporting vulnerable students graduate college. He was acknowledged by the Schwab Foundation as top-10 Brazilian social entrepreneur in 2020 (post-Covid legacy) and by MIT Technology Review as the top under-35 Brazilian innovator in 2014. His research has been published in numerous scientific journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and Nature Human Behavior, and campaigns featuring his work won multiple awards, including two lions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
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In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers explore the challenges, opportunities, and unexpected lessons they encountered as immigrant scientists in the United States.
Part 1: Michelle Lanuza has her sights set on a career designing communication systems for airplanes, yet each new opportunity comes with the same obstacle: her immigration status.
Part 2: For Saba Banaian, the opportunity to study biomedical engineering in the United States comes with a painful cost: she can't return home to Iran for five years.
Michelle Lanuza is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State, originally from Guatemala. Growing up surrounded by breathtaking landscapes, she developed a love for nature, often spending my free time hiking volcanoes and backpacking. She enjoys reading, playing the piano, cooking with friends, and watching and playing soccer. Michelle’s passion for understanding how machines work and solving problems began in high school, inspiring her to pursue a career in engineering and, ultimately, to continue her studies in materials science.
Saba Banaian, 25 years old, from Iran. She is a Ph.D. student at Boise State University and a professional violinist with the Boise State Symphony Orchestra. It has been a year since she moved to the United States to continue her graduate studies in biomedical engineering.
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This week, we're re-airing two classic stories about finding friends. Science can be a lonely job -- but it can also connect us to others in ways we'd never imagine.
Part 1: Feeling isolated in her new job as a particle accelerator operator at Fermilab, Cindy Joe finds comfort in the friendship of her unconventional pet.
Part 2: Patrick Honner starts to doubt his lifelong love of math when graduate school becomes a lonely experience.
Cindy Joe is an engineering physicist working with several of Fermilab’s experiments studying neutrinos, tiny particles that might hold the answers to some of the universe’s biggest mysteries. A first-generation college student, she grew up dreaming big in the back of her family’s Chinese restaurant in a small town in Arkansas. While obtaining her bachelor’s degree in physics, she also became a licensed senior reactor operator at Reed College’s nuclear research reactor. She then moved to even bigger machines, working as a particle accelerator operator in Fermilab’s Main Control Room for seven years. Cindy is deeply passionate about science outreach, and has spoken to audiences from elementary school to members of Congress. A 2-time presenter at Fermilab’s Physics Slam and a contributor to PechaKucha Night Batavia, she currently lectures in Fermilab’s Saturday Morning Physics program for high school students.
Patrick Honner is an award-winning mathematics teacher who lives in Brooklyn, New York. He has taught everything from introductory algebra to multivariable calculus, and currently teaches calculus, linear algebra, and mathematical computing at Brooklyn Technical High School, where he also serves as instructional coach. Patrick is in his fourth Math for America Master Teacher Fellowship; he is a New York State Master Teacher; a Sloan award winner; and a Rosenthal Prize honoree. And in 2013 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Patrick writes about math and teaching for Quanta Magazine, the New York Times, and on his blog.
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In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share the unconventional paths that led them into science journalism.
Part 1: Keren Landman always wanted to be a writer, but her family didn’t see it as a practical career — so instead, she went to medical school.
Part 2: When Adithi Ramakrishnan gets to college, she only sees two career paths ahead of her: medical school or scientific research.
Keren Landman, M.D., is an independent health reporter and author of the newsletter Landmansplained. Her freelance writing has appeared in a range of publications, including The Guardian, The Atlantic, National Geographic, NPR, and the New York Times, and she has also worked as a staff reporter at Vox. She is trained as an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist, with experience serving as a disease detective at the CDC and conducting HIV and malaria research in resource-poor countries.
Adithi Ramakrishnan is a science reporter with The Associated Press and covers space, dinosaurs and the occasional tadpole. She told this story while she was a science reporting fellow with The Dallas Morning News where she wrote about solar eclipses, sweltering Texas summers and the science of spicy food. Adithi has a degree in neuroscience from The College of William and Mary and was a 2021 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC.
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What does it actually mean to “be a man”? In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers grapple with masculinity and are forced to confront what manhood means to them.
Part 1: As a teenager, Mike McFadden realizes one part of his body isn’t developing like the other boys his age.
Part 2: Ricky Ortiz believed that to be a good husband, father, and provider, he could never show weakness.
Mike McFadden works in the television industry, based out of NYC. He is also indie arts producer intersecting storytelling, clown, and film.
Ricky Ortiz is a founder, husband, father, and avid storyteller. As a firm believer in the significance and the power of vulnerable stories, Ricky aims to speak to the heart and build connection with others to help them think deeply about what they believe, why it matters, and how it impacts the world around them.
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