LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!
On December 12th at 7:00 pm ET The Story Collider is hosting the ULTIMATE story slam showdown. All-Star storytellers from far and wide–all members of our Board of Directors– compete for the grand prize of being able to say they are the storytelling champion and to raise money for The Story Collider.
Donate to vote for your favorite storyteller (or storytellers) throughout the night and see who will emerge as the story slam winner! All proceeds from the night go to support The Story Collider’s programs.
Hosted by senior producer Paula Croxson.
Register for free and get ready for a night of amazing storytelling!
If you can’t join us on December 12 or don’t know who to vote for, please make a donation to Story Collider to support our work in 2024!
THE ALL-STAR LINEUP
Natalia Reagan is an anthropologist, primatologist, comedian, host, producer, podcaster, professor, writer, and monkey chasing weirdo. Her training was in a four-field approach to anthropology and she often examines topics through a bio-cultural lens. Natalia was a comedy writer and correspondent on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk, regular host of the StarTalk All-Stars podcast, a science correspondent on Thrillist’s Daily Hit, a science expert on History’s UnXplained, skeptic on Travel Channel’s Paranormal Caught on Camera, and she was the co-host on Spike TV’s 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty. Natalia was also a writer and host for Discovery’s DNews, Seeker, and TestTube as well as an animal expert on Nat Geo Wild’s Everything You Didn’t Know about Animals. For her master’s fieldwork, she conducted a survey of the Azuero spider monkey in rural Panama. She has also published chapters in the Wiley Encyclopedia of Primatology (including “The CopulatoryPostures of Nonhuman Primates”), ACS’s Hollywood Chemistry, and Congreso de Antropología Panameña. After grad school, Natalia began producing science comedy videos covering such titillating topics as the evolution of boobs, butts, balls, and Bigfoot. Her passion includes combining science and comedy to spread science literacy while inducing spit takes. She currently lives a pants-optional lifestyle in LA and produces science comedy content for herself and others.
Gastor Almonte is a stand-up comedian and storyteller from Brooklyn, NY. He's appeared on Comedy Central's This Is Not Happening, Risk! podcast and the Story Collider Podcast. Timeout magazine named him one of your "New Comedy Obsessions." He's been featured on the New York Comedy Festival, The People's Impov Theater's SoloCom and Cinderblock Comedy Festival. His new album, Immigrant Made, was released in March 2019. He is also a Senior Producer for The Story Collider.
Latasha Wright, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer of Biobus. She received her Ph.D. from NYU Langone Medical Center in cell and molecular biology. She continued her scientific training at Johns Hopkins University and Weill Cornell Medical Center. She has co-authored numerous publications, presented her work at international and national conferences. BioBus enables Latasha to share her love of science with a new generation of scientists. Latasha spearheaded the creation of the first BioBase community lab, the BioBus internship program, and our Harlem expansion. Everyday that Latasha spends teaching students about science in this transformative environment helps her remember that science is fun. She loves sharing the journey of discovery with students of all ages.
Eric Jankowski is an associate professor in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State University. He earned a PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan where he also got pretty into bicycles, storytelling, and playing go. Eric's research leverages high performance computing to engineer new materials for sustainable energy production.
Ken Haller is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. He serves on the boards of the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis, the Saint Louis University Library Associates, and the Gateway Media Literacy Project. He has also served on the board of the Missouri Foundation for Health and as President of the St. Louis Pediatric Society; the Missouri Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization; the Gateway Men’s Chorus, St. Louis’s gay men’s chorus: and GLMA, the national organization of LGBT health care professionals. He is a frequent spokesperson in local and national media on the health care needs of children and adolescents. Ken is also an accomplished actor, produced playwright, and acclaimed cabaret performer. In 2015 he was named Best St. Louis Cabaret Performer by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and he has taken his one-person shows to New York, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco. His special interests include cultural competency, health literacy, the relationship of medicine to the arts, the effects of media on children, and the special health needs of LGBT youth. His personal mission is Healing.
La Profe Ana Maria Porras is a biomedical engineering professor, communicator, and science artist. She leads the Tissue-Microbe Interactions lab at the University of Florida. Her group engineers models of disease to study human-microbe interactions in the context of the human gut microbiome, tropical infectious diseases, and global health. They also develop bilingual and artistic strategies to engage communities locally and globally. Over the past 5 years, Dr. Porras has been teaching microbiology using her own crocheted art. She is also the co-founder and Senior Advisor of the Latinx in Biomedical Engineering community. She was selected as an IF/THEN AAAS Ambassador for girls and women in STEM and was honored with a statue at the Smithsonian Institution within that program. Prior to arriving in Florida, Prof. Porras was a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University. She holds a B.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, where she was also an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow. She loves to read, dance, travel, craft, swim, and, above all, eat ice cream.