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When anxiety starts taking over her life, Jude Treder-Wolff signs up for an improv class, and counselor Belinda Arriaga and emergency medicine doctor Nancy Ewen join forces to get scientific evidence of the power of culturally responsive mental health care.
While housesitting for her uncle, JiJi Lee’s peaceful stay takes a chaotic turn when a squirrel breaks in, and when a serious mold infestation takes over the university campus, Joshua Wilson is tasked with eliminating it.
When science journalist Katherine Wu interviews a scientist about a new facial recognition algorithm, the conversation turns more personal than she expected, and Hurricane Katrina gives Mary Annaise Heglar a new perspective on both her grandfather and home state.
While juggling climate science studies and a budding comedy career, Rollie Williams finds an unexpected niche impersonating his environmental hero, Al Gore, and Scott Acton longs to follow in Hemingway’s footsteps, but when his English teacher squashes his writing dreams, he reluctantly accepts his role as “the computer guy.”
As someone who always likes to play it safe, psychologist Kenneth Carter sets out to understand what makes thrill-seekers tick, and philosophy professor Rob Reich is frustrated that so many new Stanford students are headed straight into computer science.
With a potential cancer diagnosis looming and his health insurance about to vanish, David Crabb finds an envelope stuffed with $100 bills, and when Zakiya Whatley bonds with another student in grad school, it feels like the start of a lifelong friendship – but turns out there's more to her new friend than she expected.
When a piece of her IUD breaks off, Bailey Swilley’s spirals about her choice never to have children, and Christel Bartelse takes an unconventional approach to figure out if she wants to be a mother or not.
Computer scientist LaShana Lewis’s childhood dream of attending Space Camp starts to feel far away — until she gets the Christmas surprise of a lifetime, and when Guizella Rocabado leaves her home in Bolivia to pursue her education in the United States, her plan hits an unexpected snag.
Feeling lonely after a move to New York City, Kofi Thomas finds connection, purpose, and community through a neighborhood garden, and As he fights to stay sober, Michael Hudgins throws himself into an unusual form of therapy: pulling invasive plants from a city park.
As his Parkinson’s symptoms worsen and medications take a toll, Brandan Mehaffie faces a life-altering decision: continue down a difficult path or undergo brain surgery to implant an electrode to stimulate deep areas of his brain, and after an accident leaves Ian Burkhart with complete tetraplegia, he grapples with losing his independence — until he’s offered a chance to participate in a groundbreaking clinical trial using muscle stimulation controlled by a brain implant to help restore movement.
In fourth grade, Ro Moran is thrilled to be trusted with the class pet iguana, Iggy, for the night. But by morning, something is very wrong, and as an exchange student studying superconducting oxides, Karoline Mueller tries to save money by gold-coating a cheap crucible instead of using a solid gold one.
Science educator Charlie Cook experiments with coming out to students, and marine biologist Shayle Matsuda adapts to his new identity as a transgender man while on assignment in the Philippines.
Carlos Maza uses the plague to analyze his brutal breakup, and Panagiota Vogdou refuses to see her boyfriend as toxic until a stranger on the bus tells her to go to therapy.
After years of struggling with their gender identity, Parker Sublette finds inspiration in marine life, and bullied as a kid for the sound of his voice, Garret Glinka begins to reclaim his confidence thanks to biology class.
When Lydia Greene’s infant daughter has a troubling reaction to a routine vaccine and her concerns are dismissed by a healthcare professional, she turns to an online parenting forum for answers, and after moving to a new town and feeling isolated, Sarah Ott looks for connection through talk radio and a local church—only to find herself pulled into a world of climate denial and conspiracy thinking.
Maryam Zaringhalam's scheme to cheat her way into the smart class makes clear a huge flaw in the education system, and on the first day of grad school for her PhD, a fellow student tells Bianca Jones Marlin that she doesn't really belong there.
Stuck in a monsoon on Kauai, Belinda Fu unintentionally ruins a friendship with a classmate, and Matt Storrs blames a dinosaur scientist’s theory for the end of his marriage.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer and opting for bilateral mastectomies, Jenna Dioguardi becomes beholden to her cancer to-do list, and as an 11-year-old kid, Luke Strathmann makes it his life mission to get rich off of Beanie Babies.
Rita Rigano always had a complicated relationship with her mother, and it becomes even more fraught when her mother’s dementia worsens, and in the midst of writing her PhD dissertation, Jordyn Rice embarks on one last road trip with her mother, who is dying of lung cancer.
Thomas Dixon and Rachel Robinson manage to build a friendship, despite not remembering the exact moments they shared.
After a car crash alters Emily Winn's life forever, she must relive the trauma when she testifies in a deposition, and geneticist C. Brandon Ogbunu contemplates the role race has played in his academic career after he is confronted by the police.
When teenage Ron Hart accidentally walks through a glass door, he lands in the ER on the worst possible day: a tornado drill, and after a car accident leaves all of her teeth bent inward, Di Cai begins to rethink her life as a scientist.
Determined to become an academic, Rajyashree Sen must take on a broken system to secure a spot in a PhD program in Vienna, and Josh Barber dreams of studying fish, but when his father goes to jail and his mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, he’s left to care for his nine younger siblings.
When Mark Pitzer gets splashed with methyl cyanide, he turns to his new girlfriend in hopes of comfort, and hoping to impress his scientist date, Adam Selbst plans the perfect outing: the Central Park Squirrel Census.
Climate scientist Kim Cobb is exploring a cave in Borneo when rocks begin to fall, and neurobiologist Lyl Tomlinson is startled when he's accused of stealing cocaine from his former lab.
After living with a stutter all her life, Sara Street thinks coding might be the solution to her communication problems, and electrical engineer Anna Fox longs to share her work with her family, but struggles with how to explain it.
Neuroscientist Lauren Vetere is excited to see if real life will mimic science at an interfaith event, and growing up as a devout Jew, Fred Gould’s relationship with God is shaken by existential philosophy and science.
As a teenager, Mark Pagan worries that having an old dad is affecting his social development, and curious about his DNA, Christopher Rivas takes his father on a journey to the Dominican Republic to learn about his family history.
While serving on a diversity panel, biologist Latasha Wright is asked if representation in STEM matters, prompting her to reflect on her experiences, and LFC’s childhood experiences with nature – and with bigotry – come together to inform her career in environmentalism.
Fangfang Ruose fears that her prosthetic legs will exclude her from becoming a fashion model, and when engineering student Devan Sandiford runs into an old friend from his former college, he desperately wants her to think he’s cool