For 15 years, The Story Collider has been bringing true, personal stories about science to audiences around the world—and now, we’re celebrating in style! Join us on June 3, 2025, at Caveat in New York City for a special anniversary celebration and fundraiser featuring an unforgettable lineup: the storytellers you voted as your all-time favorites.
This one-night-only event will bring together some of the most powerful, hilarious, and moving stories from our 15-year history, told by the performers who made them unforgettable, and will be hosted by Story Collider co-founders Ben Lillie and Erin Barker. Whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or just discovered Story Collider, this is a night you won’t want to miss.
Come raise a glass with us, relive some of the best moments in Story Collider history, and help support the future of science storytelling.
Can’t make it? Donate here!
Storytellers:
Bianca Jones Marlin is a neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard Axel, where she investigates transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, or how traumatic experiences in parents affect the brain structure of their offspring. She holds a PhD in neuroscience from New York University, and dual bachelor degrees from St. John’s University, in biology and adolescent education. As a graduate student, her research focused on the vital bond between parent and child, and studied the use of neurochemicals, such as the “love drug” oxytocin, as a treatment to strengthen fragile and broken parent-child relationships. Dr. Marlin’s research has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Scientific American, and Discover Magazine’s “100 Top Stories of 2015.” Dr. Marlin aims to utilize neurobiology and the science of learning to better inform both the scientific and educational community on how positive experiences dictate brain health, academic performance, and social well being.
Devon Kodzis has been called a joyful bumblebee. Professionally they have had job titles as an educator, journalist, animal trainer, nanny, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Their passions include reading about food, and shouting at the television with their cats. They want to go on a walk and talk about animal behavior. They apologize a lot, and are sorry for that.
Devon began storytelling at Dallas Comedy House in the fall of 2016. They have been teaching storytelling and comedy workshops since 2017, and have taught students living on every continent except for Antarctica.
Brooklyn, New York born award-winning storyteller, director and interviewer Jameer Pond has spent his whole life walking in his passion; engaging with people through diverse storytelling. Throughout his career, he’s created viral series such as Buzzfeed’s Black People Try, co-hosted BET’s first morning talk show Black Coffee, directed several cover videos across Condé Nast’s array of publications, including Sir Lewis Hamilton and Simone Biles, and has won a Shorty Award. You can currently catch him traveling the world, telling his dynamic stories with The Moth.
Maryam Zaringhalam is a molecular biologist by training who traded in her pipettes for the world of science policy and advocacy. She’s on a mission to make science more open and inclusive through her work both as a science communicator and policymaker. She’s a Senior Producer for the Story Collider in DC and previously served as the Assistant Director for Public Access and Research Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2023 to 2024. She has a cat named Tesla, named after the scientist and not the car. You can learn more about her at https://webmz.nyc.
Joe Normandin earned a B.A. in Biology with a Specialization in Neuroscience from Boston University, where he worked as an undergraduate research assistant in labs studying the behavioral genetics of sexual orientation in people and female sexual behavior in a rat model. He earned a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences - Neurobiology and Behavior from Georgia State University, where he explored how the brain regulates sexual reflexes. He found evidence of a brain circuit that provides an anatomical/functional basis for the oft-reported side effects of delayed orgasm in those taking antidepressants. He is now a Principal Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University. Dr. Normandin values the wonderful public education and support he received as a young gay man growing up in Massachusetts. Even with that education and support, he struggled with his identity as a gay person. In high school, a psychology class introduced him to neuroscience, which led to a search for research that he thought would validate his sexual orientation. This search set him on a path towards becoming a neuroscientist, and ultimately led to questions he explores in the classroom: Are people born gay? Does it matter? Dr. Normandin is also an avid gamer and has saved the universe many times.
Thank you to our host committee
Latasha Wright, Ana Maria Porras, Barbara Lom, Dawn Fraser, Sandy Mitchell, Ken Haller, Eric Jankowski, Leslie & Andy Schultz, Krishna Pakala, Louis Jennings, Ross Heinemeyer, Erin Barker, Genre: Urban Arts, Doug Barker, Gastor Almonte, Fred Lonsdale & Paula Croxson.