From heart-breaking to hilarious, The Story Collider is a live storytelling event featuring stories from people of all walks of life about how science has affected their lives. Whether you wear a lab coat or haven’t seen a test tube since grade school, science is shaping all our lives. Join us for an evening of true, personal stories about how science can sow conflict.

Hosted by Bart Thompson and Katherine J. Wu.

Madeline Carey learned to talk sometime in the early 90s and legend has it she has never shut up. She was born and raised in Lexington, KY and will fight you if you try to say that she’s not a Midwesterner. She has spent her career doing nearly every job in theater except acting, so please don’t ask. Following the great burnout that comes with both theater and graduate school she is happily living life in Boston with her dog and working as a nonprofit consultant.

Yvette Cho, a first-generation immigrant with roots in Korea and her heart in Southern California, currently calls Boston her home while she completes her Masters degree at Harvard. With a professional background in public health consulting and research, she's dedicated to reshaping the U.S. healthcare system for greater equity through her work in health policy. Yvette draws immense inspiration from her family of strong women, particularly her mother, who has instilled the values of self-determination into both her and her sister.

Judah Cohen is the Director of Seasonal Forecasting and Principal Scientist at Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER). Judah also has a Research Affiliate appointment in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of MIT. In addition to his research interests on the polar vortex, Arctic mid-latitude linkages, and weather extremes, Judah is leading AER’s development of seasonal forecast products and machine learning models for subseasonal (3-6 weeks) forecasts. Judah’s research on climate prediction is highlighted as breakthrough technology on the National Science Foundation website, and has been covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg, Time, and Newsweek, and has been featured on CNN, BBC and CBS News, among other news outlets. Judah served as a Fulbright Scholar in Ireland, and loves snow and skiing.

Javed Rezayee is an instructor of fiction, memoir, and film at GrubStreet writing center in Boston. He’s story producer of several documentary films including "Retrograde" for National Geographic that won three Emmys in 2023. Javed’s upcoming memoir is about growing up in Afghanistan where his father was a chef for American diplomats during the Cold War, and barely survived the Soviet invasion.

David Thomas has lived in Boston for 10 years, been doing standup for seven years, and been sober for four years. Once described as “the greatest living comedic mind” by himself and “not the Wendy’s guy” by Nicholas Stoller, David broke into the Boston standup scene by hosting a weekly show, Stand Up Break In, at The Riot Theater. David has performed at theaters, shows and colleges in New England, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Taking inspiration from comedians such as Eugene Mirman, Tig Notaro and Demetri Martin, David approaches performing the same way he thinks you oughta approach everything else: by being yourself.