Close Calls: Stories about near misses
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s episode, our storytellers face life-or-death moments they’ll never forget.
Part 1: On a trip to Colombia for a research conference, biologist Stephanie Galla must rely on her fight-or-flight instincts when she is cornered by a mugger with a knife.
Part 2: An ordinary day takes a shocking turn when Kim Weaver is struck by lightning.
Stephanie Galla is an Assistant Professor in avian biology at Boise State University. She is interested in interdisciplinary conservation efforts for species in decline, and in particular, how genomic technologies can inform management decisions. Using DNA, her research team explores whether birds (including grouse and raptors) have the adaptive capacity to be resilient in a changing world. Outside of her everyday work life, she enjoys bird watching, making art, taking care of her backyard chickens, and watching TV with her husband and cat.
Kim Weaver is a long-time storyteller and occasional guest host at Story Night in Bremerton, but she cut her storytelling chops as a high school math and engineering teacher. (No matter how much you heckle, you will not be as brutal as a room full of Algebra I students.) She has also told plenty of ocean tales as a Science Communication Fellow aboard the E/V Nautilus. Kim lives in Poulsbo, Washington where her primary role is meeting the demands of a high-maintenance corgi named Bird, but her actual job is providing STEM and EdTech support to teachers throughout the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.co. |
| 0:05.5 | That's audible.co.uk slash wondery. |
| 0:13.0 | A science story, huh? |
| 0:16.3 | Is NYU a scientist the... |
| 0:17.9 | I felt... |
| 0:18.9 | And I just thought, well, it was that golden moment. |
| 0:24.2 | Because science was on my side. |
| 0:35.1 | Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Story Clutter, where true personal stories about science help us explore just how weird, wonderful, and deeply human this world can be. |
| 0:44.0 | I'm your host, Mishayevsky, and happy October! |
| 0:47.0 | This month, we're going to be delving into the spooky, gory, and terrifying sides of science. |
| 0:51.9 | From near-death experiences to rotting carcasses, we're leaning |
| 0:56.0 | hard into the Halloween experience. Don't worry, you probably won't have nightmares. |
| 1:02.2 | Anyway, in today's episode, our storytellers come face to face with moments that could have gone |
| 1:07.0 | very, very wrong. Get ready for some life or death drama told with the benefit of |
| 1:13.3 | hindsight and a pulse. Our first story comes from Stephanie Gala. She's an assistant professor |
| 1:18.6 | in avian biology at Boise State University, and our story is recorded last year at Boise State. |
| 1:24.2 | Here's Stephanie. |
| 1:33.4 | Thank you. Boise State. Here's Stephanie. So I was 30 years old, and I was doing my PhD in Christchurch, New Zealand, studying avian |
| 1:39.4 | conservation genetics. I had this really awesome opportunity to go to South America, to go to |
| 1:45.1 | Cartagena, Columbia to present our team's research to an international audience. And as |
| 1:50.8 | someone who loves birds, the idea of going to South America was just so exciting because |
| 1:56.1 | there were all these new species of birds that I could see. The one that I was most excited about was a sword-billed hummingbird. |
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