Expectations: Stories about surprising discoveries
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 7 September 2018
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we're presenting stories about what happens when our expectations don't match up with reality.
Part 1: Married neuroscientists Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik are surprised by what they learn when they investigate deception at a psychic convention.
Part 2: While working in the South Sudan, OB-GYN Africa Stewart must wait for an elder's permission before treating a pregnant woman gored by a bull.
Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik are award-winning neuroscientists and professors at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. They are best known for their studies on perception, illusions, and attentional misdirection in stage magic. They produce the annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest, now in its 13th edition, and are the authors of the international bestseller Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions. Their new book, Champions of Illusion: The Science Behind Mind-Boggling Images and Mystifying Brain Puzzles, comes out October 24th.
Dr. Africa Stewart graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins University in 1995 with a BA in psychology and mathematical science. She then attended Drexel University Medical School in Philadelphia. In 1999 she completed a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Strategic Planning from the University of Pittsburgh's Katz School of Business. She then returned to Philadelphia to finish her medical training at Drexel. In 2000 she received a Doctorate in Medicine and began Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Hahnemann University Hospital. Her career with MSF began in Sudan in June 2011. Dr. Stewart has completed 4 surgical field missions and served as a guide for the Forced From Home exhibit in 2016. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Doctors Without Borders and continues to support women’s health care locally and abroad with and emphasis on education and prevention.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A science story, huh? |
| 0:04.8 | Is NYU scientist the... |
| 0:06.6 | I felt... |
| 0:07.4 | I felt. I was so... |
| 0:08.7 | And I just thought, well... |
| 0:09.6 | It was that golden moment. |
| 0:12.8 | Because science was on my side. |
| 0:28.1 | Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Story Collider, where we bring you true personal stories about science. |
| 0:36.5 | I am your host, Erin Barker, and this week we're presenting stories about what happens when our expectations don't match up with our reality. |
| 0:42.2 | Story Cliders big travel season begins this week, and I'm about to set off on my first trip of the fall to hold one of our workshops in British Columbia. |
| 0:45.7 | The last time I was in British Columbia for a workshop at the University of British Columbia |
| 0:50.5 | last December, we were just wrapping up a really long day, and I was headed back |
| 0:55.7 | to my Airbnb for a relaxing eight hours of additional work. And one of the scientists |
| 1:01.9 | participating, Andrew Tritus, goes, so do you want to see our blue whale before you go? And I'm like, |
| 1:09.3 | Andrew, that sounds really great, but I don't have time to go to the |
| 1:12.4 | ocean and get in a boat and go see some blue whales. And he's like, no, it's actually just in the |
| 1:17.3 | building next door. And I have no idea what he's talking about. Because as I'm sure many of you |
| 1:23.1 | are aware, the blue whale is like the largest animal to ever have existed. You don't just keep them |
| 1:29.4 | in fish tanks in one of your university buildings. So I'm like, okay, whatever, you're the |
| 1:34.5 | scientist, dude. It's probably going to be like a model he made or something, is what I'm thinking. |
| 1:40.4 | And then he takes us next door to this building called Beatty Biodiversity Museum and holy shit everybody |
| 1:47.2 | there's a massive blue whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling it's like 85 feet long and it's one of |
... |
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