Human Nature: Stories of Resilience
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2021
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s installment of our Human Nature series, two storytellers find resilience on the high seas.
Part 1: Tragedy strikes suddenly while Lindsay Cooper is in the field studying right whales.
Part 2: Rachel Cassandra dreams of a life on the sea, but her captain makes unwelcome advances.
Lindsay Cooper is an operations professional who started out as a whale biologist. She spent years following endangered North Atlantic right whales up and down the U.S. east coast. Now she takes her three kids to visit the Smithsonian’s Sant Ocean Hall in DC, where they can view one of her photographs in the right whale exhibit. She will always have a deep passion for conservation science and science outreach. Lindsay loves working behind the scenes to help Story Collider manage day -to-day operations. Besides hanging out with her kids, Lindsay takes time to volunteer for the local swim team and elementary school PTA. She loves coffee, pajamas, and dancing, and once a year you can find her performing with the famous Olney, MD Hip Hop Mamas.
Rachel Cassandra is a journalist and essayist, working in print and radio. She lives with her snake, Squeeze, in Oakland, California. You can find her work at RachelCassandra.net. This story was adapted from a piece that Rachel wrote for Narratively, here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A science story, huh? |
| 0:04.0 | Is NYU a scientist? |
| 0:06.0 | I felt. |
| 0:07.0 | I felt. |
| 0:08.0 | I was so unhappy. |
| 0:09.0 | I figured it out. |
| 0:10.0 | It was that golden moment. |
| 0:13.0 | Because science was on my side. |
| 0:15.0 | Hey, everybody. Hey everybody, welcome to the Story Collider, where we bring you true personal stories about science. |
| 0:30.0 | I'm your host, Aaron Barker, and today we're bringing you the latest installment of our human nature series, |
| 0:35.6 | which is about our experiences with the natural world and how they shape us. This week, both of our human nature series, which is about our experiences with the natural world |
| 0:38.0 | and how they shape us. This week, both of our storytellers found strength and resilience on the |
| 0:43.5 | high seas. Our first story today is from the Storycliter's own Lindsay Cooper. It was recorded last |
| 0:49.9 | month at her home in Maryland. |
| 1:06.0 | I climb into the smallest airplane I've ever seen. |
| 1:14.6 | Three scientists and a pilot that I can just reach up and touch the shoulder of. I am 22 and I am so excited. |
| 1:22.9 | I can't believe I get to do this job. I have wanted to study whales since I can remember, since I recorded PBS nature shows on blank VHS tapes. And now I actually get to do it. And I've done my research. |
| 1:30.9 | I know that North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered, that they come to the Florida |
| 1:36.9 | and Georgia coasts to have babies and that they're vulnerable to things like fishing lines and ship |
| 1:41.9 | strikes. And I'm here to participate in the early warning system, |
| 1:47.5 | a network of organizations and scientists and airplanes that fly this part of the coastline |
| 1:53.2 | in order to warn ships that whales are in the area to help them avoid collision and also to |
... |
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