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The Story Collider

Obsession: Stories about scientific fixations

The Story Collider

Story Collider, Inc.

Arts, Science, Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Performing Arts

4.4824 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Science has a way of inspiring obsession. In this week’s episode, both our storytellers spiral deep into a personal all-consuming preoccupation.

Part 1: Curtis Chou becomes dogmatic in his quest to correct a person’s incorrect fact on the internet.

Part 2: Richard Cardillo is determined to uncover a priest’s secret to keeping a thriving cactus collection.

Curtis Chou is a science communicator, puzzle enthusiast, and all-around adventure seeker. Curtis’s preferred bubble tea order is half-sweet strawberry milk tea with pearls and less ice.

Richard Cardillo is a six-time Moth StorySLAM winner who's appeared on The Moth Radio Hour and the Moth podcast. He is featured on The Best of RISK! #12 podcast. He’s performed at Story Collider, RISK!, Yum's the Word, PBS Stories From The Stage, and Big Irv’s Storytelling Show. Rich is a passionate bread baker and, yes, has gone to that quirky (scary?) place of naming his 16-year-old sourdough starter. 

Rich is also a 25-year resident of NYC's Lower East Side and has been an educator for over three decades on two continents and in three languages. He's instructed on all levels from preschool to graduate programs, considering himself still more of a learner than a teacher....but always a storyteller!

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:23.1

That's Shopify.com.com slash special offer.

0:28.2

A science story, huh?

0:31.4

Is NYU scientist the...

0:33.2

I felt...

0:34.0

And I just thought, well...

0:36.1

It was that golden moment.

0:39.4

Because science was on my side.

0:50.6

Hey, everyone.

0:51.7

Welcome to The Story Collider, where we bring you true personal stories about science.

0:55.7

I'm your host, Misha Gayeski, and this week's episode is about obsessions.

1:00.9

The science kind, of course.

1:02.8

Both our storytellers got very fixated on one very particular thing.

1:08.2

But unlike my obsession with watching cat videos on TikTok, there's had much more

1:13.5

productive outcomes. Our first story is from Curtis Chu. It was performed at an outdoor show in Vancouver

...

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