I'm Alan Alder and this is Clear and Vivid.

Conversations about connecting and communicating.

I was the kid who hung out with a math teacher and did science problems for fun and I was

the girl who played football at lunch with the boys.

I remember one time a bunch of girls kind of gathered around there like so we see you playing

football.

And I was like yeah yeah and they're like you know girls don't do that and I was like

why wouldn't you it's so fun like I don't get it it's really really fun like you should

play.

I guess the one thing I say about growing up in a different culture is that you don't

know the rules of that culture and so you break all the rules and I think that was great

for me so I did get kind of picked on a lot but not from being from a different country

but just for being strange.

Party Sabedi is one of the most remarkable young women I've ever met.

Born in Tehran she's a self-proclaimed math nut and she invented while still a graduate

student a novel and powerful way of exploring our genetic code looking for genes that have

evolved recently in human history.

It was a breakthrough that played a major role in tackling the deadly outbreak of Ebola

in Africa in 2014.

But having fun has always been and continues to be a large part of her life and the lab she

runs in Cambridge Massachusetts is well known as a playful and caring place to do cutting

edge genetic research and she's also the lead singer and bass player in an indie rock band.

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