Science of Gender: Stories outside the binary
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In honor of International Transgender Visibility Day on March 31 this week’s episode celebrates storytellers who are transgender and gender nonconforming.
Part 1: Comedian Riley Silverman attempts to use science to change the course of puberty.
Part 2: Comedian Ang Buxton explores the differences in gender expectations from the football field to the middle school cafeteria.
Riley Silverman is a writer, comedian, and professional geek. An author of Star Wars books, Riley is also a contributing writer for Nerdist and Fandom, the award-winning sci-fi podcast, Bubble, and SYFY's Forgotten Women of Genre limited podcast series. As an actress she appeared in the STARZ series Take My Wife as Regan, in the comedy horror film Too Late, and as the voice of Zelda in the vampire series Port Saga. She has rolled dice on numerous actual-play Dungeons and Dragons and roleplaying shows, including in the role of Braga for the official tabletop adaptation of Rat Queens. Her comedy album Intimate Apparel was a #1 bestseller. She lives in Los Angeles, California, and she is certain that her lightsaber would have a white kyber crystal.
Ang Buxton (they/them) is a nonbinary comedian, DJ and teacher from Springfield, MA. Ang has headlined comedy shows all around New England and beyond, and has DJ'd for events like Northampton Pride. Ang is a Teach for America alum and is dedicated to educational equity, and views their work as a comedian as queer activism.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | A science story, huh? |
| 0:04.0 | Is NYU scientist the... |
| 0:06.0 | I felt... |
| 0:07.0 | It felt... |
| 0:08.0 | I was so... |
| 0:09.0 | And I just thought, well... |
| 0:10.0 | It was that golden moment. |
| 0:13.0 | Because science was on my side. |
| 0:15.0 | Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Story Collider, where we bring you true personal stories about science. |
| 0:30.2 | I'm your host, Erin Barker, and this week, in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, we're sharing two stories about the science of gender. |
| 0:39.6 | This topic is one that resonates with me deeply on a personal level, and I'm so grateful to |
| 0:44.9 | our storytellers today for so generously sharing their stories with us. If these stories resonate with |
| 0:50.5 | you in the same way, I want to let you know that for the past few weeks, I've been |
| 0:54.2 | honored to co-host Queer Space, a special series from the Air and Space Museum's Airspace |
| 0:59.5 | podcast, featuring stories and people at the intersection of aviation, space, and LGBTQ plus history |
| 1:06.5 | and culture. You can find it wherever you listen to Story Collider. But for now, we have two really |
| 1:12.0 | wonderful and insightful stories to share with you from two very funny people. Our first story is |
| 1:17.9 | from comedian Riley Silverman. It was recorded in the before times in May 2018 at the Lyric |
| 1:23.8 | Hyperion in Los Angeles. The theme that night was Insights. |
| 1:39.0 | So I had a lot of time as a child to think about what I wanted to be when I grew up, which for me, |
| 1:46.2 | woman was like the top of that. And like that was a thing that at the time I didn't think was |
| 1:49.9 | possible. So then I moved over to jobs. Like what do I want to do for a job when I grow up? And for a long |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Story Collider, Inc., and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Story Collider, Inc. and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

