Top Secret: Stories about things we hide

The Story Collider

Story Collider, Inc.

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

4.4 • 818 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers share stories about times their deepest secrets were discovered. Part 1: Growing up in Ghana, Pauline Owusu-Ansah hides her secret desire to study lizards. Part 2: Saad Sarwana’s secret identity as a standup comedian threatens to ruin his burgeoning physics career. Pauline Owusu-Ansah is a first year PhD student whose passion for evolutionary biology didn't fade off despite growing up in a place where scientists are known to be just medical doctors or engineers. Her story, "The lizard's leap..." capture's a journey from curiosity in Ghana, West Africa to becoming a scientist in this part of the world. Saad Sarwana also know as “The Standup Physicist” has been a comedian for 25+ years. He has performed in every major comedy club on the east coast, and over 25 states. As a certified geek, Saad hosts the “Science Fiction and Fantasy Spelling Bee”. Saad is also a four time MOTH StorySLAM champion, has appeared on the Story Collider podcast six times, and is Arizona Story Collider producer. As a Physicist/Engineer, Saad has 40+ peer reviewed papers and is the past president of the US Committee on Superconductor Electronics. Saad had appeared on multiple Scifotainment (Scientific Entertainment) shows on Discovery / Science Channel, including over 100 episodes on the TV show “Outrageous Acts of Science.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, story clutter listeners. If you're hooked on the surprising twists and turns of science in our
0:05.1	stories, you're going to love Curiosity Weekly from Discovery. Science and tech are moving fast.
0:11.2	New discoveries are happening every single week. But don't worry, Curiosity Weekly is here to
0:16.1	help make sense of it all. Each week, they dive into the biggest questions and ideas shaping our world with
0:21.9	expert guests who break it down in a way that actually makes sense. You want to know why you can't
0:27.9	stop scrolling on TikTok? Neuroscientists are figuring out exactly which brain chemicals are
0:32.5	keeping you hooked. Or, how about this? Clean beauty products and viral makeup dupes? They wouldn't exist without
0:39.0	cosmetic chemistry. Oh, and get this. Plains are now flying from Florida to England on
0:46.4	recycled plastic jet fuel. Wild, right? Curiosity Weekly covers everything from AI decoding,
0:53.5	ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to robots that can actually feel pain.
0:58.4	Trust me, if you're curious about the world, and I know you are, this is the podcast for you.
1:04.2	Listen to Curiosity Weekly wherever you get your podcasts.
1:09.5	A science story, huh?
1:12.7	Is NYU scientist a...
1:14.4	It felt...
1:15.3	And I just thought, well...
1:17.4	It was that golden moment.
1:20.6	Because science was on my side.
1:26.9	...and... Hey everyone, welcome to the story clatter, where true personal stories about science help us to discover how weird and wonderful it is to exist in this world and be a human.
1:40.6	I'm your host, Mishigayevsky, and in today's episode, our storytellers are sharing their
1:44.7	deepest secrets. And I can't wait for y'all to be in on the secrets, too, because I'm a
1:51.4	gossip-loving kind of gal. Also, because I'm terrible at keeping secrets, so I literally can't
	...

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