Trying: Stories about fertility
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s episode, we’re bringing you two stories about navigating the uncertainty, hope, and heartbreak of trying to have a baby.
Part 1: After a pregnancy loss, Annie Tan channels her grief into rescuing an injured mockingbird.
Part 2: Kibby McMahon is convinced she can will her way into pregnancy, but her body refuses to follow the plan.
Annie Tan is an educator, activist, writer and storyteller from Manhattan's Chinatown. Annie’s work has been featured in Huffington Post, New Republic, PBS’ Asian Americans, RISK! and twice on The Moth Radio Hour on NPR. Annie is writing a memoir about connecting with her immigrant parents despite not sharing a common fluent language. Find more at annietan.com.
Dr. Kibby McMahon is a licensed clinical psychologist, researcher, and digital health entrepreneur who’s obsessed with the emotional complexities of relationships. She earned her BA from Columbia University and her PhD in clinical psychology from Duke University, where her NIMH-funded research focused on how regulating our own emotions helps us connect more deeply with others. She has held research and clinical roles at Duke University Medical Center, Columbia University, Weill Cornell Hospital, and the Max Planck Institute. Dr. Kibby is a family caregiver and breast cancer survivor- experiences that reshaped how she understands vulnerability, resilience, and what it means to care for others while holding yourself together. These threads came together when she co-founded KulaMind, a digital mental health company that supports loved ones of people with mental illness through evidence-based skills, coaching, and AI-powered tools. She also hosts the podcast "A Little Help for Our Friends," which explores the invisible emotional labor of loving someone who is struggling with mental health or addiction. She lives in New York with her tornado of a son, a fluff of a dog, and a partner-in-crime husband.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A science story, huh? Is NYU a scientist? I felt it was right. And I just thought, well. It was that golden moment. Because science was on my side. |
| 0:31.3 | Hey everyone and welcome to the story clutter, where we bring you true personal stories about science that reveal just how strange, complicated, and deeply human this world really |
| 0:35.4 | is. |
| 0:36.3 | I'm your host, Misha Gayevsky, and today's episode is about fertility and the ups and downs |
| 0:40.9 | that go along with the journey of trying to conceive. |
| 0:44.0 | Our first story comes from educator, activist, writer, and storyteller Annie Tan. |
| 0:48.4 | She shared the story at our go-to spot in New York, caveat in January earlier this year. |
| 0:53.7 | Before we dive in, I do want to let you know that this story does mention pregnancy |
| 0:58.1 | loss and miscarriage. |
| 1:00.0 | Okay, here's Annie. |
| 1:10.7 | So my story takes place on a Saturday night in May. It's dark, it's cloudy, is starting to rain. |
| 1:18.0 | And my husband and I are getting our laundry. We have to go to the laundromat, pick up our stuff, |
| 1:23.5 | and we're wheeling our cart back. And all of a sudden, Corey swerves the cart, and he says, |
| 1:32.3 | Annie, there's a piece of poop there. |
| 1:35.0 | And I was like, okay, we swerved, and then out of the corner of my eye, the poop started to move. |
| 1:42.9 | And I was like, oh, so we look closer. |
| 1:46.2 | We shined a flashlight, and it turned out to be a little bird. |
| 1:51.2 | And as a New Yorker, I normally would just walk away from the bird. |
| 1:57.3 | I have definitely walked away from many a dead bird in my lifetime and been like, too bad, |
| 2:02.8 | bye, and walked away. But this day, this Saturday night, I just couldn't leave this bird alone. |
| 2:12.4 | And what I didn't tell you about this May Saturday was that it was five days after I had just had a |
| 2:19.2 | pregnancy loss. So I had something called preterm premature rupture of membrane, P-Prom, |
... |
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