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The Story Collider

Will You Be My Valentine?: Stories about using science to find love

The Story Collider

Story Collider, Inc.

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

4.4818 Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While love and science don’t often go hand-in-hand, this week, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, both of our stories are about finding love using scientific methods. Part 1: After Tony Dahlman plucks up the courage to ask out a fellow statistician, he consults the Survey Administration Manual for guidance on how to construct the perfect date. Part 2: When engineering student Heather Monigan asks liberal arts major Michael Berger on a date he’s completely unaware that she's interested in him. Tony Dahlman is a numbers guy. He has spent nineteen years as a statistician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Tony is a native Minnesotan who enjoys running, biking, public speaking, college football, and is obsessed with State Fairs. A few years ago he got hooked on storytelling and has told stories with Story District in Washington, DC, the Des Moines Storyteller’s Project, TellersBridge in Cedar Rapids, IA, and The Moth in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. Tony lives with his wife in Des Moines, Iowa. Heather Monigan is a resilient lady with a sharp wit who has learned to laugh in the face of adversity. Her hobbies include staying happily married, keeping two teens alive and spontaneous home remodels. In her spare time, she is an Engineering Executive in the semiconductor industry for over 24 years and active in the tech community. She currently serves as Chair of the IEEE Phoenix Section and is the Phoenix Section’s International Development Lead for Engineers Without Borders. Heather also serves on the Grand Canyon University President’s STEM Advisory Board and the GCU Engineering Advisory Council. She is an adjunct engineering professor for Grand Canyon University. Ms. Monigan holds an MBA and BSCE and never got the memo to “relax”. Michael is married to Heather Monigan, which is what got him this gig. He also considers that his greatest achievement. Like most everyone else out in Phoenix he is an ex-Midwesterner, hailing from Dayton, Ohio. Since moving to Phoenix in 2004 he acquired a son, a daughter, a doctorate, and too many cats. Since his parents were both in education he decided to start his career there and never left, now working as the Dean of the College of Doctoral Studies for Grand Canyon University. In his limited free time he enjoys playing games of all kinds, the odd bit of creative writing, working out, and attempting ridiculous obstacle course races. Michael doesn’t mind public speaking but has difficulty memorizing scripts. Hopefully this won’t be a problem for Heather.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:31.6

A science story, huh?

0:34.8

Is NYU scientist the...

0:36.6

I felt... I felt... And I just thought, well, it was that golden moment.

0:42.9

Because science was on my side.

0:53.7

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the story clutterutter, where true personal stories about science help us

0:58.7

to discover how weird and wonderful it is to exist in this world and be a human.

1:03.1

I'm your host, Misha Gayevsky, and happy Valentine's Day.

1:06.4

We're getting extra romantic in today's episode with stories all about finding love, but in a sciencey way.

1:14.1

Because how else do you find love but through trial and error? Am I right?

1:19.0

Our first story is from statistician Tony Dalman. Tony's story was recorded in St. Louis at St. Louis

1:24.3

Public Radio's Public Media Commons, and this might be one of my favorite love

1:28.0

stories of all time. It perfectly captures how dating can be awkward and confusing, and how we could

1:34.7

all probably use the manual for some guidance when it comes to wooing that crush. But I think

1:40.2

Tony and I would agree that the survey administration manual is not the right book for the job.

1:46.2

You're going to love this story. Here's Tony.

1:52.5

I was sitting in math class at Dowskocato Middle School when Mrs. Johnson was handing back some of our math quizzes.

...

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