performance

Edward Albee died last week, at 88. Studio 360 remembers this giant of American theater with a feature we ran back in 2004. Reporter Sarah Lemanczyk interviewed Albee about his decision, well into his 70s, to tinker with his very first produced play, “The Zoo Story.” Albee was about to debut a new first act as a sort of prequel to the original play. Lemanczyk was a huge fan of Albee’s, but she was appalled at this idea — and she had the audacity to tell Albee to his face.

Rachel Yehuda is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. For years, Dr. Yehuda researched PTSD by measuring stress hormones in lab rats. But when she began investigating PTSD in Holocaust survivors, she found that her methods were hitting a little close to home:

“A man got up, and he said, ‘biologic science? Are you trying to give Hitler a posthumous victory?’...He was so angry. And all I could think of at that moment was that I missed my rats.”

Her story was part of a live event hosted by Studio 360 and The Story Collider at WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, where scientists and comedians told true stories about their encounters with science.  You can hear Aparna Nancherla’s tale of cheating her way to science fair glory in our September 1, 2016 episode.

Produced with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Herman Pontzer is a professor of anthropology at Hunter College, where he investigates human and ape evolution. A few years ago, while studying the Hadza hunter-gatherer tribe, Dr. Pontzer’s experiment almost went up in flames:

“We look at each other and we realize: everything we have is flammable. The tents, the sleeping bags, the computers…not to mention this five gallon cocktail of liquid nitrogen and Hadza pee.”

His story was part of a live event hosted by Studio 360 and The Story Collider at WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, where scientists and comedians told true stories about their encounters with science.  You can hear Aparna Nancherla’s tale of cheating her way to science fair glory in our September 1, 2016 episode.

Tomorrow in the feed: psychiatrist Rachel Yehuda strikes a hard bargain.

Produced with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Wyatt Cenac is a comedian and former correspondent for The Daily Show. He’s no scientist – but while completing a community service requirement in high school, he conducted a little experiment to answer one of modern science’s burning questions: 

“I was like…how could Shaquille O’Neal drive on two beers? Or how could Shaquille drive on like three beers, and a couple shots of whiskey, and maybe some weed?”

His story was part of a live event hosted by Studio 360 and The Story Collider at WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, where scientists and comedians told true stories about their encounters with science.  You can hear Aparna Nancherla’s tale of cheating her way to science fair glory in our September 1, 2016 episode.

Tomorrow in the feed: how anthropologist Herman Pontzer ended up in the hot seat.

Produced with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.