Broadcast Know-It-All
Posted: July 9, 2017 Filed under: Comedy, Dolphins, Interactive, Performance, Podcast, Production, Radio, Science, Speaking | Tags: audio, education, humor, radio, scicomm, Science Leave a commentReady your ears to get SCHOOLED, folks, ’cause I’m playing Fact Checker on Season 3 of the Tell Me Something I Don’t Know Podcast (starring Freakonomic’s Stephen Dubner)!
First Minneapolis episode: “Three Sheets to the Wind” with special guest John Moe. They named they episode after one of my facts! And about all the drunk talk featured in the episode.
Second Minneapolis episode: “Creature Comforts” with special guest Krista Tippet. That one has a lot of sex talk.
Woman on the Street, Hot Seat
Posted: April 14, 2017 Filed under: Comedy, Dolphins, Interactive, Performance, Production, Science, Television Leave a commentI finally gathered up some of my science talking and slapped it into a highlights reel. While the video’s still private, I share it with you now, via THIS “EXCLUSIVE” LINK (and below).
More footage upon request. AMA 4ever.
Science Comedy & Regular Comedy
Posted: May 25, 2016 Filed under: Comedy, Interview, Performance, Production, Radio, Research, Science, Speaking, Storytelling | Tags: Podcast, Regret Labs Leave a commentStorytelling is a thing that I do, and here’s a video of a recent gig. The story I tell is not scientific––OR IS IT…?
It is also my pleasure to introduce Regret Labs, a Science/Comedy podcast to which my fellow comedians Levi Weinhagen and Aric McKeown invited me because they needed a little more science for their not-so-much-science.
This is the kind of podcast where people talk over each other sometimes. Into it? Not into it? Drop a comment on the site to let us know.
Episode #8 (#2.5 with Maggie): Guest Scientist Dr. Michelle LaRue on Science Communication and Penguin Stank
I am the SciComm from Your Video
Posted: January 18, 2016 Filed under: Comedy, Dolphins, Fiction, Interview, Nonfiction, Performance, Science, Speaking, Storytelling, Uncategorized, Writing Leave a commentOne more dispatch from my adventures with Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre & their Interrobang Festival of Questions. Click the below links for some primo procrastination-aiding video content!
A discussion of ocean vs. space travel & the public’s expectations of science*, among molecular biologist/science communicator Upulie Divisekera, sci-fi author & BoingBoing editor Cory Doctorow, & some “comedy science” lady (me)
And What Future Do We Want and Deserve? With radical chef Adam Liaw, futurist Kristin Alford, author/editor Cory Doctorow, & that “comedy science” lady again, moderated by Wheeler Centre Director Michael Williams
*Stay tuned for the above-referenced COMPETITIVE Q&A, plus my speech on what science & art tell us about the importance of words vs. actions.
Dolphin Brains, Greener Pastures, & David Bowie Chemistry
Posted: February 24, 2014 Filed under: Art, Dolphins, Fiction, Nonfiction, Performance, Radio, Science, Uncategorized, Writing 2 CommentsThe latest:
- Gosh but you people really love hearing about dolphins and dolphin brains. Thanks to you humans and your weird obsession, I’ve gotten to speak all over town (here, here, and here) about dolphins, dolphin brains, and humans’ weird obsession with dolphins and dolphin brains. Next stop: MPR’s “A Beautiful World”. Subject: Consciousness. You see where this is going.
- My short story, “Lawn”, was selected as the winner of Revolver and Thirty Two magazine’s ANTE-UP contest. I’m honored. Check it out here, and in the new paper issue of Thirty Two.
- New posts on chemistry, David Bowie, and the science of hands in my Science+Art column for the Walker Art Center’s MNartist’s blog. Because, you know, it is a beautiful world.
Science+Art: Dolphin+Tupac
Three Great Things Happened
Posted: July 24, 2013 Filed under: Fiction, Nonfiction, Performance, Science, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: contest, Smithsonian, train-track typewriter 3 Comments1. Mediander with me
Over two years ago, I was sworn to secrecy as I started writing for a crazysexycool new website, the likes of which the world had never seen.
This month, it finally launched, and the world got to fall in love with…
MEDIANDER DOT COM (com, com, com…)
I’ve linked you to the place where most of my “Culture Maps” live––nine and counting. What makes Mediander different is that the research connects disparate topics: Charlie Chaplin to The Atomic Cafe to books by dictators, Nabokov to synesthesia and lepidopterology, and much! Much! More!
Got off to a good start when researchers at the International Space Station liked my map on the Space Race:
2. That Smithsonian magazine
A childhood dream came true this month when I had an article published in Smithsonian. The piece allowed me to explore science+art at its best, in the form of Guillermo Bert’s 2D-coded traditional indigenous tapestries––one of the coolest artistic concepts I’ve seen in a long time.
Read it here!
3. WRITE FIGHT
The night before my birthday, I sat down at an old, malfunctioning Olivetti typewriter, on the train tracks.
The purpose? To battle it out in Revolver magazine‘s WRITE FIGHT, a single-elimination showdown with some of my favorite writers in town. It was both humbling and harrowing.
Competitors got the first line of the story, ten minutes to think for the first two rounds, no time to think for the last round, AND there were insane, orchestrated distractions at every turn. First round, I wrote as audience members came up and whispered suggestions in my ear. Second round, I had to put the typewriter on the lap of a stranger, who smack-talked me all the while.
Third round, at the center of a dancing mob, I wrote the story behind what improvisors would call the cruelest possible set-up:
“Even as it happened, I realized this was the most hilarious death ever.”
See what happened in the last three paragraphs of this article! [Spoiler alert, I won.] It was one of the most difficult feats of art I’ve ever undertaken, and my comrades in arms are my heroes more than ever. The… End…?
A Bunch of Stuff I Neglected to Mention…
Posted: May 13, 2013 Filed under: Fiction, Interactive, Interview, Nonfiction, Performance, Production, Radio, Science, Storytelling, Television, Writing | Tags: Interactive 1 CommentIt’s been awhile. Here’s a the haps:
- Last month, Ken Eklund and I got to share Ed Zed Omega with Tribeca Film Institute Interactive, alongside the other incredible Localore producers. I mean wow. The future was then and there, folks.
- I was honored to have a story in the first “Choose Your Own Adventure” Night at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Many thanks to my illustrious comrades Ed Bok Lee, Katie Heaney, John Jodzio, and to Paper Darts for putting it on. Check out the gorgeous map Meghan Murphy at Paper Darts made special for my story:
- In the same vein, I have two story poems up on the “Poetry Trail” as part of Walker Art Center’s series at Silverwood Park. If you can’t make it to the park, you can listen to them here.
- New science pieces up at Mental_Floss, including my “authoritative” breakdown of what makes a platypus a platypus. More in the coming week(s).
- Revolver lit mag just published my short short story, “The Poke,” which is potentially NSFW.
- Last week at Two Chairs Telling, I swapped stories with Linda Gorham about growing up poor and figuring it out as you go.
- Just this morning I was featured on KFAI’s Story City, telling my totally true tale of vodou overseas. (You may want to turn volume down due to some mic trouble at the start, plus my voice was terrible that day. Here’s me sounding way better on KFAI last year, talking women in comedy.)
- Oh, and I have a very specific tumblr now, called Orphaned Panels. I don’t update it much. It’s a slow-motion tumble.
“Our Battle is More Full of Names Than Yours”
Posted: August 16, 2012 Filed under: Comedy, Performance, Speaking, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: Loft Literary Center, On like flan, Ultimate Master of Words Leave a commentSomehow, I ended up in a situation where I am to compete for the title
ULTIMATE MASTER OF WORDS
against some of the greatest writers and thinkers and talkers in town.
Well.
As a poet once said: I intend to something something or die trying.
Storycraft with Kevin Kling, April 25th
Posted: April 23, 2012 Filed under: Comedy, Performance, Radio, Storytelling, Writing | Tags: Kevin Kling, Miranda, mom, MPR, radio, storytelling, To My Mother Leave a commentSeveral months ago, I was invited to be part of a three-part workshop with Kevin Kling, alongside about two dozen on the Twin Cities’ most talented writers, performers, comedians, and all-around storytellers. This Wednesday, April 25th, we shall showcase the fruits of our collective labor, presenting a night of storytelling at Minnesota Public Radio’s UBS Forum. Join us. You won’t believe your ears. (But you should.)
April 25th, 2012, 7-9 PM
$15, and discounted to $12 for MPR Members
Featuring:
- Allegra Duncan Lingo
- Amy Salloway
- Annie Baxter
- Barbara Wiener
- Courtney Maclean
- Dylan Fresco
- Gary Dop
- Joseph Scrimshaw
- Loren Niemi
- Patrick Dewane
- and Kevin Kling
…All Things Considered.
Posted: November 30, 2011 Filed under: Performance, Radio, Storytelling | Tags: All Things Considered, audio, eating water, ghost, MPR, NPR, OWS, radio, Thanksgiving Leave a commentThat is, “I managed to perform some of my own stuff on the radio and it came out pretty okay, all things considered.” Also, I had a couple commentaries on Minnesota Public Radio: All Things Considered.
You can listen to the first commentary, about Halloween, etc., right here:
You can read an extended version, here.
My second commentary fell on Thanksgiving, which was appropriate. If you want to know why, read it here.
I guess I’m their Holiday gal. Let’s see what I can rustle up for National “Stay at Home Because You’re Well Day,” tomorrow. Or not.
Mandford
Maggie Ryan Sandford 
