Dr. Mindy Howard’s company, Innerspace Training helps commercial astronauts become more mentally prepared before they go into space, so they can get the most out of their mission. During this engaging dialogue, Mindy explains to Beth how we can all work to engage in and implement this “Overview Effect” in our lives, a deep connection to everywhere and everyone. Dr. Mindy Howard is symbolic of someone who has set out to passionately achieve her dreams and is reaching the uppermost heights in her ...
Oct 08, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 92
Beth Mund gets to travel “at the speed of thought” with the incredibly fun Janet Ivey, from Janet’s Planet ! With 12 regional Emmys, 5 Gracie Allen and numerous other awards, it’s evident that Janet Ivey is dedicated to producing quality entertainment that inspires, enlightens and entertains us all! Frederick Beuchner’s quote starts our show and started everything for Janet: “You will always be called to the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Little did Janet know ...
Oct 01, 2020•54 min•Ep. 91
The Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program connects exceptional current college juniors, seniors, and graduate students with paid, summer internships in the exciting field of commercial spaceflight, as well as with notable aerospace leaders for mentorship. The summer culminates in a memorable networking summit! Upon completing the supper internship, the Fellows remain among a group of alumni who have the opportunity to continue to network with this program, their Fellow peers, assigned mentors, an...
Sep 24, 2020•58 min•Ep. 90
Ever thought about putting our species’ DNA in space? Or preserving our life on Earth, it’s blueprint, and records for a possible Earth to be reproduced in the future? Ben has. As a matter of fact, Ben is currently doing it. And with his company, LifeShip, YOU can be a part of Ben’s mission by sending your very OWN DNA to the moon or to orbit! Who knows? Maybe one day your great, great, great, great, great ancestors will unfreeze you and thank you. What is LifeShip? Has this ever been done befor...
Sep 17, 2020•43 min•Ep. 89
Analog astronaut. Chef. Explorer. Pilot. Geologist. Artist. Professor. Author. STEM Communicator and…Cowgirl!? In short, Dr. Sian Proctor is just…. Incredible! You will want to get to know this impressive woman beyond the Casual Space conversation with Beth, so here are some links to Dr. Sian’s TedX Talks, videos, cookbooks, artwork and more! START HERE : https://www.drsianproctor.com/ TEDx Talks : https://www.drsianproctor.com/media/ Space2Inspire (Dr. Sian’s Artwork): https://www.drsianproctor...
Sep 11, 2020•48 min•Ep. 88
In 1984, Jim Wetherbee was selected to join NASA in its tenth group of astronauts. Over a twenty-year career , he flew six times on the Space Shuttle. The five-time commander flew two missions to the Russian Space Station, Mir, and two missions to the International Space Station. In 1998, he was appointed as the Director, Flight Crew Operations , specifically selected to improve the flight and ground safety in the astronaut corps. Based on that success, Jim was selected after the Columbia accide...
Sep 02, 2020•57 min•Ep. 87
What a fun conversation! Beth and Alan combine all of the space topics you love in one incredibly entertaining episode, including: Astrochicks, George Lucas, hyphenated astronauts and tickets to the moon offered from former airlines company PanAm. See You in Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight is the book Alan presents that will guide you on a historical, personal, irreverent, and often-humorous tour of the promises, expectations, principal personalities, and milestones regarding the goal individual...
Aug 27, 2020•50 min•Ep. 86
The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space (Wikipedia reference) The term and concept were coined in 1987 by Frank White , who explored the theme in his book The Overview Effect — Space Exploration and Human Evolution . Since 1987, there’s been a recently series of interviews done at the Johnson Space Center with a new group of Astronauts in a series that’s been produced called, “Down to Ear...
Aug 21, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 85
On this inspirational episode, Beth talks with former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver about the Brooke Owens Fellowship. Created to honor the legacy of a beloved space industry pioneer and accomplished pilot, Dawn Brooke Owens (1980 – 2016), the Brooke Owens Fellowship is designed to serve both as an inspiration and as a career boost to capable young women and other gender minorities who, like Brooke, aspire to explore our sky and stars, to shake up the aerospace industry, and to help thei...
Aug 14, 2020•20 min•Ep. 84
Rachel Lyons is a key advocate in the advancement of space technology and exploration. Rachel is the former Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space – USA, a non-profit that empowers young people to make an impact in space exploration. She is a former public radio host. She holds a BSc. in Aerospace Engineering and Economics from the University of Miami. Astronauts return from space with a new understanding of life on earth — from the environm...
Jul 23, 2020•40 min•Ep. 83
Joe Cassady is Executive Director of Space Programs in the Washington DC Operations for Aerojet Rocketdyne. Joe and the AR team help to plan human missions to the Moon and Mars, helping to develop the strategy and architectures for future space and launch systems. Joe and Beth met at the NASA Stennis Space Center and the NASA Michoud Assembly Center in New Orleans for the NASA Artemis Day celebration. Together, Beth and Joe geek out about rocket engines and what it takes to get us to the Moon an...
Jul 16, 2020•47 min•Ep. 82
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides is a public speaker, co-creator of Yuri's Night, and an author on space exploration. Whitesides received a bachelor's degree in biology from Stanford and a master's from Caltech, with a particular interest in astrobiology. She accumulated over five hours of weightless time as a Flight Director for Zero-G Corporation, and plans to travel to space as a "Founder Astronaut" on Virgin Galactic 's SpaceShipTwo with her husband George T. Whitesides . [1] Beth’s favorite quote...
Jul 10, 2020•56 min•Ep. 81
Dr. Andrew Aldrin is Director of the Aldrin Space Institute at Florida Institute of Technology. ASI is a multidisciplinary institute created to advance commercial space development. On the podcast, Andy tells Beth and the Casual Space listeners about the Graduate Certificate in Commercial Space Studies . It’s a partnership between the International Space University and Florida Tech . Beth and Andy also discuss seeing the Falcon Heavy Launch in person last summer, why communicating what’s happeni...
Jul 03, 2020•43 min•Ep. 80
Elizabeth Howell is a space writer, science consultant and writing teacher based in Ottawa, Canada. She writes about space, science and astronauts, and has even BEEN an astronaut in a simulation on Mars!** Elizabeth writes hundreds a stories a year on the space business, from conferences, from live events and from my own home. You can see her work daily in places like Space.com, Forbes and SpaceQ. Elizabeth’s notable projects include: Elizabeth journeyed to Kazakhstan twice to report on two Inte...
Jun 25, 2020•49 min•Ep. 79
Adam is an evangelist of science. From everything sci-fi to just thinking, looking and observing the world, science has always provided a sense of oneness with the universe for Adam. Adam is a theoretical/computational astrophysicist and he heads a research group that is developing new tools for simulating the cosmos. SO many great things discussed on this episode! *Beth asks Adam: Which is harder? Trying to communicate the need for a long-term investment in space exploration, or trying to chang...
Jun 19, 2020•57 min•Ep. 78
Gary Gattis spent his entire career making video games, AI/Space was a late life industry transition. Why? When Gary decided it was time to move into the next adventure in his professional career, he asked everyone (yes, everyone) two important questions that led him to Hypergiant, where Gary and the team believes that AI is essential to secure our place in the universe via space exploration. “We started looking at ground control, and saw there was a lot of room for disruption.”- Gary Gattis on ...
Jun 12, 2020•50 min•Ep. 77
Brian is the CEO of Solstar Space Company where they are working to create a ‘Space Wide Web’ to connect everything in space, to everyone on Earth. Solstar’s mission is to build and create the tools necessary to enable 24/7 secure, economical, convenient, two-way, internet-based communications with every “thing” in space, to be the ISP of choice in Earth Orbit and beyond. “We are able to provide a Wi-Fi connection for payloads, and payload specialists, as well as future astronauts, during take o...
Jun 04, 2020•30 min•Ep. 76
Chris Carberry is the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars, Inc. a nonprofit space advocacy organization that was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades. And, Chris is the author of Alcohol in Space , a perfect look at the past, present and future of alcohol in the story of human exploration. Chris and Beth enjoy raising a glass and celebrating this rich history and look forward to how we will enjoy our libations in space, perhaps sooner than you might th...
May 28, 2020•51 min•Ep. 75
Jennifer Inman helps spacecraft enter the atmospheres of other worlds. She and the Scientifically Calibrated In-FLight Imagery (SCIFLI) team use a bunch of instruments on board a plane while it’s flying, follow a space vehicle’s reentry that’s traveling thousands of miles an hour ( think Mach 25 ) from space back to Earth and find it through a field of view as small as a straw. Then, the SCIFLY team has to observe and keep the spacecraft in the middle of the field of view to gather the data nece...
May 22, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 74
Rachel is from a newspaper family and started as a journalist, teacher, freelancer and exceptional writer. Then, Rachel joined Twitter, and started writing about NASA missions and soon became a storyteller and science ambassador for the International Space Station at NASA Johnson Space Center. Her official title is Communications Managing Editor for the International Space Station Program Science Office at Barrios Technology. You’re going to want to know more about Rachel and her work, so here y...
May 14, 2020•39 min•Ep. 73
The Outer Space Treaty is vague. Rebekah believes there’s a way to encourage the international community and develop education to balance opportunities for everyone to use and benefit from the resources space can provide. We talk Space Force, NASA, private space companies, international and domestic treaties and everything in between. When it comes to space law and policy, sometimes the answers can be as interesting as the questions. So let’s dive in and discuss! “I think we need to be more resp...
May 08, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 72
Dr. Sarah Imam teaches advanced physiology and environmental physiology at the Citadel. She helps describe for us on the podcast what our human body has to endure in extreme environments, including microgravity environments like the astronauts work and live in. Our future in space requires our full understanding of the space environment, and the effects it will have on us as humans. While Sarah’s perspective is optimistic, the space environment is not looking like a favorable one for our human b...
Apr 30, 2020•48 min•Ep. 71
Seeing a launch from a young age inspired a clear goal for Debi Tomek: a calling to work at NASA and help enable a sustainable human presence in space beyond Earth. Working towards this goal is exactly what Debi Tomek is doing, serving as the Deputy Director of the Space Technology and Exploration Directorate where she leads the formulation of the National Initiative for On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM). NASA has needed to shift and change just like everyone else, being inn...
Apr 24, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 70
Anima is the Orion Spacecraft Simulations Lab Manager & xEMU Spacesuit Engineer at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Anima recently moved to Texas after 20 years in California to pursue her dream to become a NASA astronaut. Her journey has been a long one, but always determined, driven, sometimes sacrificing, and never wavering. Her steadfast and unyielding approach has finally come to fruition with a formal astronaut application when NASA opened the applications and invited candidates to apply...
Apr 16, 2020•45 min•Ep. 69
A 6th grade science teacher, a field trip to the Cosmosphere, lots of hard work, several advanced degrees, and a NASA internship has all been a influential part of Dr. Sarah Wallace’s journey. Dr. Sarah Wallace has always been in love with space, and through her work at NASA, she’s found her calling. As a microbiologist, Sarah serves as the principal investigator for the Biomolecule Sequencer, allowing DNA to be sequenced in space on board the International Space Station. Talking to Sarah is lik...
Apr 09, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 68
Kelly Larson has climbed mountains. Literally and figuratively. (Check out her TED talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49CaCeC4C_Y )! As the CEO of Aquarian Space, there’s always challenges to be overcome, just like the challenges we must overcome within our universe. Major space weather events. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections. Don’t worry, Kelly’s working on it. Beth and Kelly share a casual conversation that answers: What’s more difficult? Being a CEO to a space start-up, or completing a...
Apr 02, 2020•40 min•Ep. 67
PODCASTS!!! Casual Space Podcast! I love #61 with Bill Nye and #65 with Matthew Dominick Houston, We Have a Podcast – Mission Patches, Episode #130 Houston, We Have a Podcast – Art and Space with Astronaut Nicole Stott #129 Planetary Radio – The Return of Cosmos with Ann Duryan NETFLIX and SHOWS Cosmos: Possible Worlds (On National Geographic) The EXPANSE (On Syfy) Picard (Star Trek) This is on CBS All-Access, but DON’T PAY- right now it’s FREE. MUSEUMS Virtual Tours at your local museum, planet...
Apr 01, 2020•49 min
Irene Woerner is no stranger to start ups (she’s built a few) and is a certified space expert; she was the principal investigator on research and ground software on the Pluto missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory AND, while at NASA, she led a team of researchers on advanced information systems. Currently, Irene is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of emTRUTH, because she believes in the transformative power of innovative technologies combined with people of excellence to make it ...
Mar 26, 2020•51 min•Ep. 66
Beth sits down with NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick last week at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to discuss his work as an Artemis Generation astronaut. At the time of his selection as an Astronaut Candidate in June 2017, Matt was at sea on the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) serving as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy, a Naval Aviator, and a department head for Strike Fighter Squadron 115. He has accumulated more than 1,600 flight hours in 28 aircraft models, 400 carrier arrestments, 61 combat mi...
Mar 19, 2020•40 min•Ep. 65
Norah started photography in high school, from a camera her father gave her. By playing around with her camera and just shooting pictures, she fell in love with photography. Then she went to school to study imaging and photographic technology. After several NASA summer internships and lots of networking, Norah was brought on at NASA Johnson Space Center as a Science Photographer. You can see her talented work, along with her colleagues at www.images.nasa.gov Norah got her first NASA internship a...
Mar 05, 2020•45 min•Ep. 64
