Look how it is only films to be buried with. Hello, and welcome to films to be buried with. My name is Brett Goldstein and my comedian and actor, a writer director at Moonbeam, and I love films. As Jedediah Jenkins once said, the curious are always in for a good story, which is why I'll forever be inspired by Curious George three Back to the Jungle. It's a real classic. Every week I'm by a special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get them to discuss their life
through the films that meant that most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith, Sharon Stone, and even said Blambles. But this week it is the amazing and recently returned to Earth Real life world astronaut Jeanette Epps. All the episodes of Shrinking season two and season one are now available on Apple TV. Get caught up on
all of them. You will fucking love it. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldsteam, where you get an extra twenty twenty five minutes with Jeanette. We talk secrets. We talked secrets of the Universe. We took beginnings and endings. You get the whole episode uncut, and Adfrey and does a video. Check it out over
at patreon dot com Forward slash Brett Goldstein. So. Jeanette Epps is known for her career as an astronaut, her role as a NASA mission specialist, and her history making appointment as the first African American woman to be assigned to a long duration mission aboard the International Space Station.
Her accomplishments have earned her numerous accolades, including being named one of the one hundred most Influential Women in Space and receiving multiple honors for her contributions to science and engineering.
I met Jeanette. I mean it was mad.
Jeanette Epps was in space at the International Space Station and she had a request in which, for some mad reason, she wanted to talk to me on Zoom.
So I zoomed with her.
She was floating around in space with an incredible conversation, and amazingly, she told me she was a fan of the podcast, and I said to her, when she gets back to Earth, she has to do it. She got back to Earth and we recorded this. We did this on zoom. A couple of weeks ago. I think it's one of the all time great episodes. I mean, it takes ages before we get to a film because I'm asking her what it's like to be in fucking space? Do you know what I mean? How often do you
get that opportunity? This was truly a very very special and incredible experience, and I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did, So that as it for now, I very much hope you enjoy episode three hundred and thirty seven of Films to be Buried With. Hello, and
welcome to Films to be Buried With. It is me Brett Goldstein, and I am joined today by a scientist, a skywalker, a moon grazer, an International Space stationer, a floating human, a person who literally if I's gravity, a hero, a legend, a Marylander and earth Lander, and a space person. I can't believe she's here. She's a real genuine astronaut, the very first astronaut to be on the show. Could you believe it? She's right here, She's back on Earth. Please,
welcome to the show. It's the amazing. It's to that EPs.
You make me sound so.
Great, pretty fucking grin Jeanette, welcome home.
Thank you.
I'm so glad we're doing this. Shall we explain how I know you?
Sure? I had watched Ted Lasso, and I watched the entire season, and I thought it was phenomenal. And when now did I wasn't setting you up to say that you were not. But you know, one thing I can't say is I did bring the shirt back unbelievable. So, in watching that show, I thought, if I had to select someone to chat with while in orbit, I would like to talk with the person who played where I can and just get insights from them because it was
written so well. All the characters were so well developed, and I said, I would love to chat with someone like that while I'm in space, and that wouldn't just be entertaining, but who would be insightful? And so I selected you, and NASA reached out to you and we had a great conversation while I was in space. So it was awesome.
So for the listener at home, if I get a message from NASA saying there's someone in this space station who would like to talk to you, I said, yes, absolutely, what did they need? And we had a zoom while you were floating around the space station. And I felt bad because you had requested a conversation with me, But all I did was ask you everything and make you show me around the space station. But it was fucking
amazing and I wish people could see your life. But let me ask you all the questions that I want to know that everyone wants to know. How long were you at this space station?
I was there for two hundred and thirty three days, so almost eight months.
Yeah, almost eight months. And the whole time what I saw that you showed me. You're floating the whole.
Time time, never sitting down, never resting your head.
You strap yourself into a sort of body bag to sleep right, and it's strapped to the wall.
You're upright. Yep, exactly eight months.
And the toilet situation, Yes.
I did show you the toilet, did you did. It's a shot back. It's basically a back and clean.
It's so fascinating and you and your flight it looks it looks very fun to move around like that, like you're flying like a saber. That looks fun. Does it stay fun? Is that a bit fun?
It is fun? The only thing about zero gravity that I'm this was a good shower because the water doesn't pour down on you, it just kind of floats. So a good shower was all I missed.
So what what how did you watch yourself just.
With like towels, well the water when you so water floats. So what ends up happening is when you put it on your skin, it just kind of spreads out. You kind of wash off, and then you have to tee off again because you've got to get all the water off of you. Whereas here the water kind of flows down you kind of like fill the dirt washing away. In space, you kind of make sure you rub it all off.
So tell me that. So you were there, you were in space. What I didn't know because I hadn't read the story when you showed me around you you introduced me to some people, and there were two people you said were visitors, and I didn't realize that they were the two people who had been Yes on Starlight. Forgive me forgetting the name wrong. Starlight was it?
It was a starliner, Yeah, the Boeing star Starliner.
Yes, they came to the space. They were supposed to be there for two days and they ended up. Are they still there?
They are still there? They were supposed to when they came. They were supposed to be there at those eight days, that was the max. And then you know, two months later, three months later, and they're still there. They do not come back home until April. So yeah, yeah, how are they hoping? And how was it with them? Well, oh no,
they are, Sonny and Butch a lot of fun. They added added a whole new dynamic to the space station while they were there, and it was Sunny is always a ball of joy, as you could see when she was entering the space station. And Butch is the consonant, you know, mister fix it. So we were pretty well together and we had a lot of fun at the same time.
So it was and they're they're in good spirits given they aren't going home for la time.
The people who work here on the ground, they're doing their best to make sure that they're fully employed and have lots of things to do. They have time to exercise and whatever they need. We could try to upmass on like the next thevehicle that a doctor station, so when we I'm not sure when they'll get the next stranch of goodies on orbit, but we try our best
to make sure they're happy. They get to talk to their family every day if they want to like participate in things on Earth, virtually sure that they have all of those things, so that you know, it is kind of a you know, it kind of sucks that you know they's but it also it's also once in a lifetime thing and it's a unique experience that they'll have lots to talk about when they come back.
How long does it take to get to the space station once.
You take up, so it all depends on the vehicle that you end up riding on. So like the Soy used, it could take four hours once they launch, four hours they die, so they only do like two and a half orbits and then they dock for us because we flew on the Dragon. We were crewate on the Dragon SpaceX vehicle. We launched, then we had phasing. We had thirty hours of phasing and meaning we had to get
into position in order to dock to the station. And so it all depends on the vehicle and the way that they've Most of the vehicles are autonomous, but it's based on the way that they've programmed the vehicle to autonomously fly to station. So we had thirty hours of feazing before we could actually dock a station. You're incredible.
Tell me this. You're in that space station with five people, seven people there.
So at one point in time there were up twelve people up there, so we had quite a few people at one time, but it would get down to like three Russians, and then we have four people in the US segment and so seven people. And then we had two visitors that made it nine. Had two more visitors come that made it eleven. Oh, we had a couple of visitors. So the most we had at one point in time was twelve people.
It has such a long time to be in an inclined space with people, whoever they are. How do you cope with that part of it? That's the part I think I would find that how it is well.
I think most people who are selected they understand that they have to be very flexible in a da And even though the people that you're with are not your family, they're not necessarily your friend, but you have a mission in common, and so you kind of rally around the fact that we have this great mission between us. We can talk about that and actually end up having a
good time. I'm one person who you know, not one person, but several people I think you met some of them, like Tracy Dyson and Sonny william Sonny is one of the people who were She was on the star Liner. So we all kind of, you know, we would do our daily work, help each other as we need, and then nighttime we have dinner together and we'd have great conversations, try to laugh a lot, make sure we're keeping in
contact with the earth as well. But you know, sometimes comms didn't work, so it would just be the group of us together, chatting and making jokes.
And did you ever get sick and did you ever get depressed?
Were you ever like I want to be aligned to that. I am, well, so, I guess because I'm an introvert. You know, in the evenings, at about nine thirty or ten, I would retreat to my crew quarters and you shut the door and you could have a bit of a loone time. I was very fortunate. I never got sick in space. I mean, I always had this ongoing thing with my sinuses. But that's because dust floats. Everything floats,
and you're breathing it in. So most people would have some kind of congestion because you're breathing in a lot of stuff that floats around. So I was really fortunate. I was never truly sick on orbit, and you know of us are pretty healthy, so no one really got sick. Some thing's happen, you know, someone may get a cut and they We did have one person cut themselves and had to have a few stitches. Things floating around, drops
float around and you catch it and it doesn't float everywhere. Yeah, and so we we've had a couple of minor accidents and things like that. But you know, our mission was kind of a little crazy. It was unusual in that week, and so it will everyone who goes there. We're just the crew that is on deck and on watch. You know, we take care of the station for however many months were there and we trade out for with the next group.
But things happened, like we had a Russian satellite that broke up in orbit and the big pieces were coming right at the space station and it could puncture a hole in it. So we were awaken in the middle of the night told that the satellite had broken up and components of it was heading for the station. So we had to go safe even and so one of the crew, our crewmates, butch one of the new guys. He in the middle of the night came up banging on the door, beging on the door. Wake up, wake up,
Safeva and safe Hava. And that meant, you know, you kind of wake up out of this tea thirty three o'clock in the morning and rush to your vehicle, strap in and wait to see if the pieces passed by or if it depressurizes the station. We were fortunate it just passed right by us and no hole in the.
Station, So sorry. If it had made a held in the station, you're flying away.
Well we would have had to undock and fly away and then whatever happened to the station happened. Yeah, it would have been a pretty bad day. We would have had to reassess, can we redock, can we save the station? Is this you know? Does everyone leave properly? And are they safe? So there's a lot of things. That's if you get a rapid depressurization of the space station, what is the air up there? Is it coming? Is it filtered? Like?
What how are you breathing of there?
Well, so what they do up mass they have to send nitrogen and oxygen, So we have basically seventy years percent nitrogen and twenty percent oxygen and the rest is usually like some micro constituents of other gases, but it's all up mass. And so the Russian segment they actually have a system to make oxygen and help pressurize the
station that way. So there's different ways that we produce oxygen, and you know, we use certain ways and certain things that we used to either make water, make oxygen, and just try to provide an atmosphere that is very similar to what's here on Earth. Even you know, I mentioned water, but the humidity levels even so the lot that is done, everything's artificial, except we don't have grab any.
How often, if ever, were you scared.
Well, so two of us to me this two of the scariest days on orbit was basically that when we had to safe Haven and you're not really scared because you trained for these things. You just go into muscle memory and you just go do what you're supposed to
do because we've trained so much for emergencies. And then you know, the day that we had a leak, so two people were going out to do a spacewalk and one person ended up having a leak water leak, and there's it's called an umbilical that attaches so it was pushing out water and she had to basically push it
out to open space and it froze immediately. So I was kind of scary because she had to basically close reclose the She opened the hatch and so she had to close the hatch, but the hatch hat ice likely building them around it because of the leak, and so she had to get the hatch closed, get the umbilical attached to her suit, and get back in. So going through all the steps she had to do was kind of like, you know, she's she's got a lot to overcome.
I mean, ice was building up on her gloves, her helmet was fogging up, and then we had to try to get them back into the station. And thank god, things went really well because once she got everything connected back up, we could repressurize the hatch where they were located and get them out of there and get the suit fixed. We did not go to walk. Yeah did you have you done this guy walk? Because you no. Unfortunately on this mission, no one got a chance to
do a spacewalk, so it was bitter sweet. But we did a lot of work to try to get ready for them, and you know, it didn't go but that's okay. We we're glad that things worked out where everyone was safe, the stage is safe, and the work that we were going to do, they we can do it subsequently, hopefully at the end of this month. The people who were on Starliner me do with the spacewalks that we yes, really if that goes. Yeah, they're veteran spacewalkers. So how
many times have you been to space? This was my first time? This was it? Okay, yeah, this is would you like? Will you?
Will you? And would you like to do more?
So I'm not sure if we have a lot of people in the pipeline who need to go to space. Everyone needs to get experience, and then the people who have experienced need to then they should go back. And you know, everything that I learned over two hundred and thirty three days is, you know, there's a lot of valuable information that should be passed on to all the next space flyers. So as we go in, you'll have
the experience going with newbies. And who knows if I'll get a chance to go again, but I would love to. I would like to. Whether or not they will, we don't know.
So on this on your mission. This is why I understand is there constantly experiments going on and what kind of things are you trying to discover or figure out while you're there.
So the coolest part is that there's always experiments going on. Like I always talk about the immunity assay experiment. That's one with the European Space Agency. That's where we collect our blood. Then we have to do all this processing to try to figure out what is our immune function throughout the space. Are how we're in space and so
we basically take our own blood. We have to centrifuge it, incubated, do all these different things, freeze it, and then back here on Earth they'll go through and they'll look at our blood before we flew, during flight, and then post flight, and they need to really kind of go through and describe what our immune function, how it changes through space. And this would be the first thing. Well, we should know a lot about it, but we never really collected
all the data while in space. With the new tools that we have, we can look at the entire immune function from beginning to end now and this is a new experiment, so we're collecting a lot of data that's one thing. We look at different materials to protect from radiation. We look at how fluids behave in space because I don't know if I got a chance to show you how water behaves just like motases, Yeah, those sphears that
just float around. So studying how fluids behave a lot of different material science projects that we're doing a combustion, a lot of DNA sequencing, stem cell research, and even looking at how do you fabricate biofabrication facility that we
have there. They're looking at how to assemble cells like we had cardiac cells, how do you assemble them to build art is that you can in the future you can fabricate like different organs in space and you know they'll grow the way they do like in vitro, like in zero gravity and instead of like here on Earth because of gravity, you get one layer of cells that grow. You can grow things three dimensionally and so you can get whole components. Yeah, it's kind of cool. So that's
there's a lot. But the other thing that we do is we also maintain the station. Like someone has to fix the toilet when it breaks, and that happens in the water processor because yesterday's coffee is today's coffee kind of mentality. So you always have to make sure that the toilet is working. And then the processor water processor water reclamation system. Really that's always always needs fixing. If we am our exercise devices break, we have to fix those.
If our carbon dioxide removal system breaks, we have to fix that. And then some things we're just changing filters and making sure they continue to work. You have done a lot of maintenance on orbit and a lot of research. And then the third thing that we all have to do just about every day is exercise. So lifting, Yeah,
what is your exercise? So we have this advanced resistive exercise device and it's basically weightlifting, So lots of splots and lots of deadlifts to load the bones that we don't do all for two hundred and thirty three days or however long some people will be there.
So it's like, is it like air pressure resistance?
Yeah? Is a weight? Isn't a weight? Right? Exactly? This is definitely working against a vacuum and a cylinder, and so they've measured it precisely so that you can lift weights effectively. And you know, when I came back, they did a dexa scan to see how much bone loss I had. I had only about five to seven percent. And that's actually really good because every moment you're not exercising,
you're shetting, you're losing a little bit of bone density. Yeah, so weightlifting every day to load the heaviest bone in your body, which is like in your legs and your pelvis, just to make sure you don't I mean, your bones are very important in your immune system as well, so you want to pin sure you're exercising just about every day and do a little cardio as well. So we have a stationary bike and we have a treadmill. So yeah, in order to stay healthy, those are you have to exercise.
So how many hours of exercise a day would you do?
Well? What they give us on the on the timeline is about two and a half hours, but that's for set up. You got to change your clothes, set up, do the exercise, then go on to the next one and then clean up. So you get about two and a half hours. So your day is pretty much past. It is filled. So those are really the three things that we did do exercise, do experiments, and maintain the station.
Did you sleep well? In space.
I slept better in space than I do here. Well, we were so exhausted after a full day. You just kind of float there and you can sleep pretty well. I mean you're not like sleeping on your arm and then you wake up and you're like, oh my arm or yeah, your neck is like in a weird position. So you sleep without any pressures on your body.
So can you grow by in density? Back this five to seven percent you've lost, it's coming back.
Oh yeah, so once gravity, once you hit gravity, your body starts rebuilding. And it's kind of interesting because when I landed.
Yeah, tell me everything about landing after this time.
Well, it was amazing because you know, we're coming back screaming through the atmosphere. You know, when we start filling the load the geese and it is something crazy. And then you know, as we're coming in, we go through this blackout period because we're coming through the atmosphere and there's a lot of friction and it creates a plasma, so we can't talk to the ground, so we have basically it comes out. Then as we enter the atmosphere
we can talk the ground again. But then all of a sudden we get we hear this loud pop and those are the drogue pair of shees to slow us down. And then next thing, another pop, and then the main pair of shoes come out. And then as we're coming in, we're screened in. You would think that you would fill these jerks jerky movements as the pair shoes come out. No,
it was pretty smooth. I mean, you feel the g's and you're kind of like expecting that, but there was something that was so crazy and where you feel like you're gonna, you know, just puke or something. No, it's like an amusement park ride. You fill the g's. You have to intentionally breathe when you fell, like four g's on your body. Yeah, we kind of practiced that before
we fly anyway, Then you hit the water. The reason we were stranded, we weren't stranded, we were on orbit for so long was because we were waiting for the weather to kind of clear and the water sea state was pretty calm. So we hit the water and it's like it wasn't like a crash or anything. You just kind of hit the water and you're like, oh, okay,
that wasn't so bad. And then the upriting bags you could build a vehicle kind of rotating around to upright, and it was amazing, but it wasn't as scary or you know, all these jerky movements. It was pretty we landed and we're in a call. And one thing I felt immediately it was like, oh my god, my head weighs about a thousand pounds, was because I had held
it up in eight months. So we're like, we're just refiring and starting to get back acquainted with having to hold up ahead and actually walking was kind of weird because your inner ears are going crazy because no gravity acting on a great month, and so.
You oh, yeah, what happens when you first walked? Are you able to Were you falling over?
Well? Yes, I was definitely like over because so in my brain the way things were working was that I'm moving at a normal speed, but really I was moving too fast and my body would just keep going and then you fall. Pretty much. You always had to have someone around you kind of make sure you didn't fall over for at least the first three days. So when
you return it is not as clamorous. You're able to walk and do all these things, but some of the things you experienced you hadn't experienced in eight months, so they're kind of new again.
But how was the first shower?
That must be glorious, right, amazing? And so I think it was two days. So we came back on Friday, like right after two or so in the morning on Friday, Saturday, you know, we're kind of reacclimating to everything. And then Sunday we actually I ended up going to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants here in Houston. And so you're really back to normal and able to like kind of hold yourself up even though you're exhausted the first
second or third day that you're back. And so some people, you know, like the day that they returned there, okay. For me, it was like the second day that Sunday, we were out at dinner and I felt, okay, I was actually able to eat, you know, most of the half of the dinner and yeah, what are you eating in space?
You're eating like freeze dried stuff.
Yes, it was right, and space is it? You know, it's you're kind of duped into thinking, oh it's so good. You're like, oh my god, they got it. But it wasn't bad food. It was edible. It was not like the food and space was is not like it's just oh gross, I can't eat any of this. No, it's actually edible food. It's just not like, Okay, your favorite restaurant makes your favorite you know what I mean?
Is it do you cook in space? I've never understood this. Is it just packets you're eating out?
Most of us just packets every now and then we do things like at one point they sent up a kit to make pizza, so they sent up Acruss. You can kind of spread the sauce on it, even put like peppers and pepperoni and some cheese on top. And because everything flows, you can kind of wrap it in boil and put it sideways in the oven and heat it up. So you know, most of the food though, is in these packets that you heat up or they're freeze dried and you have to rehydrate it. And that's
like eighty five to ninety percent of the food. Yeah.
So, and drinking a glass of water must have been fucking great.
Yep. See that's the thing. Being able to pick up a glass and things like that and the water kind of stay in the glass.
That was glorious too. I can ask you a big question, sure if you are okay it I saw one on both sides of it. Was there any experience of you're so removed? You are literally removed from the world, and you were removed for a long long time. I think things are probably different now than they used to be, because you do we zoomed new in space. So you did get to like connect with family and with your man most days, right, yeah, and so you have this connection,
but you're very far away. It's not easy, as we know from the two people still strying to still like go I just want to go home. Did you have any moments of sort of profound I guess sadness or homesickness, or like, fuck, this is too too long too, you know, did you ever have that?
There were several things. I mean, there's always stuff like that where you know you and it comes out of nowhere and even expected, and you're kind of like, especially for me, it would happen on the weekends because I didn't I wasn't distracted with all the work that we had to do, and so whenever we had work on the weekend, I was kind of happy in a sense.
But when you were sitting there and you're kind of alone, and then you know, your sister, My sister would call, or my niece would call, or Brian would call, and then that's when I would start missing being and like being at events and things that they were doing for me. The big thing is that I knew that, you know, I'm only here temporarily, so I have to consciously stay in the moment because I have to treat this like I may never get back here again. So the moments
we were not often, but they did. I mean, of course, I mean I'm from a big family. I'm one of seven kids, and so being alone is kind of like a luxury. But another luxury too though, having your people, but my people who I'm close with, having my people around luntury. Yeah.
So would you just with those moments, would you just kind of wait for those moments to pass? Did you have sort of coping mechanisms for that or.
Well speak, I had distraction methods to kind of get pasted, And so I didn't watch a whole lot of movies while I was in space. I watched more like series television series like Star Trek and Picard and things like that.
Were you watching it like this is bullshit?
In some cases, there were things that would happen, or you know, read, listen to a book, a long book. So those were some of the things that I would do every now and then listen to music, or go take photos, look out the window and take post and you know, remind myself that you know, this may be a once in a lifetime. And I mean, I get back and.
You're one of I don't know the numbers, but it must be I need thousands of thousand.
Yeah, we're getting close to about Wow. Yeah, you're one of hundreds of people. I think it's understand hundred seven hundred people been to space.
It's been to space. That's extraordinary. That's amazing that I'm talking to you. I'm very grateful. What's about the other side of it? There have been a number of films, and I love these films. I'm always interested in the stories. And you tell me, how long have.
You been back? Since October twenty fifth.
So there's often stories of people coming back from space and struggling with the normal people, normal life because you've had such a profound experience that no one else has had and can relate to, and has any part of it been difficult in that way sort of psychologically and being back with people who have them into fucking space. Has any of that been tricky?
No? See for me, you know, I felt like when we returned, we had to do a lot of we had to give a lot of samples. I call it samples, but there's a lot of blood collection and other collection. We had to do a lot of debriefs, We had to go see a bunch of different people, and so we were really busy when we got back. And it's not that I didn't think about it before I landed.
One of the questions that so on Orbit, we do talk to psych docs and medical docks, and the psych docs it probably once a month in the medical docks every week or so, and you know, one of the things that was put to me was like, how am I going to feel? And you know, this very question that you're asking now came up and for me, you know, over my career, I've had some moments like when I got out of graduate school, I kind of felt this emptiness, you know what next, but it's going to be the
next big thing for my life. And in that moment way back when I finished graduate school, it was kind of very depressing and you know, trying to figure out what next for my life, And you know, I was working in Michigan and trying to figure out the next phase of my life now that I've kind of accomplished this thing that I had been hoping for, and so I think for the rest of my life, what I realized was that, you know, everything that I learned on
that journey of earning a degree was more important than the end goal because that grew so much. I mean, I was a child when I started, you know, as far as I'm experience in life and things like that, and so by the time I finished graduate school, I had grown so much, and that final point was to me, I realized the final point was eclipsed by everything that I learned along the way. And so for me in life, what I kind of focus on are those moments like
it's been a fifteen year career. I mean, I've done so many really cool things along this journey, and enjoying that final moment of being in space, I kind of immersed myself in that and stayed in the moment. And so when I landed, it was such a sense of joy that I was now at a point in my life where I had achieved what I set out but I have grown and I've done so much in this
career that I'm grateful for all of that. I mean, I've had some really really highs in this along this journey, and some real lows and incredible lows, but they all kind of culminated into that point and in that moment that I'm just really grateful at this point and I can enjoy life now and enjoy the little things, not waiting for these big things that happen, but enjoy being with my family, with Brian, in these little moments of
being around friends and family. So I think for me, I decided a long time ago that I'm not going to get depressed at the end of these big things, but be grateful for everything that I made it through. Holy Cow, it was a lot of sun so over fifteen years and crazy very pleasant question.
But for normal people, I think a long distance relationship is hard, and it's often helped when you get back together just to reacclimatize to your normal life together. How has it been with your man once you got home after this time.
The nice thing is that throughout the two hundred and thirty three days, I probably talked to Brian two hundred and thirty of those days and so you know, it was just kind of it was seamless because of that, and staying in touch and really having good conversations while in space and not letting things kind of list away and like, oh, I don't have time to talk to you right now. Yeah, But being more intentional about it
made it work, I think. And he was very intense to know about making sure that you know, he was available even though we were on different time schedules, but making time like, Okay, we're going to set aside this time to make sure we talk. It's hard, but being intentional about it makes it easier and easier and easier. So I think intentionality instead of letting relationships just kind of happen or purposeful and intentional about it really helped.
But I think you get it. It is you have to be really intentional, and if you're not, things would just kind of float away. You just kind of.
I think it's such a it's interesting that you're in space. Like I said, if you're both like I've got things going on, you're always in space. That's always got a win. I can only talk to you for this hour because that's when I will be above Earth, so you better pick up.
We will have cons so you have to pick up at this stime. Yeah, that's really like I can't argue with that. I guess.
I guess we've got to do it your way because you're in space.
Well, yeah, I kind of have a truck in my back market. But he has to go along with that, and that's that's easy. So finding someone who is willing to go along with that and and be and just be normal about it, is this net enough?
I forget forgive me you married or you're no, we're not married. Yeah, so he gets to say, my girl, my girlfriend's in space again. Sorry, she can't be she's in fucking space anyway. What's your girlfriend minds in space? Your girlfriends on the ground with gravity, she minds in space. One thing I did ask you on the zoom and I hope you don't mind repeating it, But I've thought about it a lot since I did ask you. I hope you don't mind me asking you again. You're a scientist.
You've worked incredibly hard to get to the position that you're in. You were in space, looking at Earth, looking at the universe. It is all physical and practical to you. And I asked you if it made you feel anything spiritual or you know, beyond the kind of physical gravity or not see gravity of it, and would you please tell me your thoughts?
Now, Oh yeah, I think it would be hard to come back and not have like kind of a spiritual awakening, almost because when you look out in space, especially if it's daytime, first of all, you're looking at this beautiful blue Earth with these marvelly kind of patterns on it, but the background is completely black. You can't see any other stars during the daytime, and it is so it's just the blackest black you've ever seen. It's so deep, and you just feel lonely. Is like you know, they
say lonely planet, it's not really lonely planet. It's like, are we the only thing in this universe? And how close is the next human or alien or whatever life form there is? Well, it's just us here, just us in your arm, and you know, is there a God? You start thinking a lot about God and his role in the universe and things like that, But also you think about everybody I know is on that planet, every
human being. I can't even see them, but everything I love is there, and we're so separate, you know, and even when we get back, we're so separate from other human beings. You know, we're so callous towards other human beings. You know, we've gotten to the point where we love our pets more than we love another human being. And I get that though, I get loving your pet, but a human being, even if you don't know them, you
got to value their life. And we we're so separate in so many ways, and that makes me want to be closer to other human beings. Be kind to people, love them, not just toiss them away, and you know, treat them carelessly. That's the thing that I realized, that we treat each other so carelessly. And we're all we got and we've got one planet. The closest is we have a moon, and that's not a planet, but can we even live there? We're going to try. The next place we may get to is Mars in my lifetime.
That is, I don't know if we'll make it to Mars in my lifetime. We might, we're working on it. We're moving towards that. But we're still one group of people on this whole planet. It's not like another species or anything. We're all humans here. We've got animal life forms, we've got plants and trees, and you know, but being kind of one another and taking care of each other has become much more important to me. Even when I drive on the road, I'm different, which is I'm much
kinder because I don't want to hurt someone. And you know, take a second, in a millisecond, a blink of an eye, you change someone's life or your own. And so to me, it's like being more careful and just more caring and courteous. And so I've changed a little bit in that way and learning to love people a lot more than I think I felt that I did in the past.
So is there is that God?
Did you? Did you think that? Oh? Definitely? When I look out at night time, I didn't even mention nighttime. At nighttime, you see the density of stars. You see the atmosphere and how precious it is. But you see the density of stars and how far away they are, you know, And so I definitely believe that there's a God. When you got on the night sky, some of the images that we were able to capture, there's so much going on out there. The auroras, Aurora borealis and australis
absolutely amazing and beautiful. There's something going on out there. There's got to be an unmoved mover. Who started How did this begin? You know what I mean? So there's a lot going on. As I believe that there are, I think the challenge is how do we get to each other? Yeah, I definitely believe that there are aliens in our galaxy? Really, I think in our galaxy has billions of solar systems. We're one tiny solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy. There's probably millions of others. But
then we're one galaxy. There's billions of other galaxies out there. So how do we get to each other? Is the question? Can you figure that out in the next six months? Please? I wish so that we can all when things get rough with the fires in California and everything happening.
Yeah, so fascinating. I've forgotten to tell you something to know, and I feel dreadful about it because we've been talking for so long and I feel like I should have told about it. On the other hand, I also feel like you've been to space, so maybe it's okay, but you've died, You're dead. It didn't seem a bit unrealistic, didn't it? Everything you just tell me seemed like a disis of dream.
Yeah, well, I guess about one hundred and twenty years old when I say, I get the full But I'm traveling. I'm still able to travel, and you know, I'm going overseas to work with some you know, at a school for children or something like, or go visit a hospital.
And right, and when you say overseas, you mean the seas of Saturn.
Or it could be I've returned from Saturn and I'm going to visit some kids, like at a hospital or something like that overseas. The reason I'm not sure why I say overseas, but it's because I love to travel, and I really expect that I'm going to be moving or still traveling. Okay, And some kid who has a virus or something me hugged me, hugs me, and then boom, I'm.
Gone killed by a kid instantly.
I got back from Saturn, and you know my immune system is weakend.
Oh my god, it's so tragic. But you lived to twenty one hundred and twenty and you were still traveling overseas. It's big good. Do you worry about death?
No? The reason I don't worry about death is because I truly believe that when it's my when I'm done with everything I'm supposed to do here, then I will go. I don't know when that will be, but when I'm done, I'm done. And you know, I mean, if I haven't died in living underwater or a cave, going to space and all these things, I'm like, Oh, okay. And it's not that I'm pushing the envelope in tempty fate or
anything like that. It's just that I really do believe that when it's my time, yeah, I'm done.
Wait did you just say you've lived underwaters?
Yeah? Well only for about nine days. What why are we talking about this now? Please? Well, it's just one of the analog missions that we do. I've lived in a cave even and so underwater. We have this kind of a little habitat off the coast of off the coast of Florida, about six miles out. It's about fifty feet underwater. There's an air pocket and we kind of do a scuba dive. We go into the little chamber and we lived there for We lived there, my team, we live there for nine days.
You take off, you're like it's pressurized.
And yeah, exactly as.
Oxygen and you're just living. You're just like wet or there's a humid all the time, right, it's humid all the time. Yes, so yeah, that's the only thing. And then that's called the NASA Extreme Environment Mission operations where you live underwater, or the other one is with the European Space Agency where you live in a cave. You do all this mountaineering stuff in the end of it, you live in a cave for five days.
We did up in Slovenia. Yeah, so yeah, if we do all all this stuff, and it's not that I'm pushing faith or tempting fate that yeah, when you're when your time comes, however you're going to go, you're going to go.
I was living underwater for nine days. Oh.
It was phenomenal because it's another world. Everything moves, even little things that look like a rock, it starts moving. You see sharks. It's extremely colorful. No, we had like these big portals that we can look out and you know, it's it's one of those analog missions. Where our commander was Akihide from the Japanese Space Agency. There's me the scientists. We had Mark vander Hie, who was a colonel in the army in Toma Pascua from the European Space Agency.
He's like France's only yestronaut right now, maybe there's another one now. Actually we also had two lab techs, so there were six of us that slept in these bunk beds across from each other, very close quarters, simulating what we would have in space, even though it was actually smaller than what we have in space. And we would do these fake missions that we landed on an asteroid, so we'd have to put on our scuba gear, leave the habitat and go pretend we're excavating an asteroid.
So that was a lot of fun, A lot of fun. Your life is very cool. What do you think happens when you die?
I think the kids don't feel bad, because you know, I died the way that I wanted in working with these little kids, even though they give me a virus. I think it's a glorious time and people are celebrating because you know, I lived so long, I was able to help people hopefully and give back. After having been able to do all these things, go to space and come back and I was able to help people and now it's time to celebrate big. Do you think there's enoughter life for you?
I do.
I would hope that there is a beautiful afterlife.
Well there is. Congratulations, you're going, Oh you are going to heaven. Let me tell you, heaven is filled with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing?
My friends and family? Oh my god, they're all there.
They're all there, your friends and family, they're all over heaven. They're so excited to see you. And all they want to do is talk about your life. You're one hundred and twenty year life, but they want to talk about it through film, which is weird. The first thing that they ask you is, what's the first film you remember seeing?
Jett Apps. Well, it's kind of fitting that I'm in space. I remember being a kid and my twin sister and I we went downtown with our mother and we went to Landmark Theater and we saw a movie called Jesus Christ Superstar. So yeah, so that's what we watched. So we had to be like maybe seven or eight. I mean, this is wow. Some years after the movie came out and it was showing at a local theater downtown in Syracuse.
So did you love it? I remember loving it. I don't remember a whole lot of movie, but I remember loving it. My mother loved the movie, of course, and so it was just our little thing to do, Janet and I being the youngest and always with our mom, and you know, she wanted to get out and do things. So you know, that was one of the fun things that we did together.
Are you and your twin identical?
No, we're for fraternal. But her name was Janet, so yeah.
Well Janette, Jane and Jeannette. Yeah, it's ridiculous, that's very silly. There's no justification for that. We're not even Idana. That's a stupid question, but I'm going to ask it. Do you did you always feel connected to her? Was there any you know, sometimes people say have twins, do you have a invisible code?
Do you have that with her? We definitely do, you know, probably because we spent we went to the same schools, we were, went to same undergrad same graduate school, and we just deviate it once we finished school. Yeah, did you still feel it when you were all the way in space? No? I don't. I don't think I did. But we talked all the time, so you know, I think I was focused on other things maybe and not really kind of like what's going on with you?
Jan hits up to what is the film that made you cry the mice? Are you a crier?
I try not to cry. And you know, when I read this question, I was thinking about it, and I'm like, I cried a lot of movies. But I realized that the reason that I cry is that like Scrooge, I mean every Scrooge that I've read, any story of redemption, and I mean sad life and you kind of feel like you really want this to happen, and and so stories of redemption and happiness, those are the ones that I cry at the most. Shawshank Redemption that was another one. Yeah,
you can't help but cry, and that one. I So those are the kind of movies that really make me tear up. And when some triumph happens, justice or something like that, you finally get to that point you get it.
So, yeah, which witch Scrooge are you referring to?
Albert? No, So the first one that I watched was the one with Patrick Stewart, but the one man it is the most gut wrenching, the one with Guy Peers It was like a TV one one, and it goes through his childhood and why he became the way he ended up being. It was even more counfrenching because it kind of tells the story of, you know, why was Scrooge like that? What made him become this? And so those are the kind of stories that really tear me apart. Yeah, I get that.
What is the film that scared you device? Do you like being scared? Do you get scared? Rosemary's Baby? I don't know if you've ever seen that.
I don't like scary movies at all, but Rosemary Baby was one of those movies that you know, like that could happen. As a kid, I'm like, oh my god, that could actually happen. Extors is scary. That was so scary. In fact, last week we drove by that Georgetown home in that area very feak. I think I was more afraid of Rosemary's Baby than exist because I can't see Exorcist really happening. I'm sure it could, but baby, it's just it was scary.
So you don't think the devil can possess someone, but you do think that they can give birth, they can imprecate someone.
Well, the head spinning around and the battle floating that could happen. But Rosemary Baby was like, oh my god, what if that kid was born? Yeah? What could I do? That was? It's true?
What is the film that you like but it is not critically acclaimed, but you love it? You don't care what people think.
Okay, don't judge me when I tell you this is Have you ever seen The Fifth Element? Love the Fifth Element?
Well, it's one of the most accurate science fiction films ever made. I'm sure you'd agree.
It's hilarious. It's so funny. So I've watched it many, many times. But I'm one of my guilty pleasures. I think I love that film. See a lot of people do not like that film, but I love this true.
I think the Blue Lady Opera Singer Octopus blue Head.
Yes, it's very movie.
I love It's a great film. Oh here's the question I wanted to ask you, as someone who's done all this, is there any film you've seen science fiction film or you know, space movie that is close to the one. What's the one that's impressed you the most where you're like, yeah, that's pretty spot If any.
Well, it's interesting because you know, Andy Weir wrote The Martian and that was probably the most accurate. But that's because he did all of his research, right, And yeah, he did a lot of great research on the spacesuit, potentially growing things in space, mission control and so you know, he received the Hugo Award for that story. But it was because he got very close to the accurate, to their actual way things in space. And it's difficult to do that. I mean, there's a lot of stories that
don't come close, but The Martian was pretty close. Interesting.
Oh yeah, there's a film called Iss came out last year. Do you see it?
I did see it. Is this the one where only two people survive in the end.
Is the Ariana Duvois film where they get they think the Earth has been like and then now they've got to fight each other. Yes, tell me how, because I enjoyed that film. I have no idea how real, how good, how stupid? You tell me, having lived there.
The relationships and so basically it's the same movie that we saw. You have the Russians fighting the Americans in a way, yes, and so that's the part that is not real, and I think that's partly the movie was not bad the premise of it was what I didn't like, Like, you would never see the Russians and Americans fighting like that. I mean, there are closest neighbors in the States, and so it's funny whenever every weekend we had dinner together and it was either in the data in the Russian
segment or downtown in the US segment. So we got along really really well. So would there ever be a kind of like a fight like that, I can say never. I would say that would never happen. But it was the sort of physical nature of that film which looked pretty good to me. It was a lot of things that were active, but it was side by I guess the side by side seating is correct in the SOYUS. Within the SOYUS it is much more cramped inside the
Soyuz vehicle. There were a lot of things, really good things that they did on there that I think the only reason why I did not I was like, no, this, this would never happen, was because of the relationship.
Right, that's good, that's good, that's nice.
It is interesting that you know, we still have this really close relationship with our Russian colleagues, and I think a lot of people are surprised, but we work so closely together. Like Alexander Grievinkin was the gentleman, the cosmonaut that I flew with. One of the best human beings I've ever met. Is another one some of my favorite Russians, Serge Anton Skaparev. I did language immersion in Russia, so you know, getting to know a lot of these guys.
And I did all the training in Star City as well. We really do work closely together and train closely. You get to know each other really well and you have to trust each other. Yeah. Nice.
Do you feel like like you'll be close with these people back in the real world.
You'll keep in touch and stuff to people. I still get for the holidays, Alec to me and he's he always sends Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, International Woman's Day. In March, I get a note from Alec. Yeah, we we keep in touch through what'sapp. So the world has gotten smaller with things like WHATSP telegram things like that.
So what is the film that you used to love but you have watched recently and you've thought, I don't like this anymore.
Well, so I won't watch those movies. And the reason I say. I say that is because I remember as a kid, we loved any movie that had Elvis Presley in it. Right now, as I've gotten older and rewatched some of those like, yeah, I just can't movies. Sorry to Elvis fans, but they were yeah, I can't. Yeah, watch any.
What is the film that means the most to you? Not necessarily the film is good, but the experience you had seeing the film will always make it.
Maybe. Oh well, I'm looking this way because you know, not too long ago. So one of the movies that I watched a while ago was this movie called Deer Hunter with Robert de Niro Narrow Street. It's a great movie. Yeah, up until like twenty twenty two, I hadn't really watched the movie. I probably watched it maybe ten years. Prior to that, I had never seen a friend of mineset. It was a great Vietnam movie. You got to watch it,
and I thought it was a pretty good movie. And then Brian we we've been friends for twenty some odd years now, but a few years the reason we ended up probably getting together was one night he was keeping me company while I was quarantined for working with Crew five. It was another mission to the space station. It was crew five. I was the backup, so I had to quarantine and Brian, as a friend, agreed to keep me company while I was quarantined alone. And so he's like, yeah,
I'll watch a movie. I was like, oh, okay. And you know I knew that Brian. You know, he was a military analyst. I knew he loved all these military movies. So I said, hey, why don't we watch Deer Hunter together? And you know that way is something I'll enjoy. He'll definitely like he's doing me a favorite, keeping me company. Fine,
So this is about almost three years ago now. So we watched the movie and then Brian kept talking at the end of the movie, and he kept talking and kept talking, and we had this long conversation about two hours afterwards. Then it dawned on me that oh, I think this was a date and it was a day. Yes, so yes, So from that day on we've been see.
I like, how it's very sweet that a man says I'll come and keep you company quarantined. You had no idea, Well, we were in separate places that way. The funniest part, you were in separate like pods.
No, he was at home in Maryland and I was in Florida. No, actually I was in here here in Houston. I was in Houston. So we started the movie at the same time. And wow, you.
Too too, A good at long distance.
It's very sweet. Well we were friends for what twenty years at that point? Yeah, twenty years?
And so when did you get together after that after the Deer Hunter? How long until you were physically.
Maybe probably about so, probably about two weeks after that a little bit over we you know, the launch went off and I could finally leave quarantine and we met up face to face flintly. So, but it was after that it was like every day we had to check that so and we weren't chatting about anymore that first night four hours of Deer Hunt.
Mo pas to click. So do you does everyone have to quarantine for two weeks before you go into space so that you're all jam free?
Yeah, exactly.
Swin theory, no one should get in in space because none of you have brought anything with.
You, exactly. But when you do introduce the new folks in like which the Starliner folks, they've also quarantined, so they shouldn't have anything. But you know, there's a potential.
Yeah, what is I keep having I keep forgetting whis men to talk about films? So what is the film you mightst relate to?
Oh gosh, there's so many movies and I'm kind of a weird person, and that I picked the things that caused me to grow the most and the film that I'm most related to, and there's there's there's several of them. But when my favorite movies is Doune and even though yeah, yeah, I love that as a kid. So yeah, And I don't know if it was because I was going through something weird, you know, like going through school was weird for me because you know, I wanted to be a scientist.
My parents weren't scientists. Things like that. But there's always just so much in this movie that is I related to it at a given moment. And you know, for example, like in the movie when I'm dup, Lito says to Paul, you know, the sleeper must awaken. You know. It's like for me, I knew I had a lot of work I needed to do. I need to get on it, and I knew that there were things that I needed
to do and you know, just must awaken. And I was so corny, But those are little things that to me like call the action almost and just relating to Paul, Paul reluctantly had to become this person. And it wasn't that I was reluctant. It's just that, you know, I had to go to Loane just get it done.
How did you when did you do you remember deciding you wanted to do this? You always knew this?
Well, I think it was more like getting into undergraduate and going to college. And going to graduate school was kind of like a big decision for me because you know, my brothers had gone to college and they joined the army and done things like that. But Jane and I we wanted to be scientists and that was very different. But we had a mom who said, oh, sure, why not, even though she had no clue what we wanted to do.
And so it was just interesting that things like Dune and stuff like that and getting into the right mindset to go forward and do these things was was a challenge.
But do you know what inspired it? Like was did something happen at school or in TV or anything that made you go That's what I'm interested in.
Well, I will tell you when I was nine years old, My older brother came home from college, and you know, Janet and I being the nice little sisters, we wanted to make our brother happy, and so we showed up what was our report cards, so you get your grades back then, it was on a card and you either get a's, b's, your attendance and all this stuff is on it. So we showed our brother, and our brother said to Jane to me, he's like, wow, this is great.
You guys are doing well in math and science. You know, maybe you can become astronauts or aerospace engineers. And I knew that, you know, there's no way that I could become They would select me to become an astronaut, but I knew that I become an aerospace engineer. So at the age of nine, this little bit was flipped in my brain. Up, I have to go to school for this. And it didn't change, it didn't waiver. You know, there were times when you doubt that, but it was just
you know, this is what I have to do. This is what I'm supposed to be doing kind of thing, and so it didn't inspire me. My brother kind of convinced me that that is what you're supposed to be doing. Wow, that's so cool. And what about Jack? Is she a scientist? She she is, but she did molecular cell biology, so she did more stuff with genetics. Yeah, and yeah, we were nerds, and you know, we're kind of like paying for it as we get older because there's things that other kids did he did not.
You are amazing. What Oh, here we go to that. What's the sexiest film you've ever seen?
Oh? That's Oh, I've got a couple. There's two that came to mind almost immediately. There's a movie called Love Jones and that has me a long love that film. It was so amusing. Yeah, and then Thomas Crown Affair. Of course, the new one or the one I love? Yeah, I like both of them a lot. Very sexy.
I think that New one is really sexy. Great film. Here's Brasman, Yes, yes, please, wonderful.
Love Jones was is a you know a lot of people haven't seen that one, but I'm like the music, the relationships, the way things played out.
I mean it was just very sexy, very very sexy. There's a subcategory, you know, there is sometimes I don't love asking it, but here we are traveling by those worrying why Jones a film you found a rousing that you weren't.
Sure you shit, that's a that's a tough one. Yeah, I mean these be honest, all of.
These romantic movies, I mean like Love Jones and Thomas Crowdlefeer. They're not like super like you know, close off and this and that and the other. But that is to me the sexiest way you get around. And it's it's like more of the imagination and it's not so much you got to see all the skin and you got to see it. No, it's just this whole kind of notion of this deep passion between these people that is so and it's just boiling over. So it's probably probably loved Jones or I.
Will I will accept it. That's what well. I want to ask, by way, what is how do you cope with that side of things? Being in space for two hundred and thirty days? Just shut down? I just shut down.
And it's so funny because there is a scientist who she has done like presentations on sex and space and so really getting into this and we'll see in the future how far that goes. But yeah, you're in space, you're in close quarters with all these people. I think the worst thing, and this is how I always felt like, you don't you don't sleep with the people you work with. You got to see them the next day. It doesn't work out, you don't want them, like spiking your punchers.
Yeah, were there any relationships on this space station.
Where you were No, So, Matt's married, Mike's married, Tracy's married. I'm pretty much, I guess closely. Yeah, and then the Russians are like, you know, they're like they're there to work, they're doing the ground tells them, and everyone's kind of like on the street.
Well, from what I could see, Yeah, answering that question, I appreciate you. You just have to shut it down. I assume that's what you say. Just shut that down, but just just kill that part of your brain for two hundred and thirty days and just keep looking at the wonder of the world.
I guess I'm I'm going to be I don't know. I know in the military they claim that the feel that they would give these guys would kind of shut a lot of that down. I don't know if that's true, but yeah, I kind of doubt that it's true, to be honest, because that's just not right. You've got to tell someone that you're doing this. That's good. We are dragging you, so you don't so you have no libido? I take it. Great. Sounds sensible, right, it sounds sensible. Right, Yeah,
there are there's a research a medical doctor. She has been doing a lot of presentations on sex and space and why for health reasons. I guess. I'm not sure of all her reasons, but she's out there, yeah, kind of proselytizing. So she's given many presentations on it.
What so in the same way that you guys have been looking into immunity in space and three D, she's sort of going, what about sex and space that might be good for us? Except exactly that's important to work. Okay, thank you friends for these questions. What is objectively the greatest film of all time?
Oh? So okay, this one is when I saw this question to her and you know, everything for me like relates back to family and friends and things like that.
So for me, it's The Ten Commandments. I mean the Wow, Charleston Heston and yeah, Bill Brenner to mill was he was the director, I think, So you got to realize that, you know, when I was a kid growing up in Syracuse, like around Easter time, you know, the Tenth Commandments was shown on television, and it was like my mother was like, oh, we got to watch this, so it would be like a big Sunday dinner. My mother's making dinner on a Sunday afternoon. The movie is like twenty hours long in
real time exactly, so she's cooking dinner. We're all sitting around watching it, and you know, you could smell the food in the house, and we're just all sitting down together watching my mother's making dinner. We eat dinner. The movie is still going on, and it's just an epic movie. And so many actors and superstars ended up in the movie. Even Vincent Price was in there. It's just kind of
a beautiful movie. To me, it was just epic. But it reminds me of growing up in Syracuse and my mom cooking on a Sunday afternoon, and it was such a big deal to watch this movie.
Every you start to Semstein, you've got them. You've got a lot of biblical, biblical films here were you were you religious religious family?
Well, yeah, we were. I think as I've grown up, I've gotten more away from like religion as an institution, but more Christian and you know, instead of blindly following things, really understanding what you're doing, and you know, the big premise of all of it is love at the end of the day.
Yeah, what is the film you could or have watched.
The I love movies, so there's so many things. You could name a Star Trek movie. I've watched it over a hundred times. In fact, we recently watched The Wrath of Khan, which is so I mean, and we're watching it now and they were like, oh, the acting was kind of but we love the promise of it. I mean, there's so many movies. Oh my gosh, I've watched so
many of the James Bond movies. Admittedly, I've watched those repeatedly over and over, and then you know there's I'm looking at the notes that I wrote down, and uh, you know two of my favorite actors that I've watched a lot of their movies over over and over again is Robin Williams and Denzel Washington. Yeah, as Missus douth Flower or Patch Adams and Denzel Washington in just about anything. Holy God, I agree, very good.
He's my favoritis I would watch them in end and I have, what is the worst film you've ever seen?
Let's not be too negative. No, I'm not going to be negative, but this this one was undoubtedly So I was forced. I wasn't forced. I was asked to watch if I wanted to watch a movie while I was doing a training exercise and I was stuck in a vacuum chamber inside the spacesuit. And so they're like, oh, we've got tons of movie. We've got Shark Nado. You can watch Shark Nado. Like, I've never seen it. Is it any good? They were like, oh, yeah, it's good movie.
And I was I can't even believe that I watched that movie. But I was a captive audience. I was in a chamber.
What does that mean? So you're are you flight team No.
Here in Houston, we have a chamber where basically they lock you. You're in the space suit, the spacesuited vehicle. You have oxygen pressurized. But then they take you in the suit and they put you into a chamber, take all the air out. You're in vacuum, and so you're stuck there because what they want to do is see how the soup behaves and how you behave when you're in a vacuum chamber. We're purging all of the nitrogen out of your body so that you don't get decompression sickness
when you do outdoor on the space walk. And so I'm just basically sitting there in a suit as a captive person, and I'm able to look at this little portal while I'm stuck in this chamber, and they could show a movie and they can pipe in the sound into the suit and Shark Nado evolve being I cannot get back, it's so horrible.
So there's so many physical checkpoints along the way that if you didn't pass, you can't go to space. Essentially, you could do all this work and if you can't handle that, you're out and.
Crazy.
And that was the I think that was part of the test. Can you handle being in the back and watched Sharp DA. If you can do that your hand, then have you seen the movie? I actually have not seen Sharkda though, Okay, so I judge it.
Whatever you do, do it.
What is the film that made you laugh the most?
Oh? Did you laugh in space? Oh? Yeah, something about Mary. I don't know if you've seen that one. I have seen that. Yeah, it probably made me laugh the most. I went to see the bussters and yeah, we laughed so hard. That was years ago, though, that's probably Jeanette Epps. This has genuinely been a privilege for me and on it and I've enjoyed this so so much. I really really appreciate you telling me everything. I hope these questions
haven't been boring for you. No, No, been as fascinated as I have.
However, when you were one hundred and twenty years out and you just got back from Saturn, so you were pretty let's stay clean, germ free, and you being you were like, ah, I'm home for a bit, but I still like to travel. I'm going to go overseas. You went overseas. Want to help some kids. You go visit a school. I'm going to inspire some kids. And one
of these fucking kids, absolutely riddled with illness comes over. Oh, I'm such a big fan, hunts you, kisses you, and as they kiss you, they pass the virus to your very innocent body that has had no germs for so long as you've been on Saturn. Just swinging around the fucking rings and stuff. I have a lovely time anyway, the virus takes over you. It eats your flesh. You collapse a skeleton on the floor. All the kids scream, oh my God, Jesus that I'm walking around with a coffin.
You know, I'm like, I go, Jesus, what's that? I go, Oh my God, is that the famous asson? Oh my God, look at her skeleton? Jesus, And I say, you kissed her? And the kid goes it was me, And I got you, little shit, look what you've done. Get out of here, and I go, come on, everybode help me. You get your bones, But your bones there's less less densitys you've just been to Sat. Your bones are like very light. I'm getting the bones and the shutter of oh oh God,
getting bits of your skin. Anyway. End up, I've got a much smaller coffin than I thought. Coffin is rammed despite how very thin your bones are. There's only enough room in this coffin for me to slip one DVD into the side for you to take across to the other side. And on the other side, it's movie night every night. What film are you taking to show your friends and family in heaven? When it is your movie night. Please.
Since it's my family, it has to be the ten commands. Oh my god, I love it. And we're we're making dinner, we're hanging out watching the tank Amends like we did when we were little, and.
It lasts eternity because it is the Tanker moment. Oh, Jeanette, this has been such a joy. Normally I say to people, you know that is there things people should look out for and watch with you? What have you got coming up? Is there anything we should be looking out for? What's going on next for you?
Well, I'm entering back into the core, and I'm going to do a lot of presentations to students and things like that, going out to the New York Halle Science and talking to students there, and maybe back to my
undergrad in Syracuse Lemoyne College and talking to students. So pretty much, I'm entering back into the core, starting training again and talking to a lot of students and hoping, hoping that I can inspire them and show them some things that they've never seen and maybe they'll get interested or become interested in science, technology, engineering, mathematics.
And what's the cool? When you say the core, what's the what's.
The astronaut core.
That's so cool. That's so cool. Wow, Janet X, what's an absolute treat. Thank you very very very very much for doing this.
So happy to me. Thank you for inviting me, oh man, especially thanks for accepting the invitation to talk to us in space. Are you kidding? It's the crazest thing.
That happened of all the amazing things to happen, to be told by NASA, can you have a chat with someone in space?
You're like, fuck, yes, that was amazing. So thank you so much, Thank you, pleasure. I appreciate you. I appreciate you so much. Good day.
So that was episode three hundred and thirty seven. Head over to the patreontpatreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldsteam for the extra twenty twenty five minutes of chat, secrets and video with Jeanette. Go to Apple Podcasts give us a five star rating. But right about the film that means they're nice to you and why it's a lovely thing to read helps her numbers much appreciated, Thank you, thanks for listening. Thank you so much to Jeanette for
coming back to Earth and giving me her time. Thanks to Scrubius, Pip and the distraction pieces of network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Thanks to iHeartMedia and Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network for hosting it. Thanks very much to Adam Richardson for the graphics and leads Alight Them for the photography. Come and join me next week for another smashing. Yes, that's it for now, but in the meantime, have a lovely week and please be excellent to each other.
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