Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a retired US Marine Corps Major General and former NASA astronaut. After flying on four space shuttle missions—STS-61-C, STS-31, STS-45, and STS-60—Charlie was appointed by former President, Barack Obama, to serve as the 12th Administrator of NASA from 2009 to 2017, making him the first African American to head the agency permanently. Today, Charlie is the Founder and CEO Emeritus of the Charles F. Bolden Group, a consortium of accomplished leaders founded in 2017 to ...
Jan 07, 2025•27 min
Charles F. Bolden Jr. is the Founder and CEO Emeritus of the Charles F. Bolden Group, a consortium of accomplished leaders founded in 2017 to foster international collaboration in making life better for all humanity. Appointed by the former president, Barack Obama, Charlie served as the 12th Administrator of NASA from 2009 to 2017, making him the first African American to hold the position permanently. Charlie is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General and former astronaut who has flown on fou...
Dec 31, 2024•56 min
Charles Frank Bolden Jr. formerly served as the 12th Administrator of NASA from 2009 to 2017. He was the first African American to head the agency permanently. In addition to being a retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General, Charlie is a former astronaut who has flown on four Space Shuttle missions. He is the Founder and CEO Emeritus of the Charles F. Bolden Group, a consortium of accomplished leaders founded in 2017 to foster international collaboration in making life better for all humanity. Ch...
Dec 24, 2024•54 min
Bill Nye “the Science Guy” is an American science educator, engineer, comedian, television presenter, author, and inventor with a mission to help foster a scientifically literate society and to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been passionate about his entire life. Bill is a seven time Emmy Award winner and was involved in placing the first sundial on Mars. Today, Bill joins me...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 3 min
My guest on this episode is Zolana Joao, a distinguished engineer and dynamic leader from the Angola National Space Program Management Office. In this episode, we explore Zolana’s profound journey from his challenging early years in war-torn Angola to his instrumental role in advancing Angola’s aspirations in space exploration. With his deep commitment to education and his strategic vision, Zolana has been a driving force in launching Angola’s first satellites, significantly impacting his countr...
Jul 02, 2024•37 min•Ep. 125
This episode was recorded at the Inter Astra Retreat just outside Washington DC last November (2023). I sat down with Stella Marcy, a high school freshman from upstate New York with big dreams of becoming an astrobiologist. Stella’s passion for exploring the origins of life on other planets and her curiosity about the universe is truly inspiring. In our conversation, we discussed what it means to be an astrobiologist, the tools scientists use to search for life beyond Earth, and how high school ...
Jun 14, 2024•17 min•Ep. 124
A brand-new inspirational space podcast featuring Astronauts from different generations comparing notes on everything from their moment of selection, training, mission, and legacy. Listen to this exclusive trailer featuring conversations from the first two episodes: 1. Dr. Kathy Sullivan, a three-time NASA astronaut and the first American woman to walk in space speaks with Christina Koch, a serving NASA astronaut set to be the first woman to reach the moon. 2. General Charles F. Bolden, a four-t...
May 01, 2024•1 min
This episode was recorded at the Inter Astra Retreat just outside Washington DC last November (2023) where I had the pleasure of sitting down with Lisa Marrocchino, the CEO of Proteus Ocean Group. Starting in the world of Wall Street, Lisa has a profound passion for advancing our understanding of the ocean through innovative technologies. Proteus, is being designed as the 'International Space Station of the Ocean,' aiming to revolutionize our approach to sustained underwater research. In this ep...
Apr 19, 2024•38 min•Ep. 123
Your Business: In Space Environmental Intelligence in Space with Dr. Kathy Sullivan Dr. Kathy Sullivan is a distinguished scientist, astronaut, and explorer who has contributed to our understanding of space and the Earth’s oceans. As the first American woman to walk in space and a veteran of three NASA space shuttle missions, Dr. Sullivan has reached both the heights of outer space and the depths of our oceans. As an accomplished geologist, she has explored the complexities of marine geology and...
Mar 19, 2024•13 min
Dear Explorer, On June 10, 2021, I launched the Kathy Sullivan Explores podcast. Many of us were under some form of a lockdown back then, and the podcast has helped me connect in ways that were previously impossible to imagine. Through our journey together, we’ve explored science, art, space, and memorable moments in my life all while speaking to brilliant guests. It has truly been an incredible privilege to share stories, insights, and inspiring conversations with you all. In this episode, I wa...
Aug 03, 2023•9 min
Jane Alexander is an actress, author, and former Chairperson of the National Endowment of the Arts. In 1969, Jane received a Tony Award for her performance as Eleanor Bachman in the Broadway production of The Great White Hope. Jane received her first Emmy nomination for her role as Eleanor Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin. Over her career, she has received two Primetime Emmy Awards—as well as nominations for eight Tony Awards, four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards—and was inducted ...
Jul 27, 2023•57 min
Jim Clash is an American participatory adventure and business journalist, author, and fellow and director of Explorers Club. Since joining Forbes as a staff writer in 1993, Jim has skied to the South Pole, flown in a MiG-25 at Mach 2.6 to the edge of space, and climbed the Matterhorn. His other adventures include driving the Bugatti Veyron at its top speed of 253 miles per hour and, most recently, flying with the US Navy Blue Angels in their F-18 fighters. He is the author of Forbes to the Limit...
Jul 20, 2023•50 min
Linda Kass is the acclaimed author of Tasa’s Song (2016) and A Ritchie Boy (2020). Her latest book, Bessie— a fictional portrait of Miss America 1945, Bess Myerson—will be released in September 2023. She is also the founder and owner of Gramercy Books, an independent bookstore in Columbus, Ohio. Trained as a journalist, Linda began her career as a magazine reporter and correspondent for regional and national publications such as Columbus Monthly, TIME, and The Detroit Free Press. Linda is known ...
Jul 13, 2023•51 min
John Dabiri is a MacArthur Fellow and Centennial Chair Professor at the California Institute of Technology. John’s research focuses on unsteady fluid mechanics and flow physics, with particular emphasis on topics relevant to biology, energy, and the environment. While serving as a Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering at Caltech from 2005 to 2015, John was also the Director of the Center for Bioinspired Wind Energy, Chair of the Faculty, and Dean of Students. From 2015 to 2019, he served a...
Jul 06, 2023•59 min
You’ve probably heard or read something about the “new space age” unfolding around us. While this new era of space exploration is raising important questions—like who sets the rules and who owns what—it’s also inspiring grand visions of the future. I don’t have a crystal ball or some super secret source of insider intelligence, but it’s clear that two grand visions are strongly influencing a lot of the enterprises involved in the new space age: one of preserving humanity and the world, and one o...
Jun 29, 2023•7 min
Christopher A. Scholin is the President and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and has been a driving force behind groundbreaking research since 2009. He started his professional journey as a research assistant professor at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Driven by a passion for merging molecular biology and ecology, Chris joined the esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT/WHOI) Joint Program in Biological ...
Jun 22, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Katy Psenicka is the Chief Choreographer and Chief Operations Officer of Shadowbox Live, America’s largest resident ensemble theater company based in Columbus, Ohio. Since joining Shadowbox Live in 1994, Katy has made choreography the anchor of her professional career, cultivating over 600 character-driven performing art pieces that tell stories through contemporary dance. A versatile performer herself, Katy has also been featured in several lead and supporting roles. Her most recent work includ...
Jun 15, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Charles Justiz, Ph.D., is a pilot, risk & safety consultant, and author of the sci-fi thriller, Specific Impulse. He is the founder and Managing Director of JFA Inc. and formerly served as the Chief of Aviation Safety at the NASA Johnson Space Center, where he established a crew resource management program, a safety management system, and a just culture approach. All of which have become industry standards. During his 30-year-long career at NASA, Charlie has flown over 16,000 flight hours in...
Jun 08, 2023•59 min
Glen Moroney is an entrepreneur and the owner, operator, and CEO of Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours. At its inception in 1986, Scenic began offering tours to the Great Ocean Road in Warrnambool, Australia, and expanded into providing extensive land journeys throughout Australia and New Zealand. Under Glen’s leadership, Scenic has grown into a global cruise line that offers hundreds of extended touring programs to exotic, domestic, and international destinations. Scenic has also built the Sceni...
Jun 01, 2023•53 min
When was the last time you watched people at a sporting event, ceremony, or concert—having the experience of a lifetime, yet mainly holding their phones or cameras up to film it all? It’s as if capturing pictures and videos is more valuable or important than the experience itself, and so they live everything through their camera screens. While certain moments in our lives prompt us to reach for our phones or cameras to capture that unfolding event and immortalize it into a visual memory, doing s...
May 25, 2023•9 min
Susan Rainwater is the former Chief of the EVA, Robotics, and Crew Systems Operations Division at NASA and a linchpin in the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. After graduating from Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree, Sue served at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in the late 1980s. She then came to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to work with the Hubble Space Telescope under the Mission Operations Directorate prior to the STS-31 deploymen...
May 18, 2023•47 min
“Awesome” is used so often these days—at least in the US—that it has almost lost its meaning. It seems that it hardly has a bigger impact than saying “Oh, that’s nice.” But, for astronauts, the truly awesome experience of seeing the Earth from space with our own eyes is transformative—an experience that catalyzes the profound shift in the way we think about ourselves, our lives, and our home planet Earth. In 1987, Frank White coined the term “overview effect” to describe this experience. But the...
May 11, 2023•8 min
Margot Lee Shetterly is a non-fiction writer. Her book, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, tells the story of African-American women mathematicians who helped provide NASA with the raw computing power it needed to dominate the heavens. After a career in investment banking and media, Margot moved to Mexico with her husband and founded Inside Mexico, an English-language magazine, while writing Hidden Figures. In addition to her...
May 04, 2023•55 min
There’s a ton of content in the media about what some people are calling the “new space age”: the era in which space is becoming more democratized—and more commercialized. At a minimum, media coverage about this new space age has been about Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and space tourism. While it’s clearly an exciting time to be in the business of space or to start a career in the space sector, peeling back all that fancy, sizzly coverage reveals a ton of unresolved questions you may not be hearing ab...
Apr 27, 2023•9 min
Victor Vescovo is a private equity investor, retired naval officer, undersea explorer, and space tourist. He is the founder, Chief Executive, and Chief Submersible Pilot at Caladan Oceanic, a private marine research organization. As an adventurer, Victor has reached the North and South Poles, climbed the Seven Summits, and visited the deepest points of all the Earth’s oceans during the Five Deeps Expedition of 2018-2019. In 2022, Victor flew to space as a space tourist aboard New Shepard—a reusa...
Apr 20, 2023•43 min
I started dreaming about living abroad when I was around 12 years old, figuring that I would achieve that by attending a university that had a junior-year abroad program. This dream was realized as I became an exchange student at the University of Bergen in Norway, where I had the opportunity to learn another language through an immersive summer program that involved living on a small farm at the heart of the country, near the cabin of one of our teachers. But it wasn’t just a new language that ...
Apr 13, 2023•12 min
Ché Bolden is a US Marine Corps veteran and President and CEO of The Bolden Group. Founded in 2017, The Bolden Group is a consortium of accomplished leaders dedicated to fostering international collaboration to make life better for all of humanity. Ché served for over 26 years in the US Marine Corps, where he also served as an International Affairs Program Coordinator and Weapons and Tactics Instructor. After concluding his service with the Marine Corps, Ché founded two technology companies, Int...
Apr 06, 2023•1 hr
Ché Bolden is a US Marine Corps veteran and President and CEO of The Bolden Group. Founded in 2017, The Bolden Group is a consortium of accomplished leaders dedicated to fostering international collaboration to make life better for all of humanity. Ché served for over 26 years in the US Marine Corps, where he also served as an International Affairs Program Coordinator and Weapons and Tactics Instructor. After concluding his service with the Marine Corps, Ché founded two technology companies, Int...
Apr 06, 2023•1 hr
I recently had a great chat here on the Kathy Sullivan Explores podcast with Alastair Humphreys, an adventurer, blogger, author, speaker, and filmmaker. Alastair is a prolific communicator who—through his website, speaking, and range of books and blogs—passionately advocates for getting more adventures into our lives. His book, Ten Lessons from the Road, brims with inspirational advice for life, hard-won during his four-year, round-the-world journey by bike. In this episode, I share two key take...
Mar 30, 2023•5 min
Megan McArthur Behnken is an American oceanographer, engineer, NASA astronaut, and the last person to be hands-on with the Hubble Space Telescope via the Canadarm. Throughout her career, Megan has served as a Capsule Communicator for both the Space Shuttle and International Space Station; she has flown one Space Shuttle mission—STS-125, the final Space Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope aboard Atlantis —and one SpaceX mission, the SpaceX Crew-2 aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour...
Mar 23, 2023•58 min
