Emotions in Outer Space

video about crying in space and what that might consist of. Yeah, it is a great video was put out by the I S S Commander, International Space Station Commander Chris Hatfield, and he demonstrates what it is like to cry in space. Now he doesn't actually he doesn't. Cried a sad novel and then begin you know, he's a man, he is he is manned up to a venture into the void and he has that he seems like a really nice guy.

But you know, he's got a mustache. He has a mustache, He has kind of a there's a certain machismo to anybody that goes up into space, male or female. So um, yeah, So if an astronaut is going to demonstrate what it's like to cry and space, they're going to have to escort some water in their eyes because these there are some hard boiled eggs. That's right, man or woman, you

are a cowboy in outer space. So but one of the great things about this video is that it really does pull back the curtains on what it is like. There's rote day to day activities, including crying, right because um, I you know, assume that there are lots of emotional issues in outer space. And we've talked about this a bit. It's a high stress environment and as we're gonna get into in in this in another podcast, and it's a hostile environment, and and so it's possible that that tears

could occur, and in all likelihood they have occurred. You know, just we've joked, there's been some pretty tense moments. You know, they locked themselves in the bathroom and just boo who yeah. Well, and then also you can there are other reasons tears can form, you know, various irritations I irritations and sinus and whatnot. And you know that has happened. But his work has been great because he has he has done a really nice job in these videos of shining light

on space minutia. You know, the little tiny bits of daily life you might not think about, like if if we didn't know better, I might think that they forgot to assign him anything to do, and he's just shooting a bunch of videos. But of course he has plenty of other well as well. I think that the one of the cool things about this video is that it also underscores this idea that, uh, everything in space, everything

in microgravity, behaves differently. So even though we bring our portable cages with us, right, we bring our own artificial environments, um, you know in the capsule on the International Space Station, Uh, we still have to sort of relearn how to be human. So imagine that you have this really poignant moment that you're stirring up in your emotions, and all of a sudden, tears begin to well up in your eyes. Well they

don't just flow down, obviously, because there's no gravity. Instead, they just pool atop your eyeballs, growing fatter and more obscenely large, until they break off into this big glob in front of you and float off. And then somebody could conceivably turn around and they're about to say, hey,

what are you crying about? And then the whole glob of your tears just goes into their mouth, that's right, and so it becomes this otherworldly experience, right, And I imagine that the first couple of times people crying spaces probably really fascinating. In fact, I bet that whatever you're sad about, you know, that kind of no matter, it no longer matters, right, because in front of you is

this big glob that you can play with. What if you were missing gravity, You're crying because you miss gravity so much, And then that just makes it all the worse because you're like, I can't even cry, like nor this is how I cry now. My tears mock me. Yeah. As I mentioned in the video, I'd also um reminded

me a bit of Dante's Inferno. There's a bit there where Dante and Virgil are in the on the frozen lake of Casitas at the bottom of Hell, and these individuals are are frozen in this lake with their heads facing up, so that when they cry out in tears and you know, repenting their sins or tears of anger,

the water pools in their sockets and freezes there. Um. Which you know, if you start to think about it, if you start to imagine worst case scenarios, you could possibly envision in a situation where you're crying in space and there's been a temperature failure in the capsule, temperatures are plumbering, and those globs of of water in your eye sockets could potentially freeesaw, so you get eyeball popsicles. Yeah. Nice. Now, if you're exposed to the void itself, then the tears

will probably just boil off. But that's that's an entirely different situation. Yeah, an entirely different episode as well. Uh Well, in order for us to really talk about what it's like to be human in space exploration, or to relearn our humanness and how to deal with it, particularly emotions, we should probably talk about space itself and then the International Space Station, which is sort of where the grand

experiment has been playing out. Okay, yeah, Well, space itself, the void, the great black yonder as it is, it's uh, it's it is a very hostile environment because one of the one of the things we always have to to drive home here is that as human beings, we are a We're an organism that is evolved to live in a very thin layer of even our own atmosphere, in our own environment. There are places on Earth that we

cannot live without the significant technological help. So if you take us out of the planet entirely, then you're you've taken us into a place of death. Yeah. True. I mean we don't think about it because we don't see it. But we are dealing with hundreds of pounds of pressure in the air, right, We're just kind of used to moving around in it. But in space, as we know is that it's a vacuum. There is no air pressure.

Molecules are scant, right. But the way I like to think of it is is think back to Star Trek. You see William Schattner walking around um and he's he's wearing his girdle, of course, and he's very he's very confident in his in his torso because that girdle is pressing in. And take that girdle away and he's going to be very very self conscious, is going to be

totally put off. Nothing's going to feel right, and he's going to have to relearn how he's doing everything around the ship because the atmospheric pressure is kind of like a girdle pressing in on us all the time, and it becomes such a part of who we are and how we experienced the world. We we don't even begin

to register it unless there's a significant change. And it's funny because it's hard to divorce yourself from this uh notion of air pressure or or even air molecule molecules not being present because we think it there's empty air,

but of course air is not empty. Is it is heavy, it is thick, it is pressing in on us and spaces an environment where that is not present, and the temperature space is at its coold is just the temperature of the leftover glow from the Big Bang, the radiation known as the cosmic microwave background based the entire universe in the temperature of only two point seven kelvin. That's less than three degrees above absolute zero or minus four

hundred and fifty five degrees fahrenheit. And of course we have even more stats about what the environment of space is like if you don't happen to have a space suit, but that's a separate podcast episode. Tune in for that.

But if you do have a space suit and your destination is the International Space Station, you are luck because this is a habitable artificial satellite in low orbit space, traveling about seventeen thousand miles plus change an hour in order to stay in orbit, making gentle curve around the Earth. And it's up there about two miles kios. And when you're an orbit like that, things are waitless because they're all falling at the same velocity. So, um, we should point out that the I S S is actually in

its thirteenth year. That's right, first module went up in we keep adding more to it. Yeah, I keep hearing uh descriptions like frailer park or modules that snapped together, and well, because that's the only way to do it right. You can't take the whole you gotta bring it up piece by piece and a symbol it there. It's kind of kind of like my my bookshelf here at work. Like if I ever lose my job, there's no way I'll get all of them home because I brought them in a little bit by a little bit by a

little bit. They would taking like a year to clear all of it out. Yeah, it's just and and you know, and that and all the other junk. But I've seen the cost estimated at around a hundred and fifty billion dollars. But then I've also seen people talk about the cost of the International Space Station is really being the sort of thing that you can't maybe more than the cost, but the value. It's it's something you really can't even put up a dollar amount on because so much work,

so much effort has gone into it. It is, uh, it's kind of you know, we don't have much in the way of super projects today here on Earth, but it is. It is basically one of the modern marvels. It is. It is like a pyramid for us. It is, and there has been a ton of research conducted in

every expedition actually has certain research goals in mind. So not only is it about maintaining that the actual I S S, but it's also like, let's let's take a look at how X behaves in microgravity or some other experiment. In fact, Expedition three five, which is right now the the expedition that's in use is um being conducted by a six person crew. Again, Chris Hadfield is the commander there, and they are using an instrument called the Alpha bagnetic

Spectrometer two by the way, not one. It is a state of the art particle physics detector. And recently in the news there was an item about how they've gotten a whiff of dark matter the spectrometer, which is really cool. Yeah, So it's it's right that the I S. S is not just a place where astronauts pretend to cry and then take videos. It's not just a place where there occasionally there's some sort of spat about a toilet going off the whack. But it is a place on the

cutting edge of science. It is, and it is a very, as we said, small space of cutting edge science going on. We're talking about a living space that amounts to the equivalent of roughly one and a half Boeing seven forty seven. So let take a listen to what it sounds like life aboard I S. S S and to some of the ambient noises, so we can get an idea of what sort of emotional landscape you might be butting up against

that if you are an astronaut. Now, I love that because that that sounds like a lot of a lot of music that I actually listened to. Like, I get kind of a a pecker meets nurse with wound kind of vibe there, a little ambient, a little industrial. It's it's nice. Yeah, And those again we sort of take uh quietude or you know this when we really want quiet in our lives, for granted, because there is a way that you can actually get to some sort of

total silence. Not always right, there's always going to be ambient noise. I now a world like that, though I would go to sleep to that, would you? I would prefer that to absolute silence because absolute silence is just a little loud to me. M okay. Actually, you had a good block post about that recently, didn't you, Or maybe it was on Facebook that you threw that up. But there was a room that was sealed, wasn't itbook

Absolute Science and Silence, and people could not stand it. Correct. Yeah, it can be a little maddening, And so I kind like a little white noise or a little music when I go to and go to sleep if I can get it. I used to. I used to live in a a living space where the bedroom is really close to the kitchen, and so I could hear the dishwasher really well at night, man, and I love that. If it were up to me, I'd have the dishwasher in

the bedroom. Have you seen those toys that are four babies that basically have like a white noise um sound and it was such a sound like I guess like the amnionic fluid rushing through I have not I have not heard of it. And there's also a heartbeat setting. Is there a berg noise but a digestion noise? No, but there should be giddings part because they're probably they

probably identify that as a as as a friend. I'm just trying to imagine now, um getting one of those uh sleep CDs and it having proper green meat me digestion noises on it. Alright, So I mean we're spiraling off here, um, losing altitude. Must must climb back up realry back in capsule. Alright. So you're on the I S S. You're having a bad day. What might a

bad day be in space? Well, I mean, you know, it can get really bad if you want to get into worst case scenarios, but just thinking about like a normal day again, you're in close confines with your co workers all the time, floating up in each other's business, having to take care that your lunches don't float into each other, that there's nothing you know, falling off your face or or out of your face that's going to float into the next person. It's true, and just the

act of eating. I've noticed it reminds me of um, like broom hockey, Like you kind of have to use your hands to direct food into your mouth, you know, the goal hole of food. Otherwise, yes, that's going to hit your coworker in the face. Yeah. And and thecorum kind of goes out of the out the door a little bit with the with the with the the eating in space like the videos you see, it's a totally different sort of philosophy of eating. It's just kind of

sending things up and catching them and other things. You're just slurping out of a little box. It's it's interesting. Do you like that you can kind of chomp it and catch it in your mouth? Um? But yeah, so they're they're a little um indignities that could be visited upon you, right, I mean not to say nothing else of you know, things can get pretty hectic when you have situations like oh, something might hit the station and we all have to crowd into one capsule just in

case we lose the station. I mean that it can get really stressful as well. Plus they're there are various stages that people to to go to when they're exposed to micro microgravity first, I mean, first of all, when you first step into microgravity UM, you spend the first phase of your judney, your journey just adjusting to that cramped environment with an upset stomach, headaches, and space most

space motion sickness. According to NASA's Johnson Space Center, you'll also experience a drop in sleep efficiency greatly reduced rim. Uh so, in other words, you may experience dream deprivation as well. So you're uncomfortable, you're sluggish, and you're still having to work with all these people. I mean, it's it's hard enough to deal with people when you when you're just having a trouble getting a full night sleep, much less when you have all these other factors going

on UM and path that it gets even weirder. There's like a second stage UM where you'll you'll you'll have like a complete adaptation they say, for about six additional weeks. So once you passed that first slump, you have kind of like the salad weeks there in space. But then so you have a sense of euphoria. No, no, not euphoria, you're just confident. You're like, all right, I got this. I know how to use the bathroom, I know how to eat peanut butter in space, Thank you very much.

I know how to move through the space without upsetting everybody's laptops and everything else. Sleep patterns are decent. Uh, And I mean that's a whole area. There's the sleeping, because I've seen the One of the things you have to remember is when we're sleeping, you you might touch your face or whatnot. You might have some other kind of sleep issues that could cause some sort of weirdness

or nightcares. But imagine sleeping and there's you have to strap your your arms down because otherwise it'll float up and just start pawing at your face during the night. Well, it really is it tethered existence. And I was thinking about this, is that you tether yourself to sleep. You tether all the items that you need so that they're available and you can find them. Otherwise everything is just floating around. Yeah, you can't just set stuff on the nightstand.

You've got to have them to tether. Do your body or do your bed wrappings. Well, and at this point to presumably you have adjusted to the lack of diurnal or nocturnal triggers rights the day and night. Um, you are beginning to say Okay, so this is a this is my brain adjusting to this lack of light, this sunlight, and um a lack of touch as well, because this is something that's pretty important. We've talked about this before. It's very comforting to be touched. But obviously you are

you're with coworkers in the first place. Second of all, it's not really you're not a situation where you would be cuttling up presumably, And and just imagine too, like so you wanted to stay cuttle up without you say, we say you had like a nice blanket with you. The experience of cuddling up with that blanket would be extremely different in microgravity because it imagined like a nice heavy blanket, how it sort of sits on you like you wouldn't be able to You wouldn't get that because

the gravity is not not strong enough. That's true, right, just even though the most basic thing of having that pressure around you is removed. And so in time between week six and week twelve, things start to get a little moody, typically with people aboard the space station. Russian observations found that a number of the symptoms were linked to boredom and isolation. You become hyper sensitive, irritable, less motivated.

You may fly up the handle whenever a crew member drifts into your personal space or you know, borrow some of your stuff, you know, sort of you know, dorm room annoyances uh too and uh and so yeah, you get you get more uh sensitivity to allowed noises, uh, your your musical preferences may change, uh, exhaustion, sleep disturbances,

loss of appetite. You might creep back into everything. It becomes a very negative time before finally, towards the end of your journey, you can expect to experience agitation, lack of control and uh. And then it sort of culminates with the sense of space euphoria where you finally sort of rise above it. So you have this whole um sort of journey through the through the various ranges of human emotion. There's are huge ups and downs and emotion.

And of course, uh, those people who are administrating the program are very cognizant of this, and obviously they try to choose people who are the healthiest mentally. In can kind of roll with the punches, right, because if you slight someone, or if you're the one who's slighted, you

cannot go off the handle in this situation. In fact, one of the crews of sky Lab, NASA's first attempt at a space station, became so annoyed with their circumstances, uh that they placed that annoyance on mission control during their eighty four days in space, and they mutiny need they felt, and they turned off all communication. Because again,

this is a very specific psychological situation. And if you need someone to blame, you can either blame each other or one another, or you can blame mission control, right, yeah, I mean you can also blame inanimate objects like I. I've certainly stubbed my toe on like coffee tables before, and I think if I had an airlock, I would have I would have sent the coffee table out the airlock.

I think the room bout too. The room was blameless. Really, I feel like you've turned a corner with Romo, Like you were, there were some annoyance with it, and now there's love. I don't remember having annoyance with room. Roomba requires a certain amount of upkeep and and and PLC and and battery life to h to maintain its objectives. So it's it's a much more nurturing relationship than people

tend to think when they first purchased a robotic vacuum cleaner. Well, and I suppose the same thing is going on with I F S AND's in the same way. It's kind of like a giant room, but it's very sensitive and you have to keep maintaining. I wonder if anyone ever gets annoyed with a coworker and then goes and talks to Robina about it, and they're they're just like, oh my god, Cindy will not shut up, and about the batter cats, and so you're just you know, completely over there,

just trying to robinot about it. Well, that's the thing, um, you know, astronauts are basically trained to sort of self soothe, and they're they're trained in conflict resolution, because the idea is that you don't you want to be able to board uh the I S S with as even keel and as many tools in your toolbox and dealing with others as opposed to um sort of dealing with the after effects of that, right because because obviously somebody sulking

and turning off all communication is not really an option, that is that is to be avoided at all costs. And I have read to that in instances where there are some really dire situations that that astronauts or astronauts can then video sort of their complaint and send it kind of like MTV reality, like when I think they're the precursorvice right, um, and then mission control can review it and sort of give feedback. But those are really

dire situations. The idea is to to board and to try to self suthe and to correct yourself as many places as possible. So to that end, another tool in the toolbox. Uh, well, drugs, right, I mean, medication is is certainly extremely helpful um in situations such as this, and there are a number of them. Um. Some of these are medications that of course deal with just the some of the physical symptoms of of of weightlessness that

deal with nausea or headaches and what have you. Um. There are also things to deal with the bone mass. But then there are there are also various medications that are very homed in on the mind and the mental states moti pheno. Right, this is this is a mood enhancement,

memory improving and mood brightening psychostimulants. So this enhances weightfulness, attention capacity, and vigilance, which is really important, right because if you're trying to adjust to all of this and you have research that you have to conduct, if you have a space walk, you want to be alert. Yeah, it's all about optimizing their performance, no matter how fatigued or cranky they are. So because I mean, it comes

down to it. If there's something that really needs to be done on I s s uh you know, and it's you know, potentially life or death, it doesn't it doesn't matter if you're tired, it doesn't matter if you're in a cranky mood. Here, take three of these and go do a space wall. Yeah, it's kind of the suck it up drug. Alright, let's take a quick break and when we get back, we are going to talk

about this psychotic contingency plan. All right, we're back. So duct tape it's not just something that's super useful here on Earth, also in outer space. It turns out, yes, now, duct tape it comes in handy in cases of space madness. Now, of course, space madness is one of the great tropes of of science fiction, the idea that people will go into space and they'll they'll go a little mad, and there as we've discussed here. There's a certain amount of

truth to that. It's a it's a it's an environment that can tax the human body and the human mind. It can force people uh into into places in their own minds they're maybe not used to going. Someone could conceivably snap. So you see it all the time and films people are always experiencing space. Man's to be it like Sunshine or Pandorum or I mean, the list goes on. People go nuts, they do crazy things, and certainly duct

tape could be helpful in this case. If you needed to duct tape, you're saying, uh, coworkers up and then force everyone to have a tea party on the outside of the ship. But it's also goodly specific. But it's also very useful according to NASA, in dealing with that um individual before he or she makes everyone go out for a teat party. It's true. So that's why. In addition to duct tape, NASA also has tranquilizers on hand in case anyone flies off the handle in the serious way.

According to a two thousand and seven report from the a P Associated Press, astronauts keep a few tranquilizers on hand, and NASA recommends binding the individual for wrists and ankles with duct tapes, strapping them down with a bungee cord, and if necessary, sticking them with that tranquilizer. That makes me feel better, just to know that there is a contingency plan. Yeah, because again it's a high stakes environment and if somebody goes off the handle, there's not a

lot of room to deal with them. There's not a break. You're gonna have to just duct tape them up and and settle them down with some some soothing pharmaceuticals. It's true, if someone flies off the handle here at hs W headquarters, they can just go down to the little store in our building. They can get some smarties, banana yea cool off a bit. But yeah, outer space, you've got a lot of money at stake and a lot of man hours, so you can't have the craziness going on. Yeah, you

can't just go out for a stroll. I mean, you could go out for a stroll, but that's because me even more pressure. So that leads us to this next sort of idea of how to deal with emotions in space, how to deal with our humanness, and that is soothing The Savage Beast with music. Yes, I mean music has always been a part of our journeys into space. I mean that if you've followed my Space music block series

at all, you'll see that. In addition to me just sharing stuff that has very levels of connection to the space and space exporation, I I've done a number of posts about astronauts bringing up instruments, smuggling instruments aboard, various music that has taken place in space or somehow involved UM space exploration data in one way or another. And uh, and as we've talked about before, music is a powerful thing and it can It can really change your mind.

It can control the way you're feeling, it can dictate the way you feel so and also more importantly, it is a slice of life on planet Earth that you can bring up with you. It's another part of our environment that can be taken into this hostile, unreal environment and make everything seem a little more normal. Yeah. I mean, there are a raft of studies that talk about the

healing qualities of are the healing properties of music? Just recently this week there was an item about how live music, in particular played in neonatal intensive care units actually helped premium babies to um sort of recover from some of those um complications that arise from premature birth much faster. So you know, imagine, yes, you are in this environment on the I S S. You've got some sensory deprivation

going on. You're not able to cuddle all the time and have that twenty second hug that we know releases oxytose and it makes you feel better unless you're going and then I don't know how how nice he hugs are, or you have your hug shirt on. That's true. You can have technology, can you You can. You can bring that music with you, you can play it. Chris Hadfield actually has a special guitar that he plays on board

the I S. S Uh. The thing is, you still have to try to relearn that right because your hands are moving differently. He says that when you're moving fast on the neck of the guitar, you often miss the threats because on Earth you're used to the weight of your arm, which kind of helps you track where your hand is going. But without gravity, you overshoot the mark.

So in this soothing, in this soothing version of music, you still I'm sure have a bit of frustration getting to that point we're like, Okay, it's going to take the week the master playing the guitar again in space. But when I do, boy will. What I love about this is that here on Earth he probably doesn't even rank um. Like, I mean, there's no doubt he doesn't even rank among the top guitarists there are. There are many great guitarists on Earth, and he's he's been an

aunt in their shadows. But take the game up into orbit and he outclasses them all. I bet everyone else would be just fumbling in spacey shreds. Yeah for sure. UM. But here's the thing about musical instruments. Uh, any of them can be brought up, but for safety, they all have to meet certain standards. Yes, which instrument were, like an organ would be kind of difficult or yeah, grand

piano would be sort of difficult to do. UM. So for safety, the current electronic keyboard that's on the ISS had to be tested to ensure there wasn't a significant source of electromagnetic radiation which could throw off the instruments on board. UM. And then all instruments have to be tested for toxicity, even a trace amount to something like an oil based chemical like benzene. Is dangerous for astronauts

to inhale an enclosed space. Yeah. Like, I think back to when I played trumpet in high school and that thing was just I mean, it's full of oils and spit. I mean, the spit valve is pretty nasty and disturbing here on Earth. Imagine an orbit, whereas just you, it's just I don't even know where how it would collect. I would have to I have have not researched it. But now I'm suddenly really interested in trumpet playing in orbit.

I'm sure someone's brought one up. I bet they got a stink I if they played it, though, right, you probably have to go in the bathroom cry there and then play your trumpet there. Um. Another way that I think is really important that we've seen emerge out of the I S s UM is this idea of documenting your experience is a way to sort of cope with the realities. Yeah. This has been a part of NASA's plan for a mental stability and space from pretty early on.

You know. Yeah, And I think that it's even just that these wrote things. This minutia, I think, to me sort of gets at least me excited about space exploration. Because it really does pull back the curtain. So not only does Chris had Feel regularly tweets stunning photos of Earth, which in and of itself is glorious to behold. Um, he's got his SoundCloud samples as we heard at the top of the episode, of just various things in space

or on the I s s that you hear. And I think that's one interesting because it's sort of like a soundtrack tor raiser Head, which has lots of crazy ambient noises to it. But two really does give you insight into to what that existence might be like. So yeah, it might just be uh, you know, some sort of insight into like how do you deal with fingernail clipping in space? But still that is is something that you're like,

you know, I never thought about that. I never thought that just clipping my nails with fly off into the face of coworkers, or that you'd have to have a special process for that. Well, if you've ever been hit in the face by a fingernail flying off of clippers,

then you know that it can be extremely dangerous. Well, you already know how I feel about fingernail clipping in the office, so I think you can imagine the sort of tackles that would be raised for me if I were an astronaut next to someone who was clipping their fingernails. But again, this drives home this idea that nothing is sort of normal or just wrote or boring in space, because everything has to be rethought, relearned and thought about. You know, if I can come back to media board

I S S for a minute. A few years back, they actually released a list of the various books, DVDs and albums that were available up there, and I imagine it's changed since then because now everything is even more and more digital. It just doesn't make sense for there to be a bunch of physical albums or physical books located on the I S S. But some of the musical options included, um The Age of Aquarius by the Fifth to mention, there was the album American Patriot by

Lee Greenwood. Are was Woven in Time by Steve green There was a College that you could also listen to, College Fight Songs Volumes one, two and three, Beethoven Symphony Number nine, the Very Best of Staying in the Police Elephant by the Black Eyed Peas. It was a pretty interesting list. And then when you weren't listening to those musics.

You could watch a DVD of a brother where art thou uh Serenity Sea Lab and you could you could also read the likes of Isaac Asimov's Foundation, and so that reminds me that it's not just that their astronauts up there doing things um in a very autonomous way. There is a sort of big brother figure, I guess you could say, in the form of mission control making sure that things are going smoothly. And I thought it would be interesting to bring up that they are keeping

an eye and ear out. In fact, it was a Russian support staff remember that spotted that the canary in the coal mine during a mission is the cosmonauts speech rhythms, because this will tell you early signs of strain. So even just monitoring the speech patterns gives mission control an idea of what is going on. And in the case of the Russian supports staff member, they actually would arrange surprise gifts when they heard attention in speech patterns like

hidden on the on board already in supply ships. Yeah, and then then they would arrange for cheery telephone calls from celebrities or you know, from family members, just to try to keep everybody's spirits up. Interesting, yeah, the man behind the curtain. Yeah. And then there's this idea that you can keep your spirits up by focusing on the wonder and the awe of it all. Nicole Stott is an astronaut, and she said I believe that she was

in a two thousand and ten mission. She described the sense of wonder and awe by saying that one of the most interesting things to me is that while I'm still in floating, I can feel the reaction or maybe better described as a motion through my body from something as slight as my heart beat. My heart beats, and I can actually feel like this space station is moving around me because of it, when in fact it's really my whole body gently moving in response to it, and

not the station motion at all. Well, there you have it, life and space, crying in space, emotion and space. Um that it does make you think. So let's call over our own Robinot to provide us with a little listener mail. This first one comes to us from Murphy. Murphy rights ten and says, Hi, Robert and Julie. I go to school in Boston, and so I ride the elevators every day when I ride with other people, I tend to act with normal elevator behavior, but when I ride them alone,

things get a little strange. After the door closes, I like to kneel on the ground, then as the elevator starts to lift, I stand up on one foot, knee out, elbow in, and one arm in the air. I kind of hope that if anyone was watching me with X ray or something, it would look like I was a superhero leaping up off the ground with amazing drink. Sometimes I just pay some circles as I go up, and other times I face with my back to the door and turn around dramatically after it's full open. I love

the show dirt Pad and stuff. I love everything about that, including the sign off being on an elevator alone. It does sort of I don't know if there's anything particularly weird I do. I guess I'm more prone to to move around and sort of bob and weave a little bit if I'm caffeinated. Sure, I think all of us do, maybe maybe do some personal grooming if there's a mirror, right. Sometimes I feel like like when you know when the door opens and you don't think anyone's on and then

you go on. And then but if somebody's already aboard and they're like and and so there's this awkward moment where they're like, I'm trying to get off, and then you're like, I'm sorry, I should have been rushing on board the elevator. But then like I kind of judge them too, because I feel like you were hiding in the shadows or something, you know, like where did you come from? You should have been more clearly visible. Why

weren't you standing right at the door. I challenge you next time that happens, to have that discussion with that person and be like, you know, I have got to talk you about something. Can I pull you aside and talk to you about how I feel like you're doing this intentionally and hiding in the shadows and what that's doing to me emotionally. Al Right, here's another one. This one comes to us from Eric, who writes into us pretty regular and says, when I was a kid, my

dad was part owner of a small plane. We were flying at night and I noticed a faint blue ring where the prop was. My dad took his hand and put it close to the windshield, and tiny bolts of lightning shot out of his fingers. I tried it too and felt a slight tingling, but it was fun to pretend to be Emperor Palpatine. I know St. Almo's fire isn't lightning, but it was still cool. I've never been

struck myself, but it's a subject that fascinates me. There was actually a televised soccer game that was struck by lightning. It was strange because several players were hurt while several were not. Some of the injured players were much farther away from where the lightning struck the field than players who were not hurt. It was later discovered that only the players with both feet on the ground were the

ones hurt. Eric This just reminded me that one of our was Sures I'm very fond of, was was asking about us doing an episode on Tonitas, and recently there's a news item about the connection between Tonitas and lightning. So perhaps something that we want to explore the sort of after effects, and we did explore a bit in

terms of migraines as well. But any who cool, All right, Well, hey, you guys know the uh the speel If you would like to talk to us about any of this if you have some comments about elevators, comments about lightning, comments about the the I S s about weightlessness in reality or in fiction, your expectations of life in orbit, or what do you think about these cool SoundCloud files of of ambient noise aboard the I S. Would you be able to sleep through that? Or you, like me, would

you prefer to sleep through that? We'd love to hear from me. You can find us on Facebook. You can find us on tumbler. We are Stuff to Blow your Mind on both of those. You can also find us on Twitter, where our handle is below the mind. Also find us on YouTube, where we have of all these videos. You can find us there is mind Stuff show, but also I think Stuff to Blow Your Mind redirects to that as well. And hey, we have a website. You can find us there at www dot stuff to Blow

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