Search Interviews

Kerissa Battle (42) an ecologist in the Catskills talks with a close family friend Leana Tishim (13) a student on Long Island about her childhood and the experiences and lessons learned. She also shares a few lessons about finding oneself...

In this interview Lara talks about her time as a teacher in both public and private schools. She shares her experiences with teaching through her 25 years of teaching as well as advice for upcoming teachers.

With over thirty-years of experience in aerosol research as a Project Leader on NASA’s AERONET program, retired NASA scientist Brent Holben knows his way around those finer details. Now three-months into his retirement, Brent walks us through his adventurous world-trotting...

[Recorded Tuesday, September 12, 2023] Sonaera (19) from Ashburn, Virginia, and Dakota (19) from Ashburn, Virginia participated in this One Small Step conversation as part of their Public Service Pathways 1-credit UNST course at UVA. Sonaera shares her mom’s impact...

Michael Hesse is the Director of Science at NASA’s Ames Research Center, focusing on space biological science. We talked to him about being a good leader, doing science all over the world, and the joys of racing cars.

A big part of Mónica Feliú-Mójer’s life mission is to help use science communication as a tool for equity and inclusion, and she has certainly achieved this working with two non-profits called Ciencia Puerto Rico and iBiology. Mónica has spent...

Saleh Ahmed is probably the only researcher who’s working in both Bangladesh and the Intermountain West. And as a professor in Environmental Studies, Global Studies, and Public Policy at Boise State University, his research in climate change is particularly urgent....

Lauren Haygood is a PhD student at Oklahoma State University, studying marine geochemistry and metal biogeochemical cycling in Dr. Natasha Riedinger’s lab. How does one become a chemist after failing chemistry in undergrad? We talked to Lauren about figuring out...

Some of the materials Francis McCubbin works with as the astromaterials curator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center include meteorites that were collected in Antarctica, solar wind samples, pieces of asteroids and comets, and the Apollo rocks brought back from the...

Tanya Harrison never thought she was going to be an astronaut. But she was determined to go to space. And she did just that – through satellites, first to Mars, and now looking back at our own third rock from...

Gina Zwicky love lizards. And frogs. And turtles. Basically, all sorts of amphibians and reptiles. The love has turned into a career looking at how lizards fight off parasites and how those parasites evolve to be, well, better parasites. And...

John Mather has an exciting year ahead of him- he's the senior scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, the planned successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, which is scheduled to be launched this October. We talk to John about...

Renee Weber is the Chief Scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which basically means she represents all science at the center- pretty cool if you ask us! We talked to Renee about the importance of seismology, building personal relationships...

Claire McCoy (58) sits down with her father, George Black (86), to ask him about his experiences as an actor and his career as a professor in the theater departments of various universities.

Dr. Stephen Rinehart is the Director of Planetary Research Programs at NASA. We talked to him about how his love for destroying things as a kid led him to a career in science, walking away from failure, and working with...

Meet Xubin Zeng, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Arizona. Dr. Zeng was amazed by the power of mathematics at a young age and found his calling in physics. Listen to Dr. Zeng discuss what inspires him,...

Peter Falcon is an Earth Science communications specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory with an atypical background: behavioral science. As a communications specialist, Peter acts as a liaison between NASA projects – such as the CloudSat program – and students,...

Gabriel Filippelli is a professor of earth sciences at Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis, and the executive director of the Environmental Resilience Institute. We talked to him about how the first moon landing and the environment he grew up in...

Trena Ferrell’s story with NASA all started with an email requesting an in class visit for her students. Now as a Public Outreach Lead for NASA, she sits down with us to talk about the importance of STEAM (emphasis on...

David Shiffman is a shark guy first, marine conservation biologist second. Sharks are in his Twitter handle, he’s writing a book about them, and he was wearing a shark shirt the day we interviewed him. We talked with David about...

Curt Niebur is the Lead Program Scientist for Planetary Flight Programs at NASA Headquarters, which means that he works on all the NASA robotic missions that don’t go to Mars- you know, a very small mom-and-pop operation. We talked to...

Kelly Fast basically works in a sci-fi movie- she works in the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA, which means she finds asteroids before they hit Earth. And while she hasn’t had to deflect any asteroids yet, she’s been involved...

Peter Michelson was inspired by the Apollo moon program to study physics; now, he's a professor of physics at Stanford University and works at the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. We talked to Peter about pivoting into a new field after...

Matt Mountain thought he wanted to work alone as a scientist, but on his journey to becoming the president of an Association for Universities in Research in Astronomy and the telescope scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA,...

If Sharmila Bhattacharya wasn't Program Scientist for Space Biology at NASA Headquarters, perhaps she would've been a theater actress. And while her contributions on stage would likely be legendary, we're happy to have her at NASA learning about how space...