Search Interviews

Dr. Paul Mahaffy is the director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Raised in Eritrea, Paul became fascinated with the diversity of life at a young age, but did not have his sights set...

Cora Cliburn (26) talks with her dad, Greg Cliburn (65), about his experiences as a paramedic, EMT, firefighter and executive fire officer.

In this interview, conducted November 28 2021 in Flower Mound Texas, Sam Derow(15) talks to his mother Cristi Derow (50) about her relationships and family traditions. She discusses her close connection with her grandmother throughout her childhood. She also goes...

Linda Geiser and Peter Nelson tell their own stories and reflect on the impact they’ve had on each other lives. They’re both currently with the US Forest Service but first met when Linda hired Peter after he finished university to...

Andrew Agustin (19) sits down to have a chat with his dad, Roy-Alan Agustin (55), about his long career in the Air Force.

Rachel Hampton ended up in the geosciences because she couldn’t find the art history class she was looking for. From asking a TA if she could join him on fieldwork to doing her senior thesis on volcanoes without a professor...

Just Us Book Club member Lisa Henry Horne (64) shares memories of growing up in Louisiana with StoryCorps Facilitator Kiplyn Primus (62). Lisa also talks about her career.

Erica Bickford’s advice to early career scientists or students is to look outside academia and explore all the potential career options available to scientists. She is particularly aware of the importance of science in daily life and in the policy...

Melissa Trainer is a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and is working on the upcoming Dragonfly mission. We talked to her about pitching Dragonfly and finding out whether it got accepted on TV, accepting opportunities you didn’t...

For Paula Buchanan, disaster scientist and emergency management researcher, the whole point of science is to share it with others so that it can benefit everyone. We talked to her about being a “degree collector,” persevering and setting boundaries in...

Rafael Loureiro may confess to being an introvert, but he has no fear of people. He started off talking about AGU’s Voices of Science bootcamp, which he is participating in this year to develop his spokesperson skills. That segued into...

Dr. Wendy Bohon is an earthquake geologist and the Senior Science Communication Specialist for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, or IRIS for short (not the IRS). But how did she end up there if she went to school for...

How does one go from being a B+ student who got dressed down by her 8th grade softball coach to the Division Director of the Earth Science Division at NASA? While this might sound like the plot of an inspirational...

Tom Krimigis works at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and was previously the principal investigator for the Voyager I and Voyager II missions. A student of Van Allen, Tom built detectors to search for Van Allen belts on...

His application to be an astronaut may have been turned down, but Paul Hertz is playing a big role in helping us understand how the universe works as the Director of Astrophysics at NASA. He found his passion for astrophysics...

Pacifica Sommers is an ecologist and explorer. From the deserts of Arizona to the Antarctic tundra, Pacifica has looked at how organisms from tardigrades to pocket mice live in extreme environments. We talked with her about some of the most...

As the Deputy Director of Planetary Science at NASA, Eric Ianson has his hands full overseeing all of NASA’s planetary science missions. We talked to Eric about learning to navigate press conferences, the gratification of launch day, and maintaining focus...

Dante Lauretta, Regents’ Professor of Planetary Science and the principal investigator for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, has been working on bringing back samples from Asteroid Bennu since 2004- and he still has two more years before he might...

Ashley Lindalia Walker is the founder for #BlackInAstro, co-founder and media liaison for #BlackInChem, and co-founder of #BlackInPhysics. Oh, and she's getting her Ph.D in astrochemistry. We discussed her work advocating for black scientists and academics, what inspired her career...

Marcia Rieke has had to take a break from her job as a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona recently because she is currently the principal investigator of the Near Infrared Camera being launched on the James Webb...

A glimpse into the vice principals daily life. How has his personal progress affected his progress in the field of education?

“What is the earth saying to us?” Jackie Caplan-Auerbach is a volcano seismologist with the Western Washington University geology department. Jackie studies ice avalanches, which can happen at any time. Most ice landslides do not give warnings, but some do....

Michelle Newcomer is now a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab but her first degree was in French and Sociology. She talks here about the fear that comes with changing careers, taking risks, and pursuing the path that you...

Thomas "Tom" A. Dean (67) and his friend and colleague, Robert Burkhardt (71), talk about their career paths to founding Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, the school and center, and former students.

One Small Step partners and long time friends Elizabeth Brady (58) and Jennifer Perrow (53) discuss what they are most proud of in the past year, working in HR and accommodating the hardships people are facing in their jobs, and...