Search Interviews

Jesselle (61) interviews her son, Erik (18), about his struggles with Asperger’s syndrome and Bipolar disorder.

Jonathan Karpoff (63) interviews his father, Fred Karpoff (98), about his experiences with social justice efforts, anti-Communist sentiments and his hopes for the future.

Dr. Rama Nemani, Senior Earth Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, works on ecological forecasting. In this interview, we discuss how Rama’s career trajectory moved from farming to supercomputing, NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), the difference between simulation modeling and...

Dr. Matthew Johnson's research is in atmospheric chemistry, a branch of atmospheric science, which looks at the composition and chemistry of Earth's atmosphere, such as aerosols and trace gas emissions, and how particles may impact human health. Dr. Johnson's research...

Dr. Egle Cekanaviciute is a Principal Investigator and Research Scientist in the Radiation Biophysics Laboratory at the NASA Ames Research Center. She is also one of the Course Directors for STAR (Spaceflight Technologies, Application and Research), an intensive training course...

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...

John Painter shares his Moon Landing story for the Moon Landing in Context Project at Framingham State University. John discusses his experience serving as an Air Force Navigator in the late 1950s, working as an Electrical Engineer at the NASA...

Ozzie talks about his space travel dreams, becoming interested in space, and his love of his ham radio.

Bill talks to his son about his career in the military before he was forced to change careers. His subsequent life as a civil engineer allowed him to stay closer to his family.

In the summer of 2015, Bob Conover led a team of 12 volunteers to restore a 50-year-old Ranger spacecraft at the California Science Center. Bob is a retired JPL engineer who originally worked on the Ranger at JPL in its...

Kenneth Marez Jr. (36) talks with his partner Taranita Costales (34) about his journey into researching his mixed Hispanic and Native heritage, uncovering Native ancestors forced into slavery and servitude in the process. The two also reflect on the importance...

Jo Corona (34) interviews Melissa Espinoza-Smart (54) about her great, great grandmother, Maria Guadalupe Garcia Lucero and her journey learning more about her indigenous heritage.

Dr. Amber McCullum is an Applied Research Scientist for the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI) at NASA Ames who is currently co-developing a drought tool with the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources that includes remote sensing and ground-based...

Weena (34) interviews her grandparents, Margaret (85) and John (88), about how they grew up and how they met at NASA.

Ernesto Lasso de la Vega (62) interviews his colleague John Cassani (71) about his fish/aqua culture research and the impact it has made in the scientific community. The technology developed in this research to produce sterile grass carp is now...

Stephen Yonkowski (86) talks to his daughter, Stephania Holland [no age given], about his childhood, his family, and his career as an engineer.

Dr. Gupta was unsure of what she wanted to work on after finishing medical school, but she found her calling and is now the Open Innovation and Community Applications manager at NASA headquarters. Listen to Dr. Gupta talk about her...

Rhoda Justice Garcia (72) talks with her friend Candyce Bennett (68) about childhood memories of growing up during the time of the NASA space program, living at Cocoa Beach, near Patrick's Airforce Base, and Satelite Beach.

One Small Step conversation partners Jim Brown (75) and Paul Anderson (78) have a conversation about their backgrounds, losses in life, political views, education, the environment, and meeting up in the future for a beer. They find common ground despite...

Michael King is a Senior Research Associate in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado. He previously worked at NASA for 3 decades in a variety of roles, including Senior Project Scientist of NASA’s Earth...

Meet Brian Campbell, a NASA Senior Earth Science Specialist who works with satellite missions like ICESat-2, SMAP, GPM and with the NASA GLOBE Program, including the NASA GLOBE Observer Citizen Science App. He is passionate about making the plethora of...

Jonathan Hale is one of 25 students in the new Student Airborne Science Activation (SaSa) program at the NASA Ames Research Center. Students at SaSa are undergraduates from minority-serving institutions, competitively selected across the United States. Over the course of...

Emelie C. Gill (91), tells her daughter, Alicia (50), about growing up in Kansas City, meeting her husband Pat, working during WWII, and moving to Houston so that Pat could work for the space program.

Dr. David Des Marais is a senior space scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. In this interview, we talk about his research into the role of carbon on Earth and in space, what Mars could teach us about life on...

Dr. Ella Sciamma-O’Brien is a research scientist in laboratory astrophysics and planetary science. As a member of the Astrophysics and Astrochemistry Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center, Dr. Sciamma-O’Brien has been working on the Titan Haze Simulation (THS) experiment, developed on the...