"We're moving through a period of understanding [other] planets & how they relate to life on Earth." interview with Jim Green by Kim Cartier

Dr. Jim Green has spent 38 years of his life working at NASA. He started there with a fresh Ph.D. in Earth magnetospheric science and helped pioneer the magnetosphere research group at Marshall Space Flight Center. He spent 12 years...

"You never stop learning, you're forever learning new things, and I love that." An Interview with Sharmila Bhattacharya

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...

Grampy’s interesting life

This is a story about my grandpa and his different stories of his life.

"With satellite data, you can help people understand how the disaster happen in their backyard." an interview with Dalia Kirschbaum

In research, Dalia Kirschbaum literally seeks landslide victories, though in her case this entails finding disasters. The research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center uses satellite monitoring to get clear predictions about actual landslides through satellite information. “My work...

Reflections on the first Moon Landing

On May 8th 2019 teens from the MyDurham program interviewed mature adults about their memories of the first Moon Landing in 1969. In this recording we hear about what it was like witnessing the landing as young adults in college...

“It's very satisfying to be – even a small cog – in a very important machine.” An Interview with Jeffrey Myers

Jeffrey Myers knows his way around aerial photogrammetry. As a former lead manager at the Airborne Sensor Facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Jeffrey’s work with data collection and earth mapping has been affiliated with NASA’s U-2 program, MODIS, and...

"We are on a planet that is changing." an interview Steven Platnick

Cloud scientist Steven Platnick is trying to learn how clouds may magnify—or minimize—the effects of climate change. He first got excited about clouds when his Ph.D. advisor, who "treated us like equals," started asking questions about clouds. "He asked questions...

"We have a big mess to clean up. There's no other way to say it." an interview with Steven Running

Stephen Running, an Emeritus Regent's Professor at the University of Montana, shares about his work with NASA studying the global ecosystem from space. Trying out a microscope at a young age ironically led him into a lifetime of looking at...

“We’re really privileged to get to be doing science for a living. That’s a really cool thing.” An Interview with Kelly Fast

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...

"The sun is a terrifying and beautiful laboratory of which we know only a little [about]." an interview with Sabrina Savage

Sabrina Savage builds instrumentation for solar physics and studies solar flares at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The technology she helps create delivers the most high-resolution pictures of the sun anyone has ever seen. In a society more dependent upon...

"Just be really excited about what you're going to learn." An Interview with Peter Michelson

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...

"Persistence is necessary to have a career in the sciences." An interview with Laura Iraci.

Dr. Laura Iraci is a research scientist in the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Ames, where she leads a group focusing on air and where human pollution goes. In this interview, we discuss her early interest in high school chemistry...

“I hope the younger generation sees the universe as a wide-open space.” A conversation with Ulf Israelsson.

As a program manager with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, Dr. Ulf Israelsson shares how he first became fascinated with outer space as a child, when he would stare up at the stars in his native country of Sweden....

“Scientists need to continue… educating the public on risk and uncertainty.” An Interview with Gary Jedlovec

Growing up in Chicago, Gary Jedlovec dreamed of running his own weather station and becoming the next great TV weather forecaster. However, that all changed when he discovered meteorological research. Now well into his career as the Chief of the...

"Science is very rarely an individual effort. It takes multiple people to get anything done." An Interview with Noah Petro

Noah Petro is a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center- which doesn’t seem like much, but it includes being the lab chief of the Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab at Goddard and being the project scientist...

“Science isn’t finished until it’s communicated.” An Interview with Mark SubbaRao

As the Scientific Visualization lead for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Mark SubbaRao oversees the translation of NASA science into images and movies. For Mark, science visualization is a key communication tool that allows the public to interact and explore...

"There were are two paths, figure out how things work or figure out to forecast things." an interview with Paul Stackhouse

Paul Stackhouse is a sun chaser, but in his case it means measuring the surface radiation budget. This means figuring out how much sunlight gets to the surface of the planet, and takes a deep understanding of factors like cloud...

"The lone scientist idea is a wonderful story, but it's a myth, right?" An Interview with Matt Mountain

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,...

“Persistence is absolutely critical for both science and NASA.” An Interview with Curt Niebur

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...

“[Better satellite monitoring] will improve our ability to bridge the gaps between the haves & have nots." interview with Ashutosh Limaye

Through his work with SERVIR, Ashutosh Limaye could be described as one of Earth’s watchdogs. The project scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s job is to take NASA satellite data back down to the Earth and help people use...

"Particles from the Volcano in the Philippines had made there way all the way to Wisconsin." an interview with Chris Trepte

The realization that a purple sunset in Wisconsin traced back to the 1991 volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines fueled Chip Trepte’s interest in the movement of volcanic aerosols in the upper atmosphere. “It was a stunning revelation...