Here's Where It Gets Interesting - New Hampshire: From School Room to Space Shuttle with Dani Coke

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

In this episode, Sharon sits down with return guest Danielle Coke to learn about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986. This history lesson is cast from the perspective of one of America’s most cherished ordinary heroes, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a school teacher from New Hampshire who was selected by NASA to become the first teacher in space. In 1984 President Ronal Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration by sending a teacher on a voyage to space with NASA. The infamous program ended fatally, however, when after just 73 seconds into its flight on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, killing Christa and all six other crew members aboard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a Fizz member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data roll over to the following month. Every month at Fizz, you always get more for your money. Terms and conditions for our different programs and policies apply. Details at Fizz.ca. Hello, friends. Welcome, welcome. Always delighted to have you join me. And today I have my friend Danny Koch back again. The last time Dani was here, we talked about Florida. We talked about Walt Disney. So many of you messaged me to say, please have Dani back again. She was fantastic. I love her. So she's back. She humored me. I just adore this girl. And let us dive in to this incredibly moving story of a woman from New Hampshire. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome

to the Sharon Says So podcast. Yay. Oh my gosh. I am so excited to have you back. Thank you for coming. An honor, a pleasure. I can't wait to hear what story you've got for me today. to hear what story you've got for me today. So last time I had you on this podcast, I was deluged with messages from people ranging from strangers to my relatives saying she was so fantastic. Please have her back regularly. I absolutely loved her. So people very much enjoyed hearing your voice. Oh, I love that so much. It was really fun. It was. I thought it was really fun. And so if somebody hasn't listened to our previous episode, which is about Florida, tell everybody what you do. Yes. So I am an illustrator and activist. I basically use art and illustrated infographics to take complex ideas and make them more digestible and easier to understand for the everyday person who may not

have a lot of knowledge about things like racial justice or equity or empathy or things like that. And so I aim to use art to help good people just become even better people, good neighbors, I like to say, I love that. That's what I do. And you know, if you did listen to our previous episode, you already know what a big fan I am. And I'll just reiterate it again, that I absolutely love visiting your Instagram profile and that every time you post something, I'm like, that is so good. So good. That means a lot. I appreciate it. And there's a lot of content on Instagram and you know what I mean? And it's so good. So good. That means a lot. I appreciate it. And there's a lot of content on Instagram and you know what I mean? And it's easy to become overwhelmed, but I am always so

happy to see your content come across my feed. Thank you. I'm happy to see yours too. I'd be wondering how you keep up and them stories. I'm like, Oh, she's got it. It's a lot of stamina. But see, there's a lot to talk about. I have never, people ask me that sometimes, like, are you ever going to, is there even a run out of stuff to talk about? I'm like, how, how would I run out of stuff to talk about new stuff happens every day. Yes, that is true. New things happening every day. Well, I want to talk to you about today about a story that is, um, both heartwarming and heartbreaking. And it's a story that is absolutely worth remembering. And I am curious because you are a young person. I'm curious if you know the name Sharon Krista Corrigan.

Do you know who she is? No. Okay. Well, she was born in the 1940s and her parents named her Sharon, but never called her that. They called her Krista, which you know what is funny is that there was this trend in the forties and fifties of naming your child, like a first name and a middle name and calling them by their middle name. Her mother described her as always being such an incredibly bright little girl. She was always happy.

She was adventurous. Her mom thought like, this is how all little kids are. They're just like everything came easy to her. She walked early. She talked early., everything came easy to her. She walked early. She talked early. She was out there riding her bike when she was three years old. And then she became the oldest of five children. And her mother said that she realized that like, actually she is exceptional. This is not the way that Krista is, is not the norm. Her mom described how when Krista was three, she took off riding her bike down the

street, heading for the downtown of the town that they lived in. And her mom looked outside and like, where did Krista go? And here's this three-year-old riding her bike down the street. Like they had to keep an eye on her because she was inquisitive and bright and, and just able to do things that kids her age should not have been, not have been able to do. Right. So she gets to high school and when she was about 15 years old, met this very handsome gentleman that caught her eye. He was new to the school and they became acquaintances and fell madly in love. His name was Steve. And when they had been dating for about a year, Steve asked her to marry him and they were only 16. And so, and this, this, this

is in, this is, you know, in the sixties and her parents were like, but that's a little, yeah. And they were like, don't worry. Don't worry. We are going to wait till we're done with college to get married. We're definitely going to college. We'll wait till we're done with college. And so her parents and his parents were like, okay, well that's a relief. So they both did go to college. They graduated from high school, went to college. They both started pursuing their degrees and they did wait until they were done with college to get married. They got married immediately after college. Like we have been together since we were 15 and they had $500 to their name.

That was all between them. That was all they had was $500, but they were like, listen, we've been, we've been together for six years at this point. Sometimes, you know, and we've been waiting for six years to get married. So Krista became a teacher. And this was of course, during a time when a lot of professions for women were just not on the table. There were really these kind of career paths for women laid out that involved being a nurse, a teacher, or a mother. Right. And that was just like the options for a lot of women at the time. So Krista became a teacher. She got a degree in history and became a history teacher. Her first year of teaching,

she absolutely hated it, called her mother every day and was like, I have made a horrible mistake. This is a terrible job. What was I thinking? And her mom just kept saying, listen, just stick it out. It's going to get better. Just stick it out. And her mother in interviews said, you know, like she just encouraged her to like, don't give up on this. You know, you're meant to do it. Just don't give up. So her husband was going to law school at, in Washington, DC. They relocated to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.

And she was kind of supporting her husband through law school. And so this is what she had trained to do. And she couldn't give it up. Like she needed the job. And her mother said the second year she was teaching was infinitely better. And I think that's common for a lot of teachers for the first few years. You're like, what have I done? Yes. What have I done? This is a horrible job. And it's not that you dislike the children in that. And her mother even said that she loved

her students, but she hated all of the politics and all of the rigmarole that teachers were asked to go through. She just felt like it could just be teaching the kids. It would be fine. But all of this other stuff is massive thumbs down. So eventually her husband finished law school. They had a baby and he got a job in Concord, New Hampshire. And so the family moved to New Hampshire. She got a job teaching at a high school there and really hit her stride, found her love of teaching and they had a second child. She continued teaching high school history again, during a time, this was the late 1970s at this point, it was a little bit more unusual for a woman to continue to work outside the home after having children. She's a woman born in the 1940s and she's a history teacher. She's not never going to go to space,

in the 1940s and she's a history teacher. She's not never going to go to space, but she appreciates it. Right. Maybe she had some of those like, but how kind of, kind of moments, you know, like where she appreciated it, but it was like still kind of mind blowing. Of course, we all know that Ronald Reagan became president in the early 1980s and Ronald Reagan was a huge proponent of the space program. A lot of people associate Reagan with this like lower taxes, cut government spending, small government, like that's kind of what the principles we associate Ronald Reagan with. But yet additionally, he absolutely loved space exploration and thought we should spend, like it was worth spending money on. And in part because only governments have the money to spend on these kinds of things. Exactly.

Like now we have billionaires in space. Unless you're a billionaire. That's right. But the billionaires are, of course, relying on technology developed by the government. But yeah, at the time, obviously there were no billionaires in space. It was the United States and it was Russia. And some of it was Reagan's competitive nature with Russia, right? Like we wanted to show them we were bigger, better, faster, smarter. So in addition to thinking it was cool, we also wanted to be the best. And so there was that little bit of that show off aspect of it. Like we can do it. So in 1985, Ronald Reagan was finding that he was something that was worth spending money

on. You know what I mean? And like, we should absolutely dedicate billions of dollars to this. And so they came up with this idea that they should humanize the space program, that it should not just be astronauts, like geophysicists and astrophysicists and all the different kinds of physicists. There should be somebody that the American people can relate to on a space flight. And that would drum up American support for space travel and thus Congress would fund it. And so they announced a teacher in space program and encouraged people to apply. Oh, wow. And Krista was like, I am applying for that.

This is my time. Yes. I am applying for that. And she knew, but like, listen, I'm not a physicist. I'm not a, I'm not a science teacher, but I have a different perspective and I'm going to apply with my perspective and just see what happens. And it was this very long application and NASA received 11,000 applications from teachers around the country to be the first teacher in space. But her perspective was history is made not just by kings and presidents, but by ordinary people. And that it is the writings and journals of a, as a tool to understand what it was like to be a person in space. Wow. And she also, her students later gave interviews with the media and talked about how she was always encouraging them. You guys should keep a diary,

she was always encouraging them. You guys should keep a diary, keep a diary because someday historians will, will understand what was happening in the 1980s because of the diary you have kept interview your relatives, ask your mom, what happened when you were a little girl, ask your grandparents, what was the depression like and write it down that those kinds of writings are how we understand women in history, how we understand minority groups in history. That of course, so much of what is in our history books is about presidents and Kings and, you know, uh, explorers, and it is not the everyday people, but the way we do know about everyday people is from letters and journals. So she really believed everyday citizens are contributing right now to history when they especially are writing things down. So that was her project. That was how she was like, listen, this is what I want to do. I want to keep a journal. I will go to space. I will teach the best lessons to the

school children of the world that any teacher has ever taught. And I will keep a journal. So NASA, along with all of the individual States and all of the individual territories of the United States start combing through these 11,000 applications. And they eventually narrow it down to two people from each state and territory. And they bring the 114 finalists to Washington, DC, where they give them interviews. They go through psychological tests. They go through physical examinations. Obviously you have to be physically capable of flying to space. And they then narrowed it down from that 114. They narrowed it down to 10 people. Wow. among the 10 finalists. She was like, I made it to the final 10 and this is an honor. I don't like if I'm not picked, so be it. The fact that NASA thought I was in the top 10 finalists

in the country, like I have won. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies where we re-watched every single episode of the office with insane behind the scenes stories hilarious guests and lots of laughs every wednesday we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests and we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't

wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. So NASA brings all the 10 teachers back for another week of interviews. They're touring Washington, DC, and they're meeting all the people and they're going to all of these briefings. And meanwhile, of course, they're all being carefully watched. They're all trying to choose which one of these 10 people should we select for our teacher in space program. And of course they all bonded and became good friends. And eventually in July of 1985, they announced at a, at a press conference, vice president, George H.W. Bush, who was Reagan's vice president announced that Krista McAuliffe would be the first teacher in space. It was, she was just a person that the average American, they enjoyed watching her on TV and

they were like, I just really like her, you know, like she had that likability factor that made her popular almost immediately. So they also chose an alternate. They also chose an alternate teacher, Barbara, in case Krista was not able to go to space for whatever reason, they didn't want to have to scrap the entire teacher in space program. So they started training both Krista and Barbara at the same time. And Barbara in interviews after, after all of this, she was like, I'm not going to lie. I was a little jealous. She was like, I loved Chris. Dad was happy for her. Um, but I, we joked that I might give her some poison cookies if she was feeling hungry. So watch your back girl. Yeah, that's right.

Barbara is coming for you. No, um, no, but I can understand that. Like you're the alternate and you, there's this thing you really want and you're going to train for it, but you're not going to get it. Like I get that. I I'd probably be disappointed. They had to undergo a year of training, a year of training. And the year that Krista's space flight was to leave was going to be a banner year for NASA. They had 16 space flights planned for that year. And Krista's flight was going to be the first. So NASA was like, we're back and we're back in a big way. You know what I mean?

Like it had, they had been popular in the sixties, all the space flight. And then in seventies, popularity had waned, not as much space flight. And then in the eighties, Reagan was like, we are kicking this back up a notch. Let's how many flights can we go this year? 16 flights. Let's make it happen. We're back. That's right. We're back. So Krista has to move from Concord, New Hampshire. First of all, she, like the people of New Hampshire, were just like, we can't believe it. You know, she, New Hampshire was such a, like a Norman Rockwell kind of town. So she of course was like instant New Hampshire's biggest celebrity ever. But of course they don't train for space flight in New Hampshire where the weather is bad. They have to train in a place where the weather is good. So she had to move to Texas for a year to train, to go to space, had to leave her two children behind and was only able to travel home for holidays. And for a year prepared for this flight to space, physical activity, media tours, preparing her lessons, learning how the space shuttle worked, what to do in an emergency. Here's how to operate

the TV cameras, because the idea was that NASA was going to be broadcasting all of this live via satellite and that schools would be able to watch it via, you know, watch it live, like live right now is a teacher orbiting earth. The American public became enchanted with this idea. Chris and Barbara had to learn how to do all these things. Like here's how we operate a camera, a TV camera on a spaceship, you know, like zero of my college education trained me how to do this. Yeah. I'm also curious, like, was she paid during this time? I know she's not like teaching.

Yes. NASA paid her teacher salary. Oh, they matched it. Okay. Yep. So she did not get a special salary, but they did not want it to be a financial hardship in that way for the teacher. So Barbara and Krista were both paid their teacher salary by NASA. Her son was nine. And as you can imagine, I mean, a nine-year-old boy, her daughter was five,

a nine-year-old boy, just like, he couldn't believe that his mom was going to space. And he gave media interviews and they're like, what do you think of your mom going to space? And he was like, it is really cool. And their daughter was kind of a little too young to really understand what it meant to go to space. But her son really wanted Krista to take a stuffed animal with her to space so that when she came back, he could take this stuffed animal and be like, this stuffed animal has been to space. So she took his frog, his stuffed frog, whose name was Flegal. Flegal the frog. She took Flegal with her. And NASA finally decided on the morning of January 28th, 1986, that today was the day. Oh my gosh. The morning of January 28th was very, very cold for Florida. In fact, in Cape Canaveral, it, the temperature was in the

twenties. Oh, which is very unusual. And of course the camera crews from all over the world were there just taking pictures, filming the space shuttle, sitting on the launch pad. You know, it's kind of like that countdown aspect of like in an hour, we're going to launch the first teacher into space. And one of the things that the cameras caught were these huge icicles hanging off of all of the space equipment. hanging off of all of the space equipment. And that is obviously very, very unusual for Florida and very unusual for a space shuttle to have icicles hanging off of it. And her parents had

been very, very supportive and excited for her this entire time. They were like, this is unbelievable, Krista. There has always been something special about you, like good for you. You have always just chased every dream you've ever had. We're so proud of you. Parents were very, very supportive. And both of her parents said they woke up on the morning of January 28th, just feeling like a sense of dread. Like it is too cold. It is what is going on. Like there are icicles on that shuttle, like this, why don't they wait for a warmer day? A lot of NASA felt confident that it was fine. They were going to go ahead and they did all the checks. They did all the things, the crew of seven who are going to fly in space, walked out of the building and they're walking down the little, you know, whatever jet way,

a space shuttle way, whatever the walkway is called, the cameras are there. They are literally just like jubilant. They are grinning from ear to ear, waving at people like Krista looked so excited, just like, I'm doing it. You know what I mean? Like the look on her face, she was kind of a small woman with curly Brown hair. Just, she looked like an everyday mom. You know what I mean? There was nothing remarkable about her appearance other than she had this beautiful smile. And she just was like, I'm in my space suit. You know what I mean? Like the, like the, the blue, uh, jumpsuit that they wear, you know, that was not like the astronaut suit, but they were all just like huge smiles and waves. And they get into the space shuttle. And of course, everybody's sitting in the bleachers

and NASA has their countdown. The space shuttle launches, it lifts off Within about a minute and a half, something malfunctioned. They later found out it was the O-rings, which are a seal that connect the fuel tanks with another portion of the space shuttle. They failed because of the incredibly low temperatures. Oh no. And a little over a minute after the space shuttle launched, the entire space shuttle exploded. No, no. Yep. Millions of school children around the world were watching this live on television. They were watching the first teacher in space. They were watching the challenger space shuttle leave Cape Canaveral. They were like, soon it's going to hook up to the satellite and Krista will be able to say hello to us. And instead an entire world, including her children, including her parents, watched as tens of thousands of pounds of fuel were ignited improperly because of this O-ring failure.

When they were watching that take off and a huge poof happened. happened and then the space shuttle kind of ejected off to one side and then that also just was gone oh my gosh it was absolutely devastating it is difficult to overstate how devastated the world was especially because they had become so attached to Krista, so attached to Krista McAuliffe, who was, you know, had become this sort of media darling and had given so many interviews and was really representing the everyday American in space. And to watch that literally explode on live TV while school children around the world just sat and watched it while her children sat and watched it while the cameras filmed her family watching the space shuttle explode. It was watching footage of it back again, Dani. I

literally just cried. I, of course cried watching this happen on, you know, watching her parents watch this happen. They, nobody knew at first what to think they were like, is that normal? Right. Like, is it supposed to do that? Cause they were over a minute off of the earth. You know what I mean? They were far away. And so it wasn't like it exploded right there. It launched off for over a minute, flew into the air, flying very quickly. And then up in the air, you just saw this explosion and her, her mother, her darling mother, his name is Grace, just watching her face, like staring up into the sky, like just searching for like, did I just see what I thought I saw? And you could see in the control rooms, the people at NASA were just like, their heads were in their hands. Like, no, no. How, how did this happen? And so of course,

at the time they didn't know about the O-ring failure that came later after a presidential commission was appointed and they did a huge investigation into what could have happened. One of the NASA engineers later gave an interview to his interview said that his name was Bob Ebeling. He said that he told people that space shuttle is going to explode. Oh, no, no, no, no. And that he was very concerned about the O-rings and the temperature like that. The O-rings were not going to withstand the temperature. He even said he told his wife the night before it's going to blow up. Oh, it's going to blow up. And he said on NPR in the years following the explosion that for three decades, he has blamed himself for the fact that the Challenger exploded.

And he said, if people had listened to me and waited for a weather change, it would have been a completely different outcome. And he feels like I should have, I should have done more. I should have done more to keep that, that space shuttle from going up. And of course, I mean, like, of course, as a NASA engineer, you would feel like these are seven of your colleagues. It wasn't just Krista. There were six other astronauts that died as well. You know what I mean? You had to have felt just an incredible sense of loss that these were people that you, you actually cared about. This was a job you cared significantly about. So of course, this tragedy completely set NASA back on its heels. All of their space flights that year, all of the public goodwill

that they had spent all this time sort of like trying to build back this idea that how could you risk the lives of seven precious humans? Ronald Reagan, of course, was absolutely devastated. He was devastated. And he gave a speech that said, this is one of the quotes from the speech, which I thought I found watching his speech, you could see how upset he was. And his speech I found to be incredibly moving. Like whoever wrote this was hats off to them. be incredibly moving. Like whoever wrote this was hats off to them. Um, he said the crew of the space shuttle challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never

forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. And that was just like the, literally the entire nation was just like, like, do we cancel school? What do we do? You know what I mean? Like this was a very, very um, significantly traumatizing event for Americans in the 1980s. And he later said this America, which Abraham Lincoln called the last best hope of man on earth was built on heroism and noble sacrifice. And it was built by men and women like our seven star voyagers who answered a call beyond duty, who gave more than was expected or required, and who gave it little thought of worldly reward. So obviously the world was devastated. NASA scrapped its teacher in space plans for a period of time.

And then in the late 1990s, they called up Barbara Morgan, the alternate, the woman who had trained with Krista and said, do you still want to be the first teacher in space? And she said, absolutely, I do. Absolutely, I do. Oh, absolutely. I do. And in August, 2007, Barbara Morgan was the first teacher in space. And she said, if we don't take any risk at all, we are not going anywhere. Wow. You know, I was about to say girl, what, but when you said that, she said, we teachers encourage our students all the time in the classroom to take risks. Yeah. And I just, I don't know that I would make the same choice, but I absolutely love what she said. Like if we don't take any risks at all, we are not going anywhere. And I love that both literally and metaphorically. We take no risks. We go nowhere. Yeah. So Barbara also said

of Krista, Krista reminded everybody at a time when education was being lambasted, that our country was full of good teachers who are working really hard in the classroom to do the best they can to help our young people have a bright future. Yes. I loved that too. And I was like, that applies as much to 2021 as it does to 1986. Yes. At a time when education is being lambasted, our country is full of good teachers who are working really hard to do the best they can to have young people have a bright future. Yes. Oh my gosh. This is so good. You know, I love teachers. That's probably why you picked this story or you probably picked it because of the power of the ordinary person to change the world. Cause that is huge. Absolutely.

And Krista demonstrated that there are over 40 schools named after Krista McAuliffe. Of course. There is a, a planetarium in Concord, New Hampshire named after Krista McAuliffe. A planetarium. A whole planetarium. And earlier this year, earlier in 2021, the United States Mint released Krista McCullough silver dollars. Oh, wow.

And it shows her like a picture of her kind of looking towards the future and behind her you can see seven stars for the people who passed aboard the challenger in 1986 beautiful isn't that beautiful and I also love what the NASA official had to say about her about why she was chosen and this to me was like it's so good she was not chosen because she was quote unquote, the most qualified, you know, like she didn't have the most science background. She was not going to be there to assist the astronauts in their job. They said she was chosen because her manner set her apart from the other candidates. It was who she was as an individual, her manner, the way that she interacted with people, her feelings, her infectious enthusiasm set her apart from her peers.

It was not her qualifications on paper. Yes. I just love that so much that it was her manner that set her apart. It was not her. She did have academic achievements. She had a master's degree. She's a very bright woman. Yeah. That wasn't what made her qualified. Yeah. It was her manner. Yeah. I was like, I, that is something we can apply to today. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. I love that. I love that. And man, that's just so good. It set her apart, but it only, it also was what impacted the world. Yes. Yes. It wasn't that she had a PhD in astrophysics.

The impact was because of her manner. Yes. Oh, that's amazing. Wow. She said in an interview before she left, she was on, uh, she was on the tonight show and Johnny Carson was still the host of the tonight show. And he was like, why are you doing this? You know what I mean? Like, why are you doing this? And she said, if you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat just get on.

I just love that too. Like take the opportunities that you are offered and make the most of them and one of her most famous quotes is I touch the future I teach oh and I was like and she still is she still is here we are in 2021 talking about her on a podcast. There are thousands of school children who go to a school named after her and she continues to impact the future. Wow. And all the teachers of the world, slow clap. Yeah. I love that. Oh, it's so good. She, she was an amazing woman. She really was an amazing woman. And it was absolutely such a horrific tragedy. You're young enough that you obviously were not alive in 1986 when the Challenger exploded,

but do you remember learning about the Challenger disaster in high school or in elementary school or anything like that? I don't recall ever hearing this story. I know about flights that failed and generally speaking, and I'm sure they may have been like maybe a subsection in the section about sure. But like, yeah, never was this like a prominent thing I was taught. Well, Krista McAuliffe, her daughter went on to become a teacher, by the way, daughter is a teacher, which I just loved that her daughter could choose any career that she wanted. And she chose to become a teacher like her mom, like her mom. And the legacy continues. Yep. Well, Krista McAuliffe hats off to you, my friend. I just, I, the, you will have to YouTube a video of the challenger astronauts walking to the walking to the

space shuttle. Yeah. Look at the look on her face. Oh my God. Just like how big she's smiling and how, you know, like she's just so excitedly waving to people. She was absolutely like there. If she was afraid, she had not did not display it at all. She was nothing but thrilled and excited at the opportunity. You'll have to go look at that. It's, it's amazing. Wow. I hope we live that, that way. Yes. With such a vigorous enthusiasm for whatever, whatever's coming next, no matter what the risk is. That right right up until the very end wow i love it this is so good thank you so much for being here thank you for telling me this story i don't really know what to do with it in my body right now i know there are so many emotions, so much admiration for her. And also just like,

why did she have to die? Yes. It's the death part. Oh my gosh. Amazing. Amazing story. Danny, tell people where to find you because they literally need to get off of this podcast and be like, I'm looking her up. I'm pressing the follow button. So tell people where to find you and where to buy all of your beautiful designs on t-shirts and all of that kind of stuff. Yeah. Ah, this is so great. If you like do good encouragement like this, I don't know if my, my content will move you to any extent, like this story moved me. You can find me everywhere at Oh, happy Danny. That's two H's in there. And, uh, Oh, happy Danny.com for all all your fun inspirational prints about how you can

make a difference as an ordinary person yes and krista mccullough embodies that and you embody that that wow average person can make a difference and the average person has something important to contribute yes you don't need a phd in astrophysics. Right. Right. Although if you have one, that's great. Yeah. Use it. Help us. Thanks again for having me and telling me this awesome story. I'm very moved by this. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon says so podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor, I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor.

Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. I cannot wait to have another mind blown moment with you next episode. Thanks again for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast.