Somewhere in the Skies - Amy Shira Teitel: VINTAGE SPACE

Episode Date: February 25, 2019

On episode 97 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan speaks with author, pop-science writer, and space flight historian, Amy Shira Teitel. Amy tells us how her interest in space history first began, what it's like competing in a male-dominated field, her thoughts on private space exploration, and she even runs us through some strange UFO-related events she came across in her vast array of research. We round things out talking about her latest book, Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight Before NASA Guest Bio: Amy Shira Teitel is an expert in the history of science, with a lifelong passion for spaceflight. She has written for a number of online and print publications including Discovery News Space, Al-Jazeera, The Guardian, and Universe Today. She runs a thriving YouTube channel and blog (both called Vintage Space) and has appeared on the Discovery Channel, the Military channel, SyFy, and the Science channel, and she is a host on DNews, Discovery Channel's online daily news show. Amy was also an embedded journalist on the New Horizons team, bringing the excitement of humanity's first mission to Pluto to the space-loving public. She lives in Pasadena, California. Follow her on Twitter @AmyShiraTeitel Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Watch ROSWELL: MYSTERIES DECODED for free! Available now at www.cwseed.com Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is sponsored by HelloFresh. To receive 50% off your first order, use promo code: SOMEWHERE50 at checkout by visiting www.HelloFresh.ca Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey y'all, Ryan Sprague here. As you all know, the Somewhere in the Sky's podcast is always free to consume. But it isn't free to create. That's why I've started the Somewhere in the Sky's Patreon campaign. On a monthly basis, you give what you think the show is worth. You'll be helping the show continue, grow, and to be something truly communal. And remember, there are rewards for each level of contribution, and the list is only grown. So please, help Somewhere in the Skies now by becoming a page.

To contribute and to learn more, visit www.pateron.com backslash Somewhere Skies. Thank you for your support. And now on with the show. Today on the show, we have space historian Amy Sheratito. What people always forget, and you, of course, would not forget this, is that, like, when you're looking at exoplanets, you're also looking back in time. Right. So we have to find life on that planet in the moment where it exists, because it might be that we're seeing it after a mass extinction. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan Sprague.

Welcome to Somewhere in the Skies. I'm your host Ryan Sprague. This week, I pull a wonderful conversation out of the vault over at Rogue Planet, featuring author and space historian Amy Shiritito. Amy is a Canadian-American author, popular science writer, spaceflight historian, YouTuber, and podcaster. She's best known for writing the book, Breaking the Chains of Gravity. and for her YouTube channel, Vintage Space. Today we talk all about how she first got interested in space history, her thoughts on NASA versus private space exploration,

and of course, we chat a little about UFOs, and some strange cases she's come across in a research. I hope you enjoy. Amy, thanks for joining us today. I know it's early, so we really appreciate it. Yeah, no worries at all. I'm very happy to be here. Happy to be talking to you.

So, you know, we always kind of have to see. start with the origin story. Some of our listeners might not be familiar with your work. When did your interest in space history and exploration? When did it really start? It's really too bad that this is audio because I have a great visual for this question because it is actually my most frequently asked question because, you know, I'm a girl. So why do I know about space? I was seven. I can't remember if I was assigned it or if I picked it, but I did a project on Venus for my second grade science project. And you know, you have those little kids space books that give you like cartoons of planets and facts and stuff. And I was just obsessed with the fact that Venus, you could see it

in the sky. But it was like, the earth turned it inside out and spinning backwards and on fire. And I was like, that's so cool. So I had all these books. And in one of them, there was a little cartoon of two men standing on the moon in front of a lunar module. I was just like, oh, wait, wait, people walked on the moon. Why was I not informed? Because I'm from Canada where there's no NASA, and we don't talk about NASA and astronauts all the time. So I just became obsessed with like wanting to know how and why they did it. And like any big technology rooted in Cold War, the question, the answer gets bigger and bigger than more you ask. So it's just, it's just like childhood fascination about Apollo that's kind of led me into doing this professionally. That's awesome. I couldn't think of a better origin

I'm the luckiest nerd ever. I just get to be, I actually want to get new business cards printed that just say professional space history nerd. Because that's the most app description of what I do. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean,

and you really have carved a place for yourself in sort of this space history niche. And I guess sort of run us through how that started and how it was sort of navigating your way, which through what I assume kind of like the UFO field is, definitely considered a boys club. Definitely a boys club. I sort of started by accident in a lot of ways. I finished my master's degree and hated it. I hated the, I don't know, you know, I don't know your thoughts on academia, but I just was not a fan of like trying to write things to impress an old guard of men who weren't really interested in space stuff, but that's what I self-specialized in in my history of science fields. So I actually moved to,

to Phoenix for personal reasons, not for work, because there's nothing really in Phoenix for me. But I started a blog as like a way to play around with the space history stuff that I was still having so much fun with, just having finished my master's thesis and was just like so loving archives. And the plan was to like find, get a job for the year and then do a PhD and then be an academic because I didn't know what else to do with this nerd love. But then the blog took off in like four months. And people started recirculating my article. and asking me to write for them directly. So it was really just kind of by accident that I became a writer,

like a journalist, a space journalist with a hit, like a concentration, I guess, if you will, in space history. And that ended up spinning off into the YouTube channel because some people are visual and don't want to read. And then that took off because YouTube actually, like, took notice of me and I've been working with them on some different projects over the years. And it's just been, it's just been like literally throwing stuff at the wall

and seeing what sticks. And a lot of things seem to be sticking. And it's kind of amazing. And I'm super lucky about it. And then it is that super weird thing that like I am in this nebulous space where like as much as I research more, like I have a bookshelf that would rival most professors' offices. But I, you know, because I'm not in the academic world, like the old guard of space history doesn't really like me because I don't do it the way that they do it. But at the same time, I think it's so much more important to do things for like trade. publications where people actually read it, as opposed to not. So it is that weird thing where, like, you know, not only am I coming at this from an

angle that, you know, the people of the event should be my peers don't really like. It's also the thing of like, I look much younger than I am, that people don't really believe that I do what I do. And, like, I go to conferences and people are like, oh, so who's white for you? And I'm like, no, I'm giving the talk. You know, I will be standing next to a male friend. and then the, you know, someone will turn to the gentleman and say, so, so what are you speaking on?

And they'll say, well, I'm actually just here because I'm a fan, she's the one giving the cop. It's like, yeah, it is very, very weird, but I honestly just kind of like ignore the internet most days and, like, keep my head down and just, like, do my thing. You know, the old guard, you know, while we take a lot from them and we sort of build off of that, you got to shake things up every once in a while,

and you're definitely doing that. you did mention your blog. Could you tell us a little about the blog and how vintage space came to be? Yeah, vintage space is my blog and YouTube channel. And vintage space has had a few incarnations over the years. I'm so sad that Popside just shut down at the blog network one day. Because it was really fun to blog at Popular Science. Just like people know that.

They're like, oh, cool. And I'm like, yeah, doing the same thing on WordPress now. And people are like, oh, you're a blogger. Yeah, no, it really just started out as like my little. internet baby to like engage in my own nerd stuff and just kind of have a space to play around with ideas and and share things and just kind of work on my own writing style and it's evolved over the time and like yeah it's just it's been it's a little over six years old um which feels weird to have a blog birthday but i do and i do track its it's growth but um yeah no that's the blog story

it's not a very interesting story now that i say it out loud i've noted the blog we all have but You really did sort of blow up. And like you said, the YouTube channel just racks up so many hits. Yeah. The YouTube channel, like I literally started this because NASA has so many good pictures and people don't necessarily want to read a 1,500 or 2,000-word blog post, which is like coming right out of academia. That's how long they used to be.

So I decided to see if I could do enough so much. And like that was, I wasn't getting paid when they were that long either. That's the worst part. So I started doing like VO of just like images and like playing around and what's the eye movie like the horror the ho these videos are horrible and like I didn't know how to be on camera. And then I like gradually got more comfortable with like being a face but I was still reading. It was just like it was so awkward and over the years I've just kind of realized that if I write the blog post before I do the video then all the ideas are in my brain and then I can just talk at my camera and it's much more candid and much more now. And as soon as I started doing that and also got like a real camera and lighting. Right.

That really helps. Yeah, it's just like this became an avenue that people really like. And that's awesome. I wrote it down somewhere in a cart over on my messy desk. But like I hit 100,000 subscribers recently. Wow. Which is awesome. That's like a huge milestone for like a tiny little, you know, it's just be, you know,

on a day-to-day basis like doing this in my apartment. And I think I gained something like 68,000 subscribers this year to hit that. mark. I'm like, that's, when I stopped and looked at that, I was like, holy crap, that is a lot of people in one year, because I've been doing this channel for four years, like off and on, but since I really dedicated time to it, like, holy crap, people, people like this. So it's awesome. It's, like, so fun. And it means that, like, my favorite is when, when I get, I have, like, the nicest audience. There's not a lot of awful comments, considering it's YouTube. And people, like, leave me these really long comments. I'm like, oh, I remember watching this mission launch. I was six

years old and my dad let me stay home from school and it's really cute. Well, yeah. That's a nice audience. Yeah, I can only, well, your passion comes through through the videos and I think people appreciate that too, especially in what, you know, is usually a field that can get stuffy at times, I would assume, with the historical aspect. But yeah, like you mentioned, you know, I heard a lot of people talking about where they were when this gentleman first landed.

we unfortunately lost one of our greatest John Glenn and you put together a really nice video on your YouTube. Godspeed John Glenn, a unique American hero. Do you care to comment at all about John Glenn and sort of like what he possibly meant to you and your research? Yeah, John Glenn is such an interesting figure

because I never met him, I should say that right up front. But he's such an interesting figure because he's so iconic of that. era and it's an era that people sort of hate now because it was you know it was a like like i kind of mentioned in the video i tried to kind of keep it more more kind of gentler but like it was the era of the white men basically um and a lot of people are just like it's you know they kind of hate the apollo era because all you see on the surface is the sea of white men like but at the same time you sort of like i find john glenn to be such an interesting character because as much as he was a pilot like a test pilot

like all seven of the original Mercury astronauts were, he was the one who didn't have affairs and like didn't do anything untoward or seedy. He was just like the perfect American of the 1950s form of like beautiful wife, two kids and a dog and like went to church regularly and was just like the oldest of the group but like has this cute little baby face. He's very good looking. Just like you could not be more American and apple pie than John Glenn. the 1950s and like for him to be also a war hero who was the first American in space.

It's like, yeah, this is exactly who like America at the time needed to pin their hopes on for like beating the Soviet Union in the Cold War slash space race incarnation of the Cold War. It's just such an, everyone I know who's met him just that he's, like that wasn't, that's not a way that we looked at him and like whitewashed his past. It's not like we're ignoring things about him to sort of have this opinion that he was just such a great like American hero. It's like, no, everyone I know is just like, no, he was just a really, really great person. Yeah. Like all he did was serve his country. It's like, yeah, you don't get people like that. That is a rare breed, I think. I'm just this like, I am exactly what you see and what what you see is just an upstanding,

really good person. I was like, yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's John Glenn. And I think that's what people need to remember instead of like trying to be like, yeah, he was great. But now we have diversity. It's like, yeah, of course, diversity is like the best thing ever. But like, let's also look at this guy and be like, no, he, in his, in his era, he was, he was who America needed. He was like the perfect hero in 1959. That's great. Yeah. I mean, it's just so good to hear that there were people like that. And he was pretty progressive as well. So, like you said, you know, from, you know, from, you know, you know, You know, from the military to space to a senator, quite a story to behold, for sure.

Sort of getting back to the history aspect of it, Amy. You came out with a book that really stretched our space history muscles. Could you tell us a little bit about breaking the chains of gravity and how long it took you to write this massive beast? I loved it. I loved it. I am learning things that, you know, being who I am in the UFO field, I should know. I need you to write a blurb on my paperback now. for that. Yeah. Well, you did the same for my book. So you let me know when the second edition

comes out. But I had no idea that there was spaceflight before NASA. And that shows how ignorant I actually am about space history and exploration. So yeah, tell us a little about the book, how the idea was sparked to write this? And how long did it take you? You're in the field of space, ish. Ish, yeah. No, the idea came. I mean, like I kind of said with my decision to you, unceremoniously, turned my back on academia. I was just so sick of finding all these amazing things in space and realizing that nobody knew the stories because they're sort of kept within the academic world. And the people who do have an interest in them don't really go outside that.

So like every once in a while you'll see an article on like Wired or something with some weird space thing. But like there's not a lot that exists in like trade publications for the general public to get them excited and curious about things that, you know, we kind of take space for granted. And the more I started doing research in my master's and stuff, I sort of got into this, like, prehistory of NASA's psychologists. I just thought, this is so interesting. And I'm a huge space nerd, and I'm just finding out about this. That's not okay.

Like, I'm like, as in the story, and I'm a big fan of, like, we should know our roots before we go forward, because that ultimately helps us not repeat mistakes and do better things, right? So I just, I really wanted to, I wanted to tell the story of the roots of NASA because it's, I think, for our generation just because we didn't grow up with NASA in the same way that our parents and grandparents did, right? Like, it was established. You and I are both shuttle babies, if you will. Like, spaceflight was sort of, you know, it's weird to think that we've lived in a world where people have always been in space. Yeah. If you think about it. But I thought it was, you know, for our generation, especially, like, people kind of take it for granted and are like,

why are we not doing this yet? If we can go to the moon, why can't we do this? Like, well, let's actually look at how recent spaceflight is and how hard it is. And that the fact that NASA didn't, like, pop out of nothing and just, like, magically go to the moon. There's no space magic. You know, the roots were there for decades, and you're building off this stuff. So I wanted to write something that would be accessible for people who aren't giant space nerds. Like, it's just a history book. There's no, there's very few numbers in there.

One number that is a giant typo. Uh-oh. But, yeah, I know. I get emails once a week about the speed of the X-15. It's not 8.7 million miles per hour. well darn it yeah that's that's a correction for the next edition it's uh it's it's in with my publisher um but yeah no so i wanted to write this to kind of get get this story out it's so inspirational it's so interesting for for the general public um so it was sort of born um out of my master's thesis a little bit actually the original idea for the book which i'm sure you can can understand like when you decide to write a book how many incarnations the idea goes through yeah um yeah so the original book was like much much long like bigger in scope. And I actually had this very odd thing happen where this, an editor from Norton Liverlight emailed me and was like, I can't acquire titles, but I love your work and I want

to help you. So I just like, you know, informational interview like we talked. And I was actually, I think the last time I was in New York, I had lunch with him. I was there for a writer's conference and I had lunch with him and he proceeded to tell me that my idea was too big to break it in half at the creation of NASA. Well, that was, I was just like, well, that's the only place to logically do it and like make it two parts. He's like, yeah. And then just like start with one and then do the other and like, you're fine. And then he ate off my plate and then I never saw him again. It was the greatest. He's in my thank yous actually because that was the most impactful lunch ever. But yeah, so once I kind of broke it, Dan broke it in half, it was just like, well, that's smaller.

That's easier. And then it was just like, you know, two years of researching. And then I, my publisher came to me, which was nuts. And I think I wrote the bulk of the book, like the bulk of it probably in like eight months. Which is the scary part. Because at the same, like, yeah, I signed a contract for two years from contract and delivery. Fine. But then I, like, broke off an engagement and moved across the country by myself in that time span. So, like, that was a lot of things that was happening in my life.

And it's just like, oh, I have to write a book now. So, like, literally, I, like, landed in L.A. And I was like, all right, I've got eight months. Wow. Let's not, let's not leave the house. Right. So at least, like, you know, I had all the bit. I had bits and pieces done.

It was just a matter of, like, actually. doing it and like making it sound good. Yeah. So that's that is quite a, uh, a story about how the book came to be. That's amazing. Um, well, Amy, I mean, this is a UFO podcast and I'm sure our listeners are getting a little anxious. I, I have to ask you. What are your thoughts on the UFO phenomenon? You've had to have heard some pretty weird stories from astronauts or members of, um, you know, NASA about sightings in space. Could you, are there? Any that come to mind right now that you found of personal interest? There's two that always come to mind when I think of UFOs.

The first, and this is actually one that I was asked about recently, so there is a video coming, is the transient lunar phenomena, which was like this weird, there's a report about it that came out in about 1958 that's looking at odd light and color phenomena on the moon. And in the 50s, when no one knew whether this was like a not. naturally occurring thing, whether they knew the moon had no atmosphere. So like, what could these lights be? Might it be aliens?

These is, like, these had been recorded for centuries. Like, I think this report goes back to like the 1600s with these weird light and color flashes on the moon. And just because this became such an issue for NASA when it was like a newborn institution of like, what do we do if these transient lunar phenomena turn out to be aliens on the moon? That's one that I always look to you is like, this is pretty interesting. And maybe that's more alien and not you. And I'm sorry, in my head, I kind of put them together because...

We do it all the time, don't we? Okay, I was just going to say, because my other favorite UFO story, you know the story of Apollo 20? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like you and I may have been in the same documentary talking about this at one point, but... I think so. Yeah, Apollo 20, okay, just for the record, is not a thing that happened. I'm not saying that it happened, but it is the story that people actually, like, I don't know how this makes the rounds in the internet with such regularity, but apparently

on Apollo 20, it was a joint U.S. Soviet mission to the moon, and they used the command service module and lunar modules somehow to pick an alien ship up off the far side of the moon that was first found in orbital photographs from, I believe, Apollo 15. And inside that is an alien

that they bring back to life. That's my favorite, because I don't even know where the roots of that story are. How it happened? Yeah, that's... Like, how does that even... Because there's, there's The best thing about it is that there's footage online. Like, who was able to film something with a fake mission patch and a weird hybrid American Soviet flag in what looks very much like a lunar module?

And also, like, it looks, it has the same look as, like, a 16 millimeter of Passelwad. Like, it looks like the old footage. It's so weird. It's one of my favorites because it's just like, I don't understand where this comes from. Yeah. Those aren't very good answers because I don't really do a lot. of UFO thing is I, every time I talk to astronauts about, like, the strangest thing you saw, they always have the very scientific answer of, well, we saw a flashing light and then

realized that it was like a panel that had blown off when we released the lunar module, whatever, and it was spinning, and then it was just catching the light as it spuns. It looked like a flashing light. It looked like it was trailing us, but really it was just on the same trajectory as us. No, I mean, yeah, we do hear that a lot, and we need that scientific methodology to keep things straight and separate the UFO phenomenon from aliens. So I think that's the best way to go about it. Well, you brought up Amy the moon.

I wanted to talk a little about that. Why do you personally think, you know, with your historical knowledge of going to the moon, why haven't we been back there? Do you think it's worth still exploring? I'm just rubbing my fingers together in the emotion of money right now. Okay. There's just no money for it. Okay.

I think that's kind of really why we haven't come back to the moon. You know, Apollo started losing funding, like, almost immediately after Apollo 11 landed. And even before, funding was going down, it was just not something that was viable. And there's never really been, like, it's just never been something that we can really do without having a reason to do it, like fighting another country, because we need war-type funding to make a program like that happen. So unless spaceflight becomes actually cost-effective and we develop a system that actually keeps the cost down, I can't imagine we'll have a way to go to the moon and have any kind of presence there.

It's just like not something that humans are quite ready for, I don't think. As for whether we should go to the moon, I think there's definitely scientific reasons to do it. I'm more on team science than team inspiration when it comes to spaceflight. I think there's definitely reasons to go to the moon. It's just a question of, are those reasons strong enough now? Or should we maybe wait, you know, 50 years, 100 years, until we actually have better technology and a better understanding of how to keep humans alive in areas like the moon where there's no shielding from radiation to actually be effective workers?

Yeah. You know, that's, I'm kind of on the fence there of like, is there a reason to be doing this stuff now versus working on development, developing the technology and understanding about these different environments more so that when we get humans there and we do need to get humans there, we can do it right. Yeah, exactly. And I guess that's sort of where the whole idea of private space exploration comes in. Are you, where do you stand on that whole proponent of private corporations getting involved in the whole space, new space race, as it were? Yeah, new space. Um, new space. Let's, let's hashtag

that now. Well, that's, I mean, people you're referring to it, it's like, yeah, you know, new space versus old space. I'm like, you know, it's all kind of old space. Um, but I'm bunch. Uh, yeah, no, I think, um, I think it's, it's good to have different innovation from different companies. And I, you know, the one benefit that a private company has every government is that like a private company can kind of do it at once. They can spend as much money as it wants. It can develop what it wants. It can kill people if it wants to be totally honest. Um, without having to go through a huge review. I mean, there would obviously be an inquiry. But like, you know, if Elon Musk wants to put people on rockets and they sign up privately,

you're taking a risk. If NASA does it, as we've seen with the shuttle disasters, it's a long process of inquiry and fixing or not fixing things. But yeah, it's, you know, that you can take more risks in your private company. My thing with it is like, how much is these private, are these private companies doing it for reasons that, like, you know, Elon Musk is doing this because he wants to go to Mars. Okay, so what's the greater scheme here? Like, you're basically doing like a fast, like the Apollo-era crash program of, we want to get to Mars now as opposed to let's really understand the challenges and work on developing the things. And maybe we don't know enough to go to Mars yet, which is my own opinion.

The other thing is like with private companies, they're private. So they don't have to tell me what they're doing. So when Elon Musk says, yes, I have this plan to send 100 people to Mars and this, and I will release no technical details or any firm mission plans. I'm like, so why should I take this seriously if I don't get to see what you're talking about? Right, right. You know what I mean? So it's sort of like, I think at some point the ultimate like happy place.

And this is like, you know, that scene in The Simpsons where they're like, well, imagine a world without lawyers. And everyone's like holding hands and sitting there's rainbows. Like this is my vision for spaceflight is that like government, international governments and private contractors work together. so that there's no duplication of technology. Because I can't help but see, like, the Falcon heavy and the insane, what is it, 42 engine behemoth, and also the SLS in its heavy configuration. Like, these are all just heavy-lipped vehicles.

Instead of developing three of them, why don't we focus on one of them? Good thing, yeah. And again, because of SpaceX, I don't really know what the benefits are over NASA. You know, it's hard because you can't see it all. But I'd love to see them all working together for something that's like,

a unifying space program. You and me both. And also holding hands singing with rainbows. With rainbows, yeah. Well, as we've seen, the Simpsons have gotten a lot of things right in the past. Oh, my God. 10 years or so, which is a little terrifying. But moving on. Well, in terms of exoplanets being discovered and, you know, things like Proxima B,

do you believe there's any hope of finding life out there, even within, like, our own galaxy, Amy? Are we putting a time frame on that, like hope of finding alien life in our lifetime? Let's say within our lifetime. Let's say within our lifetime. Okay, I think within our lifetime, I won't give away either of our ages, but within our lifetime, I don't know that we would find life form of, like, intelligent life that could communicate with us. I think it's more likely, just given the state of technology, that we would find, like,

confirmed biosignatures of life somewhere. but we have no way right now without some like massive leap in technology of actually going there and making any kind of contact. Yeah. I mean, you know, that's that's in the relatively nearer future. As for like what kind of the other part of that is like what kind of life might there be. I think it's, I think it's, I think there's definitely life out there somewhere. I don't necessarily think that there's life out there that wants to enslave humanity like all the science fiction movies show. I think it's more likely that we would find a primitive life.

Because also, like, what people always forget, and you, of course, would not forget this, is that, like, when you're looking at exoplanets, you're also looking back in time, right? So we have to find life on that planet in the moment where it exists, because it might be that we're seeing it after a mass extinction, right? And we might be just missing the life, which is why I think that, like, we could find sure evidence of past life, but not necessarily, like, a thriving, society. So yeah, I think the odds of finding just, just given that we're looking back in time, we have to find these plants the right time in their history to support life. I think it's harder

to find life life like us life, but probably more likely that we'd be able to find like a more basic form of life in the nearer future, just because I imagine, and I should say I am not an exobiologist in any way, I imagine that's probably more prevalent. That seems very, you know, safe to say. I mean, obviously we have to take many things into consideration. space, time, communication, you know. We saw a lot of this in that the new movie arrival. You know, how much language would play a big part of this. And like you said, like we're almost looking into the past if we were to find that life.

So it's fascinating. It's definitely something to ponder, hopefully within our lifetime. Yeah. Again, if the Simpsons have everything right, hopefully we will. Or we'll find Mr. Burns rubbed up and glowing from radiation in the fire. Either way, I'll take either one. I have so many friends you would get along with in terms of being a Simpsons fan. I'll have to get you connected with them.

Well, this question comes straight from your co-host, which we'll get to in a little bit. Jason, he felt really bad he couldn't be here today. He's a busy man. His question to you is, if you could journey through the solar system on a kick-ass spaceship and you were searching for extraterrestrial life, where would you go? and what one person would you want to be with you? And this could be anyone, a scientist and Apollo astronaut. Yeah, how's that one for a hypothetical?

Yeah, the destination is the easy part. I would go to Titan, Saturn's Moon Titan, in like a party ship. There would be a bar on board. Yeah, no, Titan, I think, is such an interesting place. And, like, to be totally honest, like, I'm so sick of exploring Mars. I want more money for missions to places like Titan because Titan is right, the moon that has what scientists suspect is a very similar environment to primordial Earth and is actually a really

good candidate for potentially having, if not life, the right environment for life to start up. Also, I really, really want to see what it looks like with Saturn on the horizon. That would just be amazing. No, I think Titan is such a fascinating, a fascinating world that we have not. explored nearly enough and like I'm so curious to get like a deep deep look there. The other candidate would be Triton, Neptune's moon, because there is growing evidence after the New Horizons mission to Pluto that Pluto and Triton are actually like bodies and they were both captured by Neptune. One became a moon and one became a dwarf planet, if you

will, in resonance or being in resonance with Neptune. I would love to see if those two things are actually very similar. So those are the two. As for the one person to go with, I have no idea. You sent me these questions last night, and I haven't been able to think of one person. I kind of just want a human with all the qualities that you need,

like a calming presence, but a very intimate knowledge of the Simpsons, but also a medical degree, and also be a mechanic and engineer so you can fix things when they break. Yeah. Well, and we forget, you're going to be with this person for a pretty freaking long time.

And then I think of, like, who could I put up with that long? And the only first I can think of is Pete, my cat. Hey, hey, we've put animals into space before. We can do anything. We put animals in space. We know cats don't like zero gravity. Yeah. Yeah, I have absolutely no idea what one person I would want to spend that much time with and go that far with.

Yeah. That's, uh, that's... I think eventually you'll pretty much want to kill anybody. Yep. Mission failed, I guess, in terms of that. But, yeah, poor moons. They never get enough. enough love.

You talked enough love. I'm glad you said that. The distant moons are the coolest bodies. Yeah. Like there have some of the neatest stuff going on. I mean, yes. I don't know how to do it,

but like if we could have a mission that like orbits Saturn and then deploys things to different moons and still talks to itself like that would be so cool. Yeah. Yeah. More money for that, please. Save now at Whole Foods Market.

It's the summer splash event with great everyday prices on 365 brand ground beef for the grill and ice cream for dessert. They have yellow sales signs on ready to cook beef or chicken kebabs too. Level up with savory marinate, spices and rubs, and complete your cookout with a crowd-pleasing cherry pie and their balsamic chicken salad. Available at the prepared foods counter. Get Summer Splash Savings now at Whole Foods Market. More money for that, indeed. So you recently said, started a podcast. Am I correct? You're joining us in the podcast of fear?

I did, yeah. I've done, so I'm launching my own, the vintage space podcast because I'm super creative by using the same name for all of my things. It's called brand. Branding people. Yeah, no, I did one episode and didn't really, wasn't happy with it, and have since come up with a way better approach to the podcast, and I'm actually really excited, and I'm just driving my heels that actually recording it again because I'm still like not good at the technical aspects of it. Yeah. So the podcast and this is weird because I haven't told anybody that I'm doing it this way yet. So you'll be the first. Oh, exclusive. Yeah, I was just chatting with a couple of friends of mine who are avid podcasters. The problem with me doing a podcast is like I don't listen to podcast because I'm super visual and like if I'm just hearing something, I won't hear it.

You know? So it's hard for me to think of how to do a podcast right. And a friend of mine was like, well, you know, serialized podcast. are really big. I was like, oh my God, is there a podcast that like does installments of the space race history? Because every mission or every like event could be a 30 minute podcast. Right. And I just like, I'm going to try that. Awesome. That's that's the elevator pitch that's very bad. But yeah, I've started sketching out like how many how many episodes I could do and then just sort of go back and like look specifically at other things if this thing actually does, like, gain enough traction. Like, I don't even know how to think of things in, like, a serialized way of doing seasons. Like, I just, that's not how my brain works because I'm not good at planning things

on the long, long term like that. But yeah, it was just like, so I'm actually going to try this approach of like, let's actually just take one technology and tell that story and see if I can like have characters that bleed over so that like in half hour installments every two weeks or whatever, you learn a little bit more that you have a bigger understanding of this era of history that is so, so boiled down in modern retellings that like, yeah, let's see if that

works. Who knows? I have no idea. The podcast, like talk about throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, like podcast. I have no idea what I'm doing. I am just throwing stuff at the wall and helping that something's sick. Well, you're throwing something else at the wall, right? What is this thing you are doing with our co-host Jason McCloughan.

This is a, this is going to be a rogue planet podcast. Yeah. I know you, Jason, and I have very similar interest in terms of music and obviously space. So what is this? What is this amalgamation you two have come up with? This is the greatest, this is like, so this is the podcast that I'm actually excited about. Because this started actually like as a joke in an email.

Okay. When I, I think I put on Twitter that I was looking at podcasts and, Jason email me and was like, if you have questions about gear, I can help you. And then we started just like joke talking about doing a podcast that was all about punk, Scott, beer, space, and pets. Because these are like the five things that we both like love unconditionally. And then it actually grew into a thing that we're like, we could actually make this happen. And it could actually be kind of awesome because between the two of us, we know a lot of people in these fields. And, you know, we want to have you all. We want to just like, like chat and drink beer and just get

nerdy about all of these things. So it is called the Punk Rocker Moonstomper Podcast. Yeah. Jason has designed an amazing logo for it that I can't wait to turn into patches and buttons. And honestly, like what it is,

I mean, you know Jason. And we, you know, he's just awesome. So basically what we do is we crack a beer and we talk for an hour. Yeah. And it's wherever, I mean, we did our first episode and it is a very long introduction to these five elements of the podcast.

And also ourselves so that people get to know us. But it was just like, it's so much fun to sit and hang out with someone that you have that much in common with that you get to just catch up with on a weekly or biweekly basis and just like have a beer over the internet. It's like it's the funnest thing ever. And I can't wait. I can't wait to actually start releasing it into the wild. It is going to be a Rogue Planet podcast.

And I'm going to host the video version on my new YouTube channel. It's more personal. And, yeah, we're just going to kind of really, like, hope that this thing picks up steam. But we're both really, really excited about taking this on. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, these things intermingle more than we think they do. A lot more than you would think, yeah. Yeah, like, we interviewed a gentleman who wrote a book about punk rock and UFOs.

So, yeah, it's definitely, you know, cracking that beer, just letting loose. People like that. They like hearing people have conversations. They feel like they're in the room. and they can be a part of it. And I think that's where your video aspect will really come in. So I'm super excited to hear that when it drops. And I can't wait to come on and crack a Guinness or something with you guys.

Maybe a whiskey. Yeah, we're not. Yeah, we will never tell you what to drink or tell you that you have to drink, but you are welcome to drink, whatever you want, and as much as you want. Yeah, I had a beer that was like 9% when we were doing our first episode. And I was like, wow, this is, this is good. This is good. This is happening.

Yeah, it's pretty great. Awesome. Well, Amy, what's next for you? Are you doing any talks or conventions or are you working on any new books? We've sort of covered the video aspect. Yeah. What's next for you? All the things.

All of the things. Aside from the two podcasts, I am working on pitching my next book right now. It's just been, you know, again, you know, you've written a book. Right now it's just kind of honing the proposal down to like the right sellable thing for my agents and then and then hoping that they see what I see in it and just kind of going from there. It's just like I just need time to work on it. So that's like my big next baby continuing on with the YouTube thing. But I'm also launching, I just kind of mentioned it, my second channel. Basically a personal kind of vlog style channel just to showcase that as we talked earlier that nerds come in all shapes and sizes and genders and everything that.

that I want to start showcasing or sharing a little bit of what life is like when you are a super nerd living largely on the internet doing all kinds of crazy things who has multiple interests because for everybody that says I want my daughter to love science when she starts wanting to date you also I keep telling these parents like but also let her do other things because you need her to be well-rounded and like actually love this stuff and not force her into it. I get a lot of questions from parents and teachers. It's so weird.

And I'm like, oh, I don't have kids, nor do I educate children, but I can try to help. So it's just, yeah, I think it's important to sort of look at the other side of things and have a, yeah, I have no idea. This is like the big social experiment of 2017. So that's the next, those are the next big creative things, yeah. That's awesome. And I'm sure that will be very inspirational to a lot of young women out there to not feel like you need to follow a certain path or mold that, you know, sort of this society is. carved out for them. So that's super exciting.

Where can we find out more about all these amazing things you're going to be doing? The best place to probably follow me is Twitter because I tweet everything that's happening. My handle is AST, Vintage Space. And also my main YouTube channel is also going to have all the announcements and stuff on it. That's just Vintage Space. Google it and you'll find it. It's nice to be up in the search rankings. I don't have to give you a very long URL.

That's fair enough. And the book is available on Amazon, I would have said. Oh, yeah. I should also talk about the fact that you can buy my book because it's been out for a year. It's available on Amazon, breaking the chains of gravity. And also, if you do want a signed hardcover edition, I sell them on my website, which is just amishuretitle.com. Shipping times are slow, I will warn you, depending on if I have books in my house or not. But I do for Christmas right now, so get your orders in.

You were my biggest inspiration for that. I started doing the same. I totally stole it from you. And it's cool. It's cool. Is it working out for you? It's going well. Yeah. It's sort of super annoying, isn't it? It's annoying in the way that, like, the postal service isn't really your friend when you need them to be.

Yeah, that's what I mean. I love that people want to buy it from me. And I like, I love doing it. It's really nice to, you know, people will send me like, oh, is this for my daughter? Can you inscribe it? I'm like, yes, this is great. But it's also, like, I live with boxes of shipping supplies and boxes of books. And, like, I'm just not like, I need a staff.

Like, I need an intern to, like, be my book manager right now. That's the annoying part is, like, oh, my God. And UPS, like, hates me because of how many international orders they take forever to shit. Yeah. Like, every time I walk into the post office with, like, 15 books, they're like, they look at me and they're like, oh, it's you. Like, literally, they look at me and they're like, you have to wait. I'm like, no, it's the post office. It's first time, first serve.

Like, you have to wait because we don't want to do this. We don't want to do this. We don't want to do this. Civil service jobs. They can do what they want. Oh, my God. It was, yeah, I finally found out how to do the internationals online, and they are so happy. Oh, good, good.

Yeah. Well, Amy, thank you so much for joining us today. It was an amazing conversation. I know our listeners will totally dig the whole space aspect, and it's good to know that you're still open to the possibilities of what may be out there. So, thanks again for joining us. Yeah, thank you again. So much for having me. It's been fun.

All right, that's it for this week's episode. Again, you could follow Amy on Twitter. at Amy Shiratiba, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash vintage space. While you're at it, subscribe to our growing YouTube channel as well at YouTube.com slash Ryan Spray. We're on Twitter at SomewhereSkies and Instagram at SomewhereSkies pod. The official Somewhere in the Sky store is open, so go check out some of the new designs we've got over there, and be sure to grab our number one seller, the official high-knick design. our UFO dad in style while watching the latest episodes of Project Blue Book on the history channel.

Visit teepublic.com and search for this Somewhere in the Sky Store. Again, that's teepublic.com. Support us on Patreon for rewards at patreon.com slash summer skies. Thank you as always to the E1 podcast network, Hello Fresh KGRA Radio, and most importantly to you for listening. I'll see you here next week and remember, Keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching. Somewhere in the Skies.

Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions in association with the Entertainment One Podcast Network. To learn more, visit Entertainment One Podcast.com.