Episode Thirty of Stories from Space is Now Live! — Part I and II of my interview with James Maynard
This week, my guest was science communicator, author, and educator James Maynard, creator and host of The Cosmic Companion. Maynard is what is typically referred to as a “NASA legacy,” a person whose parents worked for NASA. In Maynard’s case, that includes his mother and father, who worked with the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. Through the network he’s created, Maynard maintains this tradition of educating and inspiring people to pursue careers in space, the STEAMs, and science communication.
In I of our two-part interview, where we discuss today’s most important missions and programs and what we can look forward to in the future. We also got into what it means to be a science communicator, how to deal with doubters and skeptics, how awesome it is to do what you love for a living, and how to deal with that nasty old voice that says, “you’re not good enough.” — aka. “imposter syndrome.”
Where to Listen:
In Part II, we talked more about the Artemis Program, the role of the commercial space industry, and the future of human spaceflight and space exploration (and what it will make possible). During our chat, he capped things with a brilliant quote, which I had to introduce the episode with:
“The squabbles of nations on other worlds will soon become as distant to people living in space as the squabbles of ancient city-states are to us today. It could be the end of nationalism as we know it.”
