Session 1 Recap

[00:00:00] We're going for a meta podcast this episode, but we're talking about podcasting

[00:00:05] Only five episodes into the show when we've reached the point where we're podcasters talking about podcast

[00:00:10] Yeah, because two dudes starting a podcast wasn't bad enough. It has to also have a meta episode. That's that's how we're really

[00:00:17] Doing it now

[00:00:18] It wouldn't be a complete first season without us taking a look behind the curtain

[00:00:24] Welcome to looking back the review of season one and a little bit of anticipation for season two of spherical cows

[00:00:32] As always I'm Dominic Tanzillo

[00:00:34] And I'm Nick Saba. Wow, look at that little turnaround from our usual audio file where I reuse your clip of and I'm

[00:00:42] Dominic Tanzillo for every episode

[00:00:44] I

[00:01:01] Want to start with

[00:01:03] The name that's my big question because I think that's what we've gotten asked most about

[00:01:09] Why spherical cows and I I want to make sure our stories match up because I feel like I always tell a story paying

[00:01:17] homage to Dr. Plesser our initial course

[00:01:21] Spearhead and the guy that was supporting us when we were both at university

[00:01:24] But I feel like you have a different answer about why spherical cows. So what's here from you?

[00:01:30] It's why spherical cows because you suggested it. It was it was kind of your brainchild

[00:01:36] well, Dr. Plesser was essential for the course and

[00:01:40] teaching in the physics department using physics demos every time of course it was on my mind but the

[00:01:46] Original start in my mind was I had looked up and found this whole concept of the spherical cows

[00:01:53] thought it was funny and

[00:01:55] The second time we were teaching the course the live seminar version of our space medicine course

[00:02:00] I make a suggestion about spherical cows for week two where we talked about astrobiology. Oh

[00:02:07] And we talk about organisms in space what would happen? Yeah, actually you're talking about the Fermi paradox and these

[00:02:13] Drake equations which take these massive orders of magnitude and probabilistic measurements to say what are the odds of finding life in the universe?

[00:02:21] based on number of Earth like planets and all these

[00:02:25] Estimations where you know, you're taking lots of terms either multiply it to tend to some very high power or tend to some very low

[00:02:32] Power inconceivable numbers though. Yeah. Yeah, and so that was a caveat

[00:02:37] I was providing which is to say we did a little bit of back of the napkin math

[00:02:41] There are people who take entire courses where across the entire course

[00:02:45] They look at each individual one of those terms and they can parse out the Drake equation and update it with more modern standards

[00:02:51] I threw that comment out there that met some mixed reactions from the students some got it

[00:02:57] I think only like two but then the rest have this puzzled look and I remember

[00:03:02] Clarifying what that meant dr. Plesser, of course the core sponsor and physical mathematician

[00:03:07] Actually was laughing with his mic muted

[00:03:09] But that kind of got me thinking down the line and got me really excited then because of course astrobiology also talks about

[00:03:15] Organisms in space in general. How would you survive the vacuum of space?

[00:03:19] And so at the same time I had the thought of well a cow put in the vacuum of space would also be a

[00:03:25] spherical cow it also you sent me that great

[00:03:28] I remember when we first launched

[00:03:31] You sent me that great clip of Bill Nye

[00:03:33] Going over a spherical cow and like what that meant so chose it for that reason

[00:03:37] But the actual joke is just about it's something about a dairy farmer wanting to optimize

[00:03:42] Milk output the punch line is he there's a physicist and the physicist is like

[00:03:47] Oh well simplify it down and just take the model of a spherical cow and

[00:03:52] That is the punch line to the joke. That's that's humor to physicists, I guess

[00:03:58] And for me that was I think why I love the name because it doesn't make sense to me the joke the whole

[00:04:05] Idea of just like simplifying everything down sounded great because that's what we wanted this podcast to be but also

[00:04:11] The idea of taking something that may not make sense to a lot of people and giving it meaning while also still being weird

[00:04:18] Still being us

[00:04:19] Not to beat a dead horse or a dead cow in this case

[00:04:23] I have a section on our website on the podcast website about

[00:04:27] demystifying the spherical cow and really what talking about there is there is a double intention with the joke because we're talking about

[00:04:34] From my perspective bioastronautics and you're talking about astrobiology

[00:04:39] These two very theoretical branches where there's not a lot of applied material

[00:04:43] Right, this is the whole impetus of us starting the first course was both of us came to our passions

[00:04:49] But then there's not a lot to do especially when you're early in your careers

[00:04:52] You're studying in an undergrad which makes it then hard if you want to make a lateral move later on

[00:04:56] That's why I didn't end up actually majoring in astrobiology. There is no real outlets

[00:05:01] Yeah

[00:05:01] And my story of course is me really putting all the pieces together my sophomore junior years and the whole NASA internship

[00:05:08] Which really got the course off the ground in the first place wouldn't have been possible

[00:05:11] We're taking in the spherical cows and hopefully adding a little bit more depth to it as well

[00:05:15] The the theoretical of how do I become a NASA flight surgeon?

[00:05:19] How do I work on bio banking for the inspiration for missions?

[00:05:23] Every one of our shows ends with the question

[00:05:26] What practical advice do you have to give and that's juxtaposed against the theoreticals and the fun questions we ask of oh

[00:05:33] Well, what about this show and in this show this is incredible. They wrap themselves in duct tape

[00:05:40] Yeah

[00:05:41] Exactly so that's the yin and the yang right that we start in the theoretical the exciting put the two words space and medicine together

[00:05:48] You're gonna get people excited for it, but then ultimately this is deeply pragmatic

[00:05:52] And so it's kind of forget me not of okay

[00:05:54] So we start in the theoretical how do we make spherical cows less spherical add more depth and more accessible?

[00:06:00] So you know it works on a couple different levels. It felt right in my mind to put it all together

[00:06:05] Yeah, we're doing this session one cap specifically to talk about the name

[00:06:09] I think that was kind of my goal just to clear that up

[00:06:11] I think just framing it a little bit how the timelines of the past work is really helpful

[00:06:23] Just because this is the whole process of us figuring out our work schedules

[00:06:26] How this can all work is us doing busy things in the future and what makes the most sense

[00:06:31] Originally, we were hoping to get this out probably

[00:06:34] Early 2022 we had all our guests lined up

[00:06:37] We had all the episodes recorded and then you know for multiple reasons. We both are working full-time

[00:06:42] I'm applying to med schools

[00:06:44] Finding time to make it work and then and then I had to go home and take care of personal family business

[00:06:49] And of course priorities change and shift and I don't bemoan that but it's just kind of the way too busy people work together

[00:06:56] And find time or neither one of us are full-time podcasters

[00:07:00] Yeah, and dr. Mason what had to sit for seven months waiting for us to email him

[00:07:06] In that time. Yeah, he became a famous guest

[00:07:10] You can talk more about that because you said that to me

[00:07:12] But that was really cool to know that we had someone that was on a famous podcast speak on our podcast

[00:07:18] Right, so we had interviewed dr. Chris Mason just after the inspiration for launch in September of 2021

[00:07:26] And then to make sure we had all our guests and that we got the guests approval before releasing each episode

[00:07:31] We edited them properly and all those other fact

[00:07:34] It took until April May 2022 for us to release it and the same week we release it

[00:07:39] He's on perhaps one of the biggest podcasts, especially in the scientific realm at the same time

[00:07:46] So I like to say we got in on the Chris Mason ground floor

[00:07:49] He was a wonderful guest really really engaging and of course it makes sense that he's on a podcast

[00:07:53] I've caught a few doubt episodes, but it's the Lex Friedman podcast

[00:07:57] I think he is a AI researcher at MIT and he likes asking these theoretical interesting scientific questions

[00:08:04] Which Mason was full of that was his bread and butter that I think is the perfect case study to frame

[00:08:11] where we're now looking for season 2 because you and I both wanted to do it by the book and not just

[00:08:16] Record an episode and then immediately upload it and now that we're looking towards season 2

[00:08:21] We have this base formed and we're starting to communicate and work with people

[00:08:26] Properly inside of NASA with the Air Force all of our guests before our external contractors or have

[00:08:32] Institutes that are adjacent to NASA but aren't necessarily civil servants at least with NASA and the reason this is so important is because

[00:08:40] Well when I was an intern it was abundantly clear that to take a photo and then use it in a presentation

[00:08:45] You have to go through what's called export control at NASA

[00:08:48] We've been working with that around that I think hopefully not to put the horse in front of the wagon

[00:08:54] But I know we have a couple people from NASA, which is very exciting coming on. We had an astronaut

[00:09:00] Session one that was very

[00:09:03] Unfortunately early morning recording especially for you being out on the West Coast. Yes

[00:09:09] For 30 for me, but we are immensely grateful for the time. It's like a 30 minute recording. Yeah

[00:09:14] Well, you and I wrote a joke to start the episode. Oh, that's the available on on Kindle joke

[00:09:21] I forgot that we wrote that down and read it off a script

[00:09:25] Well, and the big mistake was putting me as the I was the one setting up the joke and you were the punchline

[00:09:30] You did a great job. Your delivery was perfect

[00:09:32] I was still shaking off the 4 a.m. Sleepiness. I think we were both too sleepy to really make that joke land

[00:09:40] Exactly so again, this is another thing of learning the ins and the outs and the flows and hopefully

[00:09:45] We were excited to get all of our guests recorded by the end of January so that we could spend February

[00:09:50] editing and then have it out by March and then of course

[00:09:53] Life happens and it comes out which is not a problem

[00:09:56] But again just figuring this out and saying that we don't really want to frame expectations as oh

[00:10:00] We are going to be producing something every week and having things released

[00:10:03] But we are moving now to season or session too as you were saying where we are working with NASA Air Force

[00:10:09] Individuals and making sure that when we do speak with them that we clear with the proper authorities the episodes and recordings

[00:10:15] We want to make sure we're doing everything by the book

[00:10:17] I want to make sure that we're not talking about any classified or secret information

[00:10:22] I know that from my company right now that a lot of information has different export control requirements

[00:10:27] And so the last thing we want to do is open ourselves up and cause any issues for any of our fantastic guests

[00:10:34] Right?

[00:10:34] We are always appreciative of our guests and what they talk about and the fact that they're able to volunteer their time and attention answering our

[00:10:41] Spherical questions right these fun theoreticals

[00:10:44] But then also talking about their lives and sharing their stories because let's just talk about Dr. Emmanuel or Chieta

[00:10:50] Yeah, what an incredible story

[00:10:52] I mean in fact just today

[00:10:53] I was talking with some interns who are working on the next analog

[00:10:57] Hero or hero missions and where they're gonna be modeling what life would be like for a crew of people living on Mars

[00:11:03] We were talking about what kind of person signs up for that and I'm like wait

[00:11:07] I know exactly the kind of person he's absolute sweetheart. So you gotta be it's like the most intense summer camp

[00:11:14] You'll ever do this one now is apparently for a whole year

[00:11:17] So that's a lot and you know, you have to be a good person and a good teammate

[00:11:21] So, you know, it is interesting again filling out the pictures of who works in these various positions

[00:11:25] Who are answering these questions?

[00:11:27] Who are working on NASA contracts or in capacities to make sure that these human research questions get answered?

[00:11:33] So that's to say this is a little bit of our sneak peek for season two or session two where now

[00:11:38] We're interviewing these people or we're setting up times to interview them and then we're gonna be clearing the information

[00:11:44] So that could take I actually don't want to set any timelines. I was just about to say

[00:11:48] I know that if I just continue to let you talk you're gonna slowly give away more and more information

[00:11:53] so I'm gonna cut you off I

[00:11:55] Am going to interview you right now

[00:11:58] And I'm just gonna ask you what is one topic that you are

[00:12:03] excited about getting into and I want to state that I think both of us

[00:12:07] We're hoping to find a way to kind of get the space community more involved in how the show works

[00:12:13] Just like coming up with ideas for different topics or even the layout

[00:12:17] I know that we want to change the layout a bit more to be story driven

[00:12:21] So find a piece of research that one of us is interested in and then dig into that and kind of tell more of a story with the

[00:12:28] podcast episode rather than just interviewing and asking about life story even in cases where that's incredibly

[00:12:34] You know incredibly cool stories. So a lot of our guests for this next session are revolving around that

[00:12:41] but

[00:12:42] Beyond that what are you generally? What are you excited for in our episode with dr.

[00:12:48] Bucky I ask about a two two and a half minute long question about this theoretical of

[00:12:54] artificial atmospheres and of course

[00:12:56] I am thinking about and trending towards anesthesia hyperbaric an artificial atmosphere

[00:13:00] So those questions will always get me excited

[00:13:02] but just recently I came across a really cool update from the scientific community where

[00:13:07] Scientists have successfully 3d printed and then grafted on an ear to someone

[00:13:12] And this is a really exciting development in the realm of allowing people to have

[00:13:17] You know print organs and the reason that this squares and can come to space medicine because this didn't happen on the ISS or space

[00:13:25] But what is interesting is that NASA is really exploring the potential to 3d print organs in space

[00:13:32] And there's a couple different reasons why it can all come together quite nicely

[00:13:35] The biggest effect is of course the microgravity environment means that hollow organs don't necessarily have to have scaffolding or

[00:13:43] Other implements inside and so you can use different 3d printing techniques to print a hollow organ

[00:13:49] Let's say a heart in space and then as the ISS or people are thinking about the the future development of the space stations

[00:13:56] Are they gonna be private?

[00:13:57] Well, you might want to look for business opportunity

[00:13:59] And so a fun theoretical avenue to explore would be do we want a mini factory 3d printing organs so that the list of people waiting for a heart

[00:14:09] Famously a very hard list to get on and even when you're on there are very few hearts to receive in an organ transplant

[00:14:15] Would it be feasible to use a private space post to print hearts for people who need it?

[00:14:20] Get your get your heart valve or the lead delivered to you just in a drop. Yeah, exactly

[00:14:26] That's that's true science that like that's true science fiction, right?

[00:14:31] That's if we get to that point anything is possible. Absolutely this is the this is the Star Trek future

[00:14:36] Everyone's been dreaming about so I mean that's just like that's like putting a paperclip on a file

[00:14:43] Compared to building something like a space elevator or these other large structures, which is kind of what I'm excited about talking about

[00:14:51] I think so NASA just signed that

[00:14:54] Contract to date when we're recording this but NASA just signed this contract with SpaceX where they're going to be flying the next five missions and

[00:15:03] There's definitely we've talked about it many many times. There's this shift into more civilian

[00:15:08] Spacework privatizing everything. They're working on Boeing space liner

[00:15:13] That's the next big thing for NASA trying to get that approved to carry

[00:15:18] Civilians and NASA personnel up and down so I think we will start to see more interest in things like space infrastructure, right?

[00:15:26] I know there is a joking thing a while back about building a movie studio in space

[00:15:32] I'm very excited about the habitation of space. I think so that's what I'm gonna be focusing on here in this next session

[00:15:39] I think we're going to probably wrap up talking about where we want to go helps us kind of keep our focus as well

[00:15:53] I think one of the big things that we were talking about before is

[00:15:57] Figuring out how to get more of the community involved because we want this to be educational

[00:16:02] Hopefully fun as well, but educational is our mission statement. I think right now

[00:16:07] That's just gonna look like utilizing the comment section, right?

[00:16:10] Like reading comments that people leave if there are any ideas that you want us to go back and cover

[00:16:15] I'm a big fan of

[00:16:17] Looking at stuff in space in movies, right and watching that and being like okay, but that's like not actually

[00:16:23] You're like total recall when he when the people die on on Mars

[00:16:28] I think it is right and they're like heads swell up in their eyes

[00:16:32] Explode right like looking at that is something that I love to do

[00:16:35] So if anyone has any questions about that hearings hearing stuff like that would be great

[00:16:39] We have various places for community engagement involvement, but you and I both started as camp counselors

[00:16:45] You can't be a camp counselor unless you're open to feedback and trying to make sure that the campers having a good time

[00:16:50] Well kids are ruthless too. They they do not hold back

[00:16:55] They are honest and so right now we've gotten good reviews and the metrics

[00:16:59] We have mostly to go by are a few comments

[00:17:01] But then also where people are listening to which episodes really got a lot of engagement and where you know

[00:17:05] Or which episodes trail off an engagement at some point really the most helpful thing that an audience member can do is tell

[00:17:12] Us something you're passionate about we can then go out find the researcher who talks about that and then we can ask

[00:17:18] The question hey, how did you find work in this area?

[00:17:21] We can always ask the question we end every show with and when we do that

[00:17:25] Hopefully that will be immensely valuable to at least that one listener

[00:17:28] But you're probably not alone a lot of people have overlapping interests and would want to find placement in

[00:17:35] astrobiology bioastronautics or

[00:17:37] Maybe just space infrastructure and they want to support people in the medical field so that you know astronauts and space travelers are able

[00:17:44] To stay happy healthy in space

[00:17:46] Absolutely and like you know science is just that some total collection of all of the

[00:17:52] Individual passions of a bunch of nerds around the globe. So that's what we're doing

[00:17:57] We're also nerds just trying to find our own way

[00:18:01] Hopefully slowly forming the global community around space medicine

[00:18:04] That's the whole speak up

[00:18:06] We'll put links to where you can message and provide suggestions feedback comments

[00:18:10] Nick and I always read this and we're very open to hearing it

[00:18:13] So, please let let your voice be heard

[00:18:15] But I think if you don't have anything left to say we have to give a the old ad edge the old sign off

[00:18:21] Let's do it well folks. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode this recap as we're looking back and now looking forward

[00:18:28] As always

[00:18:30] Stay oxygenated stay oxygenated

[00:18:33] by all