Origins: Jim Bridenstine

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine joins Jake and Anthony for the first episode of Off-Nominal Origins. We talk about how he got interested in space and aviation, his time at Rice University, his years as a Navy pilot, his continuing fascination with the Rocket Racing League, and a whole lot more. And yes, obviously, we talk about the time Jake and Anthony started a weird little sideshow at IAC 2019 with The Jim Bridenstine Fan Club.

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Donation Campaign Update!

Jake and Anthony stop by with a quick update on our donation campaign to help two wonderful organizations, Black Girls Code and the Banneker Institute. The response has been incredible so far, so let’s keep it up!

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Let’s Make Space Better.

Here at Off-Nominal, we've been following the demonstrations against racial inequality and police violence in the United States, Canada, and around the world with concern. These events have highlighted deep problems with how we treat each other in many domains, and space exploration is not exempt. While we have been processing this in real-time, it has become obvious that we must do our part and use our platform to speak up against these inequalities and take action to stop them. We have been engaging with our Discord community this past week to come up with a plan.

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Episode 29 - Go Full Goldin

Jake and Anthony take on a long-standing debate: worm or meatball? The NASA Worm is back, so in honor of that, we talk about our most and least favorite logos in space, including missions, organizations, and companies. And some Soviet propaganda.

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Episode 28 - Don’t Sneeze in Their Mouths!

Jake and Anthony are joined by fellow space podcaster Brendan Bryne for a self-quarantine edition of the show. Jake developed a new bit for this grab bag episode with talk of Schrödinger’s Gateway, SpaceX’s DM-2, and a whole bunch more, including (obviously) COVID-19 and its impact on space. Also how Brendan’s cat almost ruined OSIRIS-REx.

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Episode 27 - Space Policy Fugue State

Jake and Anthony are joined by Laura Forczyk to talk about all the drama, from the NASA Authorization bill making its way through the House, the latest in Starliner anomalies, and Laura’s new book, Rise of the Space Age Millennials.

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Episode 25 - SpaceX Cinematic Universe

Jake and Anthony are joined by Marina Koren of The Atlantic to discuss the very Off-Nominal-esque Apollo 12 mission, regional Pennsylvania sayings, and to deliberate on and announce the 2019 Off-Nominal Award winner!

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Episode 24 - Jim-Adjacent

Jake and Anthony tell the tale of IAC 2019—meetups, making connections at the conference, trolling around the expo hall, and the much-anticipated-and-surprising meeting with JB.

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