Drew Feustel, NASA Astronaut, talks about his education in Geology and Seismology, his previous 2 shuttle missions, and his expectations before launching on March 21, 2018 for his first long-duration mission in space. HWHAP Episode 34.
Drew Feustel, NASA Astronaut, talks about his education in Geology and Seismology, his previous 2 shuttle missions, and his expectations before launching on March 21, 2018 for his first long-duration mission in space. HWHAP Episode 34.
Dr. Andrea Hanson, Exercise Countermeasures Operations Lead, talks about what happens to the human body in microgravity, what NASA is doing about it, and how we can use this knowledge to go deeper into space. Hanson also describes some parts of astronaut exercise that have inspired her workouts. HWHAP Episode 33.
Acquired brings it all back home—to the smart home that is—with Google’s 2014 acquisition of Nest for $3.2B. From Nest cofounder Tony Fadell’s first job at General Magic (alongside future Android founder Andy Rubin) to his days as “father of the iPod” under Steve Jobs at Apple, the Silicon Valley history runs deep with this one. But did that make the acquisition a good move for Google in the coming battle with Amazon’s “Lady A” for control over consumers’ homes? We dive in!
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For African American History Month, we team up with our African American Employee Resource Group to bring 4 guests from different areas of expertise like life support systems, robotics, flight control and leadership to explain what they do and the paths they took to work at NASA. HWHAP Episode 32.
Jonathan Homan, Project Manager for Webb’s Chamber A Testing, talks about how the James Webb Space Telescope has been designed, built, and tested, especially in the vacuum chamber here at the Johnson Space Center. He also describes what the telescope will be looking for in the universe and how it will work. HWHAP Episode 31.
We launch mini-series on Acquired with a subject near & dear to our heroes’ hearts: startup fundraising! This has been one of our most-requested new topics, and we’re excited to kick things off with makers of the popular Rec Room social VR app, Against Gravity, which raised one of Seattle’s hottest venture rounds in recent history: a $4m seed led by Sequoia Capital in 2016. CEO Nick Fajt joins to tell the story from company inception to building and shipping the initial product, fundraising as a first-time CEO, what they’ve been able to accomplish with the capital and their vision for the future. We had a blast touching on many classic Acquired themes for the first time “in-action” with a young, growing company, and hope you all enjoy the discussion as much as we did. Let us know what you think in the Slack!
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Dr. Duck Mittlefehldt, Planetary Scientist, talks about some curious findings in meteorites and the adventures endured to procure them. HWHAP Episode 30.
Patrick O’Neill, Marketing and Communications Manager at CASIS, talks about the part of the International Space Station designated as a U.S. National Laboratory, what that means, and how CASIS manages research from all over the world that could ultimately benefit humankind. HWHAP Episode 29.
Former Zappos Chairman & COO (and current Partner at Sequoia Capital) Alfred Lin joins our heroes to kick off Season 2 with a classic: Amazon’s 2009 acquisition of the internet’s quirkiest online retailer for $1.2B in stock. How did three Harvard undergrads go from delivering pizza to their dorm to delivering happiness to the world — and become in the process one of the few companies ever to compete successfully head-to-head against Amazon in commerce? Tune in to find out!
Note: Unfortunately the quality of David and Alfred’s audio tracks in this episode were significantly impacted by a processor issue on David’s computer, which we didn’t discover until after recording. We’ve worked hard to fix in post-production, but it’s still far from perfect. Still, the content from Alfred is so good, we felt we had to put this episode out there even though the audio quality isn’t up to par. We hope you’ll give it a listen regardless, and we’re working on getting a transcript made ASAP as well.
-Ben & David
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Jessica Vos, Crew Systems Engineer, talks about how astronauts will operate in the Orion capsule for deep-space missions that can go up to 3 weeks: like how they’ll eat, sleep, exercise, work, and if needed, be prepared for the worst. HWHAP Episode 28.