Live from The Space Shed – Détails, épisodes et analyse

For this episode we were at New Scientist Live 2019 as their “performance stage”, hosting workshops, talks and interviews with some of the UK’s leading scientists and researchers. One of the (many) highlights was hosting an interview and Q&A with astronaut Al Worden who piloted the Apollo 15 command module to The Moon in 1971.

We’re releasing this episode for International Podcast Day to celebrate Al’s life after he passed away earlier this year. 2020 really hasn’t pulled any punches, eh?

In this episode Al and Jon chat about:

• his astronaut training

• his Guinness World record

• his favourite sci-fi films

• his relationships with other Apollo astronauts

• why at 87 years old he still considered himself the best crew member for a mission to Mars

and he answers questions from the New Scientist Live audience

LINKS

Al’s legacy feed on Twitter @WordenAlfred  

Website alworden.com

The Al Worden “Endeavour” Scholarship

unspaceagency.earth

Credits

Presenter: Jon Spooner

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Ground Crew: Anna Turzyknski, Sarah Readman, Sarah Webb

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb, Javairya Khan for Unlimited

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode we were on campus at the University of Warwick’s Family Day for the British Science Festival with Maddie Moate - a YouTube filmmaker, BAFTA winning presenter and the host of the BAFTA nominated CBeebies series “Do You Know?”, BBC Earth’s “Earth Unplugged”and CNBC’s technology series “The Cloud Challenge”. Maddie and Jon know each other from the CBeebies Christmas Show that Jon directs and in this episode we chat about:

• the CBeebies Christmas show
• how Maddie started out on YouTube
• why ‘Curiosity’ is so important
• Maddie’s favourite episodes of ‘Do You Know’
• her travelling adventures across the world
• elephant poo

Maddie also does a live biscuit review and answers questions including:

• where do you live?
• how do you choose what to make episodes of Do You Know about?
• which factories are your favourites?
• do you ever get tired?
• what is your favourite book?
• what is your favourite planet?
• what is your favourite giraffe?

LINKS

Maddie on Instagram @maddiemoate

Maddie on Twitter @maddiemoate

Website maddiemoate.com

Credits

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode we’re in the Faraway Forest at Latitude Festival with particle physicist Professor Jon Butterworth. Jon works on the Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS experiment at CERN. Not sure what any of those things are? No problem! Jon describes them and his work brilliantly.

In this episode Jon (Butterworth) and UNSA’s Director of Human Spaceflight (other) Jon Spooner talk about

• what particle physics even is
• why it is worth dedicating your life to physics
• Jon B’s 5 billion year old wedding ring
• what CERN, the Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS experiment are
• what the Higgs Boson is
• what the most exciting words in science are
• what the High Luminosity Upgrade is
• what is dark energy and dark matter
• if you’re 10 now (or looking for a career change) how do you go about being part of finding out what dark matter is?

… and Jon answers questions on:

• what his favourite particle is
• are there any other universes?
• how do you know you’re looking at the right things with the LHC?
• do you ever work with artists to come up with your weird ideas?

Enjoy!

LINKS

Jon on Twitter @jonmbutterworth

Jon’s blog lifeandphysics.com

BUY HIS BOOK Smashing Physics

CREDITS

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode we’re back in the Faraway Forest at Latitude Festival with astrophysicist and science communicator Jen Gupta. Based in the super cooly named Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth where she is the SEPnet/Ogden Physics Outreach and Public Engagement Manager, Jen is also one of the hosts of the BBC Tomorrow’s World Live series, one of the creators and hosts of the Seldom Sirius astronomy podcast and has also been known to perform comedy sets where she uses astronomy to make people laugh. For unknown technical reasons we didn’t record the very end of this conversation so it ends quite abruptly. Sorry, Jen!

In this episode Jen and UNSA’s Director of Human Spaceflight Jon Spooner talk about

• how she became an astrophysicist
• the weirdest thing in the Universe
• smashing the patriarchy
• Jen's Tactile Universe project that allows you to 3D print your own galaxy (!)

and Jen answers questions including

• what do galaxies look like?
• how many atoms there are in the Universe?
• the science of the movie Interstellar
• is time travel possible?

Also they and the audience argue about what the best sci-fi movie is and Jen twists small peoples’ melons by answering questions about what is beyond space and leads everyone in a thought experiment where we imagine ourselves as ants on a piece of string. On the last day of a music festival.

Enjoy!

LINKS

Jen on Twitter @jen_gupta

Jen’s website jengupta.com

Tactile Universe

CREDITS

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This was our first event in the Faraway Forest at Latitude Festival 2018 with medical and space doctor Kevin Fong. As well as holding a day job as a flying A&E doctor, Kevin also works regularly with NASA, makes documentaries and podcasts about space for the BBC and in 2009 nearly (actually) became an astronaut.

Kevin and UNSA’s Director of Human Spaceflight Jon Spooner talk about:

• How Kevin became a Space Doctor
• Flying in microgravity on The Vomit Comet
• How Kevin nearly (actually) became an astronaut
• How to survive if you’re thrown into cold water
• Kevin’s latest work with NASA on risk management
• That time he was working as Medical Crew on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral

and we answer questions from our Latitude audience including:

• will there be a second series of Train Like An Astronaut?
• how can we “Queer” space?
• is God an astronaut?

Enjoy!

LINKS

Kevin on Twitter @Kevin_Fong

Kevin’s most recent BBC project on the Apollo Missions 13 Minutes to the Moon

CREDITS

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jacqueline is currently a professor at Gresham College, University College London and the Maasai Mara University in Kenya where she also lives having married a Maasai chief. Previously chief scientist of the United Nations environment programme and executive director of the European Environment Agency, Jacqueline is passionate about community science and natural prosperity, open data and earth observation. She is one of the most extraordinary humans I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. In this episode we chat about:

• how to get politicians and governments to “do the right thing”
• her sustainable life with the Maasai Mara in rural Kenya
• how we can all, like the Maasai Mara, adapt our lives to cope with the effects of climate change

and Jacqueline answers questions including:

• is climate change going to make humans extinct by 2100
• how much rain do you get in the village where you live?
• what advice would you give to any young people wanting to get involved in fighting climate change?
• how badly will climate change affect the Earth?
• how does climate change affect plants?
• how many trees do we need to plant to stop climate change?
• should we all go vegan?
• what can we all do to get governments to ACT on climate change?

LINKS

Jacqueline on Twitter @jacquelineMcgl8

Jacqueline on Facebook jacqueline.mcglade.1

Credits

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode we’re back in the Faraway Forest at Latitude Festival with poet, lawyer, international human rights activist and founding member of Unlimited Theatre Dr Louisa Ashley. In this episode Louisa and Jon chat about:

• Louisa’s ‘career journey’ from experimental theatre maker to Head of Law at Leeds Beckett University
• chocolate’s relationship to climate change
• “Ecofeminism” and what it is
• poetry and conflict resolution
• how art can help us deal with the emotional responses to climate change

Louisa also reads some of her poems and answers questions including:

• how can chocolate be good for the environment?
• what is *the* answer?
• what is going on in Yemen?
• are there any countries in the world that are shining examples for human rights?

LINKS

Louisa on Twitter @LouisaAshley16

Credits

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode we were on campus at the University of Warwick as part of the British Science Festival with lawyer and climate justice activist Harpreet Kaur Paul.

In this episode Harpreet and Jon chat about:

• what “climate justice” is
• what the real effects of climate change are right now
• how human rights laws can help with fighting climate change
• why direct action (protest) is important
• what can we best do as individuals?

and answers questions including:

• should my school start selling bottled water?
• how did you get into this line of work?
• what are the best ways to do “carbon offsetting”?

LINKS

Harpreet on Twitter @HarpreetKPaul

Credits

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode we were in The Faraway Forest at Latitude Festival with Dr Alice Bell - a climate activist and historian and the co-director of climate charity 10:10 (recently rebranded as Possible).

In this episode Alice and Jon chat about:

• the best words to describe the climate crisis/breakdown/emergency
• why keeping global heating to 1.5degrees is so important
• why it’s good to talk about how scary this all is
• what we can all do to combat climate change
• why individual (as well as collective) action is useful

and answers questions including:

• do we have to STOP flying entirely?
• will it get so hot in the UK that we will have to close schools
• how can we reduce food waste?
• what is the most important thing that we should all do?
• is it true that LED lights are bad for you?
• is it bad for wildlife if we build solar and wind farms in fields?
• should we do meat free Mondays?
• should we eat the rich?

Alice also came back later that day to DJ a ‘climate inspired’ set. Spotify playlist here: songs for a changing climate - Space Shed edit (67 minutes) and the 200 minute ‘long train journey edit’ is here

LINKS

Alice on Twitter @alicebell

1010uk.org

Credits

Presenters: Jon Spooner & Mini Jon

Sound Engineer & Editor: Andy Wood

Additional sound design: Elena Pena

Music: Public Service Broadcasting

Producers: Jon Spooner, Alice Massey, Sarah Webb for Unlimited

Consultancy: Storythings

Graphic Design: Lee Goater

The Unlimited Space Agency and The Space Shed are projects of Unlimited Theatre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.