Before It Happened

Who is going to be the first human to step on Mars? In this episode of Before IT Happened, Donna speaks with Pamela Greyer, an atypical character to this show but a visionary in her own right. Known as “The NASA Lady,” Pamela is neither an astronaut nor an engineer. Pam is a teacher whose mission is to bring STEM education closer to black and brown kids — especially girls — through the majesty and wonder of space. Listen now and learn how this lover of science and technology is opening up the minds of the next generation of engineers, mathematicians, and space travelers!

Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.

Jump straight into:

(02:17) - Pamela Greyer, from an English teacher to “The NASA Lady” - “Anyone can do what I do, they just have to want to inspire kids.” 

(07:27) - Pamela’s fascinating childhood in Chicago - “I attribute a lot of who I wound up becoming to my mom because she made sure that I got broad experiences.”

(12:01) - Writing for high school TV and getting into STEM - “I have a brother and he would always buy me stuff that my mother would frown at and go, ‘That's not for girls, that's for boys’.” 

(19:02) - How Pamela went from science to communications and then to teaching -  “A very good friend of mine brought me in to do the computer classes for the elementary kids. That's where I really was able to parlay my science and my technology.”

(24:26) - Becoming “The NASA Lady” - “I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to have all of this NASA goodness in my hands that I can then share, especially with kids.”

(30:15) - Mary Jackson and the role of women in NASA - “These stories have been kept and have never come out, especially to young African-American girls to show them to not be afraid of math or science.”

(38:00) - Pamela’s dream space travel and the impact of her work - “I wish I had been able to take a group of students to Kennedy and actually see and witness in person a space shuttle launch.”

(47:33) - What is next for The NASA Lady? - “I am looking at working on bringing the aeronautics education laboratory back, and doing more work with aeronautics and aerospace engineering.”

Episode resources

Connect with Pamela ‘The Nasa Lady’ through Twitter

Follow all things NASA on Twitter

Check out NASA’s Kids’ Club

Go to NASA at Home for more activities for kids and families

See NASA’s resources for STEM Engagement for students of all ages

Learn more about NASA’s STEM...

Sometimes to give meaning to our work, we need to remember who we are and where we came from. In this episode of Before It Happened, Donna speaks with Praveen Penmetsa, co-founder and CEO of two groundbreaking startups — one of which is revolutionizing the agricultural industry. 

While Praveen’s love for cars and engineering brought him to the United States, it was his family’s farming background in India that gave him the idea for Monarch Tractor. Through his newest venture, Praveen and his team have developed the first electric tractor that can also produce enough energy to power a home. As Praveen likes to say, Monarch is “the bridge between farm sustainability and farm economics in one product.” 

Listen now and learn how every moment of this engineer’s life — from his childhood in Southern India poring over American auto magazines to working on race cars in Huntington Beach — led to his revolutionary idea for the future of farming. 

Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.

Jump straight into:

(00:53) - Praveen’s Agricultural background and his interest in cars and technology - “I would have all these dreams of, ‘Oh yeah I’ve got to go to California and drive these fast cars and play with all of this high-tech,’ from quiet old computer magazines and car magazines.”

(04:15) - Finding his first job after graduation - “I threw everything I owned into my car and drove across the country for two days nonstop to start work at Huntington Beach.”

(09:26) - Praveen’s first startup: Accelerating high-technology products to the market - “It was super cool to have a car that I touched and worked on on the cover of Road & Track, a magazine that I used to buy on the sidewalks in India for like 10 rupees.”

(12:52) - Monarch: The first electric tractor comes to life - “It definitely was the first lithium-ion tractor that could also power things. So not only could it be charged from a solar panel directly, we had power plugs that we could power things off the tractor.’”

(19:23) - Helping farmers worldwide and pushing agriculture forward - “We see ourselves as a bridge between farm economics and sustainability. It's the one thing, probably the only thing that connects farm sustainability and farm economics in one product.”

(24:38) - How to make it through the pandemic - “At a time of COVID where most businesses are shut down, farmers were very impacted because of the supply chain disruptions.”

(27:05) - The tractor’s reception: Would Elon Musk like it? - “I don't know what our Silicon Valley leaders would think about it, but we do know what farmers think about it and we are happy with their reaction.”

Episode resources

Connect with Praveen on LinkedIn

See the Monarch Tractor in action

Learn more about Monarch Tractor

Merging creativity with your personal story has been left for artists, but imagine what would happen if you could apply that level of meaning to your work in any industry. In this episode of Before It Happened, host Donna Loughlin chats with Donald Burlock Jr, veteran UX designer and author of Superhuman by Design. Through his experiences working in both the automotive and tech industries, Donald says he’s learned that while just about everybody has a superpower, few know how to unlock it. In this conversation with Donna, Donald explains how maintaining a creative core and an attitude of expectancy will push you forward in unpredicted ways. 

Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.

Jump straight into:

(03:20) - Donald’s childhood: The foundations of an artist - “My entire experience as a child in Dallas was just full of wonder, a lot of creative wonder.”

(07:25) - Artistic minded, mechanically inclined: Donald’s life-changing exposition to a world of diverse individuals - “It was definitely a time of understanding the different dynamics that the clash of cultures brought to an environment. It was really fundamental to opening my mind. Especially being a PK.” 

(10:53) - How do you create an experience? Donald's eye-opening semester studying abroad in Europe- “Everything in the States it's always about convenience and everything's disposable and a bit forgettable and to experience a place where there were things that had that longevity to them, that were considered in terms of materiality, that was very different.”

(15:21) - The Aha! moment: Discovering the design world - “This is truly how it started. I'm 24, I'm looking into a window and there are these people who are controlling a machine that is machining clay to create wheels and the wall is just full of all of these amazing sketches.”

(18:14) - Getting invited to Steve Job’s Apple - “It was just literally an entirely new world that had opened up for me through that one trip to the Valley.”

(21:46) - Brand design & creative thinking: Donald’s work at Coca Cola and IDEO - “It didn't matter if you were doing something digital for a banner online, or if you were doing a can, every single aspect of their design was rooted in some precedent that they had established with their brand.”

(24:29) - Joining the tech startup boom & the philosophy behind Donald’s book Superhuman by design - “Superhuman by Design intends to build a bridge so that there's a very clear linear thought about how creativity and also your impact as an individual, are very much related.”

(34:23) - Yellow legal pads and highlighters: The physicality of words and Donald’s family contribution to the book - “I gave it to my mom because I knew at some point I was going to write about my grandfather and that was going to be a deeply personal story.”

(38:07) - How to hold on to the attitude of expectancy, engage your creative core and dial down inhibitions - “You have every superpower you need inside and there's more that you can get your hands on.” 

(40:29) - What’s next for Donald? Supervillain by design - “I started writing about all the topics we're discussing very openly right now, everything...

While traveling through Indonesia, Jay Giraud had an epiphany. As he watched thousands of commuters traverse the streets of Jakarta on motorcycles, he noticed there was a rhythm to how the bikes moved. They fluttered back and forth like synchronized bike flocks. He was both amazed and concerned: The sheer number of bikes choking the streets of cities around the world meant motorcycles were a massive global polluter. But seeing them move in unison gave him a vision of what a semi-autonomous motorcycle might look like. 

That “aha” moment led to the creation of Damon Motors, the electric motorcycle manufacturer Jay launched in 2017. His goal with Damon is to do for motorbikes what Elon Musk has done for cars and, in the process, achieve zero fatalities by 2030. 

Listen now and learn how Jay went from being a professional snowboarder to a visionary in the worldwide transportation industry. 

Before any world-changing innovation there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.

Jump straight into:

(03:22) - Jay Giraud’s story as a high school dropout and a professional snowboarder in Vancouver - “Academics wasn't really a high priority for me other than to graduate.”

(07:16) - The U.S. invasion of Iraq for oil: How seeing the war on TV ignited Jay’s interest in the energy sector - “I spent many months really ruined over what I saw and trying to think about what a snowboarder from Whistler could do about the dependence of oil on the planet.”

(09:19) - Jay’s foray into transportation tech and his blank canvas epiphany - “Realizing that you are nothing, Nothing with a capital N is really meaning that you can be a blank canvas with which to paint a picture of any kind that you want for your future.” 

(13:56) - The massive motorcycle market and Damon’s lifestyle-branding strategies - “The importance of building lifestyle products that people really want to align their personalities with; I take that from snowboarding.”

(19:26) - The gift of inspiration and the difficulties of the entrepreneurial path - “You go to complete poverty every time you start a startup because it's either that or you quit on all the people that depend on you, the people that are excited about your vision.”

(22:44) - Motorcycles, the vehicles of the fastest-growing middle-class economies in the world - “The car's never going to make sense for more than half the world's population. It's not about income. It's not about affluence. It's about actually moving at more than three miles an hour.”

(25:53) - Jay’s accident in Jakarta: How to bring safety to hundreds of motorcycles moving in a flock - “When I founded Damon, I wasn’t really sure if we could make motorcycles safer. I had no idea how that was even possible.”

(29:58) - Is Damon a western solution? - “How do we roadmap a collision warning system to behave the way you need it for places like New Delhi, Jakarta, and Mexico City?”

(34:26) - Engineering the gold standard: The public’s reaction to Damon’s electric superbikes - “As of today, we crossed over a thousand pre-orders just for the SuperSport bike. It’s about as popular as a Ferrari or a Tesla Roadster.”

(35:42) - Dom’s idea for the first prototype - “He says, ‘Well, it'd be cool. You could have like two bikes in one....

In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin talks to electrical engineer and gaming legend Allan “Al” Alcorn, who helped build the modern video-game industry. He was both an early employee of Atari and the creator of Pong, one of the first commercial video games to ever find its way into our homes. He gave Steve Jobs his first job in tech and was an informal advisor during Apple’s early days. Later, he helped launch the first tech incubator and advised scores of young entrepreneurs as they developed their new technologies. 

Listen now and learn firsthand how this Silicon Valley legend managed to disrupt numerous industries starting in a time when a personal computer was still a far-fetched dream. 

Before any world-changing innovation there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.

Jump straight into:

(02:00) - Al Alcron “The Disruptor” and how he became a career troublemaker - “I was always interested in how things work. I was taking things apart and breaking things and fixing things.”

(04:30) - Studying electrical engineering at UC Berkeley in the 1960’s - “My inspiration was coming from my head. I was just fascinated by what could be built and what could be done.”

(09:22) - Al’s first job and how it led him to meet eventual video game developer Nolan Bushnell - “He seemed to me more like an entrepreneurial type. He was a young man right out of college and he wanted to invest in stocks and things like that, which is not something that normal people did.”

(13:58) - Building a Pong - “I guess the moment was when we put it out on location and somebody actually came up that didn't know me and played it.”

(19:04) - Working with a young hippie kid named Steve Jobs - “All of a sudden this kid shows up and he had this passion and enthusiasm, and I figured: God, he's gotta be cheap if he's that age and he's a hippie, we'll hire him!”

(26:52) - Bringing arcades into the home: The video game console - “Nolan had always defined Atari as more than just an arcade company and from day one it was supposed to be a home game.” 

(30:34) - Al’s career in the world’s best technology incubators: Apple, Silicon Gaming, etc. - “What I’m proudest of is that I was allowed through my career for whatever reason to disrupt a bunch of industries.”

(36:15) - User experience and how it’s evolved through video games - “Pong is one of the few, if not the only video game ever produced that required two people, there's no one-player mode and I think one of the reasons for success was that women could play it.”

(40:54) - Al’s hackathon for kids and how he looks to inspire them - “We want to simply give them the opportunity to be successful and create something in that field. Either a game in software, sodder up a board, create an environment, do a 3D printing, anything.”

Episode resources

Connect with Al Alcorn through LinkedIn

Learn more about Pong in the World Video Game Hall of Fame

See

Building several successful enterprises while living with undiagnosed ADHD is a tough endeavor, but it can also be an interesting take on life. In this first episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin talks to marketing expert, entrepreneur, and best-selling author Peter Shankman. 

Peter was a founding editor of AOL News before we’d ever heard of online journalism. He leaned into the early dot-com boom by launching Geek Factory, one of the first PR firms designed to put a spotlight on the tech visionaries of the era. He later created HARO, a database used to connect journalists and sources around the world. He sold both Geek Factory and HARO, but he didn't stop there. His ADHD diagnosis has led him to a bigger understanding of life reflected in his best-selling book “Faster Than Normal” and his more recent undertaking helping companies understand neurodiversity. Listen now to hear Peter’s unique journey from academic cautionary tale to a multimedia juggernaut by turning his ADHD brain into a superpower.

Before any world-changing innovation there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.

Jump straight into:

(03:10) - Peter’s artistic upbringing with undiagnosed ADHD and how journalism at Boston University saved him - “To go from being on academic probation for two and a half straight years to receiving BU’s Alumni Award was a nice moment.”

(07:48) - Building a newsroom for AOL in the early internet days - “AOL was the internet, no question about it. I was so early in the game, I actually had [email protected], which was amazing.”

(11:10) - Starting Geek Factory - “I called my mom and I said, ‘I'm going to go out on my own, I'm going to try to start a PR firm and when it fails, I'll get a job.’”

(13:14) - The story behind Peter’s journalism mailing list HARO (Help a Reporter Out) - “Originally it was a Facebook group, and that led to the formation of HARO. It blew up beyond my wildest dreams. I got very very lucky.”

(15:29) - Getting acquired by Vocus and Peter’s first hours as a multimillionaire - “It probably took about five months from initial contact to acquisition. If we didn't have lawyers, it would have taken a week.”

(17:23) - The secret to becoming hyper-focused - “I rock at what I'm good at and I let other people do what I suck at because they just do it so much better than I ever could.”

(20:13) - Peter’s ADHD diagnosis and how it helped him get a new understanding of life - “I'm very happy. I'm very fortunate. I think that all the mistakes and all the screw-ups, everything I've done has led me to this point.”

(26:09) - Using skydiving as a drug - “It is the ultimate reboot. I can't get back on the plane, I can't stop and redo it. I will either make the decision to live or I'll make the decision to die. Life doesn't get simpler than those 45 to 60 seconds of free fall.”

(28:33) - All things Shankman: How Peter manages a whole ecosystem of projects - “All I'm really doing is I'm telling stories about things I love and I am so ridiculously blessed that I get paid to tell stories about things I love.”

(31:13) - Helping companies be neurodiverse friendly  - “The goal is to understand what the neuro-diverse person needs and to teach companies how to be more understanding.”

(33:19) - Faster Than Normal, Peter’s future projects and the best advice he ever received - “Basically everything I have and all the success I've had has come from the fact that I listen.”

Episode Resources

Connect with Peter at

Before any world-changing innovation there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.