53 years ago on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. He was the first of only 12 human beings to ever step on the surface of the moon. Among those 12 men is Charles Duke. Duke was an astronaut on Apollo 16, and the youngest person to ever walk on the lunar surface at the age of 36. During the first mission to the moon, Apollo 11, Charlie Duke was the voice of Houston's Mission Control, serving as CAPCOM. His was the first voice from earth to reach the moon after the Eagle had landed at Tranquility Base. Charlie shares the tense moments leading up to that first moon landing, and also recalls his own experiences on the lunar surface for Apollo 16.

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Frances Haugen is a data scientist and technologist. She is also an advocate for accountability & transparency in social media. In 2021, Haugen disclosed tens of thousands of Facebook's internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ's investigation included examination of exemptions for high-profile users, impacts on youth, the impacts of its 2018 algorithm changes, weaknesses in the response to human trafficking and drug cartels, vaccine misinformation, and more. After disclosing her identity as the Facebook whistleblower on 60 Minutes, Haugen discussed the Facebook program known as Civic Integrity, which was intended to curb misinformation and other threats to election security. Haugen has said that many of the things she repeatedly saw at Facebook were "conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook." 

In this podcast, Frances Haugen explains why she decided to blow the whistle on Facebook. She details the ways in which the social media platform hurts children and damages democracy, and how the company ignored the harmful effects of its platform for the sake of financial interests. Haugen also talks about her efforts to pass legislation to better protect the public from social media.

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Giller Prize, and Station Eleven, a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. It won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was adapted as a limited series for HBO Max. Her new book is Sea of Tranquility.

During this podcast, Emily St. John Mandel discusses her approach to writing, her friendship and collaboration with TV showrunner Patrick Somerville on Station 11 (including how they met as young authors years before at a reading of their novels attended by four people), and her personal view on themes she explores in her books like time travel.

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Patrick Somerville is a writer and author who is the showrunner for the HBO Max TV series "Station Eleven." The series is based on the novel by Emily St. Jean Mandel about a group of survivors of a devastating pandemic.

During this podcast, Somerville discusses the challenges of making a TV series about a global pandemic during a global pandemic and how the book and series were published and conceived long before Covid-19 was discovered. He also takes listeners behind the scenes of the production and how it was written and produced, and reveals how he met the author of "Station Eleven" Ms. Mandel years before this collaboration when they were both up and coming writers.

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Richie Stephens became an alcoholic and a petty criminal as a teenager growing up in Ireland. He became a drug addict and then a drug trafficker as his life spiraled out of control. The Irishman eventually ended up in San Francisco where he joined a Chinese gang. He nearly ended his own life before realizing that his addiction was at the heart of his self-destructive ways. A journey to sobriety and a trip down the state of California to Hollywood led to Richie Stephens becoming an actor where today (of course) he often plays criminals. Stephens tells the incredible story of his life with co-authors John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky in the new book "The Gangster's Guide to Sobriety: My Life in 12 Steps."

The coming together of the authors and the writing of the book is an incredible story in and of itself. It's now being developed as a TV series. That's because Altschuler and Krinsky are successful Hollywood writers and producers known for creating and running high-profile TV shows including creating the successful series Silicon Valley. During this podcast, Altschuler and Stephens tell that story along with tales from Stephens' life and lessons learned on Stephens' path to sobriety.

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The Human Trial is a documentary from filmmakers Lisa Hepner and Guy Mossman that follows a human clinical trial using embryonic stem cells over the course of seven years as researchers and patient volunteers work on a cure for type 1 diabetes. The filmmakers gained unprecedented access to the San Diego biotech start-up ViaCyte which has developed an implantable pouch that holds stem cells programmed to create the kind of insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells destroyed by type 1 diabetes. It is considered one of the most promising paths to a functional cure for the disease.

During this podcast, Lisa Hepner, who has type 1 diabetes, discusses what she learned during the filming of the documentary. She talks about the process of gaining the trust of both researchers and patients as they experience elation and disappointment. And she reveals her view on if and when researchers will develop a cure for type 1 diabetes.

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MIchio Kaku is a renowned theoretical physicist, and professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York. Kakue is the co-founder of string field theory, and the author of several widely acclaimed science books.

Kaku is now author of the new book, "The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything." The epic story explains the greatest quest in all of science—the holy grail of physics that would explain the creation of the universe.

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Marcus Yam is a roving Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent and staff photographer. In 2019, Marcus was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award for his unflinching and intimate body of work documenting the everyday plight of Gazans during deadly clashes in the Gaza Strip. Marcus was part of two Pulitzer Prize winning breaking news teams that covered the tragic San Bernardino terrorist attacks in 2015 for the Los Angeles Times, and the deadly landslide in Oso, Washington for the Seattle Times. In 2022, Marcus was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his compelling coverage of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

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Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroscientist, former member of the Time Magazine "100 Most Influential People in the World" list, and the New York Times best-selling author of "My Stroke of Insight" which documented the devastating stroke she suffered in 1996 along with her eight-year-long recovery to regain the ability to speak, read, write, and walk. Her new book is "Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters that Drive Our Life."

During this podcast, Dr. Bolte Taylor goes beyond the concept of the "rational left brain and emotional right brain" to argue that the brain actually has four distinct "characters" living in it and that by understanding them, one can better choose thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

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Steven Van Zandt is musician, actor, and activist best known for his decades long collaboration with Bruce Springsteen as a member of the E Street Band. As an actor, he starred in The Sopranos as Silvio Dante and as Frank Tagliano on the Netflix show Lilyhammer. His activism in the 1980s and 1990s included forming the group Artists Against Apartheid and producing the record Sun City.

During this podcast, Van Zandt discusses his life and career and his new book "Unrequited Infatuations." He takes listeners back to the origins of the E Street Band and his work with Bruce Springsteen. Van Zandt also talks about why he left the band and then returned. He also reveals how despite a lack of acting experience or training, he was able to so effectively play the role of Silvio Dante in The Sopranos.

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