‘Houston, We Have a Podcast’ Celebrates 300th Episode
Johnson employees and other fans of the show are invited to celebrate with the podcast team on Thursday, July 27. Continue reading to register and reserve your seat today.
Public affairs officer Gary Jordan got the idea to start a Johnson-focused podcast while searching for a way to make his daily commute more enjoyable. What began as a relatively new and unproven platform for NASA soon became an engaging and highly rated weekly podcast featuring in-depth conversations with astronauts, engineers, scientists, and program leaders on exciting human spaceflight topics. Now six years later, “Houston, We Have a Podcast” is about to release its 300th episode.
On Thursday, July 27, the podcast will host a special live recording of this milestone episode at Space Center Houston. The show will focus on the work aboard the International Space Station, the successes of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and the efforts of commercial low Earth orbit development that are currently leading us to a robust low Earth orbit economy. Johnson Deputy Center Director Steve Koerner, International Space Station Program Operations Integration Manager Dina Contella, Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich, and Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program Manager Angela Hart will be the episode’s featured panelists.
The program is both a fitting tribute to the podcast’s first episode – aired July 7, 2017 – which provided an overview of the International Space Station Program, and a reflection of how the show has changed over time.
“When we started, we thought we were going to run out of topics because we were covering these very broad ideas,” said Jordan. “But then we realized there’s so much nuance and so much detail and so much happening that we can continue to elaborate on each of these stories.” With the space station, for example, the podcast went from discussing what the orbiting laboratory is at a very high level to providing deep dives on specific experiments that are being conducted on station and why those investigations are important.
Members of the “Houston, We Have a Podcast” team participate in an episode marking the show’s second anniversary. Credit: NASA/Norah Moran
The podcast has also become an integral part of NASA’s storytelling. “Whenever the agency is communicating about a mission, like Crew-7 or OSIRIS-REx, we are a part of those efforts,” said Jordan. “That’s something that has evolved over time.”
The podcast team has changed, as well. The original team has doubled in size, and every person has a specific role and responsibility that contributes to the podcast’s success. “I love my team, my team is awesome – it’s almost like a family,” Jordan said. “We laugh, we joke, we get stuff done, but there’s also this energy that allows us to come up with new ideas and make the podcast better and better every week.”
Looking ahead to the podcast’s next year, Jordan noted that the team is excited to support the CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) mission and hopes to continue sharing regular updates from the crew, as if listeners were part of their journey. Jordan also plans to invite new hosts and new voices onto the show, and to take new approaches to storytelling. “This is not ‘Gary Has a Podcast,’ this is ‘Houston, We Have a Podcast,’” he said. “I want to make sure the podcast always has a place at Johnson, and there are a lot of different perspectives that can be shared beyond mine.”
Whatever changes are ahead, Jordan hopes that the podcast continues to inspire the next generation of innovators. “If this content inspires someone’s career direction and inspires them to contribute to the scientific community – to the discovery of new and interesting things in the universe – there is no greater metric than that, to me,” he said.
Preparing to record an episode of “Houston, We Have a Podcast.” Credit: NASA/Bill Stafford
Above all, Jordan remains incredibly grateful to the entire Johnson team. “I want to thank the Johnson Space Center for supporting this podcast and making it real. That comes from the leadership who approved it and made this thing possible, but it also comes from each individual who dedicates time to come on to the podcast,” he said. “The podcast cannot happen without the guests that come on and are willing to get in front of a microphone and tell their stories. Without the support of the agency, without the support of every individual at Johnson, there is no podcast.”
Jordan also shared a “huge thank you” to the podcast team and to listeners for supporting the podcast and for providing good feedback and reviews that have allowed the team to improve their content.
Johnson employees and the public are encouraged to attend the live taping of “Houston, We Have a Podcast” on July 27 at 12:00 p.m. CT. Attendees will have an opportunity to submit questions for a Q&A session at the end of the taping. In addition to the audio recording, the event will be filmed for debut in UHD upon the launch of NASA TV+, NASA’s next-generation streaming service.
Current badged employees – both civil servants and contractors – can register to attend for free here (after opening the SharePoint page, click “+New” to add your information, and “Save” when you are done) and should visit the Inside Johnson community event listing for additional details. Registration was extended to noon Wednesday, July 26. Members of the public who are visiting Space Center Houston on the day of the event may also attend the show on a first come-first serve basis. Please note that seating will begin at 11:45 a.m.
