Episode Transcript
Aarati: 0:11 Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Smart Tea Podcast, where we talk about the lives of scientists and innovators who shape the world. Happy New Year, Arpita! Arpita: 0:21 Happy New Year. I'm so happy to be back. Aarati: 0:23 Yes, it's really exciting after a little bit of a break, um, which was definitely needed, I think, on both of our ends. Yes. Arpita: 0:34 Just like a little time to do other things, just like reset, rest. Aarati: 0:40 and spend some time with family without, you know, getting too stressed over things. So, Arpita: 0:46 totally. I feel the same way. But, um, happy to be back. Uh, how was your break? What'd you do? Aarati: 0:53 um, we did a couple of things. We, uh, went to Shelter Cove, Arpita: 0:59 Oh, love Shelter Cove. Aarati: 1:00 yeah. Northern California. Um, we went there with my cousins and my grandma, and we just got like this really big Airbnb, um, and stayed there for a few days. And that was really lovely. It was raining. Like half the time we were there. So a lot of the times we were just kind of inside putting together puzzles and watching Brooklyn Nine Nine, which was. Arpita: 1:25 I love Brooklyn Nine Nine. It's so funny. Aarati: 1:28 Yeah. So we, we spent a lot of time doing that. And then when it wasn't raining, we tried to go out to like the beaches just to walk around, but it was really cold. So, you know, it wasn't like we could do a lot of stuff, but I got these really huge, gorgeous shells from the beach, which I'm still trying to figure out what to do with, but they're so shiny and they're so colorful and beautiful. And I feel like they would just make, I don't know, really great decorations or something. Arpita: 2:00 That's super cool. You could try to make them into maybe, like, sun catchers, if you can, like, you could try to, like, make a hole in them, and Aarati: 2:07 They already have holes actually Arpita: 2:08 they do! Aarati: 2:09 for some reason like all of them have four holes along the side Arpita: 2:14 Oh, interesting. Aarati: 2:15 I feel like it must be some sort of like when the creature was alive, some sort of like ventilation or like. Waste expulsion system or something like, because it's, it's very clearly like... Arpita: 2:28 yeah, yeah, yeah. Aarati: 2:29 four very, deliberate holes. Arpita: 2:32 yeah, that could be cool, and then if they're shiny, they could catch the light, I don't know. Aarati: 2:36 Yeah, they're very like, boring looking on one side, like they just kind of look like a rock and then the other side like, Yeah. On the inside is just so like iridescent and kind of all these colors. So Arpita: 2:49 that'd be pretty in the light. Aarati: 2:51 Yeah. So I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. If anyone has some suggestions, let me know. And then after that, I went down to LA or that area with, my brother and Kyro and we helped my friend move out of her house, and this was before the fires. So this is like completely unrelated. But like I was just down there and hearing about all the fires and the news. It just breaks my heart because I'm like seeing places that I was like, I was just there and I can't believe that's gone. You know, I can't believe that it's such a tragedy that this is happening. Luckily, my friend does live far enough away from all of that that, um, she's not affected by it. I'm just heartbroken for all those people that live there. Arpita: 3:40 Definitely. Aarati: 3:41 Yeah. How are you though? How was your break? Arpita: 3:44 It was good. I spent part of it in Michigan with Logan's family and then New Year's. We have a tradition with some friends to get an Airbnb somewhere and then do like a big sleepover. Aarati: 3:59 Oh, cool. Arpita: 4:00 And so we did that in Pacifica, this year, so that was really fun. And a few years past, it's been super rainy, like you said, like we had like those really big rains. Um, and so then it was more just like games and puzzles. And this year we actually got to like go out and do stuff. Like the weather was really nice. Um, so it was good to get like a little mix of family time, friend time. Um, And then I was just here for part of it with lots of kitty cuddles and just like doing all the house things that you put off while like work and life gets really busy. Um, we watched a lot of movies. The one movie that Logan and my sister really wanted to watch was The Martian. Have you seen it? Aarati: 4:46 I have not. No, is that who's the actor who's in that? Arpita: 4:50 um, Matt Damon? Aarati: 4:52 Yes. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Yeah Arpita: 4:55 Matt Damon is the main character. Um, this movie came out a while ago and it's based on a book. But, um, Aarati: 5:01 I think I read the book a long time ago. Yeah Arpita: 5:04 it's really old. And it's admittedly quite good. Um, I'm not really a sci fi person and this is like a ongoing problem in my household because the only movies that Logan wants to watch are space movies. And I'm just like, okay, like we gotta, we gotta mix it Aarati: 5:21 We gotta Arpita: 5:22 movie he picks is like, space, And I'm like, there are in fact other genres out there. Aarati: 5:27 It's not just sci fi. It's it's space specifically Arpita: 5:30 Space specifically. Space specifically, yes. I think sci fi in general is like probably a preferred bucket, but then like the sub interest is space. Aarati: 5:40 space. specifically? Arpita: 5:42 space specifically? yes. And so this is like an ongoing debate in this household. But The Martian is admittedly quite good. And I think one of the things that makes it really interesting is the person who wrote the book originally, like I want to say he's a scientist himself, like he's not a author or novelist. And so a lot of the stuff that he's writing about is, I mean, like it's fiction, but it's like rooted within like scientific principles. Um, and so this is what inspired my story today. It's about the founder of JPL. Aarati: 6:15 Oh my goodness. That's gonna be amazing. Arpita: 6:17 I'm really excited about this story, but also it is a cuckoo banana story. I started writing it cause I was like, Oh, like, I wonder if I could pick someone who's like space, like NASA, something like that. Cause I was like top of mind. Aarati: 6:30 And we haven't had one Arpita: 6:31 many. Yeah. We haven't really done that many yet. and then as I was doing my research, I was like, Oh, like this guy is weird. And then it takes such a, it takes so many left turns and. I was just, like, struggling to keep up with the story because every time I was like, oh, this is the crazy part of the story, there was another crazy Aarati: 6:50 just Arpita: 6:50 story. It just got crazier and crazier. Aarati: 6:53 my goodness. Okay. Arpita: 6:55 I also have to say this one is long. I tried so hard to pare this down. I think this is the opposite of the winter episode we did. Aarati: 7:05 Yeah, we're making up for it now. Arpita: 7:06 we're making up for it now. I cut this down multiple times. I considered making it two parts. Aarati: 7:12 Oh my Arpita: 7:13 think it realistically could be two parts because this is, it's a dense story. Aarati: 7:18 Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm, I'm ready. I'm so excited. Let's do it. Arpita: 7:24 Okay, so the founder of JPL, his name is Jack Parsons. His full name is actually Marvel Whiteside Parsons. Aarati: 7:33 What? I'm already like, wow. Arpita: 7:36 No, that's his real name. So he was actually named after his dad, his dad's name is Marvel. But then, because he's a junior, he got nicknamed Jack really young. Um, And so he was called Jack pretty much always after that. He was born in Pasadena, California in 1914. And the drama starts like literally right away. So right after he was born, his dad got caught sleeping with another woman and he was also involved in a sex ring with prostitutes. Aarati: 8:06 What? Arpita: 8:07 So his mom filed for divorce and then, Aarati: 8:11 Oh my God. Arpita: 8:12 and then she moved. herself and Jack in with her parents, so Jack's grandparents, and they lived on a, this like really big mansion, this estate on Millionaire's Row in Pasadena, which like still exists. It's just like a neighborhood with like a ton of fancy mansions. Aarati: 8:29 That's already insane. Oh my gosh. And I'm so glad her mom was like, peace. I'm going to go live on Millionaire's row. Like I have somewhere to go. I have somewhere to be. I'm taking my son and we're, we're fine without you and your weirdness. Goodbye. That's amazing. Arpita: 8:45 Um, Yeah, so the grandparents are really wealthy, and so Jack had, he like really liked growing up here, he got to like run around, he was an only child, there's like really big grounds. He didn't have that many friends, and he was a pretty serious kid, so he spent a lot of his time reading, which then began his interest in science fiction, which then, probably similar to Logan, inspired his early interest in rockets and space. And when he was in junior high, he made a friend named Edward Forman, and the two of them were like, always up to like, some shenanigans, they, probably like most young boys, They loved blowing things up and making amateur rockets. So they'd take the explosive powder from cherry bombs and fireworks for fuel And they mostly ended up just making like big holes and like burning things in the backyard. But they also did make some interesting discoveries and interesting learnings. So if you have a bunch of explosive powder and you ignite it, it's going to explode, but in every single direction, um, it's not going to come out in one direction, right? It's like not something that you can control. The explosion is going to happen in every single direction, but what they were interested in doing was like, like blowing up these rockets. They wanted the rockets to go up. And so for in order for that to happen, you need thrust and you need steady thrust. So, for a lot of the fuel they were using, which was like whatever they could get their hands on, they're probably like 11 at this point, they burn really, really quickly instead of steadily. You want something that's going to like burn at kind of a slow rate over time. But what they're using right now, because it's made up of all these different substances, it's like kind of hard to control. They're basically just like igniting it with a spark. It's hard to control. So you can't get that upward thrust. Everything is like moving in different directions. Aarati: 10:37 You want something that kind of just constantly pushes you up rather than just explodes everywhere immediately, all at once. Makes sense. Arpita: 10:45 Right, right. Um, and if you're trying to get it to go up high, you need it to have a certain amount of thrust over time versus an explosion is going to have a big spike of energy, and then it's going to go down really quickly because all of the fuel gets burned at once. So they're trying to solve this problem. And so Jack comes up with this idea of taking all of the explosive powder and mixing it with glue. So then the glue hardened. And so when They lit it on fire that's now like hardened to a mass so it has to burn through the glue in order to get to the next explosive molecules. So it takes longer for it to burn, which means that it's a little bit more controllable. And then they, like, were able to sort of get rockets to move up a little bit more and have some more upward direction and thrust. It's still, like, very bad. Like, 11 year olds should not be doing this, but Aarati: 11:38 Oh my God, they're 11?! Arpita: 11:40 Yeah, they're in junior high. They're like maybe 12. Like, yeah, Aarati: 11:44 yeah. Arpita: 11:45 little kids. They should definitely not be doing this, but the glue did work quite well. And this was like a very exciting discovery for Jack. Aarati: 11:54 Okay. Arpita: 11:54 This seems like overall, like kind of like par for the course. I mean, it was like. 1920 maybe like they had probably limited supervision, but Jack also had some kind of like darker sinister interests. So when he was 12, he tried summoning a demon in his bedroom. Aarati: 12:14 Wait, what? Arpita: 12:15 I know. I don't know how he did this, but he tried summoning a demon in the bedroom, and for some reason he convinced himself that it worked. He did summon this demon. It scared absolute crap out of him. And then he swore off, like, ever messing with, like, the spirit world, or, like, demons, or, like, magic ever again. So he was like, I'm never gonna do that again. Aarati: 12:34 That's so random. Arpita: 12:36 This is important to the story. Aarati: 12:37 Okay Yeah, I'm like, it came out of left field, but I'm figuring there's more to this. Arpita: 12:41 No, this is important to the story is like when he was really young, he like starts messing with the spirit world and he decides that he's not going to do it again. But. And as you may imagine, he does do it again. Aarati: 12:50 Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Rockets and demons. Great. Arpita: 12:54 Rockets and Demons. Yeah, that's actually a good summary. So based on all of this, it's not like a huge stretch to imagine that Jack had a little bit of a discipline problem. He got in trouble a lot. And at school. And so in 1920, his mom sent him to a military academy and within days of arriving at this military academy, he blew up a toilet and he got expelled. So Aarati: 13:18 Oh my God. Oh, my God. Arpita: 13:23 Man's loves blowing things up. Um, and so, like, his family didn't even really have time to recover from this. They, like, you know, put him back in public school. He continued having discipline problems. Aarati: 13:35 I'm just gonna say that that says something when even the military can't straighten you out. Like even the military is like. No, you're, you're too crazy. we can't We can't deal with this. Arpita: 13:45 He, yeah, he definitely just, like, on one as a kid. And so then in 1929, the stock market crashed and his grandfather lost all of his money in the stock market crash. So this family now had like serious money problems to deal with. So, by this point, he had enrolled in Pasadena Junior College, and he was only there for a very short time before he had to drop out and get a job to support the family. Still on his interests, uh, explosives and chemistry. So he started out as like a physics and chemistry major at Pasadena Junior College. And when he had to leave to get a job, he decides to apply to the Hercules Powder Company, where he could still work with and be exposed to and also steal explosives. Aarati: 14:35 So the powder company like basically makes explosive powders, like gun powders and whatever? Arpita: 14:41 Correct. Yeah, like gunpowder and stuff. Um, and so that was the job that he picked because he was like, want still continue doing this. Aarati: 14:48 Naturally. Naturally. Arpita: 14:50 And so he did save up some money and he enrolled at Stanford to try to finish his degree in chemistry, but then he ended up not able to afford his tuition and he went back home to Pasadena. And that's pretty much the end of his formal education, as he doesn't really have a college degree at all, like everything else that he learns from this point onwards is self taught, which is crazy, given all the things that happen next. Aarati: 15:16 So he started his BS, but he didn't actually finish it? Arpita: 15:19 Exactly. Yeah, so he started at the junior college really briefly, and then he enrolled at Stanford really briefly, but then couldn't afford it, so he dropped out. Aarati: 15:28 Okay. Arpita: 15:29 So now it's 1935, and he meets this young woman named Helen Northrup at a local church dance, and he proposed marriage almost immediately. Um, they got married a few months later and went on a honeymoon in San Diego. There's not really a ton interesting about this. It seemed like it was like the 30s and this is kind of normal for them to have short sort of dating engagement. Aarati: 15:55 Yeah. Like we hear a lot of stories from that time where it's like, less than a year and they're married. Arpita: 16:00 Right. Helen comes up again later, so don't you fret. Uh, but at least for now, they're just happy and in love. That same year in 1935, he, attends a lecture on rocket engines at Caltech, which, so he's in Pasadena, Caltech is really nearby, um, and he goes with his childhood buddy, Edward Foreman, a.k.a. The guy that he used to blow things up with in the backyard. Aarati: 16:23 Mm-hmm Arpita: 16:24 So Edward and Jack are hanging out after the lecture, and they meet some people who eventually introduce them to this man named Frank Malina, who is a Caltech graduate student who's working on his PhD in rocketry. So these two nerdy boys, Jack and Edward, are stoked. They're like, hell yeah. Like this guy knows all the things. They're like super Aarati: 16:49 You're doing your PhD in Rockets. That's amazing! Yes. Arpita: 16:52 They love, they're so excited about. And they asked Frank about like all of Caltech's like resources. They're like, Oh, like, tell us about this. Like, 200 mile an hour wind tunnel, tell us about like all the lab space, like tell us about all this stuff. And they start just like babbling and they start talking about rockets and how much they like rockets and like visiting outer space, exploring other planets. Um, And this is interesting. So Jack and Edward are not academics. And Frank is like a PhD scientist and he understands like some of the nuances of like academia and like things that are going to get you canceled. At this time. Space travel and rockets are considered science fiction, and if that's something that you're actually interested in, it's like Looney Tunes. Like, that's not something that's ever going to be respected or get funding. But, Frank is also really interested in rockets and space, but he knows it's career suicide to, you know, like, try to get a grant on rockets. They kind of form this unlikely friendship because he kind of has a little bit more clout from an academic community, but Edward and Jack have, like, this enthusiasm. Aarati: 18:04 Yeah. He knows how to like reign them in when they're being a little too crazy around the wrong people. Arpita: 18:09 Exactly, exactly. So they're just like starting this like relationship, this friendship. And Frank agrees to help Jack and Edward sort of learn more about this. Try to like, maybe get some hands on experience. And he tells them that he'll help them. But he says, you have to be sneaky, because we can't tell people that we're interested in rockets otherwise, like, we're all done. And so they started working on engines for planes because it was like the closest kind of analog and they were secretly working on adapting the engines to be different and try to like solve some of these problems like fuel and thrust and blah, blah, blah. Aarati: 18:47 Yeah. Arpita: 18:48 Okay so now this duo Jack and Edward officially becomes a trio and like I mentioned, rockets are not respected, so they had a really hard time trying to get funding for their crazy idea, or like anybody who would fund anything adjacent. No one's interested. And so they were super desperate for cash in order to fund all of their research. So Frank and Jack pivoted, and they tried to write a screenplay about two heroic rocket scientists. And it was like a very thinly veiled story about themselves. And they tried to sell the script to a movie studio to then use the cash to support their research. And this plan did not work. Aarati: 19:31 Really? Arpita: 19:32 It did not. And Jack became obsessed with this idea. He was like, I have to know more about rockets. And he put every single dollar that he earned toward getting equipment and material for rocket research. He made nitroglycerin at home, which is Illegal, and was bootleg, and he, like, sold that for extra cash. He pawned Helen's wedding ring for extra cash, um, which she was less than thrilled about. they're just, like, trying to do everything they can in order to get some cash. Aarati: 20:06 This is like really reminding me of that movie. I think I mentioned it before, October Sky. Arpita: 20:11 Oh yeah! Aarati: 20:11 Which is literally about the Rocket Boys. But this is a little bit later. I think it's like the 1950s and 60s. Um, so I think Rocketry is a little bit more accepted then there's like the whole Space Race with Russia and everything. So this just seems like early days, like it sounds almost like October Sky, but like psychotic, just what it's reminding me of. Arpita: 20:36 So it looks like October Sky is a little bit more about the space race, like you said. I just googled Aarati: 20:41 It's more about the space race, but like the movie itself is about four boys who get together. They're really interested in rocketry. They're trying to make homemade rockets. They like go into the science behind it. They're entering these competitions. So it is a lot more like structured but it is about like, kind of the same thing about like these guys that are these young adolescent boys that are just really interested in rocketry and space. But your story seems to have a little sprinkling of like chaos. Arpita: 21:10 Crazy. Yeah. It's, crazy. We haven't even gotten to the crazy part yet. Aarati: 21:15 Oh, oh, dear. Okay. I'm holding I'm holding on to my chair. Arpita: 21:19 So we are skipping ahead a little bit. Let's just, they have the cash now. Like they did all this like scrappy stuff. They have money, and so they're, the trio do their first tests in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and as the group's chemist, Jack was focused on making the rocket fuel, and he tried both solid and liquid fuels. So for solid fuel, he used gunpowder mostly. And kind of like what I mentioned before, so gunpowder is the mixture of several substances like charcoal, sulfur, and some other things, and on a molecular level, all of these are very different sizes, and when they're jostled, for example, like right before an explosion, if things are like being shaken up, The substances seperate out based on size, and then the separation causes gunpowder to explode instead of burn steadily. And this is like what we just talked about. Um, so then he pivots and he tries liquid fuel. And so he has two hoses, one that feeds in liquid oxygen, and the other that feeds in methyl alcohol. And these liquids like get poured in, they mix inside of a chamber, and then there's a spark through an ignition system, which starts the burn. And so they were like, okay, this like gunpowder solid fuel situation isn't really working. Let's do liquid fuel. So they tested this, and it didn't work. Did not go well. The first three times they tried it, the motor just failed, like nothing happened. And the fourth time they did it, the oxygen hose caught on fire, and the whole thing burst into flames in their faces. Aarati: 22:55 Oh my god. Oh my god. Arpita: 22:57 All bad. Aarati: 22:58 Yeah. Arpita: 22:59 To be honest, this is probably like way farther than I would have ever gotten. I'm like, this is crazy. You're like the middle of the desert, like blowing shit up. Nevertheless, these three persisted and in 1937, they worked out a lot of the issues that they had with their liquid engines and they were able to produce a decent amount of thrust. So, Frank is still affiliated with Caltech, and so he showed these results to a faculty member there, who was really impressed by them, and offered them this, like, teeny tiny bit of lab space and money, and the were, like, thrilled. They were like, the best thing ever. Aarati: 23:34 That's a huge achievement. Arpita: 23:36 Huge achievement. So now that they're like, official, quote unquote, the trio decides to call themselves the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, aka JPL, that we know today, um, what they really wanted to do was call themselves the Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, but they knew that aligning themselves with rockets was crazy and would make respect them less so they went with Jet. Aarati: 23:57 I see. I see. An interesting, interesting history behind that etymology there. Hi everyone, Aarati here. I hope you're enjoying the podcast. If so, and you wish someone would tell your science story, I founded a science communications company called Sykom, that's S Y K O M, that can help. Sykom blends creativity with scientific accuracy to create all types of science communications content, including explainer videos, slide presentations, science writing, and more. We work with academic researchers, tech companies, non profits, or really any scientist to help simplify your science. Check us out at sykommer. com. That's S Y K O M M E R dot com. Okay, back to the story. Arpita: 24:48 Okay. So weird side story here, but I promise it's relevant. Um, around the same time, Jack began making a name for himself in the local papers. So in 1938, an LA police captain was arrested for trying to murder a private detective. So the detective had dug up some dirt on police corruption, and the, the captain planted a pipe bomb in this detective's car. It exploded, but it didn't kill the detective. And this captain was put on trial for attempted murder. And Jack, because he's an expert in explosives, got asked to be an expert witness. And part of the trial, he even built a replica pipe bomb and blew up a Chrysler, like just prove that it was possible. And the press. loved it. They were like, this is the best story ever. It's so juicy. There's police corruption. There's so many layers. so interesting this. And then the other layer here that I should mention is Jack was like hot. Aarati: 25:50 Oh, really? Arpita: 25:50 He was. Yeah. Aarati: 25:51 Hang on. I have to find a picture of him. Arpita: 25:54 He's like 6'2 he has like dark hair, he's really handsome, he's a very like smooth talker. So then on top of that there's this hot guy who's like interested in like chemistry and he's like really great at talking about this stuff. So like the press is like all over this. So like now Jack is like minor celebrity. So this, little bit of fame really helps them out because this little crew is, like, trying so hard to get funding, and they finally get this, little baby grant developing rocket plane engines for the army. This group is really just like one step forward, three steps back. So even though now they had funding, the people at Caltech hated them because they were just like there like day and night, like revving engines, being super noisy. And Jack had like a very lax attitude about safety, which you can imagine people at Caltech were obsessed with. They, like, loved it, of course. Aarati: 26:51 They're probably responsible for, like, why we have to take all those safety trainings now. It's their fault. Arpita: 26:57 Like, the people at Caltech, as you can imagine, are, like, methodical. Like, they're very serious about stuff. like, Aarati: 27:03 Very deep thinkers. Arpita: 27:05 He didn't give a shit about any of that. And so, they had tons of, like, chemical leaks, like, things were always going rogue, like, they were always, like, doing something crazy, and then the crux of this is, they so they always had, like, a bunch of rogue explosions, and this was, like, again, no one really liked this at Caltech. But then they had a really bad one that almost decapitated someone and they blew up an entire wall in the university. And so, JPL was like, you guys are done. And banned them. Aarati: 27:38 Wait, I thought JPL was what they... Arpita: 27:40 Sorry. Caltech banned JPL. sorry. I misspoke. Caltech was like, you guys are done. And so banned JPL and they were like, you guys got to get out of here. And their little production, which they called JPL still moved to this like small canyon outside of Pasadena where JPL actually still is today. Aarati: 27:58 That's insane. That's, that's a lot like the Alfred Nobel story where he was like blowing up stuff and, um, where was that? Stockholm. He was blowing up stuff in, yeah, he's blowing up stuff in Stockholm, and Stockholm is like, you can't do this here, get out of Stockholm, he like moved to like a little lake on the outskirts Arpita: 28:19 Exactly. of like That's exactly what happened here. Um, It's also like not as densely populated as we think of this area now, um, so now they're in this like warehouse that they've set up on their own, it's like out in the middle of nowhere, and Jack is definitely like the self proclaimed ringleader of the trio, and people started to joke that JPL really stood for Jack Parsons Lab, which you can imagine Aarati: 28:42 Hah. Arpita: 28:43 and Fred, sorry, Edward and Frank really loved, yeah, you can imagine. Aarati: 28:48 Yeah. Arpita: 28:49 Okay, we're gonna switch gears again. So remember how Jack tried to summon those demons as a kid? Aarati: 28:55 Yes I do! Arpita: 28:56 Um, he really, he still really likes demons. Um, he loved reading science fiction and horror and he was really open about these interests at JPL. So the staff at JPL just thought he was just like a weird dude. They were like, that's just Jack. He's a weird guy. But Jack was like actually really, really interested. So he saw rockets and the occult, uh, occult meaning just like supernatural beliefs, as two sides of the same coin. Aarati: 29:25 Okay. You're going to have connect that for me, because I do not, I don't get it. Arpita: 29:30 Yeah, I don't get it either, but he basically saw it as two sides of the same coin. So like both of them offered the chance to slip off the bonds of the earth and roam free. So rocketry freed your body into space and the occult freed your mind and soul. I don't know, man. Aarati: 29:46 Okay. Interesting. Yeah. I'm not sure about that, but oh, oh, okay, sure... Arpita: 29:53 So in 1939, Jack and Helen attended a Mass in this religion called Thelema. Thelema was invented in the early 1900s and drew on a number of different occult practices and the two central core aspects of Thelema are magic and sex rituals. In Thelema magic doesn't mean like the way you would think about like a magician on stage it's more like paranormal stuff, like interacting with spirits, like talking to the dead. And then sex rituals are exactly what they sound like. In Thelema, sex was considered a sacrament, and so during Mass, this is horrible, but during Mass, worshippers ate these things that they called cakes of light, and it's like the Eucharist that you would get at a Catholic church, but instead it was made out of flour, honey, oil, Ash, and then some sort of like bodily fluid. So either like semen or menstrual blood. It's so gross. Aarati: 30:54 no, no, no, no, no, no, I was like on board until you kind of hit ash. And then after that I'm out. Nope. No, not good. Arpita: 31:04 So they attend this mass and Jack and Helen are like"Sick. More. Let's do it. This is great." They become fascinated with the religion and Jack 31:14 began Arpita: 31:15 trying magic rituals himself. So he interpreted all of these experiences through this, like, new science of quantum mechanics. So he's kind of like blending science with this, like, weird magic ritual. Aarati: 31:29 Yeah I can see why Caltech kicked him out. Arpita: 31:32 Caltech kicked him out for a lot of reasons. So he started like recruiting people to try his new religion and his colleagues at JPL were like, uh, no, thank you. But Jack and Helen did manage to recruit Helen's half sister, Betty. So eventually, Jack and Helen move into a commune with other Thelemic worshippers, and their commune happened to be on Millionaire's Row, where he grew up. So, as you can imagine, the people who live on Millionaire's Row are not part of weird communes like that. They're not. They're not happy about and the police were often called on the commune, but whenever they came, Jack would answer the door. He's like tall, dark, and handsome. Like once they started talking to him, he's like, I'm a scientist. I worked with Caltech and they're like, wait, are we talking about? This guy is like an upstanding citizen. He's smart. He's a scientist. Aarati: 32:26 And he was associated with that big case a while ago. they like recognized him a little bit. Yeah. Arpita: 32:33 So they were like, what are we doing here? This is like, not a problem at all. And so nothing ever happens every time the police are called, even though like weird shit's happening at the commune. So speaking of weird things that happen at the commune, in 1941, Helen goes on this vacation over the summer. And while she's gone, Jack starts sleeping with her half sister, Betty, and he did so with, like, the full support of all the other people in his commune. However, was only 17. Aarati: 33:02 Oh dear. Oh no. Arpita: 33:03 So when Helen returned Jack confessed everything. He's like, I'm sleeping with Betty, but he didn't apologize. In fact, he basically point blank told Helen that he found Betty more attractive and he was determined to be with her. And then Betty was like, I'm in love with Jack. And obviously this is crazy. And Helen thought so too, but Helen was also really deep in this cult. So she's like, okay. And then she starts an affair with the spiritual leader of the commune. And then eventually married him. So Aarati: 33:34 Oh my gosh. This Arpita: 33:36 I guess all's well that ends well, but like, Aarati: 33:38 That's crazy. Yeah. And like everybody in the commune is just supporting this. They're like, yeah, is what should be happening for some reason. Arpita: 33:49 So Jack is at JPL, but is kind of having a hard time. So he'd made some breakthroughs, but what he really wanted to do was send people to space. And this was still just like a crazy idea, not respected. So he was settling for making airplanes faster for the military, but he was unsatisfied from a career perspective. So he started working to build rocket motors again, and so going back to that experiment he did as a kid where he added glue to gunpowder with pretty good results, he decided to try this again. So this time he mixed gunpowder, glue, cornstarch, and fertilizer. And his team at JPL decided to test this mix in what they called Jet Assisted Takeoff Motors, J A T O's. And his team bolted several JATOs under the wing of a small, lightweight aluminum plane, and like all planes, then this one had a propeller to help it fly. So the JPL crew ripped the propeller off and decided that if this plane was going to fly, it was going to be on jet rocket power alone. So it wasn't going to fly like based on normal plane mechanics. It was going to use this like jet rocket power. Aarati: 35:09 Oh my God. Wait, who is the pilot of this? Who's the brave soul that is piloting this plane? Because no amount of money could make me do that. Oh my god. Arpita: 35:19 Yeah, we're getting there. So, this attempt, like, did not go well. So, one motor exploded, which, like, tore part of the wing off, and then shrapnel, like, blasted the plane's body, and then tear tore a big hole in it, and this pilot who was in the plane, like, barely survived. However, a week later, the pilot willingly got back in the cockpit again to try again. Aarati: 35:41 What? Oh my god. Why? Why? Arpita: 35:46 I don't know. I don't know what to tell you, but he did get back in the cockpit again, and Aarati: 35:51 Oh my goodness. Arpita: 35:52 This pilot blasted down the runway and took off, but was able to take off way sooner along the runway than a normal plane would have taken. So rather than, for example, like going 100 meters in order to like ramp up and then take off, it was 30 percent sooner. So it was like a shorter runway time in order for the plane to take off, which was a really big deal. Aarati: 36:13 Oh, my gosh. I feel like he must have known that somehow, like, from his first attempt, he must have realized, like, hey, wait a minute, if I take off sooner, it might go better. I'm gonna try this again, because I know. what I did wrong that almost killed me the first time. But, Arpita: 36:28 I don't know. Aarati: 36:30 I don't know. No, this is, no, this is still not good. Arpita: 36:34 It's not good. But what it did mean is that they launched the first ever vehicle, in this case it was like a plane, with jet rocket motors and the takeoff time was really helpful because later what ended up happening is that they realized for military purposes that they could land on and off of, like, military destroyers, like ships in the sea, because it didn't need as big of a runway, and then like really remote locations it was able to take off sooner. So it didn't need quite as big of a runway before. Um, so it had like really interesting military implications, AKA they could still be funded, aKA they could still mess around. Aarati: 37:13 Oh my gosh, this is just crazy. I don't, I don't know if this would like would this even be allowed today? Because they've had so many, no, like they've, they've almost decapitated someone. They've put a pilot in the hospital and they're like, sure, you can have more funding to keep doing this without any, additional safety standards or regulations. Arpita: 37:36 Remember now they are their own independent entity. So they can theoretically do whatever they want. They sure, like within reason, like they're no longer affiliated with Caltech, so they don't have as many, I guess, as much oversight. Aarati: 37:50 But someone is still funding them devices like this is a good idea. Arpita: 37:53 Well, someone is funding them to try to, like, make the military better, basically. So they just need to demonstrate that whatever output they're creating is helping military pilots or planes or whatever. Like, as long as they're delivering on that, that's fine. I guess the method of how they do it, they don't really care about because they're their own funded, or their own entity, basically. Aarati: 38:18 Gotcha. Arpita: 38:20 Um, so even though this worked with the pilot, Jack knew that it was lucky and it's not sustainable. So he began tinkering again with liquid fuel. So one hot afternoon he saw some roofers working and they were pouring asphalt, which is a liquid that then solidifies into a solid. And then he was like, Oh, this is a great idea. So he realized that asphalt burns really well and is a liquid. So you can mix in other propellants, but then it hardens into a solid. So then nothing separates and then because it's a solid, you don't need like the hose situation with like liquid oxygen that he tried before and collect complicated machinery in the engine. So asphalt really combines the best of both setups. It's both fuel and glue. Aarati: 39:08 Interesting. Okay. Arpita: 39:09 And so he found that asphalt mixed with potassium perchlorate burns really well. So now he had the rocket fuel of his dreams. That being said, his main funder, the military was not super thrilled at the idea. So if you ignite asphalt, it just burns and burns and burns and burns until it runs out, which is not ideal for a plane. Ideally, what you need to be able to do is turn it on and off as opposed to just like burning forever. Aarati: 39:35 Oh, I see. Arpita: 39:36 And the army then grudgingly allowed him to continue his experiments if he focused only on liquid fuel, which is easier to control. So imagine just like pouring gasoline or like diesel fuel into a plane. It's easier to control. So Jack then experiments with chemicals that ignite spontaneously upon mixing. So, after he tried various different combinations, he successfully built a spontaneously burning liquid fuel motor using aniline and nitric acid. So in the span of one year, he actually did invent two different, two completely different types of motors, the solid fuel and liquid fuel, which is actually the basis for a lot of rocket engines that we use today. Aarati: 40:21 Oh really? Arpita: 40:23 So then during World War II, uh, this is what I mentioned earlier, Jack's engines were used in thousands of planes. So the boost in speed that they provided allowed planes to take off on aircraft carriers. They could land in remote areas with short runways and rescue troops, which then saved around 4, 500 lives during the war. Aarati: 40:42 Oh my gosh, amazing. So he's not all chaos. Like there's some good coming out this He did make good on his promise to the army or the military to, like, actually help them, like, their funding paid off. Arpita: 40:54 Their funding did pay off. Aarati: 40:55 That makes me feel a little bit better. Arpita: 40:56 Yeah, it's like, not all bad. Um, we are going to take another left turn soon, so just prepare yourself. Um, but, so given this, like, demand for, aircraft engines, Jack's JPL colleagues, founded a company specifically to manufacture motors. So they called this company Aerojet, which is still around today. And he, Jack has no business skills or any business sense, but somehow becomes vice president. But let's not forget concurrently with the story. Jack is still involved in his Thelema cult and summoning spirits, and this becomes a liability for Aerojet. So he's not quiet about his lifestyle. He talks about this a lot. And for the most part, it was. Fairly harmless if not just like super weird. So he would answer the door holding like a snake. He would conduct seances to Egyptian gods. Like he'd do just like weird shit that people were like, Jack's weird, but that's just Jack. But other stuff is not so harmless. So for one, as we talked about before, he abandoned his wife to sleep with a 17 year old. Um, other commune members were accused of sleeping with a 16 year old neighborhood boy. Um, and neighbors In nearby the commune saw like, naked women jumping through bonfires in the yard. Jack was also making absinthe illegally in his bathtub, and he was taking all sorts of drugs like cocaine, morphine, peyote, and he would show up very regularly, hungover or still on drugs to Aerojet meetings, which, like, you can imagine, really pissed them off. They were like, we're trying to run a business. Aarati: 42:45 Yeah. It's such a different, like, it's so weird to reconcile those two sides of one person. It's like what did you say it was like president or VP of, yeah. VP of like Aerojet. Any vice president though, like a vice president of a company that's rooted in science and like literal rocket science. And like this crazy cult person who's on drugs and believes in like sex rituals and stuff. And that's like the same person. Arpita: 43:14 That's the same person. Aarati: 43:15 It's so different than what we think about. We think about like VPs of rocket space companies being very, very smart, kind of all business, like Arpita: 43:24 Honestly, it kind of reminds me of Elon Musk a little bit. Like he's also cuckoo bananas and is smart, like founded SpaceX, you know, has done all this like interesting stuff with like batteries and all this technology but also is a nut job, like... Aarati: 43:40 Like completely insane. Arpita: 43:41 Completely insane. So, I mean, not... Aarati: 43:43 Good parallel. Arpita: 43:44 unheard of. Okay, so, as you can imagine, uh, Aerojet finally had enough, and they're like, you're fired, you're out of here. So, at this point, Aerojet didn't actually need a lot of his tinkerings and crazy behavior. What they really needed was someone to like, just work 9 to 5 because they're trying to grow a business. And that is not Jack's forte. So Aerojet gave Jack $11, 000 in severance, which allowed him to purchase the mansion that the commune was in. And then people started calling it"Parsonage" in his honor. Okay, so now World War II ended and enter L. Ron Hubbard, who is the future founder of Scientology, who joins the commune. And Jack was in love. He was like, this guy is awesome. Jack loves like magic and communing with gods and demons. And then Ron to him was the most natural magician that he'd ever met. And so Ron had this, like, amazing gift. I don't even know what that means, honestly, but it had this amazing gift for contacting, like, the other worlds, and Jack welcomes Ron into the commune's inner circle, and Ron, in return, showed his appreciation by sleeping with Betty. Aarati: 44:59 Oh my gosh, this Betty girl also, like, oh my god. What, is happening in this... Arpita: 45:07 I don't know. Aarati: 45:09 What? Arpita: 45:10 So then Betty leaves Jack for Ron, and Jack wasn't even that mad because he was so obsessed with Ron that he was like willing to accept anything, honestly. Aarati: 45:20 Like yeah, you, deserve her more than I do. You're amazing. Arpita: 45:23 Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly right. So Jack has an idea for Ron. He goes back to that experience. He has a kid where he summoned a demon and he's like, wouldn't it be cool if we did that again? And he had a specific spirit in mind. It's this goddess named Babalon, AKA the Scarlet Woman. And take a wild guess. Babalon is a sex goddess. Aarati: 45:47 No kidding. Arpita: 45:48 And because the world was like, World War II, like it's like war torn, all of this stuff. He thought that the world was currently being ruled by a violent God. And he summoned Babalon, it would teach people to love. That's his hypothesis.. Aarati: 46:03 Okay. Sure. Just gets crazier and crazier. Arpita: 46:08 It really does. and so, like I mentioned, to Jack rocketry and the occult are intertwined. And so his rocket career is now in shambles. He's been fired from Aerojet and the occult was like pretty much all he had left. And so convinced Ron to help him summon Babalon and they started this ritual in 1946. Honestly, like weird shit. They like had like a dagger. They like played music. They like had blood. There was like spells. Aarati: 46:40 Okay. I'm envisioning. yeah, like crazy ritual. yeah, Arpita: 46:45 Yeah, unclear what they did, but they did something. And according to Jack, this worked because very soon after a scarlet woman entered his life. So this woman was a former Navy officer who was curious about religious worship and magic. She'd heard about this from friends. Her name was Marjorie Cameron and she had red hair and she basically just like knocked on the door of the commune. Aarati: 47:13 Okay. Arpita: 47:13 So according to Jack, his spell worked. Aarati: 47:16 And supposed to be like the incarnation of Babalon, or something? Arpita: 47:20 Correct, according to according to Jack. So, Jack becomes obsessed with Marjorie, and he thinks that he summoned her from a different realm. And, they start this affair, and they lock themselves into a room for weeks, and they're just sweet, sweet loving, and he sincerely thought that him sleeping with Marjorie was a way to bring world peace because this is the incarnation of this goddess. Aarati: 47:47 That's mind boggling. Okay. Like how do- how do people make these connections? I don't get it. Arpita: 47:53 No, he's crazy. He's crazy. and so the two get married. And so Jack is like finally feeling like he's like putting the pieces of his life back together. Like he's fired, but now he has this like woman that he's in love with, like blah, blah, blah. However, Ron screws Jack again. Ron approaches Jack with this business plan. He's like, Hey, what if we buy some yachts on the East coast and then we sail them to California and we sell them for a markup? And... this doesn't even make any sense, but Jack, no, it does not. But Jack was like, Oh my God, amazing, great idea. And he blindly gave Ron his entire life savings and Ron... Aarati: 48:36 No. Arpita: 48:36 disappeared to Miami with the money and he took Betty with him. Aarati: 48:40 Wow that's a shock. Arpita: 48:41 And Jack is so obsessed with Marjorie, like he doesn't even realize for a while that he's been scammed and then he's Oh my God, wait..." and he goes to Miami and he can't find Jack and Betty and he assumes that they're on this yacht that they bought and they're out at sea. So then Jack decides to summon up a weather demon to start a storm to kill Ron and Betty. And so Aarati: 49:06 Oh my goodness. Arpita: 49:07 Somehow a storm actually did pick up across the coast, and Ron and Betty's yacht gets totaled, like, completely clobbered. The sail got torn off, and they, like, finally make it back to port, And Jack is, like waiting for them. Aarati: 49:25 Like, ha, how do Arpita: 49:26 Yeah. Exactly. No, exactly. Somehow this happened. And so Jack ends up getting some of the money back, but he and Ron, like, eventually part ways as enemies. Like, he's no longer enamored with Ron. Um, and Ron then goes on to get really famous and rich as the father of Scientology. That is a entirely separate story that we Aarati: 49:50 Entirely. Yes. Yes. Arpita: 49:53 Okay. Back to Jack and back to Aerojet. So after he got fired, he was still looking for ways to get involved in rockets and research. But the field by this point had really changed. Like there was some substance behind it. Like this was really developing. They were like, this is actually something that is worth putting some scientific, uh, effort into. It's no longer just like a bunch of dudes in the middle of the desert, like trying random stuff. Aarati: 50:22 I think at this point, it would be the beginnings of the Space Race, right? like, it's 19, early 1950s, Late 1940s, because World War II just ended? Arpita: 50:30 Late 1940s. Yeah, exactly. So we're not quite space race, but yeah, just the beginnings. Aarati: 50:37 Yes. Arpita: 50:38 And so now there's like legitimate businesses around this. The military was involved and then people needed security clearances from the FBI. So Jack starts trying to get an FBI clearance and as you can imagine, the FBI did a little bit of background research and were horrified by everything they found. Aarati: 50:57 YeAh. Yeah. You just basically have to do just the barest amount of research and be like, whoa, no. Okay. Arpita: 51:04 Totally, exactly. Um, because he was reading communist papers, he slept with a 17 year old, he was summoning demons, and they were like, no, no, no, no, this is not happening. Aarati: 51:15 I have to say there was a tiny part of me that was a little scared that you were going to say that. Somehow he got clearance and I'm like, how? No. I'm so glad that that did not happen. Arpita: 51:24 I'm so Aarati.. So the next sentence, is, his colleagues. from JPL and Aerojack were like, okay, like, we know this guy's crazy, but also he's really, really, really smart. So you should really let him participate in research. So his colleagues vouched for him and FBI was like, okay, fine. And they allowed Jack to work these like really small scale jobs. However, this will make you feel better. Jack ruined this almost immediately. Aarati: 51:53 Of course! Because he's like a chaos demon himself. Arpita: 51:58 So he got caught stealing documents from the military that he was supposedly going to send to foreign governments. Aarati: 52:05 Why? What? Oh my god. Arpita: 52:08 I don't know. Aarati: 52:09 Oh Arpita: 52:09 I don't know. So he got fired again. Aarati: 52:13 I feel like he does like, he always does like the, the most obvious thing that would get you kicked out of any institution. Like you go to the military, you blow up a toilet, you're out of the military. You go to like Caltech, You almost decapitate someone, you're out of caltech. Like you go now to the FBI, you try to sell a foreign agency government documents and you're like you always do the he's always doing like the absolute worst thing you could do. Arpita: 52:38 He's doing the worst. That's totally true. But also, like, kind of, he's brilliant. So, like, it's unclear, like, what the situation is here. Okay, so now we're like, we're just like ping ponging back and forth. So now he's back to magic because he no longer has rockets in his life. So he's back to magic and he decides to do magic full time. So now he's declared himself to be the Antichrist. He begins visiting prostitutes for more like sex magic rituals. Like he's like, full eyeballs deep into this thing, Aarati: 53:06 Mm hmm. Arpita: 53:07 But he's also broke. So in order to make money, he sets up a lab in his garage where he starts making special effects chemicals for Hollywood stuff like pyrotechnics, fog, stuff like that. And one afternoon in 1952, he got a rush order for some pyrotechnics for a movie. And so he headed down to his lab, also known as his garage and starts mixing chemicals. And around 5 p. m. there was two quick explosions that the whole neighborhood heard. And so neighbors rushed over and they found a huge hole in the ceiling. The lab's windows were shattered, the heavy garage door had been torn from his hinges, and Jack was laying in the middle of the wreckage. Missing his right arm and most of his face and his last words that he said were quote,"But I'm not finished yet." End quote. So no one knows what happened with the accident. Like we said, like many times before, he was super cavalier about safety. So there's one, like, very obvious hypothesis that he probably just, like, messed up while he was mixing explosives. Aarati: 54:15 Yeah. Arpita: 54:15 And then that caused the first bang, and then because he kept other explosives just lying around, those might have ignited and then caused the second bang. But there's also darker explanations that have been proposed. So, a neighbor, supposedly, there's not really any proof for this, found a syringe of morphine in the lab trash can, so then like, was he high while he was doing these? We don't know. Other people thought that he was like being driven to suicide or was like trying a different magic spell. It's unclear. Aarati: 54:48 Yeah. I was gonna say I wonder if he was trying something with his occult, you know, especially if morphine was involved or something if Arpita: 54:56 Yeah, Aarati: 54:57 trying some weird thing. Yeah. Arpita: 54:59 And so no one, no one really knows what happened. Um, but then there was also some conspiracy theories about this. So remember the police captain that had that planted the bomb? Um, Jack's testimony sent the police captain to prison. And also, right before he died, the police captain had been released from prison. So, was that a coincidence? Like, was the police captain involved? Like, we don't know, Aarati: 55:23 Some vengeance plot. Arpita: 55:24 exactly. So, regardless, he died super young. He was only 37. Aarati: 55:30 My gosh. He's only three seven and Arpita: 55:32 yeah. Aarati: 55:32 this stuff has happened. Arpita: 55:34 I know. It's crazy. Because he started when he was like 11. So, like, it moves, the story moves quickly. Um, He's only 37, but he left a really complicated legacy, as you can imagine. So, people who are involved in the occult, still are obsessed with him. So, in like, conspiracy theory circles, he's credited with attracting the first alien visitors to Earth. Aarati: 55:57 Oh, Arpita: 55:58 IDK. Um, in rocket research, his legacy is super mixed, as you can imagine. So both his solid fuel and liquid fuel motors were really big breakthroughs. And NASA's Titan rockets, as well as space shuttle were both based on his work. Like it was really fundamental to understanding both solid and liquid fuel motors. Aarati: 56:22 Mm-hmm Arpita: 56:22 Groups like JPL and Aerojet, both that he founded, don't really embrace him, which you could totally understand why, like he was cuckoo bananas. But also like it's kind of mixed. Like a lot of people who are geniuses are also very troubled and, you know, are really involved in like a lot of different things that are maybe not super high brow or... Aarati: 56:48 Yeah. Arpita: 56:48 above ground. So it's kind of complicated. Aarati: 56:51 Yeah, because it's like you want to give credit where it's due, but at the same time you don't want to lift this guy onto a pedestal because he's insane. Arpita: 56:58 Exactly. insane. Exactly. And so there's a lot of controversy in the rocket science field about how much credit he deserves. Um, and there's just like such a fine line between insanity and genius. Um, that being said, the thing that people are very conclusive about is that if he was alive, you know, like if he continued to live, there is no way he would have ever worked at NASA. So at NASA, as we all know it's like very involved in the rockets and the space race, but the agency was like, way too buttoned up and like, way too straight Aarati: 57:32 Yeah. Arpita: 57:32 laced. Like, it's just like, no chance he would have ever been able to work with. Aarati: 57:36 Yeah, Arpita: 57:37 Exactly. Aarati: 57:37 have all the safety standards. Arpita: 57:39 And so there's also another theory that the quote unquote establishment to try to get rockets up and running just used Jack. Like they kind of just like milked him for his ideas But then just like didn't really protect him when he really needed it. So that's the other kind of Philosophy here, but that being said he didn't really do himself that many favors. He led a really reckless life He did a lot of really questionable things he summoned demons, like, I don't know, Like, there's a mix, like, did they really need to protect him? Like, he didn't really give them a lot of reasons to make them empathetic towards him. But also his ideas, like, were so fundamental to a lot of what we know about space and rockets, which is also crazy. But yeah, that. is a very, very abbreviated story about Jack Parsons. There's so much that I had to cut out in order for this to like even remotely fit into a reasonable time frame. Aarati: 58:40 I feel like now there should be a movie about it. Like, I know he tried to sell his story Arpita: 58:45 I think there is a show actually. Let me Google it. There was one that, I found while I was researching. Um, Strange Angel. Aarati: 58:55 Strange Angel. Okay. Arpita: 58:57 It's a TV show. It ran from 2018 to 2019, and it's about him. But I think it's mostly actually about his, occult spiritual stuff. I don't think it's as much about JPL. Aarati: 59:10 Okay. But still, that's worth a look. Because, yeah, that, that story is absolutely crazy. I feel like Hollywood. Would make a story about It now who Arpita: 59:19 Oh, yeah, it is. Aarati: 59:21 pitch Amazing that story just ticked all the boxes though. It was like it had explosions. It had demons. It had space. Arpita: 59:30 Oh my god. It was so long. For context, the original, just like when I was like pulling stuff in for from like a bunch of different sources, was 12 point font, single spaced, 17 pages. And usually my stories are like around seven pages. Aarati: 59:51 Wow Arpita: 59:52 when I am reading them. So I did end up getting it down to seven and a half. Aarati: 59:59 that was worth That was worth everything. Yeah, that that was amazing. That was an amazing story. Thank you so much for starting January off that way Arpita: 1:00:10 yeah, with a bang. Aarati: 1:00:12 With the literal bang. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Great story. And I'd never heard of it before either. So. Arpita: 1:00:20 Yeah me I either. Which is crazy for how like ubiquitous you, JPL and NASA and like all these space stories Aarati: 1:00:26 Yeah, Arpita: 1:00:26 are. Maybe it's just ubiquitous in my house, but it seems to be like a thing that everyone knows about. Aarati: 1:00:31 No, but it's like, yeah, it is like everyone knows JPL and NASA and like, no, I, I did not know this history behind how it got started. Arpita: 1:00:39 Which is probably by design. like Aarati: 1:00:40 Yeah, probably like, Arpita: 1:00:41 JPL does not want you to know about this. So, yeah. Aarati: 1:00:44 Or just like, yeah, we're just not going to talk about it that much. It's Arpita: 1:00:48 Exactly. Aarati: 1:00:49 know. Oh, my gosh. Great story, though. Amazing. Arpita: 1:00:52 Thank you, Aarati: 1:00:55 Thanks for listening. If you have a suggestion for a story we should cover or thoughts you want to share about an episode, reach out to us at smartteapodcast. com. You can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Blue Sky at smartteapodcast. And listen to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts, and leave us a rating or comment. It really helps us grow. Episodes are released every other Wednesday. See you next time!
Sources for this Episode
1. The Disappearing Spoon Podcast. The Sex-Cult 'Antichrist' Who Rocketed Us to Space. Published March 12, 2024. Science History Institute. Accessed January 10, 2025.
​2. Jack Parsons. Wikipedia. Accessed January 10, 2025.
​3. Lind Hall Library. Scientist of the Day- Jack Parsons. Published October 2, 2020. Accessed January 10, 2025.
​4. Fox, Dan. "How Jack Parsons Laid the Foundations for Space Travel". Frieze. Published June 22, 2018. Accessed January 10, 2025. ​​
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