 Hey guys, Athena here, and I am sitting here with Loretta Hidalgo-Whitesades and Hallie Lambert, so I'm really excited to talk to both of you guys. Loretta here is the co-founder of, co-creator of Yuri's Nights out here in LA, and Hallie, you actually write for The Expanse. So this is going to be a really fun conversation, so I want to just kind of want to jump right into Yuri's Nights. I want to jump into that, why you even started the party out here. I know it's a worldwide party, but talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah, we started Yuri's Nights back in 2001, and the original idea, well let's just make space cool again, because back in those days you guys may not be old enough to remember. But we'd done a really good job of making space boring. It felt like the adults were trying to make it as boring as possible, and I was like, this is not cool! And so we started this party, and we wanted to make space cool, we wanted to bring together artists and musicians with scientists and engineers, and we wanted to give people who didn't have access to the space industry access, because they love space too, and they want to be a part of it. So it was a great opportunity to bridge those worlds and build community and let people come together, show the power of space to bring the world together. Yeah, that's incredible, and I feel like every single year it's just constantly growing too, and you're really trying to expand more. How did you end up choosing the California Science Center as the place to really have the party out here in LA? Well, when we started, we did it in a nightclub that's now called Avalon at Hollywood and Vine. But when the shuttles retired, and Los Angeles got one, it was a no-brainer that we had to move there. So we called them up and we're like, hey, can we run out your pavilion for a party? And we made it happen, it was really cool. And we've been under the shuttle of Harding now for five years, we've had Buzz Aldrin there, it's been an epic ride. Yeah, it's been so incredible, and I feel like what's great about it is that because you tie in the art, and so that kind of leveraged me into, I want to talk about sci-fi, science fiction a little bit, with writing for the expanse, like how did you really start to first go about, like writing for it, like I always want to know where the inspiration comes from, it probably comes from obviously a lot of science, but how did you first... Well, the show is based on a series of novels by James Essay Corey, and it's actually two people, Ty Frank and Daniel Averham, and it actually started out as a role-playing game, online role-playing game by Ty Frank, many, many years ago he developed this whole world, had like a thick binder full of swirl, like this world that he created at the expanse, and Daniel Averham, who had already been writing science fiction under another pen name, started playing the game, and then was like, we should make this into a book, and so I think they are, it's good to do nine books, I think there's seven out now, and so that's where the idea for the expanse, we're adapting the books, and they're actually in the writer's room with us, and have been amazing, like helping us adapt as best we can without changing too much, keeping the tone and the feel for the story there, while also changing enough of the format, because the books and TBR are very, very different. Yeah, it definitely is like a lot different, so overall how do you feel like science fiction is really impacting the community? Obviously people are into science, are going to love science fiction anyway, but do you think it's really making a big impact? I know we were talking backstage earlier about some previous work you've done, how do you think that's really gonna impact our future in science? Well I hope it will inspire young kids or teenage anyone to start learning about the real side of science, who watch the space shuttle launches, and maybe see that they can create, there's so much more to do, there's so much to create, and it can be fun, and it can be exciting. For example, when I was on CSI, that's where I started Writers Assistant a long time ago, and it just blew up worldwide the show, and as a result they had a massive increase of people studying forensic science, or going into their forensic science side of things, and developing new technology that way that are inspired by the show. So yeah, hopefully you know it has the same sort of impact on science and space, and we'll see. Yeah it's incredible. I feel like that ties a lot also in with Yuri's night, where like the overall goal with this is to really try and get more of the community to take part in space exploration and the future of it, correct? I mean yeah, how do you feel like this is going to affect non-science, like I guess students, younger kids, like people that were never really in the science world growing up, what is, how do you think this is going to end up affecting them? Yeah I think that would be awesome. We created the next generation of space explorers out of all of this. Yeah, in LA we have Yuri's Night kids as well during the afternoon, where they can go and launch rockets, and talk to people who work in the industry and learn about it. What are they launching, like the sort of bottle? Estus, like actual fire. This is amazing. Fire. Yeah so it was one of the cool places, this Columbia, because they have the permits to actually launch, you know, Estus rockets like in LA County, so it's, if you want to make fire, it's a good way to do it. Wow that's amazing, and this is the same day as Yuri's Night? Yeah it's in the afternoons from 10 to 4 at the, in Downey, at the Columbia Memorial Space Center. Okay. It's four kids, but you know, you guys can come. I mean I would totally do that. So is that what, so Yuri's Night is gonna be April 7th? Yes. This year, right? Correct? Yeah. So it's gonna be Saturday, so they're gonna be doing Yuri's Night for us in Downey for children during the day, and then you're going out to the California Science Center, which is gonna be like the big party. Yeah. That's like really really exciting. Okay cool, so who are you most excited about like this year, I guess that you're bringing on board, that you're gonna have at the California Science Center? Yeah we have some, well both of you are our ambassadors at the event this year, so if you want to come hang out with all three of us, we'll be there. So that's fun, and we have a cool slate of ambassadors this year. Well our keynote is astronaut Nicole Stodd. Yes. She did a long duration mission on International Space Station, she flew on the space shuttle as well, and she's now retired, and she's an artistic astronaut. She paints as well. She's a chemical engineer, I think, by training, and she's just really awesome powerhouse astronaut, so we're really excited to have Nicole out. She's doing great stuff with humanitarian work, and what Yuri's Night's all about is like, how do we use space to help Earth and make a difference for our people? And so she's gonna talk about a little bit about her work that she does in that as well. So we have Nicole coming, we have Bill Nye is gonna join joining us this year. Exciting. So you know, we can all save the world together, it's gonna be good. And we have some other fun people like Dylan Taylor is coming. He started Space for Humanity, which is a nonprofit that's looking to, you know, you can submit your video to apply to get a space flight for people who can't afford to buy their own suborbital space flight. Space for Humanity is gonna be giving away space flights to people who they think can use that experience for good, to make a difference. Speaking of the Sarawak flight. Got you Yeah, definitely. So with the suborbital orbital flight, so let's talk a little bit, I guess, about Virgin Galactic. I really, really want to get into this. When do you think the first, like, I guess, commercial suborbital flights are going to be? Yeah, well, I'm hoping. Well, I have one of the tickets. So I've really been waiting for a long time. I would love to fly next year. That sounds great to me. We're really excited. We're so close to getting back into power test flights. And so, you know, the mood in Mojave is really, you know, there's all this excitement brewing because they're like, we're so close. And just like, you know, to get to see Spaceship 2 with the rocket motor on, again, it'll be, it's gonna be really great day for us. And then, you know, getting to a couple more power test flights, getting Richard Branson into space. And then starting to fly our customers, it's gonna be down in New Mexico, it's gonna be really exciting. Oh, man, that's gonna be so cool. And just like clarify, I guess, for everyone in case people don't know what the suborbital orbital flights are going to be doing, it's just gonna be going where exactly? Yeah, so we'll take off like an airplane, you'd go up to about 50,000 feet, drop the rock, the spaceship, we light our rocket motor go for about a minute. And then that's enough to get you out of the atmosphere, you break the speed of sound, you're going like Mach three, so three times the speed of sound. And then they kick the motor off, and you get about three to four minutes of weightlessness. So you'll be just like this, that's so good. So I have, you know, like 80, I've done like about 80 flights as a staff on zero the zero G plane, right? So yeah, so when I work there, I, you know, we get to float for like an airplane, you can float for about 20 seconds at a time. So the idea, you can hold your breath for 20 seconds, you know, the idea of getting to, you know, have like three or four minutes, I can't hold my breath for three or four minutes. Oh, yeah, it's a long, it's actually a long time if you have to sit there, like when you're sitting in the microwave waiting for it. Anyway, oh my gosh, yeah, you need to float for four minutes. It'll go a lot faster than waiting for the microwave. But yeah, so getting to see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space and look down on our home planet and float around is going to be really, you know, sublime. That's going to be so cool. Now it's this outfit going to be one of the I should definitely wear this on my flight. I think we might have as you know, assigned space suits, but yeah, that's gonna be really cool. What is I guess like the number one inspiration for you when you're writing some of the script for some of the stories for the expanse and a lot of a lot of everything that you do. Where's one of your big inspirations come from? Oh, for for for writing the specific show personal inspirations or like show and for sci-fi sci-fi sci-fi. Yeah, I guess just all. Well, there's Carl Sagan's one. I love reading just his he said was such a prolific writer as well as a scientist so that reading his words, inspiring with the not just Star Trek and the space Odyssey 2001 those kind of movies and just remembering back to when I was a little girl, I lived out grip on the country and I would go outside even in the winter time when the sky was really clear and you could just see so many more stars because you're not in the city. And I would stare up at the sky and just try and contemplate how far it went out and how far eternity like how like what the universe that in and my little brain could not handle. I don't think my adult brain can still even handle it, but like I would just start crying just trying to imagine and figure it out. And I think I mean ever since I was little, I just have been fascinated by space, but I'm a creative. I'm a writer. I'm not a scientist. Those are, you know, you go with where your strengths are. But this show has opened so many doors to be able to meet real scientists and astronauts and kind of become an astronaut groupie. So many since I've been on the show. So just that continual inspiration of now having a door into the the Cassini finale I was at JPL for and met amazing people there. And so it's open doors to rekindle and continue on the the inspiration. Yeah, and the journey. And I think that that's one thing that's so incredible about this because you tie those two parts of the brain together, both like the creativity and then also obviously the logic, the science. But that's one thing about space and space exploration national physics, physics is actually tying those two worlds together. It's not just like it's a lot of creativity. So before we wrap up, I do want to ask about the space swag that you have that you brought here. So what is this? The t-shirt? Yeah, so I brought the t-shirt. Got the sticker. The sticker looks great on the laptop. Yeah, I'll just add that on somewhere. And the patch. So yeah, if you want to, you know, we got to find out more about Eury's Night and go to Eury's Night.net. Go to the store to get some swag. You can go to, you know, LA.Eury's Night or Spacecoast.Eury's Night to check out our, we have two, so that was the other thing we added this year. So we've all, we've done the LA party under the Shuttle last five years, but this year for the first time we're doing the Florida event, Spacecoast.Eury's Night.net under the Atlantis. So we're shuttle to shuttle. We're doing the, you know, all, you know, going for all three next year. No, I'm teasing. We are, yeah, so we have two shuttle parties that we're doing this year. So no matter, you know, which coast you're on, we got a party for you. And it's gonna be the same night? No, well, that's cool. So I get to go to both. So ours is gonna be Saturday. Here in LA it'll be Saturday, April 7th, and in Florida it'll be Friday, April 13th. So okay. And then there's one in D.C. on the 7th as well, and there's one in Seattle on the 14th. So is there not one in New York also? Yeah. Not that I've heard of yet. Okay, we'll have to set that up. Yeah, at the Enterprise or something. We're working on Enterprise. We've got some, but it's, you know, it's growing. It grows, exactly. And then on the 12th, which is like the actual day that you're going to get out and went to space, that's when it's like the whole world, just like look on social media and stuff, like everyone's gonna be having their own separate parties. So I'm really excited for this. But awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming and talking a little bit about Science Fiction.ury's Night and Space Exploration. So thank you guys so much. And don't forget to like and subscribe and tune in next week for our next show. Thanks.