Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / THE LAST SOVIET - The Lance Files
Transcript
- 0:12Speaker 1: Hey, it's Lance here. For the last few episodes, we've
- 0:15Speaker 1: been hearing all about Sergei Krekilev, the Soviet space program,
- 0:19Speaker 1: the space race, Russia's messy transition to capitalism. You know,
- 0:24Speaker 1: heavy stuff. But now we're going to take a slight
- 0:27Speaker 1: detour from all of that and talk about me, Lance Vass.
- 0:32Speaker 1: Are you ready all right? Y'all already know how I
- 0:37Speaker 1: became obsessed with space as a kid after I saw
- 0:39Speaker 1: a rocket launch at Cape Carnaval, and how from that
- 0:42Speaker 1: moment I dreamt that one day I'd put on a
- 0:44Speaker 1: space suit, squeeze into a teeny tiny shuttle piano funnel,
- 0:47Speaker 1: and blast off into the unknown. But what you don't
- 0:50Speaker 1: know is some of the crazy things that happened on
- 0:53Speaker 1: my trip, like meeting buzz freaking Aldron and a bar
- 0:56Speaker 1: in Moscow. Yeah. So on this episode of The Last
- 1:00Speaker 1: Soviet I sit down with one of my producers, Asia Folks,
- 1:04Speaker 1: to talk about how my dream of going to space
- 1:06Speaker 1: came true. Well almost from Kaleidoscope, iHeart and Exile content.
- 1:12Speaker 1: This is the Last Soviet. We start in the spring
- 1:19Speaker 1: of two thousand and two. N SYNC was about to
- 1:22Speaker 1: go on a six month hiatus. I needed that break,
- 1:26Speaker 1: but also it was like six months, what the hell
- 1:28Speaker 1: am I going to do relax poolside with a Margarita. Well,
- 1:32Speaker 1: an American TV network had other plans for me. They
- 1:36Speaker 1: were putting together a reality TV show where contestants would
- 1:41Speaker 1: compete for a spot on a Russian Soyer's space rocket
- 1:44Speaker 1: to the International Space Station and they were looking for
- 1:47Speaker 1: a host, but they wanted that host to go to
- 1:51Speaker 1: Space two. And then one day, the producer was sitting
- 1:54Speaker 1: at home with a friend discussing where the hell they
- 1:56Speaker 1: could find a celebrity interested in space, when suddenly his
- 2:00Speaker 1: friends nine year old says, Lance Mass wants to go
- 2:03Speaker 1: to space. Turns out she was a huge InSync fan,
- 2:06Speaker 1: followed all the interviews we used to do on AOL
- 2:08Speaker 1: chat rooms. Remember those? Yeah, I'm that old. Anyway, it
- 2:14Speaker 1: was because of that nine year old that one sunny
- 2:16Speaker 1: day in Florida, I get that faithful phone call from
- 2:19Speaker 1: my manager. And then that's when the phone call happened.
- 2:28Speaker 1: And I remember I was in my house in Orlando.
- 2:31Speaker 1: Cindy calls and says, Hey, I have a question, would
- 2:35Speaker 1: you like to go to space? I'm like, what, okay?
- 2:38Speaker 1: And as I know, seriously we got a call and
- 2:41Speaker 1: they want you to be the youngest person to go
- 2:43Speaker 1: to space. And my first thought was, all right, Cindy,
- 2:46Speaker 1: this is a joke because Punked was such a huge
- 2:49Speaker 1: show at the time with Ashton Kutcher. Okay, here's what's
- 2:53Speaker 1: gonna happen. We're gonna do something. Celebrity's gonna get pissed,
- 2:56Speaker 1: and then we're gonna laugh at them. I'm like, Ashton
- 3:01Speaker 1: is punking me. This is a total punk, but I'm
- 3:03Speaker 1: not gonna I'm not gonna bite and so yeah, that
- 3:06Speaker 1: was the end of the conversation for a few days
- 3:09Speaker 1: until Cindy called back again and she's like, so this
- 3:11Speaker 1: is legit. This is definitely not an Ashton Kutcher. This
- 3:14Speaker 1: is definitely not a prank. And that's when it just
- 3:17Speaker 1: hit me that, Wow, am I really going to have
- 3:20Speaker 1: this opportunity, an opportunity that I dreamt of my whole
- 3:24Speaker 1: entire life, my first love, my first passion. And it
- 3:27Speaker 1: just took off from there. I mean, once you realize
- 3:30Speaker 1: this is the real deal, You're not being punked, Ashton
- 3:33Speaker 1: Kutcher is not involved, Like what's going through your head
- 3:36Speaker 1: when you realize you might actually get to live out
- 3:39Speaker 1: this thing that you'd been dreaming of since you were
- 3:41Speaker 1: a little kid. I mean, the thing that was going
- 3:44Speaker 1: through my head was, you know, it's just it didn't
- 3:47Speaker 1: seem real. It was definitely surreal. I called my parents first,
- 3:50Speaker 1: because I just had to tell them. They knew my passion,
- 3:53Speaker 1: and I also knew that my mom was going to
- 3:55Speaker 1: be so against it, because you know, sending your son
- 3:58Speaker 1: into space is not the best thing or a parent.
- 4:00Speaker 1: I think it's very dangerous and scary. So I think
- 4:03Speaker 1: her first reaction was like, no, you're not doing this,
- 4:06Speaker 1: but just kind of like when I joined in sync,
- 4:09Speaker 1: there was no stop in it. And the other thought
- 4:11Speaker 1: going through my head was, wow, am I really going
- 4:13Speaker 1: to be able to live out two of my dreams?
- 4:16Speaker 1: My two biggest dreams in the world, music and space?
- 4:19Speaker 1: And how am I lucky enough to be able to
- 4:21Speaker 1: do both of those weird, very opposite things. There was
- 4:25Speaker 1: no thought that I was going to turn this down
- 4:28Speaker 1: at all, and I was just so excited. And I remember,
- 4:31Speaker 1: you know, going back on tour just a couple of
- 4:33Speaker 1: days later and telling the guys, and I mean I was, like,
- 4:37Speaker 1: you know, a kid on Christmas morning, just so excited,
- 4:41Speaker 1: and they were so confused, like what, Like they couldn't
- 4:44Speaker 1: even be happy for me because they were just so
- 4:46Speaker 1: confused on what was going on. Everything starts slowly coming together.
- 4:51Speaker 1: The plans for your great space adventure. You've now told
- 4:55Speaker 1: your family, you've told in Sync boys, it's time to
- 4:58Speaker 1: get into gear. Yeah, and the plan is this, You're
- 5:02Speaker 1: going to spend six months of intensive cosmonaut training in
- 5:05Speaker 1: Russia and then shut off to space in October two
- 5:07Speaker 1: thousand and two. But before all that, you need to
- 5:11Speaker 1: pass these very stringent medical tests in Russia. Right, and
- 5:15Speaker 1: it turns out there's something wrong with your heart. Yeah.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Before you go into training, everyone has to go through
- 5:23Speaker 1: medical and it's where they study you for a good week.
- 5:27Speaker 1: So I had my dad with me and a bodyguard
- 5:29Speaker 1: with me the whole time I was there. But they
- 5:32Speaker 1: research everything about you. Every little inch of your body
- 5:35Speaker 1: is studied, I mean everything. So I mean you're sitting
- 5:38Speaker 1: there completely naked in front of like eight doctors standing
- 5:41Speaker 1: on a table as they're like poking you and putting
- 5:44Speaker 1: fingers where they shouldn't be putting fingers, and they just
- 5:47Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that you're as healthy as possible
- 5:49Speaker 1: because going to space is, you know, quite dangerous and
- 5:52Speaker 1: it's a different way of living. So one of the
- 5:55Speaker 1: criteria for a cosmonaut is you have to have a
- 5:58Speaker 1: regular heartbeat, and for some reason, I had an irregular heartbeat.
- 6:01Speaker 1: I knew I had an irregular heartbeat. I'd been diagnosed
- 6:04Speaker 1: without a few years earlier, but was completely benign. But
- 6:06Speaker 1: that was the one thing that I did not pass.
- 6:09Speaker 1: So I failed my first medical and it was because
- 6:11Speaker 1: of the irregular heartbeat. And I was disappointed because I'm like, really,
- 6:15Speaker 1: this is what's going to stop my dream of going
- 6:17Speaker 1: to space is an irregular, benign heartbeat. And so we
- 6:20Speaker 1: found this doctor in Boston that wanted it to do
- 6:23Speaker 1: an ablation surgery and said he thinks that he could
- 6:26Speaker 1: fix this and see where it's misfiring. And ablation surgery
- 6:28Speaker 1: what what is that? It's where they send basically these
- 6:32Speaker 1: rods up your arteries, about five of them through your
- 6:35Speaker 1: groin and it goes up to your heart. You're awake
- 6:38Speaker 1: during the whole thing, so there's all these television screens
- 6:40Speaker 1: around your head and you're seeing the little cameras inside
- 6:43Speaker 1: you and seeing where everything is, kind of trying to misfire.
- 6:48Speaker 1: They're studying in it for I felt like hours. I'm
- 6:50Speaker 1: listening to Harry Potter's book on tape, but I guess
- 6:53Speaker 1: it was on CD then because it was two. Yes,
- 6:57Speaker 1: it was the first time I had listened to a
- 6:59Speaker 1: book before and it was Harry Potter. So I was
- 7:00Speaker 1: listening to that for quite a few hours. And then
- 7:03Speaker 1: when they find the spot where it is misfiring, they
- 7:06Speaker 1: will burn it. It feels like a match, like being
- 7:08Speaker 1: put out on your heart. It hurt like hell, but
- 7:12Speaker 1: you know, in the end it worked, and now to
- 7:14Speaker 1: this day, I have a regular heartbeat. So going to
- 7:17Speaker 1: space or not, I'm kind of glad I did it.
- 7:20Speaker 1: You go through the surgery, it's you know, it's quite
- 7:22Speaker 1: an ordeal. In Sync finally goes on its six month
- 7:25Speaker 1: hiatus and you fly into Rush or you fly into
- 7:29Speaker 1: Moscow and you get to Star City. What are your
- 7:32Speaker 1: first impressions of the place. Well, when I fly on
- 7:35Speaker 1: to Moscow, it was just an overwhelming feeling because you
- 7:39Speaker 1: see all the things that you've studied in history books
- 7:42Speaker 1: and all these gorgeous pictures of Moscow. It was it
- 7:44Speaker 1: was beautiful, So you know, I was a good tourist
- 7:47Speaker 1: for good twelve hours when I first landed there. Of course,
- 7:50Speaker 1: the first thing I tried doing was going to McDonald's
- 7:52Speaker 1: because I heard that McDonald's was like the crazy thing
- 7:54Speaker 1: in Moscow, and of course it's stupid America. It's like,
- 7:58Speaker 1: I want to see this McDonald which I did. So
- 8:01Speaker 1: that was a fun sight seeing experience. I mean it
- 8:04Speaker 1: was exactly what they said, completely packed, huge. I mean,
- 8:08Speaker 1: people were fighting over McDonald's. It was a it's a
- 8:11Speaker 1: big thing. And then of course seeing the Kremlin and
- 8:13Speaker 1: all that. I mean, it's just, you know, just history
- 8:15Speaker 1: right in front of you. I did do Saint Petersburg
- 8:18Speaker 1: for a weekend and it's gorgeous. But the places that
- 8:21Speaker 1: I did see outside of those cities could not be
- 8:23Speaker 1: more opposite of what those main cities were. Like, it's
- 8:26Speaker 1: a completely different country. The wealth distribution is just insane.
- 8:32Speaker 1: And then you go to Star City and first time
- 8:34Speaker 1: I pulled up to is very intimidating. The gates, the walls,
- 8:41Speaker 1: in the middle of a forest. You've been driving for
- 8:44Speaker 1: it felt like hours to this just middle of nowhere
- 8:47Speaker 1: place that looks like it is literally from the sixties.
- 8:50Speaker 1: And the first thing I noticed is how many guns,
- 8:53Speaker 1: I mean so many military They always just you know,
- 8:57Speaker 1: have their guns out, feeling like they're going to just
- 8:59Speaker 1: pointing out you at any second. And then you get
- 9:02Speaker 1: into the first gates and you just see this amazing
- 9:06Speaker 1: city that you feel like, this is exactly what Gagarin saw, right,
- 9:10Speaker 1: I mean, this is exactly the buildings he saw, This
- 9:12Speaker 1: is exactly where he walked. If you just took pictures,
- 9:15Speaker 1: you would never know what decade it was. So just
- 9:19Speaker 1: stepping back in time was really interesting and I just
- 9:23Speaker 1: loved it. I thought it was just a beautiful feeling.
- 9:26Speaker 1: So this all sounds really impressive. But what about you?
- 9:32Speaker 1: Where did you fit into all of this? Tell me
- 9:34Speaker 1: about where you were living. Oh? So, yes, I was
- 9:38Speaker 1: living in one of the cosmonaut profies. This apartment complex
- 9:41Speaker 1: again had been there since the sixties, chipped pain everywhere,
- 9:45Speaker 1: definitely wasn't kept up that great. There was no air conditioning,
- 9:48Speaker 1: and when I got there, it was just the beginning
- 9:50Speaker 1: of summer. You know, I'd always thought, oh, Russia's very cold,
- 9:53Speaker 1: so I bet the summers are really nice. Oh no,
- 9:56Speaker 1: it is hot as hell and there was no air
- 9:59Speaker 1: condition and so you'd have to sleep with the windows open.
- 10:03Speaker 1: But if you slept with the windows open, the mosquitos
- 10:05Speaker 1: would eat you alive. I mean so many mosquitos. So
- 10:09Speaker 1: the first few nights I have to sleep with a
- 10:11Speaker 1: little sheet over me, sweating my butt off and just
- 10:14Speaker 1: hearing like little thumps and mosquitos trying to get to me.
- 10:17Speaker 1: And then I'd wake up in the morning and I
- 10:19Speaker 1: would just see my whole wall was covered in blood
- 10:21Speaker 1: because of all the little splats that I would you
- 10:23Speaker 1: try to kill all the mosquitos, And it was miserable,
- 10:27Speaker 1: absolutely miserable. It sounds like you weren't really given the
- 10:30Speaker 1: star celebrity treatment, you know, right, So you were training
- 10:34Speaker 1: with the Russians, you were living with the Russians, and
- 10:36Speaker 1: you were getting ready to fly on a Russian Soyuz capsule. Yeah,
- 10:40Speaker 1: but as an American, NASA actually also had to approve
- 10:44Speaker 1: your flight, and there were NASA reps you had to
- 10:46Speaker 1: meet and impress. How did that go well? I mean,
- 10:50Speaker 1: especially at the beginning, you know, NASA didn't want me there,
- 10:52Speaker 1: you know, it was it was ridiculous. Oh my gosh,
- 10:54Speaker 1: you're gonna get a pop star to come train and
- 10:56Speaker 1: go to space, you know, that's a slap in so
- 10:59Speaker 1: many astronaut's faces that have not flown or will never fly.
- 11:03Speaker 1: So you know, a lot of you know, NASA definitely
- 11:05Speaker 1: didn't want me there. They thought it was a bad look.
- 11:08Speaker 1: And I remember the first time that I met with
- 11:10Speaker 1: NASA officials right before I went into training. They wanted
- 11:13Speaker 1: to meet with me, need to make sure that I
- 11:14Speaker 1: had the goods right to do this, and so met
- 11:18Speaker 1: with them. I thought it was a great meeting, and
- 11:20Speaker 1: then I find out later that, you know, they thought
- 11:21Speaker 1: I was like Dama's Rocks, And they also thought that
- 11:24Speaker 1: I was an alcoholic and drug addict because I was
- 11:27Speaker 1: a quote unquote rock star, right, yeah, like have you
- 11:32Speaker 1: seen our group? We're pop stars? Ed? Yeah, far from it.
- 11:36Speaker 1: Because do you think there are any aspects of being
- 11:39Speaker 1: a pop star, being a part of in Sync that
- 11:41Speaker 1: prepared you in any way for being an astronaut? I do.
- 11:45Speaker 1: It's odd to say that being within Sync and what
- 11:49Speaker 1: I did and trained within Sync, it really did help
- 11:52Speaker 1: me with this space training, and I think that was
- 11:55Speaker 1: started off with work ethic. You know, within Sync, we
- 11:57Speaker 1: spent hours and hours learning how to dance and singing
- 12:01Speaker 1: at the same time, which took us months to figure
- 12:04Speaker 1: that out, running on treadmills and trying to sing. So
- 12:06Speaker 1: conditioning was a huge part of just being an end sync.
- 12:10Speaker 1: It was almost like a sport just because of the
- 12:12Speaker 1: way that we performed. So when I went to Russia,
- 12:15Speaker 1: I was already ready to work hard. You weren't going
- 12:18Speaker 1: to see me not paying attention and being exactly what
- 12:20Speaker 1: they thought. I was going to be, this stupid little
- 12:23Speaker 1: pop star that is an alcoholic. It's just too dumb
- 12:27Speaker 1: to learn anything, you know. I was there to work
- 12:30Speaker 1: and work hard, and then it wasn't until the very
- 12:32Speaker 1: first week of training and all your tests or verbal
- 12:35Speaker 1: tests and they rate you one to five and I
- 12:38Speaker 1: forget even what the first classes were. I know there
- 12:40Speaker 1: was a lot of math involved, and I think it
- 12:42Speaker 1: was the makeup of the soya is. I took it
- 12:44Speaker 1: very seriously. It's amazing what you can get yourself to
- 12:46Speaker 1: do when you're putting these situations, and especially if you're
- 12:49Speaker 1: passionate about it. Yeah, And I feel like, especially if
- 12:51Speaker 1: you have this sort of motivation of someone saying you
- 12:54Speaker 1: can't do it, you know, you want to prove them wrong.
- 12:56Speaker 1: Oh yeah, exactly. So I mean I was doing rocket sign.
- 13:00Speaker 1: It's my first week there, and I'm like, I'm going
- 13:02Speaker 1: to prove you. I want to get to the training
- 13:16Speaker 1: in just a minute. But before that, what was your
- 13:19Speaker 1: sort of what was your impression of the Russians that
- 13:21Speaker 1: you met at Star City? What did you make of them?
- 13:24Speaker 1: The Russians that I met in Star City? The first
- 13:26Speaker 1: thing that I thought of is they're just proud, very
- 13:29Speaker 1: proud people. They're so happy about what they have there
- 13:33Speaker 1: and what they've developed since the sixties and all their accomplishments.
- 13:38Speaker 1: I mean, they still talk about Gagarin in almost every sentence.
- 13:42Speaker 1: That is their man. And I had heard of Gagarin
- 13:45Speaker 1: obviously the first man in space, but as an American
- 13:48Speaker 1: you don't really get two in depth with a Russian
- 13:50Speaker 1: space agency and the whole Gagaran story because you know,
- 13:53Speaker 1: it's a little embarrassing that they bear our country, so
- 13:56Speaker 1: we have a little revised history sometimes when we study.
- 14:00Speaker 1: I got to learn so much about Gagarin those first
- 14:03Speaker 1: couple of weeks, and I was super impressed and became
- 14:06Speaker 1: a huge fan. And I felt that I felt just
- 14:08Speaker 1: as proud as they did. But I loved it because
- 14:11Speaker 1: they you know, I would say probably half the Russian
- 14:15Speaker 1: Space Agency didn't want me there either. I don't know
- 14:18Speaker 1: if they thought it might be a bad look. It
- 14:19Speaker 1: could be something you can make fun of and make
- 14:21Speaker 1: it the space program look a little less than that.
- 14:24Speaker 1: They're allowing me to do this, but they never really
- 14:27Speaker 1: showed that to me. They treated me like a cosmonaut.
- 14:30Speaker 1: You know, once you're in cosmaut training, you're a cosmaut,
- 14:33Speaker 1: and they respect cosmonauts so much, and you felt special.
- 14:38Speaker 1: You felt very very special. I mean, the guy who
- 14:40Speaker 1: made my space suit made gagarin space suit. I mean,
- 14:44Speaker 1: it was just amazing that the same exact people that
- 14:47Speaker 1: worked with Gagaron or working with me this many decades later.
- 14:51Speaker 1: What was a typical day in Star City? Like sort
- 14:54Speaker 1: of talk me through your day from the moment you
- 14:56Speaker 1: wake up. I mean every day in Star City, it
- 14:59Speaker 1: wasn't typical. The only thing typical was you knew you
- 15:02Speaker 1: were up at five in the morning and you would
- 15:04Speaker 1: get back to your apartment by ten pm. So the
- 15:07Speaker 1: days were super long, and you would have at the
- 15:09Speaker 1: beginning of the week you would get your schedule and
- 15:12Speaker 1: it always changed, and of course it was all in Russian,
- 15:14Speaker 1: so I'd have to like figure out what exactly this
- 15:17Speaker 1: it says because my Russian teacher only spoke French and Russian,
- 15:22Speaker 1: zero English, and they thought just immersing myself in that
- 15:25Speaker 1: would make me learn Russian a lot easier, But it's not.
- 15:29Speaker 1: With zero reference, I had no idea what was going on.
- 15:32Speaker 1: So I knew how to conjugate everything in Russian, but
- 15:35Speaker 1: I didn't even know what the word meant. So I
- 15:38Speaker 1: had to start learning Russian on my own by watching
- 15:41Speaker 1: you know, the local Sesame Street cartoons and that type
- 15:44Speaker 1: of stuff. So yeah, so you know, I could conjugate
- 15:46Speaker 1: and I could read it, but I didn't know what
- 15:48Speaker 1: I'm saying. But thanks to Sesame Street, I knew the
- 15:50Speaker 1: certain words, and mainly the things I needed to learn
- 15:53Speaker 1: were just emergency words like there's a fire, you know,
- 15:55Speaker 1: things like that. I mean, it was tough. The language
- 15:58Speaker 1: was definitely tough. Did you eat a lot of Russian
- 16:01Speaker 1: food while you were over there? I was forced to
- 16:03Speaker 1: eat a Russian food. I have a very stupid palette,
- 16:07Speaker 1: I would say, especially twenty years ago. There's many things
- 16:10Speaker 1: I wouldn't eat, even cucumbers, like that's how bland my
- 16:14Speaker 1: taste buds were. That was the first time, I had cucumbers,
- 16:17Speaker 1: and they love cucumbers over in Russian they do, yeah,
- 16:20Speaker 1: and so there's the only thing I could eat and
- 16:22Speaker 1: actually enjoy and know what it was. They liked their
- 16:25Speaker 1: shishka babs for sure, so that was nice. But they
- 16:28Speaker 1: always made me eat this soup and it was horrible.
- 16:30Speaker 1: I don't know what kind of soup it was, but
- 16:32Speaker 1: that was the one thing at lunch they were always
- 16:34Speaker 1: like forcing me to finish, So that was always strange
- 16:38Speaker 1: to me. Yea, we get into this a bit in
- 16:41Speaker 1: some of the other episodes, but I would love to
- 16:44Speaker 1: hear more about some of the actual training that you
- 16:47Speaker 1: went through. So tell me about survival training. What is that.
- 16:52Speaker 1: I feel like most of my training was about emergency
- 16:55Speaker 1: and survival. So you know, when you come down on
- 16:58Speaker 1: the soyas, sometimes you miss your mark and you don't
- 17:01Speaker 1: know if you're going to land in the ocean or
- 17:03Speaker 1: you're in a land in the middle of Siberia. You
- 17:05Speaker 1: have no idea, one little mistake and you're halfway across
- 17:09Speaker 1: the world. So you have to learn how to survive
- 17:12Speaker 1: for at least a day in case they can't find you.
- 17:16Speaker 1: So one of those if you land in the forest
- 17:18Speaker 1: is learning how to build shelter, make a fire, find food,
- 17:22Speaker 1: what things are edible and not edible. That was a
- 17:25Speaker 1: good I would say two week training Right there. I
- 17:27Speaker 1: felt like I was back in the boy Scouts, which
- 17:30Speaker 1: was fun. And then the other survival training was they
- 17:33Speaker 1: drop you in your Soya's capsule into a huge Olympic
- 17:36Speaker 1: sized pool and you have to in a certain amount
- 17:39Speaker 1: of time as you're sinking, get out of your skafand
- 17:42Speaker 1: er your flight suit, which is very hard because you
- 17:45Speaker 1: have all these bundles and your clothes and everything just
- 17:48Speaker 1: kind of pressed up against you. Your whole body is
- 17:51Speaker 1: numb because you're kneesier in your chest. So then they
- 17:54Speaker 1: drop you in this water and you have to get
- 17:55Speaker 1: out in a certain amount of time, and it takes
- 17:58Speaker 1: a while to get out of that space suit. And
- 18:01Speaker 1: the first time they did it, I did it in
- 18:02Speaker 1: a good amount of time, so I was very happy.
- 18:04Speaker 1: They were happy I got out safe and I was
- 18:07Speaker 1: able to move on to the next emergency train. You
- 18:11Speaker 1: also flew a fighter plane. Yeah, that was flying the
- 18:16Speaker 1: Russian MiG was like that was one of the first
- 18:18Speaker 1: days in Russia, and this was kind of my first
- 18:21Speaker 1: I don't know, look at what it was like to
- 18:23Speaker 1: be a Russian cosmonaut. They took me to this field
- 18:27Speaker 1: where they had these fighter jets, and I didn't know
- 18:30Speaker 1: what we were doing, but every cosmonaut has kind of
- 18:33Speaker 1: a mentor cosmonaut, and so my mentor cosmonaut took me there.
- 18:37Speaker 1: And we first go to this airfield and we have
- 18:40Speaker 1: a nice little lunch with some sandwiches and lots of vodka.
- 18:44Speaker 1: And I did come to find out that the vodka
- 18:47Speaker 1: thing is real in Russia. They drink it all day long,
- 18:49Speaker 1: and they do it to celebrate. They do it too,
- 18:51Speaker 1: oh we finished a class, great? Oh yeah, and they
- 18:53Speaker 1: do it straight. So I'm having a couple of vodka
- 18:56Speaker 1: shots and I'm feeling really good and he's like, okay,
- 18:58Speaker 1: let's go fly. I'm like what You're like, I thought
- 19:00Speaker 1: we were having a picnic. Oh no, So you know,
- 19:02Speaker 1: we're pretty drunk, and a commander's drunk, and he's like
- 19:06Speaker 1: all right. So we take out a little flight plan
- 19:08Speaker 1: and we're kind of drawing what we're gonna do, and
- 19:11Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, this is great. Like I've never flown
- 19:13Speaker 1: in anything like this, and obviously I have an amazing pilot.
- 19:16Speaker 1: So let's do this. So we get in, we you know,
- 19:19Speaker 1: take off, and then I realized that, no, he wants
- 19:21Speaker 1: me to do the flight path. I've never I've never
- 19:25Speaker 1: flown a plane before. You know, he does it first,
- 19:28Speaker 1: and we're doing circles and flips. It's everything you see
- 19:31Speaker 1: in Top Gun. And now I realize, he's probably seeing
- 19:34Speaker 1: how I can handle this, to see how I would
- 19:36Speaker 1: freak out if I was calm enough to do this,
- 19:39Speaker 1: and I was. I was not worried at all. Never
- 19:42Speaker 1: dawned on me that this could be dangerous at all
- 19:44Speaker 1: because I thought I was in great hands, which I was.
- 19:48Speaker 1: But then when I took over, it was amazing. I mean,
- 19:50Speaker 1: I was doing all these flips and you know, you
- 19:52Speaker 1: see in the movie where they go all the way up,
- 19:54Speaker 1: then they cut the engine and then you fall down,
- 19:56Speaker 1: and then they cut it back on and then just
- 19:58Speaker 1: pull it up right above the tree line. We were
- 20:00Speaker 1: doing all of that and it was amazing, absolutely amazing.
- 20:04Speaker 1: But then you realize, wait a minute, he's drunk. This
- 20:08Speaker 1: guy is drunk, So you know, I definitely you know,
- 20:12Speaker 1: I knew the lever that I needed to pull in
- 20:13Speaker 1: case I needed to eject out of that thing. Let's
- 20:15Speaker 1: just say that. So you're getting closer and closer to
- 20:18Speaker 1: that October launch date. It's going to be you and
- 20:20Speaker 1: two other cosmonauts packed into this tiny soy Use capsule
- 20:24Speaker 1: and you were set to spend ten days in space
- 20:27Speaker 1: at the International Space Station. Yeah, what was your role
- 20:31Speaker 1: on the mission going to be? Although I was a
- 20:34Speaker 1: quote unquote space tourist, it wasn't tourism like we think today.
- 20:37Speaker 1: You know, when you go up, you float around, you
- 20:39Speaker 1: come back. Every cosmonaut on the soy is has a
- 20:42Speaker 1: job because there's no room for anything else. So me,
- 20:46Speaker 1: being in the left seat, I could reach buttons that
- 20:49Speaker 1: they couldn't reach. So I was in charge of a
- 20:52Speaker 1: lot of things that could easily ruin the mission or
- 20:55Speaker 1: kill my crew members. So you had to take it
- 20:57Speaker 1: very very seriously. And I could understand, coming from their
- 21:00Speaker 1: view if you thought that, oh my god, a freaking
- 21:04Speaker 1: pop star that's dumb as hell like is now in
- 21:06Speaker 1: charge of my oxygen like that, that can't feel very safe.
- 21:10Speaker 1: It was your job to be the oxygen guy. Yeah, yeah,
- 21:13Speaker 1: So part of my job was making sure that the
- 21:15Speaker 1: oxygen was working right. You know. That was a lot
- 21:18Speaker 1: to put on your shoulders, because that's very very important.
- 21:21Speaker 1: Oxygen is very important for a mission like that. But
- 21:24Speaker 1: I think once we had trained together, they saw how
- 21:26Speaker 1: serious I was about all of this, and I learned
- 21:29Speaker 1: very quickly. What was that like for you? Kind of
- 21:32Speaker 1: knowing that all these people underestimated you, you know they
- 21:36Speaker 1: were they were kind of going like, ah, this guy,
- 21:38Speaker 1: we gotta go with the Like how did that feel?
- 21:41Speaker 1: It didn't feel much different from my real life. I've
- 21:43Speaker 1: always been underestimated my entire life. I was always the
- 21:47Speaker 1: shortest kid. I was always like the low, total pole person.
- 21:50Speaker 1: So I always loved proving people wrong and I got
- 21:53Speaker 1: that a lot within sync. When we came out. We
- 21:56Speaker 1: were so underestimated and made fun of and no one
- 21:59Speaker 1: took a seriously and we just had to prove ourselves
- 22:01Speaker 1: by being who we were. I want to shift gears
- 22:04Speaker 1: a little bit. At this point two thousand and two,
- 22:08Speaker 1: you were not out of the closet yet you were
- 22:11Speaker 1: hiding your sexuality even in the States. Yeah, and now
- 22:15Speaker 1: you're you were in Russia, where attitudes are you know,
- 22:19Speaker 1: a lot more conservative and where being gay could be
- 22:22Speaker 1: potentially quite dangerous, and to dial back a little bit.
- 22:27Speaker 1: I want to talk about an experience that you had
- 22:29Speaker 1: before the training began as part of the medical tests. Yeah,
- 22:33Speaker 1: you flew to Russia and you had to have a colonoscopy.
- 22:37Speaker 1: What happened? How did that go? Yeah? That was an
- 22:40Speaker 1: eye opening moment. You know, I'd been used to hide
- 22:43Speaker 1: myself my whole life, right, I mean, being gay in
- 22:45Speaker 1: the States still was not accepted very well, even in
- 22:48Speaker 1: two thousand and two. So my whole life, since I
- 22:51Speaker 1: was five, I knew I was gay, and I knew
- 22:53Speaker 1: I had to hide it, and very conflicted because I
- 22:55Speaker 1: grew up very religious, so I always thought there was
- 22:57Speaker 1: something wrong with me, and you know, I would never
- 22:59Speaker 1: act on it. But when I went to Russia, it
- 23:01Speaker 1: didn't even I didn't even think about that because I'd
- 23:04Speaker 1: already been living such a hidden life that I was
- 23:07Speaker 1: an expert at it, so there was no way they
- 23:09Speaker 1: were going to figure it out. But when I get
- 23:11Speaker 1: there and it's medical training towards the end, you have
- 23:14Speaker 1: to do a colonoscophy, and I didn't even know I
- 23:17Speaker 1: was going in for this procedure because they didn't tell
- 23:20Speaker 1: you anything. So they did the colonoscophy in front of
- 23:23Speaker 1: many people. My dad was there. Zero sedation. You just
- 23:26Speaker 1: kind of laid down, went to your side, and they
- 23:29Speaker 1: did it, and it hurt so much. You know, they
- 23:32Speaker 1: were pumping the air into your stomach and it felt
- 23:35Speaker 1: like there was someone like with a knife trying to
- 23:37Speaker 1: stab outside, you know, to get out of your stomach.
- 23:40Speaker 1: And I had some tears going down my face because
- 23:42Speaker 1: it was just it hurts so badly. And they were
- 23:44Speaker 1: just laughing, like the doctors were laughing, My translator was laughing,
- 23:49Speaker 1: and I'm looking at my dad. I'm like, so, what's funny?
- 23:51Speaker 1: And then finally someone's like, oh, They're like, well, we
- 23:54Speaker 1: now know that you're not gay, and I was like, oh, okay.
- 23:59Speaker 1: And it was just such a joke, right, And and
- 24:02Speaker 1: I'd heard several things throughout my training about gay people,
- 24:05Speaker 1: right and making fun of gay people because it was
- 24:08Speaker 1: such a macho atmosphere in this Cosmaut training, and you
- 24:11Speaker 1: just kind of had to laugh along with them. But
- 24:13Speaker 1: I knew then, like, WHOA, I need to really watch
- 24:17Speaker 1: what I say. So I was very quiet the rest
- 24:20Speaker 1: of that training that that sounds awful, and it gives
- 24:25Speaker 1: you kind of some insight into how pervasive and casual
- 24:28Speaker 1: homophobia was in Russia, I mean is even more so
- 24:31Speaker 1: probably today. But did that experience with the kolonoscopy did
- 24:34Speaker 1: that put you off going? Did it make you reconsider? No,
- 24:38Speaker 1: it never made me reconsider. I just thought, I mean,
- 24:41Speaker 1: that's that's just part of it, and that's just what
- 24:43Speaker 1: you had to do. You had to sacrifice a lot,
- 24:45Speaker 1: and I was I was ready for that sacrifice. And
- 24:48Speaker 1: so this this obviously happened before before the training, before
- 24:52Speaker 1: you moved to Russia, right you once you'd arrived, once
- 24:56Speaker 1: you were living in Russia. How much was the kind
- 24:59Speaker 1: of homophobia and hiding your sexuality, how much was that
- 25:02Speaker 1: part of your day to day? How much were you
- 25:04Speaker 1: thinking about that? You know, it definitely ran through my
- 25:08Speaker 1: mind every day I was there. I in fact had
- 25:11Speaker 1: been you know, it was the first time that I
- 25:13Speaker 1: had met someone, so I had already kind of started
- 25:17Speaker 1: talking to someone and having a little relationship. So this
- 25:19Speaker 1: is the first time I'd ever acted on something like this,
- 25:23Speaker 1: and I knew that couldn't be found out. And I thought, Okay,
- 25:26Speaker 1: can't call this guy, can't email this guy nothing. As
- 25:29Speaker 1: long as I'm there, there's no way I can communicate
- 25:31Speaker 1: because they're going to be watching what I write and
- 25:33Speaker 1: listening to every phone call that I have. But other
- 25:36Speaker 1: than that, I didn't feel in danger at all because
- 25:39Speaker 1: one I was stuck on a military base, so there's
- 25:41Speaker 1: no way they were going to find out that I
- 25:43Speaker 1: was gay. I didn't have any information out there that
- 25:46Speaker 1: you could find to confirm that. And throughout the training,
- 25:50Speaker 1: you know, it's just it's a boys club, it really is.
- 25:52Speaker 1: At the end of certain classes and you have like
- 25:54Speaker 1: an hour you would go sit in the big sauna
- 25:57Speaker 1: where they kind of take branches and kind of beat
- 25:59Speaker 1: each other. They're with and you're drinking vodka, and it's
- 26:01Speaker 1: just kind of this it's a it's a bonding time
- 26:04Speaker 1: with your crew, with your professors. It's just the time
- 26:07Speaker 1: that the boys bond. And in those bonding times, people
- 26:10Speaker 1: are telling jokes and stories and laughing, and a lot
- 26:14Speaker 1: of the times the butt of the joke would be
- 26:16Speaker 1: being gay, you know, and I haven't just have to
- 26:19Speaker 1: laugh along with it. So Lance, you're in the middle
- 26:36Speaker 1: of this very hectic training schedule, You're you're hyper focused,
- 26:41Speaker 1: you're eating too many cucumbers than you'd like to be eating.
- 26:44Speaker 1: But kind of in the background, of all of this,
- 26:46Speaker 1: there are some financial issues with the project. What was
- 26:50Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes. What was going on behind
- 26:53Speaker 1: the scenes is still somewhat a mystery to me because
- 26:56Speaker 1: I don't know how much truth I was being told.
- 26:59Speaker 1: But what I from my view, this is what happened.
- 27:02Speaker 1: So I went there with this company that wanted to,
- 27:04Speaker 1: you know, send the youngest person to space. And it
- 27:06Speaker 1: was going to be a part of this television show
- 27:09Speaker 1: called Mission Space. And they wanted their host, which I
- 27:11Speaker 1: was going to host the show, to have gone through
- 27:14Speaker 1: the training and gone to space because the winner of
- 27:17Speaker 1: the show does the exact same thing, goes into Russian
- 27:20Speaker 1: training and gets sent off to the ISS. And it
- 27:22Speaker 1: was going to be a CBS show in America. And
- 27:24Speaker 1: then that's when they shipped me to Russia. And I
- 27:27Speaker 1: just started training and again cut off from the world.
- 27:30Speaker 1: So I was, you know, I was doing the cosmonaut thing,
- 27:32Speaker 1: but entertainment they were doing their own thing. And I
- 27:35Speaker 1: guess Russia and Hollywood don't really get along because Russia
- 27:39Speaker 1: is all about the contract. You know, It's like this
- 27:40Speaker 1: is how it is and this is how it's going
- 27:42Speaker 1: to go. And you know, Hollywood can be just very wishy,
- 27:45Speaker 1: washy and shady, and I think that's what went down
- 27:48Speaker 1: because Alexander Duretchen, who was the head of Anergia, which
- 27:52Speaker 1: is you know, their Boeing and basically runs the Russian
- 27:55Speaker 1: Space Agency, brought me into his office and he said, look,
- 27:58Speaker 1: your name is not in this track at all with
- 28:01Speaker 1: CBS or anything. And that was the first Time'm like, well,
- 28:04Speaker 1: well then why am I here then? And I just
- 28:07Speaker 1: I still couldn't figure out why they would send me there,
- 28:10Speaker 1: knowing that they were going to sandbag my flight anyway.
- 28:14Speaker 1: But it pissed off a Nargia so much that they
- 28:17Speaker 1: ripped the contract up and said, we're not working with y'all.
- 28:20Speaker 1: And that's when they kicked me out of my first time.
- 28:23Speaker 1: They kicked me out of the training facility and I
- 28:24Speaker 1: had to go to Moscow. So you got kicked out
- 28:27Speaker 1: and you just went to Moscow? Yeah, I had to
- 28:31Speaker 1: sit in Moscow for a weekend until they figured something
- 28:33Speaker 1: out because they ripped the contract out and there was
- 28:35Speaker 1: no reason I should be there because without that contract,
- 28:39Speaker 1: no one was paying for me to be there. I mean,
- 28:40Speaker 1: I was pissed. I was pissed at my agents. I
- 28:43Speaker 1: was pissed at CBS. I mean, I'm here in good
- 28:46Speaker 1: faith doing this and putting my ass on the line,
- 28:49Speaker 1: being tortured every day, and here you are kind of
- 28:52Speaker 1: like playing with my life. And again, I don't know
- 28:54Speaker 1: exactly what went down, but all I know is that
- 28:58Speaker 1: part of the mission was canceled. It was done, and
- 29:00Speaker 1: there was no TV show that I was hosting and
- 29:03Speaker 1: all that. But immediately MTV popped on board and they
- 29:07Speaker 1: knew it. We had already been shooting some stuff, so
- 29:08Speaker 1: they're like, well, we'll just do an MTV doc on
- 29:10Speaker 1: this because it's still the youngest person to go to
- 29:12Speaker 1: space as a musician. So they kind of picked it
- 29:15Speaker 1: up immediately and we just continued that next week and
- 29:18Speaker 1: they were on the line to pay for this. But
- 29:20Speaker 1: then I went in for a few more months, finishing
- 29:23Speaker 1: the training, and then it was I guess September, right
- 29:27Speaker 1: before my launch or maybe early October, and apparently they
- 29:31Speaker 1: couldn't get the funding they needed right before the mission
- 29:33Speaker 1: because no one would cover a cosmonaut with insurance. That's
- 29:37Speaker 1: crazy that that wasn't sorted out before ying. Yeah, yeah,
- 29:44Speaker 1: so you know, no one would fund a mission that
- 29:46Speaker 1: can't be insured. No production can go ahead without it
- 29:49Speaker 1: being insured. So that was the reasoning they said, we
- 29:53Speaker 1: can't go further because we can't ensure you. And that
- 29:56Speaker 1: was two or three weeks before my launch, and that's
- 29:59Speaker 1: when I found out that my mission was canceled because
- 30:03Speaker 1: of insurance. And it broke my heart. You know, I
- 30:06Speaker 1: couldn't believe that I was two weeks short of getting
- 30:09Speaker 1: my certification. I had gone this far, and I'm like,
- 30:11Speaker 1: are you kidding me? Like I did all this for nothing? Yeah,
- 30:15Speaker 1: but how did it feel for you? Like the moment
- 30:18Speaker 1: you found out it definitely wasn't happening. It was a
- 30:21Speaker 1: dark moment in my life. You know, it was very depressing,
- 30:25Speaker 1: and I feel like I feel like I still have
- 30:27Speaker 1: a lot of depression over it because you worked so
- 30:29Speaker 1: hard on something and just because of, you know, a
- 30:32Speaker 1: couple of stupid people, it's just kind of pulled away
- 30:34Speaker 1: from you and they don't even care. They're like, oh, well,
- 30:36Speaker 1: that's not my problem anymore. Next you just kind of
- 30:39Speaker 1: felt thrown away. But then Russia said, well, if you
- 30:42Speaker 1: want to finish the course, which is two more weeks,
- 30:45Speaker 1: we'll let you finish it so you can get certified.
- 30:47Speaker 1: So that you can go in case you can work
- 30:49Speaker 1: this out in the future. You know, you can finish
- 30:51Speaker 1: out this training, but you'd have to pay a million dollars.
- 30:54Speaker 1: A million dollars. Yeah, so I had to decide if
- 30:57Speaker 1: I was going to pay a million dollars out of
- 31:00Speaker 1: my own pocket to finish the damn two weeks training
- 31:03Speaker 1: just so I can be certified, just in case I
- 31:05Speaker 1: want to use it to fly to space in the future.
- 31:07Speaker 1: And I did, and I'm glad I did. I mean,
- 31:10Speaker 1: it sucked, but I needed that certification. You know, I
- 31:14Speaker 1: had to leave there with something positive. But yeah, a
- 31:17Speaker 1: million dollars to finish two weeks was a lot, but
- 31:20Speaker 1: you know, I cherished that certificate and maybe I will
- 31:23Speaker 1: go one day. What was it like for you to
- 31:26Speaker 1: go back to the US after all that training. I
- 31:29Speaker 1: had so many emotions about it. One, I couldn't wait
- 31:32Speaker 1: to get back to my home, my own bed, my family,
- 31:36Speaker 1: you know, my friends. You know. That excited me. I
- 31:38Speaker 1: needed that normalcy again. But then the other side of
- 31:42Speaker 1: me was embarrassed, embarrassed that I wasn't able to finish
- 31:47Speaker 1: this mission that I was so excited about that I
- 31:50Speaker 1: had completely stopped my life for that, I felt I
- 31:54Speaker 1: stopped my whole business for once I got back to America,
- 31:58Speaker 1: That's when I saw all the press about it. As
- 32:01Speaker 1: long as I was in Russia, I didn't see the news.
- 32:04Speaker 1: I didn't have a TV, I didn't read the papers,
- 32:06Speaker 1: so I didn't know it was such a big deal
- 32:09Speaker 1: me being over there in such a news story. So
- 32:11Speaker 1: I started seeing all the news stories about like how
- 32:14Speaker 1: it was a PR stunt, and then I wasn't really
- 32:17Speaker 1: over there, and then I get kicked out of Star
- 32:19Speaker 1: City and I mean, just really making me look like
- 32:22Speaker 1: an idiot. So you know, going back to that kind
- 32:24Speaker 1: of darkness, and it was very confusing time, but it
- 32:27Speaker 1: was life changing. How had you changed kind of physically
- 32:32Speaker 1: and emotionally after the training? How had it changed you?
- 32:36Speaker 1: I think it changed me a lot. I had the
- 32:39Speaker 1: best time. I would do it all over again, but
- 32:41Speaker 1: I definitely came back a little I don't know, just scared.
- 32:45Speaker 1: I guess. I don't know what it was, but I
- 32:47Speaker 1: definitely had changed. I got quieter, and I was already
- 32:50Speaker 1: a quiet guy, but I felt like I really kind
- 32:53Speaker 1: of stood back and I'm like, okay, everyone's really kind
- 32:55Speaker 1: of judging me at all times watching me at all times,
- 32:58Speaker 1: like I just felt like the Russians were always watching.
- 33:00Speaker 1: How do you feel now when you look back at
- 33:03Speaker 1: those crazy six months in Russia? I think it is
- 33:08Speaker 1: one of the best times I've ever had in my life.
- 33:10Speaker 1: Also one of the most devastating times of my life.
- 33:13Speaker 1: Every emotion comes out. It was just no one will
- 33:16Speaker 1: understand it, no one unless you went through it. You
- 33:19Speaker 1: just don't get it. You don't get the pressure that
- 33:21Speaker 1: was on you. You're raised thinking about a country a
- 33:24Speaker 1: certain way, with all the relations between both countries. Your
- 33:27Speaker 1: team America, right, and the Russians were the bad guys
- 33:30Speaker 1: for so long. But when you're there and you work
- 33:33Speaker 1: with these guys, it was amazing to see all these
- 33:35Speaker 1: countries working together, and all the bullshit that I had
- 33:40Speaker 1: always heard just kind of washed away, you know, And
- 33:43Speaker 1: I started understanding the Russians much better, and how they
- 33:47Speaker 1: looked at everything in their beliefs, and to see how
- 33:49Speaker 1: everyone really worked together and was such a team was
- 33:52Speaker 1: a beautiful thing. Space really brought so many people together.
- 33:56Speaker 1: So Putin invaded Ukraine last February. Relations between the West
- 34:02Speaker 1: and Russia are at their lowest since the Cold War.
- 34:06Speaker 1: At this point. Do you think you'll ever go back?
- 34:08Speaker 1: What would you like to I would love to go
- 34:11Speaker 1: back to Russia. I would love to finally get on
- 34:14Speaker 1: a mission, Soyer's mission, so I could go and train
- 34:17Speaker 1: a little bit more for that see a lot of
- 34:19Speaker 1: I'm sure there's so many of the same people still
- 34:21Speaker 1: working there. It was a special place for me and
- 34:24Speaker 1: I was so young, so I feel very connected to
- 34:27Speaker 1: Star City and everyone I worked with. I hope relations
- 34:30Speaker 1: get better. A lot of people that know that I'm
- 34:33Speaker 1: doing the last Soviet or like, are you sure this
- 34:35Speaker 1: is the right time to, you know, do a Russian story.
- 34:38Speaker 1: I'm like, well, this is the best time to do it.
- 34:41Speaker 1: It shows you a slice of life from Russia and
- 34:44Speaker 1: especially a time period where communism was falling. It's the
- 34:47Speaker 1: perfect time to relive that and study that and educate
- 34:50Speaker 1: yourself because what's going on now is not too different
- 34:52Speaker 1: from what is going on back then. And do you
- 34:56Speaker 1: think you'll still go to space someday? I don't know
- 34:59Speaker 1: if I'll ever end up in space, but I pray
- 35:02Speaker 1: that I do. I really do. I just think it's
- 35:05Speaker 1: one of those things that, you know, if I could
- 35:07Speaker 1: cross that off the list, I would feel very accomplished.
- 35:11Speaker 1: You know. I spent a lot of time training and
- 35:14Speaker 1: putting myself through a lot of misery to you know,
- 35:18Speaker 1: to get to the point where I could actually go,
- 35:20Speaker 1: and I am coming so close you just taste it.
- 35:23Speaker 1: I won't be fulfilled unless I'm able to make it.
- 35:26Speaker 1: It would be nice to just make it to Space. Fine,
- 35:29Speaker 1: but my goal I want to live on the ISS.
- 35:32Speaker 1: I want my ten days up there. I want to
- 35:35Speaker 1: do my studies. You know. I don't want to just
- 35:37Speaker 1: go up there and play around and float around and
- 35:39Speaker 1: oh this was fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just I
- 35:43Speaker 1: want to do something important and I want to, you know,
- 35:46Speaker 1: take it seriously. And so my hopes are still there
- 35:49Speaker 1: that one day this will happen. I can't believe it's
- 35:59Speaker 1: been over twenty years since those crazy six months and
- 36:02Speaker 1: I still can't get them out of my head. I mean,
- 36:05Speaker 1: Space just got under my skin and stayed there. No
- 36:09Speaker 1: matter what I get up to in life or where
- 36:11Speaker 1: I go, I can't shake its siren call. I mean, here,
- 36:15Speaker 1: I am hosting a whole podcast about it, and on that.
- 36:20Speaker 1: We're gonna leave my story for a bit now, and
- 36:22Speaker 1: we're back next week with Sarah Gays, So I'll talk
- 36:26Speaker 1: to you then. The Last Soviet is a Kaleidoscope production
- 36:48Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcast and Exile Media. Produced by
- 36:52Speaker 1: Sama's Dad Audio and hosted by Me Lance Bass Executive
- 36:58Speaker 1: produced by Kate Osborne and Mangesh Hada Kador with Oz
- 37:02Speaker 1: Wallisham and Kostas Linos from iHeart Executive Produced by Katrina
- 37:07Speaker 1: Norville and Nikki Ettore from Sama's Dad Audio our executive
- 37:12Speaker 1: producers or Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisitzina. Produced by Asia Fuchs,
- 37:17Speaker 1: Dasha Litzitzina and Joe Sykes. Writing by Lydia Marchant, Research
- 37:22Speaker 1: by Mika Golubovski and Molly Schwartz, Music by Will Epstein,
- 37:28Speaker 1: Themed by Martin or String mixing and sound design by
- 37:31Speaker 1: Richard Ward and special thanks to Nando via Well, Lissa Pollock,
- 37:36Speaker 1: Will Pearson, Connel Byrne, Bob Pittman, and Isaac Lee. If
- 37:41Speaker 1: you want to hear more shows like this, nothing is
- 37:43Speaker 1: more important to the creators here at Kaleidoscope than subscribers, ratings,
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