It’s the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s incredible earth orbit, the first spaceflight with a human on board. In this episode, I talk to filmmaker and writer Stephen Walker about the daring launch that has charted a map to the skies and beyond. @sciam https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/first-in-space-new-yuri-gagarin-biography-shares-hidden-side-of-cosmonaut/

Listen to the podcast to find out what Yuri’s Gagarin’s raw impression of our pale blue dot is — his first words as he looked out of his capsule’s porthole and saw Earth from space — the first man ever to look down on our home from beyond the skies. Moving, poetic, historical.

I’ve done a few interviews recently after which I’ve felt, “I’m so lucky to be a journalist and to get to talk to this person.” This interview with Stephen Walker — an incredible storyteller and a meticulous researcher — was one of those.

Stephen tells Gagarin’s story like I’ve never heard it before, against the backdrop of an era that I’ve never lived through but at once felt connected to deeply, after reading an advance copy of his new book Beyond (out today @HarperCollins) and after talking to him.

Stephen collected revelatory accounts of eyewitnesses & ppl who knew Gagarin or were involved in the space mission that was kept a state secret until the moment of launch. He reconstructed this world for us, & told a very real & human story at the intersection of politics & tech.

Sorry, should’ve tagged you in this thread when the story/podcast came out yesterday @SWalkerBEYOND