Today's storyteller is Dakota Hilliard! He's an undergraduate at the University of North Dakota here in the US, majoring in astrophysics and minoring in space studies! I asked Dakota to be on the podcast because his enthusiasm for space is infectious (in a good way) and I enjoy following him on Twitter, so I thought it would be fun! I know next to nothing about outer space or astrophysics or anything like that, so Dakota told me all about that. He's very interested in spaceflight and from following him on Twitter I learned there's waaaaay more rocket programs going on right now than I was aware of, so I asked him to teach me all about that. We also talk about extreme weather, like hurricanes and tornadoes, and chasing the aurora borealis.

Also I've had very few undergrads on the pod so far so that was an additional reason I invited Dakota on and also to prove that there's no gates round here - if you have something STEMM related you want to share no matter where you are in your education or career, let's talk! You can find how to contact me in the show notes. Anyway enjoy the episode!

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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.

You can find Dakota Hilliard on Twitter @ItsAstroKota and his book is Poems From a Stargazer.

Stennis Space Center in Mississippi: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/home/index.html

Book List: Poems From a Stargazer (Dakota's book), The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson, The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

Episodes referenced in this episode: "my friend Dave" is Dave Nussbaum (Episode 40)

Recorded on 17 January 2021.