9. Reading, Rockets, and 'Rithmetic

Freakonomics Radio

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Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2010

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

Government and the private sector often feel far apart. One is filled with compliance-driven bureaucracy. The other, with market-fueled innovation. But something is changing in a multi-billion dollar corner of the Department of Education. It's an experiment, which takes cues from the likes of Google and millionaires who hope to go to the moon.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, since my childhood, I wanted to fly into space.
0:04.9	It was my mission, my passion, my drive, and it was something that I got stirred up in
0:10.6	me during the Apollo program.
0:12.0	What year were you born?
0:13.0	Well, so I was born in 61, and you know Apollo was going on in the late 60s, we landed
0:18.5	on 69, and you know I was in the 5th grade, 6th grade, getting interested in science during
0:24.3	that time, and I started drawing rockets on every piece of paper I could find.
0:29.8	I was, you know, an early space cadet, and it was different for me.
0:33.9	It wasn't just interested.
0:35.2	It was, you know, we have a calling in life, that was my calling.
0:38.8	You must have felt that you were born at just the right time initially, right?
0:42.4	You're a kid, this is starting up here, it's only going to get bigger and better, and
0:45.5	then what happened?
0:46.6	And then the bottom fell out, and you know, we got to the moon, and then it stopped, and
0:51.4	I was decimated by that.
0:53.4	You know, I used to, that old biblical saying, the meek shall inherit the earth, I used
0:56.9	to finish that by saying the rest of us are going to the stars, and we didn't.
1:02.0	Meet Peter Diamandis.
1:03.8	He did get to launch a spaceship, but NASA didn't have anything to do with it.
1:07.7	You know, this space program fell away, and I was like, okay, so how am I going to make
1:11.7	this happen?
1:12.7	How am I going to go, and how is everybody else going to go with me?
	...

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