Hi, and welcome to the A16Z podcast. Today's episode is based on an event with Dr. Christine Darden,

one of the mathematicians' hidden figures was based on, in conversation with general partner Jeff

Jordan about her career and experience at NASA and all the secrets of the sonic boom.

You were galvanized by Sputnik. I think it was at 1957?

Yes, I was a senior in high school when Sputnik went up.

And my job at high school was to collect the morning newspaper and put it on the spindle

in the library. And I remember the day I went out and saw the headline of Sputnik.

And so I can just remember what happened to the whole country after that.

All of us had gone through drills of hiding under our chairs at school because we were afraid of

the Russians dropping a bomb. The guy says they're up there and they'll be flying a bomb over us.

We were all worried about that. And so the schools were galvanized.

The students were encouraged to go into STEM courses and take them.

Our yearbook had a solar system theme, and we did all of that because of Sputnik going up.

And so it was very much so.

And did that influence what you studied in college?

Well, not necessarily the Sputnik. I happen to have a geometry teacher that just made me fall in

love with geometry and math. And so that sort of sealed the deal that I wanted to go toward the math

and physical sciences rather

than biological sciences. And that affected my decision to go into math and physics.

And then with that, you were kind of, it sounded like you were on a path to become a teacher,

and then you got diverted by a... Well, I was on the path to become a teacher.

I wanted to do what we said, get a general studies job in math, but my father said,

...