Easier to Go to Mars

StoryCorps

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week: stories from people who dare to do things and go places few others would – from people who helped pave the way to outer space, to divers exploring ocean depths.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from NPR sponsor, Subaru, the largest corporate supporter of Adopticlassroom.org
0:06.9	by providing teachers with funding for supplies and resources. Subaru, more than a car company.
0:13.8	Hey, folks, this is Max Jung Rice from the StoryCorps podcast. Just want to remind you that you can tell us your personal stories by calling our voicemail at 702-706 talk this week we want you to tell us about a time you dared to do something no one else would do that's 702 706 t a lk it's the story core podcast from n NPR. I'm Jasmine Morris.
0:38.3	I actually never met your dad, my grandfather.
0:42.3	What was he like?
0:43.3	Tell me a little bit about your children.
0:45.3	What was your first impression when you came to America?
0:49.3	Every episode we're drawing on our archive,
0:51.3	the largest collection of human voices ever recorded,
0:55.2	to find the big moments hidden in ordinary lives. And today we're bringing you the voices of
0:59.8	adventurers and explorers, people who dared to go where few others would.
1:15.6	Up first, Iton Yates. His first job wasn't bagging groceries or delivering pizzas. He helped send humans into space.
1:22.5	In the mid-1950s, Elton was part of a small group of volunteers in the Air Force who tested the effects of high speeds
1:28.9	on the body. They were strapped to rocket-propelled sleds that shot down a track at more than 600
1:34.9	miles per hour. These experiments helped prove that space travel was safe for humans. At story,
1:41.7	Kora Elton told his daughter, Tony, how it all started for him in high school
1:45.3	shortly after his mother died. My dad was trying to raise the seven of us by himself, and I know that
1:53.2	as soon as I finished high school, I was going to have to help with taking care of the family.
1:58.2	How did you know he needed your help? Well, he came home from work,
2:01.7	and he rolled cigarettes, he roasted peanuts, and put them in little bags, and then he left
2:06.8	home immediately to sell those products. And I just couldn't stand to see him continue to do that.
2:14.1	There weren't any good paying jobs just out of high school, so I decided to join the Air Force.
	...

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