Episode 85: Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock
Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Kat Rulach
4.8 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2023
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist and science communicator and presenter of The Sky at Night and the BBC's GCSE Science Live! lectures. She also presented the series Out of this World, on CBBC during lockdown with her daughter, Lauren, now 11.
Maggie had her daughter when she was 42 and carried on doing science talks around the world, often with her little girl on stage with her, for the first 4 years of Lauren's life. I particularly marvelled at the Royal Institute lecture I found on YouTube of Maggie tackling the subject of Careers in Science while Lauren sat happily in a sling on her hip, occasionally chewing a microphone cover or snuggling into her mum, while Maggie did the ultimate 'spinning plates' of continuing to deliver her science lecture.
She has had a lifelong desire to get into space, something that has spurred her on through A levels, University and her career in space science, including working on the detection of landmines and on the James Webb telescope.
It was fascinating talking to Maggie about her childhood including coping with dyslexia and going to 13 different schools in 14 years during her parents turbulent divorce.
Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones
We had a lot of giggles, as well as touching on some incredibly mighty subjects...you know, life, the universe and everything! I loved hearing about the scale of the universe; what might be out there still to be discovered; and how Maggie is hoping the current 'Battle of the Billionaires' to get into space might help her and her daughter fulfill their dream of space travel at last.
Maggie's enthusiasm and glass-half-full attitude is catching! I came away thinking about aliens, white guys in togas, and wanting to eat a lot more toast! And, at last, I think I've met someone who talks as fast as me!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Sophia Lusbexter and welcome to Spinning Plates, the podcast where I speak to |
| 0:09.6 | to busy working women who also happen to be mothers about how they make it work. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm a singer and I've released seven albums in between having my five sons aged 16 months to 16 years, |
| 0:20.2 | so I spin a few plates myself. |
| 0:22.3 | Being a mother can be the most amazing thing, |
| 0:24.9 | but can also be hard to find time for yourself |
| 0:26.8 | and your own ambitions. |
| 0:28.3 | I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. |
| 0:32.0 | Welcome to spinning plates. |
| 0:35.5 | Hey, hey, how have you been? Greetings from the land of the weekend. As I speak to you, it's a Saturday afternoon. And it's been quite nice. I've actually felt quite productive. Richard is away. He's been away all week away with his band doing some recording. |
| 0:57.0 | And sometimes when you get to the weekend and you've got lots of kids, it can feel a bit daunting |
| 1:04.0 | because you think, oh, what am I going to do with them all? But we've had a pretty good day, actually, |
| 1:10.0 | managed to get a couple of haircuts done not by me took them somewhere and um my youngest had a little football thing this morning and then there was a soft play moment and I managed to get my favorite coffee my favorite local local coffee, and yeah, a few other bits and |
| 1:28.7 | bulbs. So, you know, it's been a nice day of pottering, and then tomorrow we're going to go to |
| 1:33.8 | cinema for my mum. So quite a nice little weekend, really. And then Richard's home tomorrow |
| 1:39.2 | night, which will be lovely. And this week's been super quiet. I managed to, I've only been out one night actually. |
| 1:48.0 | I went to Dublin for a gig. |
| 1:53.0 | Oh, and the last time I was speaking to you last weekend, |
| 1:56.0 | I just got to the airport, hadn't I, and I was going away with my mum. |
| 1:59.0 | That was really nice. I have to say, oh my gosh, that part of Scotland, so flipping, beautiful. And we've got like the best weather |
| 2:05.8 | ever. So we went on a very, very long sort of three and a half hour walk, my mom and I. And it was |
| 2:12.3 | absolutely stunning. So if you get a chance to go up that way, it was like an hour and a half from |
... |
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