Pilot of Experimental Aircraft Asks ‘Why Fly?”

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Writer Caroline Paul learned to fly a Cessna when she was 20, a paraglider in her 30s, a motorized hang glider in her 40s, and then at 58 years old, as her marriage was dissolving, she took up the gyrocopter, an odd aircraft that resembles a tiny helicopter. “The reasons for this aren’t all mysterious. It’s easier to learn a landing than a human heart,” she writes in her new book “Why Fly: Seeking Awe Healing and Our True Selves in the Sky.” We talk to Paul about the history of flight, why it captivates us, and how she tried to pilot her way through heartbreak. Guests: Caroline Paul, pilot; author, "Why Fly: Seeking Awe, Healing, and Our True Selves in the Sky;" her most recent books include "Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking-How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age" and "The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for KQED Podcasts comes from the Exploratorium After Dark.
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0:15.9	Support for KQED podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport.
0:23.9	From Dragon Dance to Immersive Art, SFO is bringing Lunar New Year to the terminals with exciting performances by local artists. More at flysfo.com
0:31.7	slash celebrates. From KQED. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madreau.
0:40.6	I flew a plane once. I mean, I didn't take off or land, but journalist James Fallows and I flew up and over Appalachia for a magazine thing that we were working on.
0:50.5	After we'd seen the coal mines, we've gone up to shoot video of we headed back towards
0:55.2	Washington DC and he'd let me take the sticks for just a few minutes while he checked on a few
1:00.7	things I'd say it was thrilling there's the feel of the plane in the air or rather like on
1:08.5	the air because it actually felt like we were riding on top of it rather than
1:12.8	moving through it. But that was a relatively tame experience of flying relative to Caroline
1:19.0	Paul's. I returned to it over and over as I read her book, which is a love letter to the
1:23.6	operations and history of aviation and also to the feelings of the aviator.
1:29.9	The book is Why Fly, Seeking Aw, Healing, and Our True Sells in the Sky, and she joins us here this morning.
1:36.6	Welcome.
1:37.1	I'm so happy to be here, Alexis.
1:39.0	So the plane that I flew was kind of like an Audi.
1:41.8	Had leather seats, you know, there were screens and things.
1:45.2	It was very nice inside.
1:47.3	The whole plane has a parachute.
1:48.9	This is not what you do.
	...

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