Why Kids Don’t Want to Be Astronauts Anymore | NASA Astronaut Terry Virts & Ryan Holiday
The Daily Dad
Daily Dad
4.6 • 630 Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Remember when every kid wanted to be an astronaut? Not so much anymore. Today, Ryan talks with former NASA astronaut Terry Virts about why that dream has faded, how we can get kids excited about adventure again, and why critical thinking might be the most important skill for the next generation.
At 17, Terry Virts joined the Air Force and went on to become an F-16 fighter pilot and test pilot. He has flown combat missions over Iraq, tested the world’s fastest jets and commanded the International Space Station. He’s orbited Earth 3,400 times and has spent 213 days in space total. His military decorations include the NASA Space Flight Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Aerial Achievement Medal, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, et al. He retired from NASA in August 2016 and is currently running for U.S. Senate from Texas.
Follow Terry on Instagram @Astro_Terry and you can learn more about his campaign at https://www.terryvirts.com/
🎥 Watch Terry Virts' full episode on The Daily Stoic Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DulrZh0wdA0
🎙️ Listen to Terry Virts' full episode on The Daily Stoic Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts
📕 Grab signed copies of How to Astronaut: An Insider’s Guide To Leaving Planet Earth by Terry Virts at The Painted Porch: https://www.thepaintedporch.com/
📖 Preorder the final book in Ryan Holiday's The Stoic Virtues Series: "Wisdom Takes Work": https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work
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Transcript
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| 0:32.6 | Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Dad podcast, where on the weekends, we do a deeper dive |
| 0:38.5 | and how to get better at our most important job, being a parent. Sometimes in these episodes, |
| 0:43.8 | I talk to best-selling authors and elite performers and other guests, but lately I've also been |
| 0:48.7 | having conversations with my wife, Samantha, the co-parent of my two boys. We do it over in the Daily Stoic studio here in Bastrop, Texas. |
| 0:57.6 | She and I talk about things that we're working on as parents, things that we're working on |
| 1:01.9 | as people, and how we are supporting each other, challenging each other, and like I said, |
| 1:09.8 | trying to get better at what we do. |
| 1:11.7 | Guest or not, I hope you hear some ideas here that will help make you a better parent. |
| 1:17.2 | I was better for having the conversation. |
| 1:19.0 | I hope you enjoy. |
| 1:24.3 | In the new wisdom book, I tell this story about the Wright brothers, how their mother never got rid of any of the projects they were working on. |
| 1:32.6 | She always just put it on a special shelf in the house. |
| 1:36.0 | I love that, right? |
| 1:37.1 | That's how you encourage your kids' curiosity. |
| 1:40.9 | Look, none of us want our kids to be spending a ton of time on screens, but you got to come up |
| 1:45.5 | with something for them to do instead. That's why I love our KiwiCo subscription and sit them down |
| 1:52.8 | with a KiwiCo box, and then we have something to do together. KiwiCo kits encourage kids to be |
| 1:59.4 | creative, bold, curious, and persistent through hands-on play and projects. |
| 2:03.9 | And kids can discover that they have what it takes to build and innovate. |
| 2:07.3 | Plus, you can spend quality time together doing things in real life. |
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