A Heart for Space: the Origin Story

It's one thing to want to become a doctor, some may say it's difficult and it was, but it was a defined route. It's also difficult to become an astronaut, and I would say arguably more difficult because there is no defined path on how I could do that. Welcome to a heart for space. I am your host, Dr. Imajahunger. Join me as we uncover what it takes to reach beyond the limits of what we think is possible and turn the biggest dreams into tangible reality. Welcome to the very first episode of a heart for space, the podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Imajahunger, and today is not going to be like any other episode in the future. Today I'm here by myself. I don't have a guest. I don't have someone to go back and forth, but I figured for the first episode I could introduce myself to you and tell you why I'm doing this podcast. So for those of you who don't know me, I'm a cardiologist, I deal with patients who are having chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or other types of therapies for their cancer, and I see them when they're having cardiac issues. So first and foremost, that's what I do on a day-to-day basis. That's my job. It's my first love, and it's one of my passions. Second, I'm the 704th person to ever go to space, lying on a blue-orgin new shepherd rocket back in August 2024. Now the dream of becoming a space traveler and astronaut goes way back. In fact, in 2009 and in 2013, I was a finalist for the astronaut candidate position, meaning from upwards of 3,700 to 6,000 applicants, it got down to about 60, and I was one of those 60 people two times. Now I didn't get picked. That was a bummer, but I did eventually find my way to space. And I could also meet super cool people like Christina Cook, who just returned from the moon. I'm also a father. I have two kids, and I'm a keynote speaker and author. Honestly, ever since my flight back in August of 2024, I've been going around schools talking to people. I've been talking to elementary school kids, middle school kids, high school kids, college kids, and I've been talking at corporate companies too, cheering my story of chasing two hard dreams. It's one thing to want to become a doctor. Some may say it's difficult, and it was, but it was a defined route. Go to school, learn science, do research, and move forward. It's also difficult to become an astronaut. And I would say arguably more difficult, because there is no defined path on how I could do that. I didn't know how I was going to get from point A to point B, especially when I was little, growing up here in Nashville, Tennessee. But the story I share is one of perseverance, one of resilience, and one of finally achieving that dream. So, as I've talked to people all over the country and actually the world, they've shared with me their stories, some are chasing their dreams, some have barely begun. But what it made me realize is that there are a lot of individuals out there that could share their story, their road, their path to success, would not just me, but you. And that is why I started this podcast, a heart for space. In this podcast, we explore the journey of those who push beyond their conventional limits to inspire you to pursue your own extraordinary dream. That's why we're here. And in this group, we have a lot of amazing people. Of course, we have doctors. Of course, we have astronauts, both from NASA and also commercial space companies. But we also have a World Record Champion, a Guinness Book of World Record, Strong Man. We also have people who do amazing things and run two careers, similar to myself. And so I'm really excited to share with you all over the next few weeks, months, years, the stories of all of these extraordinarily successful and accomplished people. And you might ask, well, that's great. I look forward to hearing this, but why are you writing a book, isn't the podcast enough? And it's a good question. You know, writing a book is not an easy feat. Writing your story down on paper sometimes can be difficult, you know, because you have to revisit parts of your life. And then asking other people to do the same and share their story was also a challenge. But I knew writing a book was important because it allowed me to reach more people. If I'm going around and talking to individuals at conferences and schools, I'm limited by my time, the days of the week, and the ability to travel. By doing this podcast, I'm able to expand my mission and my story to more people. And so thank you for joining me here today. And by writing a book, I may reach people that I would never have otherwise. I think the beauty of a book is it's something that can end up in a library. They can be free to find. It can end up in a little library, which actually have a goal of taking some of my books and putting them in different places. And also, it's just a way to preserve my story along with others and hopefully inspire you to pursue your dreams. So you might be wondering, who are these other people in my book? Well, I have a group of eight astronauts to share their story, including Jared Isaacman, the current NASA administrator, Siam Proctor, the pilot of the Inspiration for Mission, Chris Huey, an aerospace engineer who flew with Virgin, Aiton Stibb, who flew on the first action mission to the space station, Kelly Girardi, a member of IIS and one of the people in the all women's research group that's going to fly on Virgin Galactic again in the upcoming future. Haley Arseneau, the youngest person to go to orbit at the time of her flight and a very motivational individual who's not only a cancer survivor, but takes care of children with cancer at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. Nicole Stott, a retired NASA astronaut and an amazing artist, and Dr. Drew Gaffney, who is my mentor, who's a cardiologist and flew with the shuttle back in the 1990s. So by taking my story, including the story of these eight amazing individuals and giving you definable how to steps, a heart for space is going to help you achieve what you want to do. And I thought it might be helpful to read a little excerpt of the book while I have here. This comes from chapter one and the chapter is titled Missiles to Rockets Define Your Dream to Make It Real. And my goal at this book was always to make it something that everyone could use, whether you're in middle school or high school or college, whether you're in your 20s just starting your career in your 30s figuring out what's next in your 40s starting to burn out or even in your 50s and 60s and wanting to pursue that next big, great goal in your life. Okay, so I'm going to read an excerpt here. My earliest memories from Iran are playing in my Pinocchio tent with my brother and rushing to the basement shelter when the bombs iron went off. It was 1984. We lived in Tehran and Iran had been in war with Iraq for three years, my whole life at that time. I saw the skies as a place of terror, looking up did not inspire a wondrous, pleasant feeling. It was scary, particularly when the sirens went off. At that time in my life, I did not know humans went to space or that rockets were used to take us there. I just knew fear, the fear of a kid growing up in a country at war and scary as it was for us kids, who's far scarier for my parents. Not only had they lived in a country at war for years with no end in sight, but they also had seen their country transform from a secular pro-Western monarchy to an Islamic theocracy. So much had changed in just a few short years. These there were obvious like my teenage cousins going from wearing bikinis to burkas at the beach and ways they were subtle, like seeing friends and families leave for the United States and Europe as the grips of the Islamic Republic took hold of the society. Neither of my parents had ever imagined in 1978 before the Islamic Revolution how upside down their world turned by the early 1980s. The hopes and dreams my parents had for themselves and their children were fading in this new reality. Even the opportunities were fading, a country once open to a Western world was now isolated, more each day due to the policies of a few in power. Their prosperity of both Iran and my parents had seen in the 1970s was being quickly turned into a desert of despair in the new Islamic Republic. While they remained comfortable due to my father's profession as a physician and professor at a local university, they realized this was no place to raise their children. The future they saw for their two sons was quickly turning into a nightmare. They made the hard choice to leave their home, their professions and their friends, to give my brother and me a brighter future in Tennessee. They sacrificed so that we could prosper. Luckily my parents did not need to sneak out of Iran as in the movie Argo. They traveled from Iran through Europe and finally landed in Nashville in September 1984. My parents decided to move there of all places because we had aunts and uncles that had already immigrated to US. They were living in Nashville with a small but growing community of Iranian expatriates and I remember stepping off that plane and being greeted at the terminal by my cousins aunts and uncles. Joy on their faces and a sense of new beginning for us, with one fight, everything had changed. All right, there you have it. So thank you for joining me today on the first episode of a heart for space podcast. I promise there's going to be more interesting things to come, a lot of amazing guests. I'm really excited about the people we've got scheduled to join us here on this podcast. And so if you're interested in learning more, if you're interested in, you know, pursuing that dream that you've been holding on to for all these years, then please subscribe below and I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you for listening to a heart for space. If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to follow the show so you never miss an episode and consider leaving us a review to let us know your thoughts. For more on my work in the pursuit of ambitious goals, visit a heart for space.com and look out for my upcoming book, our heart for space. Until next time, I'm Dr. Emanja Hunger and remember, sometimes the only obstacle to achieving an impossible dream is the courage to keep going.