Revisit: Turning Fear Into Focus with Christina Koch

We're revisiting Reshma’s conversation with astronaut Christina Koch to mark her historic Artemis II launch next week, a milestone moment for human spaceflight and a powerful reminder of what’s possible for women pushing boundaries at every stage of life.

Astronaut Christina Koch was about to go out on her first spacewalk, staring out into a “big gaping hole of blackness,” when her heart started racing. So she channeled that fear into focus – reminding herself of all the training she’s done to prepare her for this moment – and stepped out of the airlock. Christina tells Reshma all about the 328 days she spent in space (including the mundane chores astronauts have to do on board the International Space Station) and they discuss Christina’s next mission, Artemis II, which will venture around the moon in 2026. Plus, how NASA designed a training program for Christina that takes into account perimenopause. Follow Christina @astro_christina on Instagram. You can follow our host Reshma Saujani on Instagram at @reshmasaujani and on Substack. Stay up to date with Moms First (www.momsfirst.us) on Instagram at @momsfirstus and with Lemonada at @LemonadaMedia. Thanks so much for listening to My So-Called Midlife. If you haven’t yet, now is a great time to subscribe to Lemonada Premium. You’ll get ad-free episodes and bonus content like me and Emily Oster talking about her thoughts on how often you should have sex. Just hit the 'subscribe' button on Apple Podcasts, or, for all other podcast apps head to lemonadapremium.com to subscribe. Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: lemonadamedia.com/sponsors To follow along with a transcript, go to lemonadamedia.com/show/ shortly after the air date.

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