An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change
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0:00 - 0:03[This talk contains mature content]
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0:05 - 0:09In 1969, I was standing behind
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0:09 - 0:12a Sylvania black-and-white television set.
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0:13 - 0:16Hearing about these things happening
on the set in the front, -
0:16 - 0:17I was the guy, you know,
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0:17 - 0:20moving the rabbit ears
for my dad, and my sister and my mom. -
0:20 - 0:24"Move over here, turn over here,
move this way, we can't see the screen." -
0:24 - 0:26And what they were watching
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0:26 - 0:32was: "One small step for a man,
one giant leap for mankind." -
0:32 - 0:35Neil [Armstrong] and Buzz Aldrin
were walking on the Moon. -
0:35 - 0:39And I was five years old
in Lynchburg, Virginia, -
0:39 - 0:42a skinny black kid
in a kind of somewhat racist town. -
0:43 - 0:47And I was trying to figure out
what I was going to do with my life. -
0:48 - 0:51And my parents, you know,
they were educators, -
0:51 - 0:53they'd said that you can do anything.
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0:53 - 0:56But after that moon landing,
all the kids in the neighborhood -
0:56 - 0:58were like, "You're going to be
an astronaut?" -
0:58 - 0:59I'm like, "No."
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1:00 - 1:03I don't want a buzz cut,
and I don't see someone who looks like me. -
1:03 - 1:04Because representation does matter.
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1:04 - 1:08And I knew that there was a guy
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1:08 - 1:11five blocks down the street
on Pierce Street -
1:11 - 1:14who was training to play tennis.
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1:14 - 1:15And it was Arthur Ashe.
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1:16 - 1:19And my dad talked
about his character, his discipline, -
1:19 - 1:21his intelligence, his athleticism.
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1:21 - 1:22I wanted to be Arthur Ashe,
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1:22 - 1:25I didn't want to be
one of those moon guys. -
1:25 - 1:30And as I went on through this journey,
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1:30 - 1:34my dad, who was a school teacher,
he played in a band, -
1:34 - 1:36he did all these things to make money
for my sister and I -
1:36 - 1:38to take piano lessons
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1:38 - 1:40and do these different things
with education. -
1:40 - 1:46And he one day decides to drive up
into the driveway with this bread truck. -
1:46 - 1:50And I'm thinking, "OK, bread truck,
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1:50 - 1:53me delivering bread
while my dad's driving the truck." -
1:53 - 1:56I'm like, "OK, I'm going to be
a bread guy now." -
1:56 - 1:58But he says, "This is our camper."
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2:00 - 2:03I'm like, "Dude, come one, I can read:
'Merita Bread and Rolls' -
2:03 - 2:04on the side of this truck.
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2:04 - 2:08And he says, "No, we're going
to build this into our camper." -
2:09 - 2:13And over that summer, we rewired
the entire electrical system. -
2:13 - 2:16We plumbed a propane tank
to a Coleman stove, -
2:16 - 2:19we built bunk beds that flip down.
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2:19 - 2:24We were turning this into our summer
vacation launch pad, escape pod, -
2:24 - 2:27this thing that could
take us out of Lynchburg. -
2:28 - 2:30And before that,
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2:31 - 2:35I was actually raped at five
by some neighbors. -
2:37 - 2:39And I didn't tell anyone,
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2:39 - 2:42because I had friends
that didn't have fathers. -
2:43 - 2:45And I knew that my father
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2:45 - 2:48would have killed the people
that did that to his son. -
2:48 - 2:50And I didn't want my father to be gone.
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2:51 - 2:55So as we got in this bread truck
and escaped from Lynchburg, -
2:55 - 2:58it was my time with my dad.
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2:58 - 3:00And we went to the Smoky Mountains
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3:00 - 3:02and looked at the purple
mountains' majesty. -
3:02 - 3:05And we walked along the beach
in Myrtle Beach, -
3:05 - 3:08and this thing was transformative.
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3:08 - 3:12It showed me what it meant
to be an explorer, at a very early age. -
3:12 - 3:16And I suppressed all that negativity,
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3:16 - 3:17all that trauma,
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3:17 - 3:19because I was learning to be an explorer.
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3:20 - 3:23And a little bit later, my mother gave me
an age-inappropriate, -
3:23 - 3:25non-OSHA-certified chemistry set,
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3:25 - 3:26(Laughter)
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3:26 - 3:30where I created the most incredible
explosion in her living room. -
3:30 - 3:31(Laughter)
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3:31 - 3:33And so I knew I could be a chemist.
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3:33 - 3:35So as I went on this journey
through a high school, -
3:35 - 3:37and I went to college,
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3:37 - 3:40and I got a football scholarship
to play football in college. -
3:40 - 3:44And I knew that I could be a chemist,
because I'd already blown stuff up. -
3:44 - 3:45(Laughter)
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3:45 - 3:49And when I graduated,
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3:49 - 3:51I got drafted to the Detroit Lions.
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3:51 - 3:54But I pulled a hamstring in training camp,
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3:54 - 3:57and so what every former NFL player does,
they go work for NASA, right? -
3:57 - 3:58So I went to work for NASA.
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3:58 - 3:59(Laughter)
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3:59 - 4:02And this friend of mine said,
"Leland, you'd be great astronaut." -
4:02 - 4:05I just laughed at him,
I was like, "Yeah, me, an astronaut?" -
4:05 - 4:08You know that Neil and Buzz
thing from back in '69? -
4:08 - 4:10And he handed me an application,
and I looked at it, -
4:10 - 4:12and I didn't fill it out.
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4:12 - 4:17And that same year, another friend of mine
filled out the application -
4:17 - 4:18and he got in.
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4:18 - 4:20And I said to myself,
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4:21 - 4:24"If NASA's letting knuckleheads
like that be astronauts," -
4:24 - 4:25(Laughter)
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4:25 - 4:27"maybe I can be one, too."
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4:27 - 4:30So the next selection, I filled out
the application, and I got in. -
4:30 - 4:34And I didn't know
what it meant to be an astronaut: -
4:34 - 4:37the training, the simulations,
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4:37 - 4:40all these things to get you ready
for this countdown: -
4:40 - 4:42three, two, one, liftoff.
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4:42 - 4:48And in 2007, I was in Space Shuttle
"Atlantis," careening off the planet, -
4:48 - 4:51traveling at 17,500 miles per hour.
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4:52 - 4:54And eight and a half minutes later,
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4:54 - 4:57the main engines cut off,
and we're now floating in space. -
4:58 - 5:00And I push off
and float over to the window, -
5:00 - 5:03and I can see the Caribbean.
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5:03 - 5:06And I need new definitions of blue
to describe the colors that I see. -
5:07 - 5:11Azure, indigo, navy blue,
medium navy blue, turquoise -
5:11 - 5:14don't do any justice
to what I see with my eyes. -
5:14 - 5:17And my job on this mission was to install
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5:17 - 5:21this two-billion dollar
Columbus laboratory. -
5:21 - 5:23It was a research laboratory
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5:23 - 5:25for materials research,
for human research. -
5:26 - 5:29And I reached into the payload bay
of the space shuttle, -
5:29 - 5:32grabbed out this big module,
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5:32 - 5:35and I used the robotic arm
and I attached it to the space station. -
5:36 - 5:40And the European team have been waiting
10 years for this thing to get installed, -
5:40 - 5:44so I'm sure everyone in Europe was like,
"Leland! Leland! Leland!" -
5:44 - 5:46(Laughter)
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5:46 - 5:49And so this moment happened,
this was our primary mission objective, -
5:49 - 5:51it was done.
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5:51 - 5:54And I had this big sigh of relief.
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5:55 - 5:58But then, Peggy Whitson,
the first female commander, -
5:58 - 6:00she invited us over
to the Russian segment. -
6:00 - 6:03And the space station's
about the size of a football field, -
6:03 - 6:07with solar panel and trusses
and all of these modules. -
6:07 - 6:10And she says, "Leland, you go get
the rehydrated vegetables, -
6:11 - 6:12we have the meat."
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6:12 - 6:16So we float over with the bag
of vegetables, all rehydrated, -
6:16 - 6:17and we get there.
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6:17 - 6:19And there's this moment
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6:19 - 6:23where I get [transported]
back to my mother's kitchen. -
6:23 - 6:26You can smell the beef
and barley heating up, -
6:26 - 6:30you can smell the food, the colors,
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6:30 - 6:33and there are people there
from all around the world. -
6:33 - 6:34It's like a Benetton commercial,
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6:34 - 6:38you know, you have African American,
Asian American, French, German, Russian, -
6:38 - 6:39the first female commander,
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6:40 - 6:43breaking bread at 17,500 miles per hour,
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6:43 - 6:46going around the planet every 90 minutes,
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6:46 - 6:49seeing a sunrise and a sunset every 45.
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6:49 - 6:52And Peggy would say,
"Hey, Leland, try some of this," -
6:52 - 6:54and she'd float it over to my mouth,
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6:54 - 6:56and I'd catch it
and we'd go back and forth. -
6:56 - 7:01And we're doing all of this while
listening to Sade's "Smooth Operator." -
7:01 - 7:02(Laughter)
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7:02 - 7:04I mean, this is like
blowing my mind, you know. -
7:04 - 7:06(Laughter)
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7:06 - 7:09And I float over to the window,
and I look down at the planet, -
7:09 - 7:12and I see all of humanity.
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7:12 - 7:15And my perspective changes at that moment,
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7:15 - 7:18because, I'm flying over Lynchburg,
Virginia, my home town, -
7:18 - 7:20and my family's probably breaking bread.
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7:20 - 7:23And five minutes later,
we're flying over Paris, -
7:23 - 7:25where Leo Eyharts
is looking down at his parents, -
7:25 - 7:27probably having some wine and cheese,
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7:27 - 7:29and Yuri's looking off to Moscow,
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7:29 - 7:32and they're probably eating
borscht or something else. -
7:32 - 7:37But we're all having this moment
where we see our respective families -
7:37 - 7:41working together as one civilization,
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7:41 - 7:43at 17,500 miles per hour.
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7:44 - 7:47My perspective shifted cognitively,
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7:47 - 7:48it changed me.
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7:48 - 7:51And when I think about being
that little skinny boy, -
7:51 - 7:54from sometimes racist Lynchburg, Virginia,
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7:54 - 7:58I would never have had that perspective
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7:58 - 8:01to think about myself
of being an astronaut, -
8:01 - 8:05if my father hadn't taken us on a journey
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8:05 - 8:08in this radical craft that we built
with our own two hands. -
8:10 - 8:12When I came home,
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8:12 - 8:17I realized that perspective is something
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8:17 - 8:19that we all get and we all have.
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8:20 - 8:23It's just how far
do we open up our blinders -
8:23 - 8:25to see that shift and that change.
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8:26 - 8:28And going back to the space station,
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8:28 - 8:33I think of, you know, Germans
and Russians fighting Americans. -
8:33 - 8:36We have these people
living and working together. -
8:36 - 8:40White folks, black folks, Russian folks,
French folks, you know. -
8:40 - 8:46All these different people coexisting
in harmony as one race. -
8:47 - 8:51And I think about the colors that I saw,
the design of the modules, -
8:51 - 8:53the way that things fit together,
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8:53 - 8:56the way that it made us
a community, our home. -
8:57 - 9:02And so when I look up to space now,
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9:02 - 9:05and I have this newfound perspective
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9:05 - 9:09on the space station going overhead
and looking there, -
9:09 - 9:11and then looking back at my community
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9:11 - 9:14and seeing the people
that I'm living and working with, -
9:14 - 9:16and coexisting with,
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9:16 - 9:22I think it's something that we all
can do now, especially in these times, -
9:22 - 9:26to make sure that we have
the right perspective. -
9:26 - 9:28Thank you.
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9:28 - 9:32(Applause)
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9:32 - 9:36Chee Pearlman: If you don't mind,
could I just chat with you for a minute, -
9:36 - 9:38because they're going to set up
some things here. -
9:38 - 9:41And I get to have you all to myself, OK.
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9:41 - 9:42Leland Melvin: Alright.
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9:42 - 9:44CP: You guys don't get to hear this.
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9:44 - 9:46So I have to tell you
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9:46 - 9:51that in my family,
we watch a lot of space movies -
9:51 - 9:53about astronauts and stuff like that.
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9:53 - 9:55I can't tell you why, but we do.
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9:55 - 9:57(Laughter)
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9:58 - 10:00The thing that I wanted
to ask you, though, -
10:00 - 10:03is that we were seeing
this movie the other day, -
10:03 - 10:07and it was about one of the astronauts,
one of your colleagues, -
10:07 - 10:10and before he went up into space,
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10:10 - 10:14they actually wrote an obituary,
NASA wrote an obituary for him. -
10:15 - 10:17And I was like, is that normal?
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10:17 - 10:19And is that part of the job?
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10:19 - 10:24Do you think about that peril
that you're putting yourself in -
10:24 - 10:25as you go into space?
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10:26 - 10:27LM: Yeah.
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10:27 - 10:29So, I don't remember anyone
writing my obituary, -
10:29 - 10:32maybe that was an Apollo-day thing.
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10:32 - 10:36But I do know that in the 135
shuttle flights that we've had, -
10:36 - 10:39the shuttle that I flew on,
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10:39 - 10:43we had two accidents
that killed everyone on that mission. -
10:43 - 10:47And we all know the perils
and the risks that go along with this, -
10:47 - 10:49but we're doing something
that's much bigger than ourselves, -
10:49 - 10:51and helping advance civilization,
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10:51 - 10:54so the risk is worth the reward.
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10:55 - 10:57And we all feel that way
when we get into that vehicle -
10:57 - 11:02ans strap into those million pounds
of rocket fuel and go up to space. -
11:02 - 11:04CP: Yeah, I've only seen
the Hollywood version -- -
11:04 - 11:07it looks pretty terrifying,
I have to tell you. -
11:07 - 11:08LM: You should go.
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11:08 - 11:09(Laughter)
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11:09 - 11:12CP: Yeah, my husband's
told me that a few times. -
11:12 - 11:14(Laughter)
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11:14 - 11:16LM: One-way trip or two-way?
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11:16 - 11:17(Laughter)
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11:17 - 11:20CP: That’s a bit of a debate in our house.
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11:20 - 11:21(Laughter)
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11:21 - 11:25I wanted to, if I may ...
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11:26 - 11:31You did touch on something
that was very powerful and difficult, -
11:31 - 11:34which is, you spoke about this incident
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11:34 - 11:37that had happened to you
when you were five years old, -
11:37 - 11:38and that you were raped.
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11:38 - 11:41And I just think that
for you to be able to say those things, -
11:41 - 11:44you know, on the TED stage,
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11:44 - 11:46to be able to talk about that at all,
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11:46 - 11:48is pretty fearless.
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11:48 - 11:51And I wanted to get a sense from you,
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11:51 - 11:55is that something that you think
is important for you to share that now, -
11:55 - 11:57to speak about it?
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11:57 - 12:01LM: It's so important, especially for men,
to talk about things that have happened, -
12:01 - 12:03because we've been trained
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12:03 - 12:07and told by our society
that we have to be so tough and so hard -
12:07 - 12:10and we can't tell of things
that are happening to us. -
12:10 - 12:13But I've had so many men
contact me and tell me that, -
12:13 - 12:15"You came through that, you got over that,
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12:15 - 12:17I'm going to get over my alcoholism,"
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12:17 - 12:19and these things
that are going on in them, -
12:19 - 12:21because of what happened to them.
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12:21 - 12:24And so we must share these stories,
this is part of storytelling, -
12:24 - 12:27to heal us and to make us
whole as a community. -
12:27 - 12:29CP: That's wonderful.
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12:29 - 12:35(Applause)
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12:35 - 12:39And you know, quite honestly,
you spoke about perspective shift, -
12:39 - 12:43and that is a shift that I think
we've been very slow to accept -
12:43 - 12:47and to be able to speak about that,
so we thank you for that. -
12:47 - 12:50We thank you for being
the amazing astronaut that you are, -
12:50 - 12:53and thank you for coming
to the TED stage, Leland. -
12:53 - 12:54LM: Thank you so much, Chee.
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12:54 - 12:55(Applause)
- Title:
- An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change
- Speaker:
- Leland Melvin
- Description:
-
What job is best for a young man who's been a tennis ace, a cross-country traveler, a chemistry nerd and an NFL draftee? How about ... astronaut? Leland Melvin tells the story of the challenges he's accepted and the opportunities he's seized -- and how they led him to the International Space Station and a whole new perspective of life on earth.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:05
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | ||
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Brian Greene edited English subtitles for An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change |