2022 Dragon Con Pre-Game Show Part 2: Matt Pieper and Dr. Shawn Cruzen

Dragon Con's 2022 non-profit partnership is with Open Hand Atlanta and executive director Matt Pieper talks with us about what Open Hand does with a "food is medicine" mentality. Then CSU's Coca-Cola Space Science Center executive director Dr. Shawn Cruzen talks with us about the role science fiction plays in inspiring scientists of tomorrow.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the dragon Con pregame showpowered by Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space
Science Center, where you can learnthe science behind the fiction. Joining us
now Executive director for open Hand Atlanta, Matt Piper Or welcome, Thank you,
West Glad to be here. Partneringwith dragon Con this year, I

(00:21):
know has helped raise awareness about yourorganization and what you do. For those
that are learning about open Hand forthe first time, tell us what your
organization's all about. Yeah, openHand is all about. Food is medicine.
We're trying to help people either preventor better manage chronic health conditions through
the right kind of nutrition. Everyday on our midtown Atlanta campus, we

(00:45):
cook up, package up, anddeliver five thousand healthy, delicious meals to
our neighbors in need all throughout metroAtlanta and many parts of rural Georgia.
So it's and these meals are notjust emails. These meals are made with
the highest quality ingredients, no preservatives, no canned goods. This is freshly

(01:07):
prepared, delicious meals are that weuse as a medical intervention. We're really
trying to help people who are facingcancer or HIV or obesity or diabetes,
or sometimes or heart disease, andsometimes many of our clients have multiple product
health conditions or are at risk forthese health conditions, and so we're trying

(01:30):
to provide them with the right kindof nutrition to brighten their lives and improve
their quality of life. And it'snot just the meals. We also do
nutrition counseling, so our registered dietitiansgo out there into the community and teach
people about the right kinds of foodsthey should be eating. And we even

(01:51):
do cooking classes and it really helpingpeople to understand the connection between healthy food
and good health outcomes. So it'sa noble mission. We've been around for
thirty three years doing about five thousandmeals a day, and we couldn't be
happier about dragon Con partnering with us. The partnership with dragon Con does mean

(02:14):
the financial support that comes with apartnership within They have always been an organization
that's about supporting nonprofits, not justan Atlanta area, but ones that provide
to places around the state. Youguys, are one of those places that
helps out around rural areas as well. But it's also about that exposure that
you guys get folks learning about youfor the first time. So for folks

(02:36):
that want to learn more about whatyou guys do, maybe they want to
become a volunteer, maybe they wantto support you outside of dragon Con,
which is something that they can do. How can they learn more about you?
Man, I love all these booksat dragon Con, and I want
to let you know with not onlyare they doing this fundraiser for us or
all throughout the dragon Con event,but they've actually many dragon Con members have

(02:59):
been coming to volunteer and have daysof service here at Open Hand and so
actually are helping to package up anddeliver the food. And it's like the
cavalry when they when they arrive onour campus. It's it's just it's just
so exciting to see how many newpeople were able to who teach about our
our mission because of the partnership withdragon Con. And so yeah, if

(03:23):
folks want to know about Open Hand, they can go to our website open
hand Atlanta dot org and register tovolunteer, come come down here and help
those package up meals and deliver meals. It's a wonderful way to to support
our community and engage with others whofeel passionate about healthy nutrition. Matt Piper,

(03:45):
thank you so much. Thank youwith This is the dragon Con pregame
show powered by Columbus State University's CocaCola Space Science Center, where you can
learn the science behind the fiction.Next will welcome in doctor Sean Cruizen.
He and I co host the Mateof Stars podcast where we discuss space news

(04:06):
of the week. Sean as theexecutive director of Columbus State University's Coca Cola
Space Science Center in Columbus, Georgia. That's been a sponsor of my dragon
Con coverage for over a decade,in large part because he knows the value
of science fiction and pop culture andhow it inspires and shapes the scientists of

(04:28):
tomorrow. Yeah, so the wholedragon Con enthusiasm, and we see that
by the number of people that showup, by the kinds of very famous
actors and writers, producers, allthose people that come to dragon Con.
There's a lot of energy behind that, and that's because people love the idea

(04:48):
of being able to explore in theirmind places that they can't necessarily go with
their physical body, right, Andthat's kind of what science fiction is.
Science fiction a vehicle that allows youto go off and explore locations, situations,
circumstances which science tells us could exist, but we simply can't get there

(05:12):
and go explore them ourselves, right, Or perhaps it's a circumstance that science
says could happen that you know,probably most of the time is fortunate that
it really isn't happening. But wecan explore that with our mind, and
we can go into those worlds andwe can see what that's like. But
remember that most really good science fictionwriting has very solid constructs of science around

(05:38):
it. And in fact, themore scientifically accurate that science fiction is for
many readers and for many viewers ofscience fiction motion pictures and just partakers in
the science fiction as a medium,the more accurate the science are, the
most more closely tied to actual scientificfact, the more interesting it becomes.

(05:58):
And that's because the universe this isnot my quote, by the way,
I'm stealing a quote, but theuniverse is not only stranger than you imagine,
it's stranger than you can imagine.And that's the real universe. Right.
So when you talk about all ofthe endless possibilities that science has shown
us for completely bizarre locations, circumstances, circumstances, energetic processes to be taking

(06:26):
place, and then you tie thatin with well, what if we could
interact with these locations or venues withthings. It fires up the imagination.
And it is a well known,well established fact that people who grow up
loving science fiction many times oftentimes gointo scientific and technical careers because that's as

(06:49):
close as they can become to actuallyputting their hands on or living out the
experience of what they grew to loveas younger people enjoying science fiction. I'm
one of those. I'm living proofof that, right. I grew up
on a steady diet of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica. I

(07:14):
mean, you know I did watchyou know, Space nineteen ninety nine.
I'm not sure if I was everreally a fan of the moon flying around
as its own spaceship. Well,my good friend Scott Norman at the Space
Science Center where I work, heabsolutely loves Space nineteen ninety nine. And
again, there are just a wholegeneration of us who were inspired to go
into science or into science education orsome kind of a technical career because we

(07:40):
love the possibilities shown to us throughthe vehicle of science fiction. And now
with the Artemis Mission getting ready totake humans back to the Moon, now
with the James Webb Space Telescope andthe successes that it's had, it's a
pretty exciting time now for folks lookingto get into space sciences. And I'm

(08:03):
sure as a professor obviously, uh, you know, this is a great
time to be a professor. Right. There are many different I will call
them touch points with what's happening inthe space industry that that make people curious,
that they provide some kind of aninspiration for people to want to know

(08:24):
more. And maybe what you're reallyexcited about is the fact that we're driving
remote control cars on the surface ofanother world. Right, you just absolutely
love the idea every day work beingdone by the Marks Curiosity Rover and the
Mars Perseverance Rover, and the engineeringthe helicopter flying around the atmosphere of Mars,
all of these vehicles waving together toprovide us and many sight into what

(08:48):
to place in Mars path and themeals was it ever inhabited to life ever
exists on? So maybe that somethingjust love we're maybe basically prepared to literally
fired about the idea of reading thesurface of this. We're really trying to
help sing people back between the otherplan world, say, and or diabetes,

(09:13):
and we're working on that or verydiligently right now. Time were very
very close to putting boots on theground, back on the surface of the
Moon. We're trying to buy yearsthe right kind when Jean Cernan was the
last person to walk on the surfaceof right in their life Napolo seventeen,
like now we're ready to put thatfuture right on the site of another planet,

(09:37):
another one into the community and maybethat fires. Will you imagining about
the right the food perhaps could beeating And we even do the ideas and
they're really helping people to understand inconnection between those states of food that we
can measure invisible thirty three years,hire existence of the universe, five thousand

(09:58):
meals, and pretty much everything inbetween, hating exoplanets and star forming regions,
sliding black holes, and a wholevariety of other things. And so
you're just a big fan of theJames Web Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope
and other telescopes like that that arethey're working very effectively to give us a
clear view of the universe, ormaybe you don't care a darn about any

(10:22):
of that stuff. But when youlook at those photographs coming from James web
Space Telescope, the artistic side ofyou just says, oh, my goodness,
that is the most beautiful thing I'veever seen. I don't know what
it is. I don't really evencare what it is. I know it's
in space and it's lovely. Iwant to frame that up and put it

(10:43):
on my wall. All of thesethings about what people can accomplish through robotic
spacecraft or detectors or actually physically goingto another world, or just what the
universe speaks back to you by wayof this amazing imagery coming from GWST.
All of these things act as inspirationpoints for people in twenty twenty two to

(11:09):
want to get interested in science careers, technology careers, education careers where you
get to teach others about this andtell stories just like I'm telling now to
other people and inspire them to pursuethese careers. These are really really inspirational
times. It's kind of amazing tojust see tourists just going to space like

(11:31):
all the time. Now it's justa regular thing. We're going to put
a bunch of standard civilians in arocket and launch them up and let them
have a good time in suborbital flightand micro gravity for I don't know,
you know, six minutes or something, to let them come back down and
hang out back on the Earth andtell us all about what that was like
and what the Earth looked like.And we're just living in an incredible time.
And so yes, all of thesethings are are beautiful inspiration points to

(11:56):
get people interested in the endeavor orjust the appreciation of outer space. And
you guys have programs at Columbus StateUniversity for folks that want to learn more
about space, that want to learnmore about engineering, that want to learn
more about robotics. Yeah, that'sexactly right. So if you're if you're
so inspired that you really do wantto pursue a career in these fields,

(12:18):
we can actually tell you where thecareers are, how you get to them,
and how we can prepare you throughour degree programs at Columbus State University
to access those careers. So wehave degrees in Earth and Space Science,
which includes environmental science, geology andastrophysics and planetary geology, where we're training

(12:43):
future Earth explorers and future space explorers. We also have a degree program in
robotics engineering. If you like theidea of those robot cars and other space
robots investigating the universe, we canshow you how to build them. And
there's a master's degree program here atColumbis State University as well. So you
can find out about all of thosedegrees by visiting our website www dot CCSSC

(13:07):
dot org Charlie Charlie Sam Sam Charliedot org. There's a little icon right
there that allows you to click onit. It takes you right to the
websites for these degree programs. Oh, by the way, if you just
want to teach the next generation,if you feel inspired, maybe not to
go to be an astronaut or anengineer, but just to train up children

(13:28):
to have these same appreciations for thewonder of the world around us, in
the universe above us. We havea fantastic education program here at Columbis State
University, and you can visit thesame website I was just telling you about.
Follow that link and we can talkabout all of the teaching degrees that
you can pursue here at CSU,as well as nursing degree programs that we

(13:50):
have here, and you could bea health professional, which right now,
I think there's probably very few jobsthat are more important than becoming a health
professional in our communities. So allof these rears are available to you just
by going to the Space Science Center'swebsite. Go visit the Coca Cola Space
Science Center at Colomba State University.The website is www dot cc SSC dot

(14:11):
org, Charlie Charlie SamSam Charlie dotorg. And down on the right hand
corner of the website, there's alittle icon right there. You just click
on that icon and it takes youright to the degree programs that I was
just referring you to, and youcan find out all about how you can
enjoy the adventure and become a spaceor Earth explorer, an educator, or

(14:31):
a very important health professional in ourcommunity. Find out all the information.
Visit that website today.