About this episode

The episode examines the accuracy of the film 'Hidden Figures' and the contributions of female mathematicians at NASA during the Space Race.

The history of space exploration is often dominated by men. Movies like "Apollo 13" and "First Man" - while captivating - seem to only show the perseverance of the male members of NASA, crucially omitting the thousands of hours of dedication from female mathematicians and engineers. But in 2015, a relatively unknown woman was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, highlighting an extraordinary career that began at the height of the Space Race in the 1950s and revealed to audiences a year later in the Oscar-nominated, "Hidden Figures". But this time it's our turn to check the numbers and see just how accurate the filmmakers' calculations were. Did the ladies of NASA really carpool together? Did Katherine Johnson have to cross the entire campus to go to the bathroom? And did John Glenn really request that Katherine "check the numbers"?! Join us to find out on That's Not How It Went Down! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Hosts: Lewis Howard, Elliot Fitzpatrick

Topics covered

• space exploration
• female mathematicians
• NASA history
• film accuracy
• Hidden Figures
• women in STEM

Keywords

• Hidden Figures
• Katherine Johnson
• NASA
• space race
• women in STEM
• film accuracy
• John Glenn

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NASA

Books & works: Hidden Figures, Apollo 13, First Man

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