What Snacks and Movies Would You Take to the Moon?
Former NASA leader influenced by Scottish creativity co-hosts Wigtown Book Festival podcasts
You’re on a one-way rocket to the Moon – the big question is which three movies and what snacks would you take?
Dr Ed Hoffman, a former member of NASA’s top leadership team, is jetting into Wigtown Book Festival to co-host three special editions of the MoonSnacks podcast.
With a worldwide following the podcast invites extraordinary leaders to pack their bags and get set for Lunar life.
Ed plus Wigtown-based best-selling author and movie-maker Jessica Fox will be interviewing three guests. Wigtown-based composer and musician Ben Please will be hosting, live producing and providing superb sound effects.
The festival’s astronauts will be:
- Yvette Hopkins: Chair of Court at Glasgow Caledonian University, a commercial board chair, charity board director, commercial executive, and former senior military officer, Yvette has huge experience leading teams and large complex organisations in multiple environments, domains, and sectors.
- Steve Greenland: MD of Glasgow-based space engineering company Craft Prospect Ltd which specialises in small satellite missions.
- Felicity Spector: A veteran broadcaster and journalist, Felicity has crossed Ukraine to learn how ordinary citizens manage to survive under siege. How do they cope with the everyday tasks of sourcing food and cooking in the face of war and loss? In addition to being a podcast guest, she has her own festival event discussing her book Bread and War.
Storyteller for NASA
Jessica, who used to work as a storyteller for NASA, said: “Ed and I both really care about stories, and the way they can change people. And we both love movies.
“MoonSnacks is a way for us to get to meet some truly extraordinary people, leaders of orgnisations or leaders in a particular field, and find out about what makes them tick.
“It's fun, often funny and always very revealing. When you ask people what movies they would take on a one-way trip to the Moon - not the best films of all time but their favourites, ones they could watch over and over again - you end up with fascinating conversations, insights and surprises."
Jessica’s own movie choices would be Ghostbusters, Anne of Green Gables (1980s version) and the Marx brothers film Animal Crackers. And she would want a limitless supply of dark chocolate.
Ed spent 33 years at NASA, ultimately serving as the agency’s Chief Knowledge Officer. Following the Columbia disaster, he helped strengthen NASA’s approach to learning, knowledge-sharing, leadership and project performance.
Accomplishing the impossible
His career has centred on a deceptively simple question: what enables people and teams to accomplish things that initially appear impossible? MoonSnacks reflects his belief that the answer lies not only in technical brilliance, but in imagination, relationships, stories and the ability to learn together.
Ed said: “I’ve spent much of my career thinking about how people accomplish things that initially seem impossible. MoonSnacks starts with a wonderfully simple question about movies and food, but very quickly becomes a conversation about memory, imagination, friendship and what matters most to us.”
He is also very much looking forward to returning to Scotland - a country that has influenced his ideas.
Ed said: “I’m delighted to be coming to Wigtown for the first live editions of MoonSnacks and especially pleased to be returning to Scotland. For many years I’ve had the privilege of working with leaders in the Scottish Government, and I continue to provide leadership development there today.
Scottish creativity, curiosity and willingness
“I’ve always admired Scotland’s creativity, curiosity and willingness to try new approaches, qualities that have influenced my own thinking and even found their way into my The Smart Mission book.
“And as someone who loves books, the chance to come to a major book festival in a town with so many bookshops is close to irresistible. I’m hoping The Smart Mission might even find a happy home on a shelf or two while I’m there.”
His movies would be Interstellar, Young Frankenstein, Lord of the Rings.
- Jessica’s has recently published a new edition of her memoir, renamed as Wigtown: A True Bookshop Love Story. Ed has a new book on sale called The Smart Mission: NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People and Projects.
- Ed is the author of The Smart Mission: NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People and Projects, drawing on lessons from his NASA career about how organisations and teams learn and succeed.
- For anyone with an interest in space the festival is also welcoming Scotland’s Astronomer Royal Professor Catherine Heymans who will discuss her book How to Design a Universe.
