Apollo 13
Talking about the history behind Ron Howard's masterpiece with author Jeffrey Kluger
I’ve always had my head in the clouds, or at least in the stars. My earliest memories are of watching Star Wars as a child and dreaming of life beyond our own experience. Later, as a child, I watched the Challenger. I longed to take part in Space Camp, and once I had grownup money, I visited Kennedy Space Center with my boys and saw the Atlantis—a real live space ship.
When we think about “history” films, period dramas or war movies get a lot of attention. But looking back on the films we’ve done on the watch party or on the podcast, the space missions have take up their fair share of, well, space, including The Right Stuff, First Man, Hidden Figures, The Martian, Space Camp, and even a joint effort with the National Air and Space Museum to show From the Earth to the Moon.
And while we’ve done Apollo 13 on the watch party, we were waiting for just the right guest to do an in depth dive of the film and the mission itself.
Enter Jeffrey Kluger.
Jeff, along with astronaut Jim Lovell, wrote the book Apollo 13 upon which the film is based. Jeff is one of the premier historians of the Space Age, writing a bunch of other books, including his latest Gemini: The Stepping Stone to the Moon, The Untold Story.
Here’s my favorite part of these posts: I get to tell you how wonderful Jeff is. He’s a natural storyteller, and it’s kind of remarkable how the ease of his dialogue translates to the page. There’s something comforting about his writing and a warmth about the way he shares these stories in person. We had just the best conversation about his experience writing Apollo 13 with Jim Lovell, his engagements with other astronauts, the Cold War and the Space Race, our mutual love for space exploration, and a dive into the film itself, talking about both what we do and don’t see onscreen. We also talk a lot about the Gemini missions, which have always kind of been like the middle child between Mercury and Apollo, though as Jeff points out, the latter could not have happened without them. I could’ve talked to him for hours and I’m really hoping to have him back on the pod for you again.
In the snippet below, Jeff shares how Jim Lovell talked about if the crew ever felt like they weren’t going to make it home, calling it a “solitaire of survival”:
And in this segment, Jeff discusses the heroics on the Soviet side, namely Yuri Gagarin, who absolutely deserves his own film:
About our guest
Jeffrey Kluger, editor at large, oversees TIME’s science and technology reporting. He has written or co-written more than 40 cover stories for the magazine and regularly contributes articles and commentary on science, behavior and health. Kluger is the co-author, with astronaut Jim Lovell, of Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, which was the basis of the Apollo 13 movie released in 1995. He is the sole author of seven other books, including The Sibling Effect, published in 2011, and two novels for young adults. Other books include Splendid Solution, published in 2006, which tells the story of Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine; and the 2008 Hyperion release Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and Why Complex Things Can Be Made Simple). Before joining TIME, Kluger was a staff writer for Discover magazine, where he wrote the “Light Elements” humor column, and he was also an editor for the New York TimesBusiness World Magazine, Family Circle and Science Digest.Kluger, who is also an attorney, has taught science journalism at New York University.
Get the book
Get Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, The Untold Story here or wherever you get your books
The Pod
Without further ado, find my stellar conversation (sorry, I had to) with Jeffrey Kluger on Apple and Spotify below or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And please remember to subscribe.
Thanks for being here. We’ll see you soon.
Jason