John Hodgman Suits Up For Outer Space

The Daily Show's resident expert John Hodgman compares sudden fame in your "pudgy" late-thirties to being called upon to become an astronaut long after that childhood fantasy has dissipated on This American Life…

Just when you've discarded the last shred of a shred of a shred of a fantasy of, say, being an astronaut, to then have someone knock at your door one day and say, "It's time. Suit up. It's time to go into outer space…"

It's exciting, but also unsettling. You think, Why now? And your idea of yourself never really catches up. You put on a space suit, and learn to eat dehydrated food, and learn to poop while floating upside-down or whatever. You adjust, but you never really feel like you're supposed to be up there orbiting the Earth.

The entire episode of This American Life #329: Nice Work If You Can Get It is available as a free download for a limited time. It's one of the "poignantly funny" episodes, not the "funnily poignant" ones, so you won't have to worry about crying over an orphaned Iraqi kitten that so perfectly illustrates the confused fear of your pre-teen years in front of your co-workers.