This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe talks with Rachel Lyons — aerospace engineer, leadership coach, and former Executive Director of Space for Humanity. Today, she runs EarthRise Leadership, where she fuses her background in aerospace and economics with a passion for helping people step into who they want to be — on Earth and beyond.

Rachel’s work has been featured on CNN, NPR, and stages around the world, but her story goes deeper than the résumé. In our conversation, she opens up about taking the reins of leadership at a young age, the spark she found watching Cosmos, and the lessons she’s learned about team cohesion, self-care, and forging ahead even when support isn’t guaranteed. We also dig into why humility will shape our future on Mars — and how preparing to live off-world is really about becoming more than we are right now.

A huge thank you to Rachel Lyons for joining me today and sharing her incredible perspective, to Nick Thorburn for our stellar theme music, to Ceci Giglio for the beautiful graphics, to RDan, Leila, Inka, and Carl for admining he FB group, and to my family for always supporting this journey—even when the topic at the table becomes fossilized microbial leftovers.