Dorktales Storytime
Be the hero of your own story with Dorktales Storytime, the award-winning podcast for kids and their pop culture loving grownups. Enter their Once Upon a Time world where hosts, Jonathan Cormur and Mr. Reginald T. Hedgehog, take you on a storytelling journey of curiosity and acceptance. You’ll explore reimagined fairytales and fables with social emotional themes, discover inspiring stories of history’s hidden heroes, and experience imaginary tales of boundless possibilities.
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Dorktales Storytime
Ellen Ochoa, Hidden Hero of History
Blast off into the story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa, a trailblazer in space exploration! As an astronaut, engineer, scientist, inventor, and the first Latina woman to journey into space, Dr. Ochoa broke barriers and reached for the stars—literally. During four missions, she spent nearly 1,000 hours in orbit. She studied Earth’s atmosphere, mastered robotic technology, and contributed to the creation of the International Space Station. Her groundbreaking work didn’t stop there—Dr. Ochoa later became the deputy director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, paving the way for future generations to explore the cosmos and make their mark on humanity's greatest frontier.
Go to the episode webpage: https://jonincharacter.com/ellen-ochoa/
Get a free activity guide on Ellen Ochoa: https://dorktalesstorytime.aweb.page/ep103freePDF
If you enjoyed this story about a hidden hero space visionary, you may also enjoy learning about Mary Golda Ross: https://jonincharacter.com/mary-golda-ross/
CREDITS: Hidden Heroes of History is a Jonincharacter production. Today’s story was written by Rebecca Cunningham, edited and produced by Molly Murphy and performed by Jonathan Cormur. Sound recording and production by Jermaine Hamilton at Hamilton Studio Recordings.
Check out our friends at Armchair Adventures, a join-in story podcast for kids: https://www.madebymortals.org/armchair-adventures/
Brand new secret message from Redge after the credits! Make a comment or ask him a question by texting (it's one way) or emailing dorktalesstorytime@gmail.com (if you want to hear back from him).
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Now, go be the hero of your own story and we’ll see you next once-upon-a-time!
JONATHAN CORMUR: Hello Dork Squad. I'm Jonathan Cormur and you're listening to Dorktales Storytime, the podcast for kids and their pop culture-loving grown-ups, and this is an inspiring story about a hidden hero of history.
THEME SONG: It's a beautiful day for a story, adventure and glory, new friends and old ones too. It's an excellent day to get swept away in a tail, so let us regale you.
Sounds of nature at night
JONATHAN
Alright, Redge. Thanks for an awesome day of camping in the Folktale Forest. Time to sleep under the stars. You finally figure out how your sleeping bag works?
REDGE
I feel like a burrito. Or a caterpillar. I feel like a caterpillar burrito. How on earth am I to get my beauty rest sleeping outside like an animal?
JONATHAN
Uh … Redge. Are you not an animal?
REDGE
That’s neither here nor there!
JONATHAN
Ooookay. Why don’t you count the stars? Maybe that’ll help you fall asleep.
REDGE
Fine but I make no promises.
JONATHAN
‘Night, Redge.
REDGE
Goodnight, Jonathan.
Jonathan lightly snores.
REDGE
One shiny star. Two shiny stars. Three shiny stars. Four shiny stars. Five shi– (whispers, nudging Jonathan awake.) Jonathan. Psst. Jonathan!
JONATHAN
Huh? What is it, Redge?
REDGE
Counting the stars. It’s not working. There’s a billion of them. They go on forever. Tell me one of your stories. I think that’ll help me fall asleep.
JONATHAN
But Redge, I’m so tired!
REDGE
Pleeeeeeease, Jonny Boy! I’ll be your best hedgehog friend forever.
JONATHAN
You already are my best hedgehog friend.
REDGE
Pleeeeeeease.
JONATHAN
Alright. But you have to promise you’ll go to sleep after this!
REDGE
Cross my heart. Hope to fly. Stick a quill in a pizza pie.
JONATHAN
Fine, fine. Since we’re here under the stars maybe I’ll tell you the story of someone who is well acquainted with them.
REDGE
Ooo! Is this about a Hidden Hero of History?
JONATHAN
It is. Her name is
(Hidden Hero of History Trumpet Sound)
Dr. Ellen Ochoa. She has been an astronaut, engineer, scientist, inventor, the Deputy Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and the first Latina woman to go to space.
REDGE
Space? Space! I love space!
JONATHAN
(Laughs.) I do too. It’s amazing to think about everything that’s out there. All those, billions, trillions, septillions of stars, planets, moons, blackholes–
REDGE
ALIENS.
JONATHAN
Well … maybe. There’s so much about space that we’ll forever be learning about.
REDGE
How did Ellen Ochoa start learning about it?
JONATHAN
Excellent question, Redge. Ellen was an exceptional student. She grew up in a town called La Mesa, California. She wasn’t really into science as a kid but she did love reading, playing the flute, and math. When she was 11 years old, astronauts landed on the moon for the very first time.
REDGE
The moon?! But it seems so far away. Just look how far away it is, Jonathan. (Stretches to reach.) I can’t even touch it. What an incredible feat it was for them to get all the way there. It must have been just what Mary Golda Ross dreamed of when she worked on INTERPLANETARY SPACE TRAVEL!
JONATHAN
Yes! You remembered one of our other hidden heroes who was instrumental to the development of sending rockets and satellites into space.
REDGE
But of course, Jonathan! Astronauts landing on the moon must’ve sparked Dr. Ochoa’s dream to go to space, and had her joining the ranks of space visionaries like Mary Golda Ross!
JONATHAN
Actually, it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, she was fascinated by it just like everybody else in the world was. But at that time, all the astronauts were men. It was hard for her to imagine that a little girl like her could grow up and go to space. So she kept playing her flute, reading, and by the time she graduated highschool, she was the valedictorian of her class.
REDGE
Valedictorian … that means …
JONATHAN
She had the highest grades in her entire class.
REDGE
Impressive. Very impressive.
JONATHAN
Impressive, indeed. She then went to study physics at San Diego State University.
REDGE
And physics is?
JONATHAN
It’s the study of the physical world around us. Like how things move …
REDGE
Like a rocket ship blasting off into space?
JONATHAN
Yes, like a rocket ship! That’s right, Redge. Or how sound travels.
REDGE
Like this? I love space!
JONATHAN
(Laughs.) Yes, like that. When you yelled, you created sound waves in the air. Dr. Ochoa studied how things move, how sound, heat, and light travels, and what everything is made of. Down to the tiny atoms that make up everything in the universe!
REDGE
Woah.
JONATHAN
Woah is right. And she kept on learning. She went to Stanford University to get her masters degree and then her doctorate in electrical engineering.
REDGE
Dr. Ellen Ochoa is one intelligent biscuit.
JONATHAN
Intelligent biscuit?
REDGE
I believe you call them ‘smart cookies’ where you’re from.
JONATHAN
Ah, yes. She is a smart cookie.
REDGE
But Jonathan, when did she start dreaming of going to space? All this studying. Get to the space stuff!
JONATHAN
Patience, Redge. It takes a lot of hard work to get there. You can’t just snap your fingers and fly off into space.
Redge begins to snap his fingers.
JONATHAN
Uh … Redge? What are you doing?
REDGE
Trying to prove you wrong about snapping one’s fingers and flying off into space. Not. working. I’m still in the caterpillar burrito contraption. Go on.
JONATHAN
Well, you’re in luck because I was just getting to the part about Dr. Ochoa’s space dream.
REDGE
Oh, goodie.
JONATHAN
While she was getting her PhD, a woman named Sally Ride, became the first American woman to go to space.
REDGE
How thrilling. But it sounds like it took quite some time for them to let women go to space. Seems unfair.
JONATHAN
Yeah, that part is unfair. But the good news is that Sally wasn’t the last. Because for Ellen, she saw that a woman going to space was possible.
REDGE
We love OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD INSPIRATION!
JONATHAN
Sally Ride went to Stanford and studied physics.
REDGE
Just like Ellen!
JONATHAN
Just like Ellen. Having these similarities with Sally Ride made Ellen Ochoa believe she could go to space one day too. So she joined NASA as a research engineer, and in 1985, she applied to become an astronaut.
REDGE
And she got in, went to space, and met the aliens!
JONATHAN
No.
REDGE
Ugh.
JONATHAN
It took two years for her to get an interview and she wasn’t selected.
REDGE
I object!
JONATHAN
It’s okay, Redge. Because she didn’t give up. She doubled down and got her pilot’s license in the process to boost her chances of getting in. When she reapplied a few years later, she got in!
REDGE
She’s finally going to meet the aliens!
JONATHAN
Redge, I have to be clear with you. She did not meet a single alien. No one on Earth ever has.
REDGE
Fine, but then what did she do?
JONATHAN
More studying and training.
REDGE
Does it ever end?!
JONATHAN
Of course, but going to space is serious business. You have to know what you’re doing. So Ellen, and the class of astronauts she would go into space with, studied a lot of different sciences like orbital mechanics – how planets, moons, and satellites move.
REDGE
Alright that sounds kinda fun. What else did they do?
JONATHAN
They learned how to operate a robotic arm on a spacecraft, fly high-performance jets, land using parachutes on both land and water, signal a helicopter, and experience what it feels like to eject from an aircraft.
REDGE
(gulp.) Eject from an aircraft?
JONATHAN
Yup. Like I said. Going to space is very serious business. After her training was complete it was time to go to space.
REDGE
Finally! What did she do while she was up there? Did she…
JONATHAN
Redge. Now, what did I tell you?
REDGE
So you were serious about the no meeting aliens thing then?
JONATHAN
Yes. Yes I was.
REDGE
Noted.
JONATHAN
Dr. Ellen Ochoa would actually go up to space four times. On her first two flights, she studied the Earth’s atmosphere. She also operated the space shuttle's robotic arm to release and capture the Spartan Satellite, which was a machine studying the sun’s atmosphere.
REDGE
A robotic arm?! That’s as cool as aliens!
JONATHAN
I'd say so.
REDGE
You said she went up four times. What did she do the last two times? Operate robotic legs? Robotic stomachs? Robotic butts?!
JONATHAN
There were no robot butts. But there was this thing called an International Space Station, or the ISS, being built. The ISS is a floating science lab 250 miles above the planet. There are astronauts who live, sleep, eat, and conduct experiments on it to this day. On Dr. Ochoa’s third and fourth flights up to space, she was helping put it together.
REDGE
Incredible!
JONATHAN
She is an incredible person, who spent almost 1,000 hours in space in her lifetime. After she retired as an astronaut, she became the deputy director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, the second woman to ever do so.
REDGE
And everyone knows that the Johnson Space Center is …
JONATHAN
That’s the place where the astronauts train and learn how to go to space.
REDGE
Dr. Ellen Ochoa is a super intelligent biscuit. Even if she never did meet aliens.
JONATHAN
So did it work?
REDGE
Did what work?
JONATHAN
Are you ready to fall asleep now?
REDGE
Yes, I think so. Thank you, Jonathan. Maybe in my dreams tonight, I’ll meet aliens who live in a caterpillar burrito and operate robotic butts.
JONATHAN
Only in your dreams, Redge. Only in your dreams.
REDGE
Goodnight, Jonathan.
JONATHAN
Night, Redge.
JONATHAN CORMUR: Dorktales’ Hidden Heroes of History is a Jonincharacter production. This story was written by Rebecca Cunningham, edited by Molly Murphy, and performed by Jonathan Cormur. Sound recording and production by Jermaine Hamilton at Hamilton Studio Recordings. Reach out to us on Instagram or email us at dorktalesstorytime@gmail.com. Find links in the show notes or go to dorktalesstorytime.com.
Now, go be the hero of your own story and we’ll see you next once-upon-a-time!
THEME SONG: So gather your squad for all to see. It's a universe that we've imagined. There's twists and turns and lessons learned. This is where the unexpected happens. Join our humble hosts and hit the trails of the wonderful, wacky, wild world of Dorktales.
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