Hi. This is Paul Zalester, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help you increase your positive impact, your profitability, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, it helps more people learn how to have positive impact through values based business. Thank you so much. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Bryce Kennedy, And our topic is space for good.

Former attorney turned space advocate, Bryce Kennedy is the executive director of Space Valley Foundation and space connectivity officer under the International Telecommunication Union and UN. He works with emerging economies to ensure that they have a place in space. Bryce, welcome to the Awarpreneurs podcast.

Thanks so much, Paul.

Space for Good. We've never done an episode on this. I think we published episode 366 this week. And, yeah, first time we've done anything like this, and you're the exact right person to help us with this topic. Before we get into the specific topic, Bryce, how did you get interested in space? And even more particularly, how'd you get interested in space for good?

It was one of those things that I I'm sure you hear a lot of stories around this, but it happened during COVID.

And Funny thing happened on the way when the world was shut down.

Right? Exactly. I mean, it's now actually becoming a little cliche. But my wife and I were living in New York City, and my I have a leadership coaching business with Boston Consulting Group. And they basic we that was my one client. We pivoted away from working together, and, yeah, it was a it was a perfect time. So, anyway, we my wife and I left New York, started traveling around The US, and it was funny. It was funny. The more west we moved, the more sky we could see.

And the more sky we could see at night I just remember looking up, you know, to my early days as a kid in Greensburg, Pennsylvania looking through the telescope with my dad and and just being mesmerized by the stars. Well, one day, this this question just popped in my head, and they go, who and it was who's protecting space? Because I love space. It was a it was a solace. It was refuge. It was mystery, creation, everything in that and potentiality. And it kind of bubbled up again for the first time. And and that question led me on a four year I guess it was, yeah, around 2021. '4 year adventure.

Different touch points in The US until I landed in New Mexico are really blossomed. And, yeah, that's that's where where the space bug bit me.

And we have some space in New Mexico, both literally. We're a state the size of Colorado, but we have only 2.4, two point five million people in the entire state. There's a lot of elbow room here. And we also have a very robust space industry with NASA and the Very Large Array and, you know, Space Force and big presence by folks who are in the space sector. And I'm sure that that came to your awareness pretty quickly as you started to check out New Mexico. Is that fair to say?

Totally. That just like you said, this the physical space space of of the land and the sky. And then I mean, there's no other state. What once I started kind of peeling back the layers of space in New Mexico, I was like because I was I was looking at the the traditional space areas, Los Angeles, Colorado, Texas, Florida. And all of a sudden, people are like, well, there's space here. I'm like, what are you talking about? And then next thing I know, it's three NASA sites. You know, the Apollo legacy is was birthed here. We have obviously Los Alamos, Sandia, Air Force Research Labs, Space Force.

I mean, there is not another state that

that Electric Galactic. Space Yeah.

Galactic Space Force, the first commercial spaceport with the most restricted airspace. I mean, it it's it's obscene. And, yeah, that's when I started peeling back those layers. I was like, wow. We this is this is my backyard and a no brainer.

Cool. So this idea of space for good, give us, like, a foundation of it, Bryce. Think with us a little bit about why is it important that everyone has access to space.

That's a really good point. So when when I landed in New Mexico, one of the things that so I I run Space Valley Foundation. And when it originally started, it was really focused on economic development. And and that was okay. You know, we do a lot of EDD here, excuse me, economic development in New Mexico. And but I you look at it, and it's not touching the entire population. And I was like, if this is a real space state, it's gotta touch the entire population. And it's not just STEM.