So, Dad, when you look back, which technological change surprised you the most? Not because it was impressive or flashy or unexpected necessarily, but because it simply changed the way people lived.

You know, I thought about this question and it's, you know, my answer might surprise you because it's not, you know, some of the flashier things like cell phones or You know, the thing that I think I would choose are televisions.

And, you know, there's nobody a lot – televisions are so ubiquitous, I think it's hard for younger people to realize that there was a time when there was no television.

But I lived through the advent of television, and I think it changed the way people interacted.

People – Everybody watched television.

People got home from work.

They had favorite television shows.

And as we wrap up, Dad, I have a final question for you, which is what do you hope future generations will remember and recognize about that no technology can ever replace?

So I'd love to start by asking you what changes in nature have moved you the most, whether they've been beautiful, surprising, or even heartbreaking.

Well, I think, well, there are individual instances in nature that are heartbreaking and they almost always involve the death of animals.

You know, you see a nest that's fallen out of a tree during a thunderstorm.

It's got little dead birds in it.

I came across a fawn once who had gotten its foot trapped in a fence and died there.

And then you see a huge thunderstorm that rips a gully through a field and was washed away.

A lot of valuable topsoil.

Okay.

Hmm

...

so I, I, but I'll tell you, uh, where I'm at on this.

Uh, first of all, I think it's important to note that i- in my upbringing, I was a young, uh, young Catholic boy who went to catechism class and learned my prayers and, uh, served mass and learned, uh, my Latin responses, and I found a lot of comfort in that, and, uh, it was something that I belonged to.

I believed in God.

I would try to be a good person, and hopefully, I'd make it to heaven.

And then interspersed or following that was a lifetime of thinking as a scientist.

Well, did you wanna circle back to that question, Dad? Uh, did you wanna, uh, answer that, that other question, or are you ready to move ahead?