Though I'm not a politician or involved in politics, I found myself deeply entrenched in the political world because decisions about our bodies aren't made in clinics or doctor's offices. They're made in Westminster. When you step into those corridors of power, it's astonishing to witness the detachment many decision-makers have from real-life issues.

I told them, 'My mom is visiting from Ohio today. If you can look her in the eye and tell her it's impossible to build a place for me to stay on the space station during my mission, then we're done here. If not, we have more to discuss.' They suggested my mom come to dinner instead, and we ended up going to Home Depot together.

If you can be as open with your heart as possible, humans will feel that intimacy from any distance. Bob Dylan, even in a stadium of 20,000 people can choose a point to strip it down to a piano, and you feel it.

Education attenuates conspiracism such as those without a high school diploma are twice as likely to believe conspiracy theories than people with a graduate degree. But 1 in 5 people with a graduate degree believe in conspiracy theories, which is 20% – that is a high number. Education does not entirely eliminate it.

I do not talk about life and death – I talk about birth and death, they are opposites, and life is simply a continuum of both, and you cannot have one without the other.