YouSaid · the spoken record

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

lines on the record: 58
first: 2010-03-07
most recent: 2010-03-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Lie down on the starry beach, look at that star, and say, OK, that's where I'm going to make my mind journey tonight. Okay, it's you as the telescope is yours. One of the eight discs, you have to choose just one. Yes. Which one will yours be? It was a toss-up between Sting and also Stevie Wonder. And I still find it hard to choose, but I think I'd go for the Stevie Wonder. Dr. Maggie Adaran Pocock, thank you very much for letting us here, your desert island discs. Thank you so much. It's been good fun. You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio Four website BBC.co.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was Sting and fragile, so the books, Maggie. I'm going to give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and your book will be what? The book I've chosen is called Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon. And I haven't actually read it, I've read a bit of it, but I'm almost saving it. This is a book about a man that goes out into a field and lies down, and looks up at the stars, and projects his mind into a journey through the stars, and the likelihood of me actually making it to Mars or anywhere like that is probably getting slimmer and slimmer. And so the idea of making this journey with your mind, I think, is a fantastic one. I wouldn't feel contained by the island then. I'd have the universe to play with. Okay, that's your book. What about your luxury? I think I'd like a telescope. What I'd like to do is sit on the beach, and I'm assuming the beach is in sort of the southern hemisphere, because then you look into the heart of the Milky Way. And then I'd be there with my telescope, and every night I'd sort of pick a new stuff.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That capability and the more we realize that, the more we will keep an eye on ourselves. So I think this track is very important because it invokes that emotion and it reminds me of the safeguards that we all need to have because if we let those safeguards slip very scared about what we're capable of.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that was part of the challenge and part of the distance between us. I think if you bury things I don't think that works because they come back and haunt you. They come and bite you later. So we have discussed a few things, but I think we've laid some things to rest. She has told me that a number of times she felt betrayed by my actions, but I think she understands the circumstances for that. So we have laid some ghosts to rest. We can forge a relationship from here. Let's have some music then. It's your final disc, number eight. What are we going to hear? Yes, this is a track halled fragile by Sting and it always conjures up real emotion because I think the organization Amnesty International used to use this track and one of the things that I think I've realized as I was growing up was that people can do nasty things to other people, but it's not just those people out there that can do that. I think we all have.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“with my father harder, because again I felt I was being negative against her. But now my relationship with my mother is developing, and I know her a lot better, and I like that. And do you talk to her about Well, about what you went through as a child.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Might be important to you, might be important to show your daughter about her grandparents' world? Yes, because I feel in some ways disconnected I was teased as a child, and so I didn't call myself British, I call myself Nigerian. But at the same time, when I meet Nigerians, they say, but you're a lost Nigerian. So I feel like I don't really fit into either category. And as a space scientist, when I contemplate space, I'm just a member of the human race. And that's the key thing. But at the same time, I would like to understand my heritage more, for me, but also for my daughter. You explained to us very clearly this sort of disjointed childhood that you led a lot of the time with custody battles between your parents. How has that developed or not your relationship with your mother? Are you close to her? Getting closer. When I was living with my father, I didn't have much of a relationship with my mother at all, although when I was living with my mother, I got with her very well, which made decisions to go and stay.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What's it going to do? What's it going to tell us? Hobble is of the order of twenty years old now, which is very old for space instrumentation. And so what we're doing now is building the next generation of space telescope. Now Hubble was fantastic. It's given us some beautiful images, but it was mainly working in visible light, so the things we see with our eyes. James Webb's space telescope has some visible capability, but it's mainly looking at infrared, so heat energy. And when you do that, you see different things. Track number seven is going in. You could say that Explain to me. Why have you chosen this? And this And just”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it was one of my crazy ideas. I like to have at least one crazy idea a year because space is very much a part of our lives and people don't realise that. And so by having a satellite in space which is owned effectively by the kids and that they get images coming from it and they can look at glaciers receding in Antarctica or the rainforests being wiped out, it gives them a practical understanding of what's happening, but showing also how space can actually help us understand our planet. Yeah, well, I think I'm in the very lucky position because I work on many projects that are looking at planet Earth, monitoring carbon dioxide emissions, things like that. But I also get the opportunities to look at missions that are looking at the edge of the universe.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, very much the case. So there is something called the disaster monitoring constellation. And this is a group of countries, and they each own a satellite. If there is a disaster, the satellite's going to what I call disaster mode, and they take images of the affected area. With Hurricane Katrina, for instance, there was extensive flooding throughout New Orleans, and people were trapped and they wanted to get help in, but they couldn't work out the best route to take. And so by looking at it from space, you'd have a real application on the ground, and it means you can get help to people a lot quicker. It is, yes, and children.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Stevie Wonder, and as your specialism now, Maggie, is satellites and it's probably useful to put satellites in some sort of context. The big European space agency satellites cost about, what, 200 million quid? Yeah, 200, 300 million. Right. Spending on their application. One, so I think What about that place? Yes, I work on both. I contribute subsistence for the big satellites, but also then work on the small satellites as well.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let's have some music then. Tell me about disc number six. Stevie Wonder as I love Stevie Wonder because it was part of my upbringing. With me and my three sisters, we used to listen to Stevie Wonder incessantly. And I think he was sort of a role model. And also his music was just so beautiful. And it's something we shared together. And talk about sort of some of the nastiness in the world and wanting to be distant from the world. But Stevie under almost sort of pulls me back in'cause he speaks about love in such a beautiful way, all consuming love, love that has no boundaries, and I think that's wonderful.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To meet up in the coffee area, slightly the outsiders, and so we'd sort of sit there. And then I think one outsider meets another outsider and so we'd huddle together. The outsiders because it wasn't your subject. That's it. So I think most other things. PhDs had studied mechanical engineering and then gone on to do a PhD in mechanical engineering. And as we sort of infiltrated from other departments, we had some.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“a few years ago and met kids with limbs blown off, and so if you can do anything to stop that and so it was very nice using my scientific knowledge and applying it to a problem that's so well emotional Is it important to you that your science is applicable? Yes, I like that understanding science or having a knowledge of science just for science's sake is fantastic but if you can use that science to understand climate change to detect landmines I think for me personally that just gives it an added dimension it's good and useful stuff We haven't mentioned when and how you met your husband I met him at university we met actually while we were both studying our PhDs because Martin is an electrical engineer and I was studying physics and then we sort of both met up in the mechanical engineering department because it doesn't sound like a very romantic environment it occurs to me”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your doctorate was an engineering. Yes. Right. And rather than physics then, you went on to work in rather sort of practical areas, landmines and so on with that PhD. Tell me a little of that. I like to describe myself as an instrumentationalist, which I think as a dyslexic I can get away with making words. I think you can. Because from building my telescope, I love the practical side of things, and for landmine detection, I was actually working for the research arm of the Ministry of Defence, and I started off working on missile warning systems, using optics there, and we had a group looking at landmine detection, and it was very prominent in the news then. This was around about the time that Princess Diana was taking it on as a cause, and we had the picture of her in the visor walking through the landmine fields with the detector. Yes, so it was just that sort of period. And landmines are such a devastating problem all over the world. They're so indiscriminate as well. I went out to Cambodia.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, this is Didas Lament. When my father died I didn't know what I could do. Also he was such a wonderful man. I didn't want him forgotten and I was looking for some music we could play at the funeral and I bumped into this track and it was so poignant and so sad and the first notes come in and they just take me down to a level so when I ever I hear it my heart slows down and I get into a certain place and the main phrase is remember me and I decided that's the only thing I can really do remember my father because he's living on through me”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd left university by then as I was working, so eight years ago this year. And so I mourned my father, but I mourned the father that I used to know, and the father of later years was of more distant, more bitter.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was very, very, very independent, and he didn't want support, but I think at the same time he needed support. When he died on his tombstone, I came up with the phrase father, brother, teacher, philosopher, friend, because that's all the things he represented to me.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, as an older teenager, so when I And for the first two years at Imperial I lived at home, and in nineteen thirty I moved out, but my father was very angry at that, and partly disowned me at the time, and we sort of reconciled to a certain extent, but it was cleft in our relationship, and it never jelled the same way again.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I was. In fact, he got custody for me and my sister when we were, I think probably about fourteen, and that was the last custody change. And I actually watched him go through the process of losing his side. I think he felt that the philosophy site was stress related, and therefore by taking on vacity of four children, perhaps there was a correlation there.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ah a multiplicity of jobs. So he used to manage a pizza restaurant, but he also ran his own business as well, importing and exporting. But the promise he lost his sight he suffered from glaucoma, and then he did get very bitter, and he felt that he had wasted his life, and that was very hard because he went from someone bright and happy to someone very troubled, and”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I think he was I think he was disappointed that I hadn't studied medicine. Was he? That was his dream and it almost transferred it.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ah, next, a piece of music which I find amazingly strong. It was introduced to me by my sister Helen, and it's by Libby Siffra, and it's called something inside so strong.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes it was done with the best intentions, because they felt that if I studied science and I failed it would just be sort of very disappointing for me and because my academic performance wasn't up to snuff, the idea of trying to be a scientist was, well, you know, that's the clever people. And so I was advised that I should go into nursing instead because that was quite scientific and I had a caring nature so this would be better use of my skills. And I think that I have a stubborn streak which my husband often points out because I think someone says you can't do that. I think oh can't I? And I'll focus and try and get it done. And I was very lucky because I had lots of support for my father and we studied science together.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sometimes you grab an opportunity. If you change school, suddenly they don't know you, they don't classify you as the dull one in the corner. And you can say, well, no, no, actually, I'm quite right. And you'd see if you can get away with it. And it's so much easier to get transferred down than to get transferred up”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“opportunities came along I remember being in a science class and it was a very simple question they were saying that if a litre weighs one kilogram if you had a cubic centimeter of water how much would that weigh? And I'm going to say, well, it's one gram. I could scale it up. And no one else in the class got it. How come I know that? All these bright people, you know, far brighter than me, don't. And so suddenly science was quite appealing. It was”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh no I was actually held back a year when I was quite young. Probably about five something like that and I was very much aware of it. I knew that they were saying that I wasn't good enough. I was there with the safety scissors and the glitter because they just didn't think I was academically capable. And by being branded that way, especially so young, I just wanted to sort of reject it.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the desert island. Because I think I didn't realise it at the time, but I was attracted to emotionless states. So, for instance, I loved Star Trek because it was sort of a multicultural group travelling to the stars and having adventures. But the person I liked the most wasn't Captain Kirk, it was Dr. Spock, sort of very distant, emotional, very controlled. And I think I was attracted to that because it gives you that sort of buffer. So I think that's possible.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did, yes, which I thought was wonderful. I think science is seen as so dry and so distant, but Mr Vesty was wonderful,'cause he brought science to life.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, if this is quite quirky, and I love it because it's quintessentially British, and it's science and fun, and it's Flanders and Swan. And it was introduced to me by my physics teacher, Mr Vesty. And it's just a quirky fun.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Uh yes, not as tall as my sister's, because I always thought I was going to be six foot and I'm five foot seven. But I think I walked around as if I was six foot because I was used to walking around with them.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“mattered more when I was a child when I was a child I'd never call myself British I'd always say I was a Nigerian I've never been to Nigeria but I wanted to be seen as Nigerian because I thought too many people wouldn't accept me if I said I was British people you're black you're not British right and so there was that barrier although I always had an issue with boys because boys used to tease me a lot when I was a young child so I was always very very wary of boys”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes I'd like to think so There's a strong contrast between me and my husband because my husband makes friends virtually for life and he knows people who went to primary school with and I admire that sort of longevity whereas I like to sit down and talk to people and get to know them very quickly but I'm quite used to it being sort of transitory I get to know them and then I sort of move on and get to know someone else”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have wondered that for a long time, and I think I have a horrible look at things through raised tinted spectacles, and I don't say it as bad at all. I think it made me very adaptable.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a combination of things. When I was quite young I was sent away to boarding school, and I think I was the youngest to go away because I went away when I was about seven. And I think in some cases the school fees weren't paid because my father was trying to manage a job, a career, and raising four daughters, and so sometimes he couldn't pay so I'd leave a school and transfer to another school.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We generally spit apart in into pairs. And so I think Sue and Hal actually stayed with my father throughout, but Grace and I were ported around because we were the younger ones, so we were ported around between them.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think children are far more aware of their circumstances than they let on. I know I was. And with my child I don't know how it's going to be. I always say child reading is great in theory and now I'm going to put it into practice so I have all these preconceived ideas but I think none of them will make any sense when she's born.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ah myself and my father, we got on incredibly well with very similar characters, and so I just loved my father's company. But also sometimes I try to sort of not make the decision myself, so I might be influenced by my sisters or by what a social worker was saying. So I wasn't responsible. So it wasn't really my fault.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Actually, not my parents it was usually a social worker or maybe a judge and the sort of sit you down and say don't worry, but who would you prefer to be with? But you knew that that information was going to get transmitted to both parties. And so I did feel as if I was almost stabbing people in the back sometimes.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, as a four year old, I was amazed at how much I remember and how much I was aware of what was going on. And I think sometimes, especially as I got older, the court would come and ask me, so who do you want to stay with? And I think that is a very hard thing to do because you're rejecting someone.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, we moved around a lot it was mainly because my parents split up, and there was a sort of long ongoing custody battle and sometimes my mother would have custody of us and then sometimes my father and it would swing to and fro.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh yes, the Brandenburg concertos by Bach. To me this was sort of like a voyage of discovery because I got a record for some reason from the library, and I was amazed that something that was purely instrumental could conjure up that much emotion, and it made me cry, and this was probably as I was fifteen in sort of anx ridden teenager. But to be able to put a few notes together and invoke emotion like that,”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yes, I think she was, but my parents split up when I was quite young, when I was probably about four years old, and I don't know if she wanted a son. I'll have to ask her.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, no, he did. He was quite open. I think it's quite a sort of Nigerian thing to have a son, to carry on the traditions, to take the baton, really. And so I wanted to demonstrate that even though I was a girl, I could be just as good as any boy. And it probably drove me further than I would have gone anyway.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No that's I think one of the disappointments in his life and I think that's one of the things that got me interested in science as well. I think I had two main disappointments I think he wanted to come and study medicine and I think he wanted a boy and so I decided that I would be a sort of a scientific boy for my father.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My father, I think, came over because he wanted a better life. When he came over he was married to my mother, and he had one daughter, my eldest sister, Susan, and she was born in Nigeria, but all the rest of us were born here. I think when you were born in a Connolly of the UK, I think he was brought up to think that the UK was a panacea. It was the homeland almost, because that's what he was taught in schools, and he wanted to study medicine, and I think he came over to study medicine and he wanted sort of a career as a doctor.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I hope I am. The complication is that I'm pregnant now. And I think that makes it harder, but I'd still like to, my dream job is to be a project manager for a telescope on the moon. Good stuff.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With the clangers, my inspiration, the reason I like the clangers is I wanted to go and join them. And so from the age of probably about three, I wanted to get into space. And I still do. It's been the driving force of my life, really, that desire to get out there one day.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I think I can live with my own company. In some ways I think perhaps I'm too independent because I loved it up there, but I did miss my husband an awful lot, and the wonderful thing was he was able to actually come out and join me just for a few days. Did you?”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'll moon dance. I think music for me comes into different categories music that evokes strong emotion in me, and music I like to bop to. And when I was up on the mountain I was very isolated and I really missed my husband. And that's our song we played at our wedding. When I hear it, I think of us sort of dancing in the moonlight.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it was a fantastic place, and I stayed in a little bungalow on the mountain. I'd go home and sort of cook my own dinner and have some local Chilean wine. Then the moon would appear and I'd have dinner with the moon.”
2010-03-07 · Desert Island Discs · Maggie Aderin-Pocock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source