{"podcast":{"title":"Minus One","slug":"minus-one-6971941","podcast_index_feed_id":6971941,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/f91eac68/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.southparkcommons.com/","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/41695370/41695370-1751915669380-a599e240ec338.jpg","author":"South Park Commons","episode_count":61,"summary":"A show about the winding journeys the world's most interesting people take to becoming great—and what they do when figuring out a question we all face: What's Next? Because before you launch at Zero, you have to figure out what to launch at Minus One. Hosted by South Park Commons Partner Aditya Agarwal and members of the SPC community.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-25T04:20:06.424378+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/minus-one-6971941"},"episode":{"title":"Minus One to Space Gun | Nato Saichek","slug":"minus-one-to-space-gun-nato-saichek","published_at":"2026-06-11T14:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/minus-one-6971941/minus-one-to-space-gun-nato-saichek","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/minus-one-6971941","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/minus-one-spc/episodes/Minus-One-to-Space-Gun--Nato-Saichek-e3kl6a7","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/f91eac68/podcast/play/121329415/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-11%2F425940947-44100-2-e5cf302126aab.mp3","summary":"Nato Saichek, cofounder and CTO of Longshot Space, joins South Park Commons Partner Jonathan Brebner to explain why rockets won the space race for the wrong reasons—and why a 15-kilometer space gun may be the most rational path to cheap access to orbit. Nato traces Longshot's origins from garage experiments with his cofounder Mike Grace, through building the world's largest operational cannon, to a first-principles reimagining of launch economics. He explains why $4 trillion in rocket investment locked civilization into a local optimum, how aerospace-grade hardware can be replicated for $5 in parts, and what it actually feels like to shoulder the weight of a deeply unconventional bet. Nato Saichek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natosaichek/ Jonathan Brebner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-brebner/ South Park Commons: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/ Apply to SPC: https://www.southparkcommons.com/apply Chapters: (00:00:00) - The 15-Kilometer Space Gun (00:06:27) - The History of Space Guns and Why the Idea Was Abandoned (00:09:33) - Why Rockets Aren’t the Best Solution (00:18:39) - The Story of Longshot Space (00:22:09) - Nato On Leaving His Dream Job (00:28:25) - Fundraising for an Unconventional Idea (00:39:36) - The Perks of Having a Cofounder","meta_description":"Nato Saichek, cofounder and CTO of Longshot Space, joins South Park Commons Partner Jonathan Brebner to explain why rockets won the space race for the wro…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2546,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/minus-one-6971941/episodes/minus-one-to-space-gun-nato-saichek/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/minus-one-6971941/minus-one-to-space-gun-nato-saichek.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}