02/01/2026: "Who Can You Kill?," The Far Side of the Moon, Boom Chicago

20:01Rand Paul:This is kind of a monument to the fact that we as humans decided to pour resources into sending people off the planet. And that's just an amazing thing to me, an amazing thing to be a part of.

20:13Scott Pelley:Cook, Wiseman, and Glover have all experienced the wonders of space on board the International Space Station. Hansen, an experienced fighter pilot from our longtime space partner Canada, has never before gone into orbit.

20:29Rand Paul:I wonder, what is that really going to look like, and what is that going to feel like? I have this sense that it can't not touch your soul to see the Earth from the perspective of the moon.

20:40Scott Pelley:So if all goes according to plan, you are going to be the first astronauts to travel to the moon in more than half a century. What's going through your mind? Don't screw it up.

20:56Rand Paul:I'm joking, but partly not joking. But I think the real thing today is what it took to get that rocket out to the pad, and so I hope our team is celebrating this because it's a big part of the next thing to come.

21:09Scott Pelley:The United States has been to the moon several times. Why is it important for us to go back?

21:14Rand Paul:So many countries right now are realizing the value and what we can bring back by going to the moon. The industry gains, the knowledge gains, the scientific gains, the inspiration gains. There's so much to gain that I'm happy that we are leading the way back.

21:30Scott Pelley:Artemis II is meant to lay the groundwork for future Artemis missions that will put Americans back on the moon and establish a lunar space station. The four Artemis II astronauts will sling around the far side of the moon in the Orion capsule, just about 5 ,000 miles above its surface, before heading back home. This mission is to test whether the rocket, life support systems, and crew controls work as designed. For the crew, this has been almost three years in the making. They trained in simulators. and learn to live and work inside the cramped Orion capsule.

22:13Rand Paul:And liftoff of Artemis 1.

22:15Scott Pelley:Artemis 1, which flew in 2022 without a crew, was a full system test flight to prove the rocket and capsule are mission-ready for humans to travel around the moon and back.

22:29Rand Paul:Splash down.

22:30Scott Pelley:It splashed down safely in the Pacific. But on inspection, engineers found the heat shield was damaged on reentry, though the interior of the capsule was not. Is there a level of concern about the heat shield on this one?

22:45Rand Paul:We're hitting Earth's atmosphere at roughly 39 to 40 times the speed of sound. There's concern. We're going to modify our entry trajectory. We're actually going to come in a little bit hotter, a little bit faster than Artemis 1. And based on the issues that we have with the heat shield, that will keep us safe.

23:01Scott Pelley:I know you expect that everything is going to go according to plan, but what are your concerns?

23:07Rand Paul:I'm sorry, Bill, was that a joke, that everything goes to plan?

23:13Scott Pelley:According to lead flight director Jeff Rattigan, a flawless mission is NASA's never-ending quest.

23:20Rand Paul:I expect things will go very well, and I also expect there's going to be something unexpected. I think every space mission we've flown, something has come up, and we've had to deal with it.

23:30Scott Pelley:Rattigan told us he has great confidence in the Artemis II mission and crew. NASA's challenge is what comes next, getting Artemis III astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface. To do that, NASA in 2021 awarded a nearly$3 billion contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX for the lunar lander version of its Starship, the biggest, most powerful launch vehicle ever built. Made of two components, the lunar lander will sit atop the reusable super-heavy booster. After several spectacular failures and explosions, Starship rebounded with successful launches this past August and October. But the setbacks and technical complexity have contributed to the delay in America's return to the moon's surface.

24:22Scott Pelley:NASA's target for putting American astronauts back on the moon is now 2028. Are we going to make that?

24:30Rand Paul:I think there's a lot of things that need to happen to make that successful. You know, first step, fly Artemis II, and I'll tell you, I spend most of my time on this mission. But we're going to need our SpaceX partners to get a lander out there for us, get back down to the surface of the moon.

24:46Scott Pelley:Artemis may be Apollo's mythological twin, but upcoming missions with SpaceX bear little resemblance. For example, the massive SpaceX lander that will rendezvous with the crew in lunar orbit has to be refueled in space, a complex process requiring the launch of 10 or more fuel tankers. Nothing like this has ever been done before. Elon Musk says it's needed to propel deep space exploration.

25:16Rand Paul:And we want to have epic, futuristic spaceships with lots of people in them, traveling to places we've never been to before.

25:26Scott Pelley:But first, he has to get Starship to the moon. With the complexity and delays, NASA has doubts SpaceX can meet the president's time frame and is seeking a plan B. The purpose of this hearing is, you know, are we going to be able to get to the moon first? Jim Bridenstine was NASA administrator in President Trump's first term and launched the Artemis program. This past September, he told Congress America's moon landing system has since grown too complicated. It is extraordinarily complex. In some cases, you know, it hinges on us, me saying here today, that it is highly unlikely that we will land on the moon before China.

26:12Scott Pelley:What would it mean if China were to put humans back on the moon first? Of course, it would be massively embarrassing. Scott Pace was executive secretary of the National Space Council during the first Trump administration and helped NASA develop the Artemis program. He says establishing a presence on the moon is important. Who gets there first this century is not. I don't downplay the embarrassment and bad headlines and everything else that would come from the Chinese returning to the moon before we're able to do so.

26:49Rand Paul:That said, from a longer-term strategic approach, that is a relatively short news story. Whereas who sets the rules for the space domain, who is there permanently, that's a story for the next century.

27:06Scott Pelley:Pace told us the competition with China should force NASA to rethink what he calls an unwieldy and expensive approach. The agency spends more than$2 billion on each single-use SLS rocket, while private companies, he says, are pursuing a more sustainable path with reusable components like SpaceX has demonstrated for a decade. He encourages commercial competition, which is intensifying among Cosmic One percenters. After NASA called for a backup lander plan, Musk's SpaceX posted that it is assessing a simplified mission architecture. On Friday, Jeff Bezos' own Blue Origin announced at least a two-year pause of its space tourism flights to focus on moon missions.

27:58Scott Pelley:In November, Blue Origin sent its powerful New Glenn rocket into orbit and returned the booster to a platform in the Atlantic, a first for Blue Origin.

28:09Rand Paul:To bring back that first stage was game-changing. Because now, like an airplane, you're now able to reuse that vehicle.

28:18Scott Pelley:John Kuloris is senior vice president of lunar permanence at Blue Origin. NASA tapped the company to develop a human lunar lander for future missions. With the Artemis program behind schedule, NASA is pressing contractors to pick up the pace.

28:35Rand Paul:So it's public knowledge that NASA asked all the Artemis vendors on how can we accelerate our efforts.

28:43Scott Pelley:Coloris showed us the first and smaller iteration of Blue Origin's lander, the Mark I. This unmanned cargo lander will be the company's first vehicle to land on the moon.

28:55Rand Paul:So this vehicle will be the largest and heaviest lander to ever land on the moon.

29:01Scott Pelley:The almost 30-foot-tall lander is wrapped in gold-colored insulation to protect it from solar heat and radiation. Until now, the lander has been kept under wraps. Our cameras were the first allowed to see it. Caloris told us later this year, Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket will carry the Mark I into space to descend to the south pole of the moon.

29:27Rand Paul:The reason for that is there's ice there. So we can take that ice and create water to sustain humans, to break that water down into propellants to then fuel future vehicles that then can go from the moon to anywhere else in the solar system.

29:44Scott Pelley:What do you think about this moment?

29:46Rand Paul:It's incredible. Artemis II represents that first effort in decades of deep space exploration of humans. I can't wait for them to go.

29:57Scott Pelley:The Artemis II astronauts could fly deeper into space than any humans ever, about 250 ,000 miles from Earth. And once the spacecraft goes behind the moon, the astronauts will be out of all contact with Earth for about 40 minutes. Flight director Jeff Radigan told us he'll be counting the seconds. If something should go awry, you've got the lives of four astronauts on your hands.

30:27Rand Paul:I do. That's a heavy weight, and I think about that every day. My job is to bring Reed, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy home safely. These are my colleagues, these are my friends, and they're my responsibility.

30:42Scott Pelley:There will be a period of about 40 minutes when you will be out of contact with the Earth.

30:50Rand Paul:That's when we will be closest to the moon, farthest from the Earth. But it also is a human moment, you know. And I would love for us to have a moment of togetherness for humans to just go, hey, there's a part of humanity that's not in touch with the rest of us. And let's just get them all back. And then we can go back to the hustle and bustle. But I hope that that inspires folks to just have a moment of togetherness.

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32:12Rand Paul:Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal investment advisory services provided by Wealthfront Advisors LLC and SEC-registered investment advisor. These can be unnerving times for American comedy. The TV sitcom is going by way of the canned laugh track, while the president tries to heckle late-night comedians out of jobs. But funny persists, and funny travels internationally. In the early 90s, two opportunistic comics decided to open an English-language improv joint in Amsterdam. It sounded less like a winning business idea than a punchline, given the Netherlands' reputation as a comic, well, Netherland.

32:50Rand Paul:But 30-plus years later, their club, Boom Chicago, has imported American funny folk and then exported them back as future stars, including Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, Amber Ruffin, and Jason Sudeikis. Could it be that America's ultimate laugh factory is an improv theater position near an Amsterdam canal? Yes, and... The Bush days seem quite good now in retrospect. Oh, I know. WMD's Colin Powell, Kondi Rice, what a lark. Comedy, they say, is hard. Improv comedy, harder still. Then imagine doing it in a country not generally known as a barrel of laughs. Dutch people are not the most giving laughers.

33:33Rand Paul:I was going to ask you about that. Dutch people laugh like this. Ha ha! And they immediately get quiet. Seth Meyers needs no introduction. He and Peter Gross, actor and Emmy-winning comedy writer, were college pals who then developed their comic chops in Amsterdam? They so lovingly tell you they didn't like things. The honesty, the Dutch honesty. Withering candor. Exactly. Like, it's so funny. I've never been in a place where there's less malice behind deeply cruel. It's not rude at all. It's not rude at all. I'm doing you a favor. This part was not good. I did laugh a little bit at that part, so do more of that.

34:11Rand Paul:No, but when he came out, the guy was like, Hey, can I buy you a drink? And I was like, Oh, yeah, of course. Did you see the show? He goes, Yes, I did. And I said, Did you like it? And he goes, No, I did not care for it. And I was just like, Why are you buying me a drink? And he goes, Well, maybe I will like you. Are you ready? Improv is not stand-up. You're not performing a pre-written routine. You're working in real time. What's something you have at home that you care about? A watch. My shoes. I hear a watch right here. You're relying on the audience for material and direction. I got a watch on my wrist.

34:43Rand Paul:It looks so fine. It helps me when I don't know what's the time. Chicago has Second City, L.A. has the Groundlings, and New York has Upright Citizens Brigade. In Amsterdam, there is Boom Chicago. Last summer, hundreds gathered outside a charming Dutch theater, which stands as a national treasure of sorts. Though it's unclear if the true benefiting nation is the Netherlands or the U.S. This was part of your commute. This is part of my commute just about every day. The setup. It's the early 90s. Pep Rosenfeld and Andrew Moscos, recent Northwestern grads, are struggling to make it in the Chicago comedy scene.

35:26Rand Paul:Do I even ask what drew you to Amsterdam when you were in your early 20s and fresh out of college? Yeah, fresh out of college, 23 years old. I mean, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Right, what brings anybody to Amsterdam when they're young? Along with a third classmate, Ken Schaeffel, they cooked up a half-baked idea, as one does in Amsterdam. Man, you know what this town could use? An English-speaking comedy club. It was probably the best stoner idea ever. You know, let's quit our jobs and move to Amsterdam and start a business. Aware that good comic acts often require a straight man, a straight woman in this case, they soon roped in Saskia Maas, a local who, amid the yucks, brings a measure of sobriety and savvy.

36:11Rand Paul:She also became Andrew's wife.

36:14Scott Pelley:I mean, these are two goofballs, and I'm the businesswoman, But that worked out perfectly.

36:20Rand Paul:30 plus years later, seems like the dynamic still holds. Still holds, yes. Accidental entrepreneurs, they wrote to the local tourist board asking for advice, seeking validation. What'd they say? Said this won't work here, don't do it here. It's not an Amsterdam kind of a thing. The Dutch don't want to see a show in English, the tourists don't want to see a show at all. Andrew rids the letter and goes, Yeah, based on this, I feel like we should definitely do it. They named the club Boom Chicago, a nod to their hometown. They found a stage in the back of a bar and eventually their own proper theater off the Times Square of Amsterdam, the Lides Applied.

36:59Rand Paul:And our little summer project became a year-round business. As for the small matter of recruiting talent, Moscos and Rosenfeld went back to Chicago and made their pitch to two recent Northwestern grads, Myers and Gross. What was your level of knowledge about the Netherlands? It was so bad that I think my first thought was, I think Hamlet takes place? Is Hamlet? And then the other thing I did was I remember just in my head, I think I pictured just Sound of Music. And I was like, well, first thing I got to do is get some hiking shoes. And then the next thing I'll do is I'll buy a guidebook. So it was like, bought the shoes, and then the next thing was like, flattest place on earth.

37:36Once they assembled a cast, it was time to assemble an audience.

37:42Rand Paul:So the way it worked was that before the show, I'd be there selling tickets, and we didn't have a bank account, so the money went in my boots. I wore cowboy boots. He was eccentric. I was eccentric. I still am. I would go out on the Liza Plain, which is a big square, and just tell people, what are you doing tonight? Oh, yeah, well, we don't know. Now you know. You're coming to Boom Chicago. Can we just discuss, you talked about the finances of this club being stored in his boot without irony. We just glossed over that as a...

38:08Scott Pelley:Oh, this is so funny.

38:11Rand Paul:I was in my room after a show. It was evening, nighttime. I get a knock on the door, and Pep is over there and goes, Yeah, I brought this girl home, and I don't know if I want to leave her in the room with the boot. And he handed the boot over to me for safekeeping that evening. Business before pleasure. That's right. Back in U.S. comedy circles, word spread. Josh Myers, Seth's younger brother, and Ike Barinholtz were hired 25 years ago. I had extensions put in, Dad. Oh my God. I'm sorry, Dad. Today, Barinholtz is an actor in Ascent. Do I smell? I didn't go home last night. Yes, you really smell like vodka.

38:53Rand Paul:Oh, just vodka? That's fine. Nominated for an Emmy for his role in the Apple TV show The Studio. The Pope on a roller coaster. In early Boom Chicago comedy lesson, avoid cheap jokes. The references to the Cleveland Browns or the Olive Garden don't cut it.

39:10Scott Pelley:When you get here and you're playing for 300 people or so, and English isn't all their first language, you have to learn how to be bigger. You have to learn how to own a room and make references that are a little more universal and deal with concepts and themes that someone from Australia or someone from Finland or someone from New Jersey can all relate to.

39:32Rand Paul:Yeah, I remember in an early show, I said I was going to key someone's car, and then our director's like, people don't know what keying a car is over here. You mean sloth in an alto? Yeah, you kind of need sloth in an alto here. If you happen to live here long enough to have like one or two Dutch words in your pocket and can throw one Dutch word into your improv, you are a god to them. We want you to know that Americans aren't about hate. We're about love. Brendan Hunt arrived to Boom in the late 90s. Like many other comedians, moving to Amsterdam sounded like a risky career move. Or maybe not.

40:07Rand Paul:When I was doing improv in Chicago in the late 90s, there was this thing called Boom Chicago that you would hear about, and it was sort of in hushed, mythical tones. Like, apparently they do improv in Amsterdam. Amsterdam? You ever been there? You ever been there? You ever been there? None of us ever been there. Like, wow, that's cool. But, I mean, no one would ever do it, right? I mean, some people do it, but we can't do that, right? You've been gone for a year, and our flourishing careers will be interrupted. We're making$10 a show twice on a Friday. If you want to be in the Netherlands, you've got to behave.

40:39Rand Paul:Do normal! Then, as now, the 10 or so comedians in the troupe commit to one year minimum and are paid enough to make it a full-time job. Performing six shows a week means a lot of reps on stage, with little time to wallow after the inevitable rough nights. Even though you don't understand sports...

40:57Scott Pelley:Oh, get them, what are they?

40:58Rand Paul:They're... Stacey Smith is in the current Boom Chicago troupe. Our ensemble works together so often that we can, at intermission, also, like, discuss, like, what's working, what's not working, what kind of crowd are they, what are they resonating with, so... You do that? Yeah, absolutely. It's like halftime. It's like... Well, because, yeah, exactly like halftime. When I say meow, you say cat. Stacey also heads Boone's Comedy Academy, which teaches improv to more than 200 students. Improv has an unpredictability and reliance on teamwork that makes it the ultimate building block of true humor. Less joke-telling than acting and reacting.

41:37Rand Paul:When you're working on a team, you do need to come in with the mindset that you're building that piece from start to finish as a unit. You want to be the class clown, go do 10 minutes on open mic night. Yeah, because we do believe that if you are a good improviser, then you already have the tools to be a good stand-up comedian. And action! To wit, Seth Meyers. In 2000, a touring show he developed with Boom caught the eye of Saturday Night Live. He was offered a writing job. It was like a baseball player getting called up to the big leagues. Huh? Huh? Chris? No? It was also a Boom Chicago moment of arrival.

42:17Rand Paul:It was really special to know it was the sort of thing that made people want to see more of you. That was a great source of success, right? Totally. And you can draw a direct line to Boom Chicago. 100%. 100 % direct line. So too for Brendan Hunt. At Boom, he became obsessed with European soccer. He and two other Boom cast members, Jason Sudeikis and Joe Kelly, began to develop a partnership. Going out to the pitch, the grass here, to watch practice. Training. They call practice training. Oh, it's vernacular. It won't be tough. You know what? I'm going to get it, though. Because training makes perfect.

42:53Rand Paul:There you go. You don't need wise Coach Beard to tell you where this story is going. Does Ted Lasso happen but for Boom Chicago? No, I don't think Ted Lasso does happen without Boom Chicago. It opened us up to the view of Americans abroad and like viewing yourself outside of your own home. You know, one of the rules of Boom Chicago was, because we'd make fun of all countries basically, but like the rule was we make fun of ourselves first, we earn it, and then we go out. So it turns out Key Med Peel and Boom Chicago. The Boom Chicago footprint goes well beyond the five days of shows each week. Our opening speaker is a veritable superhero of management thinking.

43:31Rand Paul:In fact, one of Boom's biggest sources of revenue has long been global corporate events that braid banter with business. You've got two cats. With annual earnings measured in the millions no longer kept in a boot, the business formed in the 90s in a haze, well, Boom's. In June, Boom Chicago held an alumni reunion. From the back, may we please have a suggestion of another object. A can opener. A can opener! Sex with me is like a can opener. You're better off with the electric version. Former cast members came back. Sorry, I kind of forgot your name again. What was it? Joie. Oh, joie. Like joie de vie.

44:19Rand Paul:Not just to reminisce, but to perform.

44:22Scott Pelley:I'm so grateful for Jeff Bezos. Yeah, me too.

44:26Rand Paul:I think it's cool that he's sending people up in space to work out their problems. And of course rib each other on stage.

44:33Scott Pelley:I don't think you guys look alike. Okay.

44:36Rand Paul:I don't. Alright, you're the one. I think you look like a Jewish orthodontist in upstate New York. And you look like you were born on a fjord. Which of those two is handsomer?

44:55Rand Paul:Both handsome. One of you just might be more prone to stomach trouble. All those laughs from such an unlikely windup. We've heard people say you carry something from this place with you when you leave no matter what.

45:11Scott Pelley:Yes. Yeah. Just don't put it in your suitcase. Fly home without it.

45:21Rand Paul:From Amsterdam to SNL. He had too long of hair at the time. It was going to curl out like a little Dutch boy. At 60MinutesOvertime.com.

45:34Rand Paul:The Smithsonian Institution holds more than 155 million items. It's such an eclectic mix, it's been called America's Attic. As Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch III is in charge of all of it. We asked Bunch which object is his favorite representation of America.

45:57Scott Pelley:I would argue the great strength of America is the desire to enlarge freedom. And for me, the object is a freedom paper and a case. There was a man named Joseph Trammell who was enslaved in northern Virginia. He gained his freedom in the 1850s, and he had a freedom paper. And that paper said that he was not a slave, that he could have some of the best of America. But he also knew that if he lost that paper, that he could be resold into slavery.

46:27Rand Paul:So he wasn't very good with his hands, but he made a handmade tin wallet, and he put that paper in the wallet.

46:33Scott Pelley:So when he's working during the day, it wouldn't be destroyed by perspiration. And then every night when he would come home, he'd take the paper out, put it on the mantelpiece, and talk to his family about the importance of freedom, the fragility of freedom, the power of freedom.

46:50Rand Paul:I'm Leslie Stahl we'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes Rinse knows that greatness takes time, but so does laundry so Rinse will take your laundry and hand deliver it to your door expertly cleaned, and you can take the time pursuing your passions, time once spent sorting and waiting, folding and cueing now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness so pick up the Irish flute or those calligraphy pens or that daunting Beef Wellington recipe card and leave the laundry to us. Rinse. It's time to be great.

47:48Rand Paul:the Fairly Odd Parents and Ghosts, Pluto TV is always free. Huzzah! Pluto TV, stream now, pay never.