Lori Garver: NASA, Commercial Space, and Changing an Institution From the Inside

Lori Garver spent years inside NASA making an argument most of the agency didn't want to hear: that commercial partnership wasn't a compromise, it was the strategy. On this episode of The Puck, Jim sits down with the former NASA Deputy Administrator to unpack how that case got built and sold from the inside — what institutional resistance actually looks like, and where she sees the current moment: a commercial-background NASA administrator, private capital flooding the sector, and real geopolitical competition for orbit and beyond. The conversation doesn't stay in space — it moves through what NASA's procurement playbook gets right that healthcare gets wrong, and into a candid take on fixing Social Security. New episode of The Puck: Venture Capital & Beyond, out now. 🎙️ [link in bio]