# Episode 418: Erin Winick Anthony **Source:** Pinball Profile **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2025-05-13 **Duration:** 33m 30s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-418-erin-winick-anthony/ --- ## Analysis Jeff Teolis interviews Erin Winnick-Anthony, a mechanical engineer and science communicator based in Houston who works with NASA and space organizations while simultaneously building a significant pinball content presence. The conversation covers her dual careers, including her work on microgravity research flights, her rapid rise in the pinball community (making Texas state finals in women's division after ~2.5 years of playing), her content creation across both domains, and her observations on Barrels of Fun's Dune pinball machine. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Erin has flown on three parabolic microgravity flights with Zero-G and has three more scheduled — _Erin states 'I've flown on three so far' and 'I will be actually flying on three more' regarding parabolic flights_ - [HIGH] Boeing Starliner astronauts (Sunny Williams and Barry Wilmore) were originally scheduled for days but stayed ~9 months with no danger — _Erin explains 'They were originally supposed to be up there for a few days, ended up being there for around nine months' and confirms 'they were nowhere near setting records'_ - [HIGH] Erin made Texas women's state pinball finals in her first attempt after setting that goal — _Erin states 'Last year, the first time I set a pinball goal for myself to make it. And, yeah, it was really exciting. I just made it in to the women's state finals.'_ - [HIGH] Barrels of Fun kept their Dune game secret despite team members being active in Houston pinball community for years — _Erin notes 'I was very impressed when they announced that they've been able to keep it under wraps for this long, because they've been going to tournaments for years knowing they were working on this and told no one'_ - [HIGH] Erin has been playing pinball for approximately 2-2.5 years — _Jeff states 'for someone who's only been into pinball for the last couple of years' and later 'a heck of a two and a half years of being in this crazy pinball world'_ - [HIGH] Erin worked at NASA for approximately 4 years on the International Space Station Program — _Erin states 'I worked with NASA for around four years for the International Space Station Program'_ - [MEDIUM] Dune uses subtle shaker motor effects, particularly for worm-themed moments in gameplay — _Erin describes 'Most shaker motors...are very dramatic and it shakes for a long time. They did a lot of subtle use of it...when the worm comes, it really pulls you into the game'_ ### Notable Quotes > "I've always kind of liked pinball, but then like finding this group here is what really encouraged me to take off and go all in" > — **Erin Winnick-Anthony**, ~5:00 > _Describes how community engagement drove her deep involvement in pinball after initial casual interest_ > "I make space and science people learn about pinball, and I make pinball people learn about space and science" > — **Erin Winnick-Anthony**, ~28:00 > _Encapsulates her dual content creation strategy bridging two communities_ > "That team has really made a mark and it was hard to do so out of the gate for any company, right? There's always a lot of promise and sometimes a little short on delivery. The first game launch was done to perfection." > — **Jeff Teolis**, ~20:00 > _High praise for Barrels of Fun's execution with both Labyrinth and Dune launches_ > "You can really feel that in the machines. That is a key point, too, because whatever company it is, we're seeing a lot of great players...when you have players involved, there's something a little different" > — **Jeff Teolis / Erin responding**, ~21:00 > _Discusses value of having competitive players involved in game development teams_ > "It feels like a pinball moment that you have to experience...the worm multi-ball and deploy onto the wire form. And it has some very cool stuff like that." > — **Erin Winnick-Anthony**, ~17:00 > _Describes standout mechanical moment in Dune game design_ > "The fact that, I don't know, Star Trek kind of predicted that we could be able to print all that sort of stuff that we needed on the go in space is that could actually happen" > — **Erin Winnick-Anthony**, ~35:00 > _Science fiction becoming reality: 3D bioprinting on ISS validates Star Trek prediction_ > "They do about two and a half hours of workout a day to be able to maintain muscle and bone mass...the goal is maybe we get the people to stay up there longer so we can have a better understanding for sending people on longer missions to places like Mars in the future" > — **Erin Winnick-Anthony**, ~42:00 > _Details ISS health maintenance protocols and long-term space exploration goals_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Erin Winnick-Anthony | person | Mechanical engineer, NASA science communicator, pinball content creator and competitive player based in Houston; made Texas women's state finals in 2024 after ~2.5 years of play | | Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast, conducting interview | | Barrels of Fun | company | Pinball manufacturer based in Texas; produced Labyrinth (first game) and Dune; employs members of Houston pinball community | | Zero-G | company | Parabolic flight company providing microgravity research flights; Erin has flown 3 times and has 3 more scheduled | | NASA | organization | Erin worked there ~4 years on International Space Station Program; she now works as independent science communicator for various organizations | | Dune | game | Second game by Barrels of Fun; features cinematic design with shaker motor subtlety and worm-themed gameplay moments; lauded for sound/lighting integration | | Labyrinth | game | First game by Barrels of Fun; designed with world-under-glass aesthetic; predecessor to Dune | | Houston pinball community | organization | Local pinball scene in Space City, Texas; includes tournament circuit, arcade venues, competitive players including women's division | | Space for Humanity | organization | Organization sponsoring non-wealthy individuals to fly on commercial space vehicles (Blue Origin); sponsors Amanda Nguyen (first Vietnamese American astronaut) | | International Space Station (ISS) | organization | Focus of Erin's NASA work; features 3D printers including bioprinting technology; scheduled for de-orbit in future | | Sunny Williams | person | Boeing Starliner astronaut who stayed on ISS ~9 months unexpectedly; has cumulatively spent more time in space than during this extended mission | | Jamie Burchill | person | Podcast host (JBS Show); Erin appears on episode 59 discussing Dune in depth | | Space City | location | Houston, Texas; Erin's base; home to vibrant pinball and space industry community | | Game Preserve NASA | venue | Pinball arcade in Houston with extensive space-themed machine collection where Erin plays regularly | | Bowen Cairns | person | Involved in Dune pinball development at Barrels of Fun | | Phil Grimaldi | person | Contributed significantly to Labyrinth pinball design | | Jessica DiNardo | person | Credited contributor to Barrels of Fun pinball games | | Dave Ennis | person | Lead/founder of Barrels of Fun; team leadership credited with Dune success | | Amanda Nguyen | person | First Vietnamese American astronaut; sponsored by Space for Humanity to fly on Blue Origin; UN advocate for women's rights | | The Expanse | media | Sci-fi book/TV series Erin credits for accurately depicting human dynamics of Mars colonization and Earth-Mars political tensions | ### Topics - **Primary:** Barrels of Fun pinball manufacturing - game design and production, Erin's dual career path: NASA/space science communication vs. pinball content creation, Pinball community and competitive play in Texas, Microgravity research and parabolic flight experiences - **Secondary:** Boeing Starliner extended ISS mission and astronaut health, Science fiction accuracy vs. reality (Star Trek, The Martian, Interstellar, The Expanse), Space-themed pinball machines (Space Shuttle, Apollo 13, Space Odyssey), Content creation workflow and batch production strategies ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.88) — Highly positive throughout. Jeff expresses repeated admiration for Erin's accomplishments. Erin speaks enthusiastically about pinball community, Barrels of Fun's work, and her space career. No criticism or negativity present; some gentle humor about potato-eating post-Martian viewing. Mutual respect between interviewer and guest evident. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** Multimorphic portal game and Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade represent Texas-based pinball manufacturing growth beyond traditional manufacturers (confidence: medium) — Jeff references: 'Multimorphic has given us the wonderful Portal game. And let's not forget another game out of Texas in Merlin's Arcade, too, from Turner Pinball' - **[community_signal]** Texas pinball competitive scene, particularly women's division, is robust and competitive; women's state finals achievable milestone for dedicated players (confidence: high) — Erin: 'competition here is no joke to make it in...the community here is really strong for women's pinball'; made finals in first year of attempting - **[sentiment_shift]** Strong praise for Barrels of Fun's execution on both Labyrinth and Dune releases, with emphasis on team containing active competitive pinball players from Houston community (confidence: high) — Erin: 'they've been able to keep it under wraps...They've been going to tournaments for years knowing they were working on this and told no one'; Jeff: 'The first game launch was done to perfection. And I would say what I seen so far of Dune same thing too' - **[design_philosophy]** Dune praised for cinematic design approach with integrated sound, lighting, and subtle shaker motor use creating immersive theme experience (confidence: high) — Erin: 'It's really a cinematic experience...really good job on the speaker system...lighting, and the shaker motor. Most shaker motors...are very dramatic...They did a lot of subtle use of it' - **[event_signal]** Chicago Pinball Expo (October) planning special zero-gravity pinball experience event as part of Pinball Olympics (confidence: medium) — Jeff: 'There have been other things coming up at Expo in Chicago in October...One is the Pinball Olympics. And I think I've seen there where one of the events would be to basically play in, quote-unquote, zero gravity, where you're suspended in the air trying to play a pinball machine' - **[community_signal]** Barrels of Fun successfully recruited and integrated active competitive pinball players from Houston community into development/manufacturing roles (confidence: high) — Erin: 'a lot of these people that work there are like avid members of the Houston pinball community...they've been going to tournaments for years'; emphasis on player involvement improving game quality - **[announcement]** Barrels of Fun targeting delivery of all Dune units within current year per Erin's observation of production schedule (confidence: medium) — Erin: 'the goal to have all of these games out this year'; Jeff: 'the production line how far ahead they are' - **[technology_signal]** 3D printing technology (including bioprinting) progressing on ISS toward practical applications previously only in science fiction (confidence: high) — Erin: 'we have 3D printers on the space station now including ones that are testing biological 3D printing...printing like pieces of human tissue...potentially print full human organs' --- ## Transcript it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teels you can find everything on pinballprofile.com we're on twitter x instagram at pinball profile a great facebook group as well You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. If you'd like to show your support, that would be wonderful. Don't worry, the show will always be free, but we appreciate people like Jimmy Law, Lua W., Jerry S., Erica's Pinball Journey, Colin M., and more for making this show possible, and that's patreon.com slash pinballprofile. We're going to Space City, Houston, Texas. Erin Winnick-Anthony joins us right now. Hi, Erin. How are you? Hi, good. Thanks for having me. You've been very busy. A lot of exciting things have happened the last few days, weeks, and months, and I thought it would be a great time to finally get to talk to you because I have been watching your videos for quite some time now, and you're very, very good at content creating, whether it be for pinball, whether it be for space communications, which has kind of got me fascinated, and we'll talk about that. But, boy, for someone who's only been into pinball for the last couple of years, you have really made a mark and uh congratulations aaron thank you so much it's been a blast like you said a heck of a few days and a heck of a two and a half years of being in this crazy pinball world but a perfect spot too in texas you know yes such a wonderful scene whether it's in houston whether it's in san antonio dallas austin they've got just all these great little pockets too and and you there in space city with what the drone family has done and uh bells and chimes it's just It's got to be so much fun. And you've done quite well, too, in a short period of time. Yeah, thanks. No, seriously, like the community is what really roped me in. I've always kind of liked pinball, but then like finding this group here is what kind of really encouraged me to take off and go all in, you know. How did you first get exposed to pinball? So like first first was I grew up in Tampa, Florida, and Mel's Hot Dogs, this restaurant we love going to, had a fun house. And so I played that with my dad a little bit growing up. And I played the Windows Pinball Space Cadet, you know, like that sort of thing. So I've always kind of liked it. But I moved it to Houston just a little bit before COVID hit. And so I hadn't really found a community. And when we were coming out of that, I was like found out about some of the local arcades, started going there, just kind of like trying to get out of the house a little bit again. And I learned about the tournament scene. And I actually found some of the Twitch streams that were being done around town and was like, okay, I've got to see what the heck this is all about, the social aspect of the pinball world. And I'm sure it didn't disappoint because obviously you're continuing to do this at a grand scale, if you will, a little bit of travel here and there, going to different parts of the state. And really, just finding, like I have, finding people you never knew existed. And we all come from different walks of life, but it's this pinball that brings us all together. And that's what amazes me, because if it wasn't for pinball, Aaron, I wouldn't be talking to you today. Although we have completely different lives in different parts of the world. It's fascinating. Yeah, absolutely. And I travel a fair amount for work, and I'm always the person that's looking for what tournaments are there when I'm in town to kind of meet some new people. Even if not pinball map, you've got to find the one place to see if you can put your initials in a machine when you're in town. Spoken like a true pinball player, that's for sure. Of course. We're going to talk more pinball in a second. I do want to talk about your fantastic, incredible, bravo career that you've created for yourself. I mentioned you were working for NASA. It was a couple of years ago that you left there to become kind of full-time science communicator, if you will. Your background is a mechanical engineer. There's young women and young men listening going, geez, I'd like to work at NASA someday. I'd like to be involved in space. How did it all start for you? Yeah, you know, you mentioned a mechanical engineering degree. I've always loved making stuff in general, and I think that's still core to what I do now, even if I'm not, you know, doing CAD designs and solid works, that sort of thing. But I grew up with a family of all either engineers or teachers. And I grew up in Florida seeing space shuttles lift off in that era. So like that was kind of the, what I was born and bred in there. And when I graduated my engineering degree, although I really liked making things, I kind of found this niche of being the weird engineer who liked to write and explain science stuff. So I found this niche of first being a science journalist and then moving into more science communication. Basically what that means, helping serve as a translator between technical people, engineers, scientists, and organizations. Sometimes it's more like museums, and the public, and helping them explain. Because sometimes they know their area, their field really well, but it's hard to be able to explain and share that. So I work with a bunch of different companies now. I worked with NASA for around four years for the International Space Station Program, helping explain all the science that the astronauts do on the space station through writing, social media, video, all of that sort of stuff. And now for about two years, I've been doing that independent for a bunch of organizations ranging from lunar rover companies to parabolic flight companies to Space Center Houston and a lot of different local organizations. You're in the right city, that's for sure. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But again, I love that you had that opportunity being in Florida to see the space shuttle launches. I would be so moved, especially at a young age. Even at my advanced age, I would be fascinated to see that. You know, I talk with my good buddy, Neil McRae, who runs the UK Open, and I don't know anybody more obsessed from the outside looking in, not really involved from a work standpoint into space, NASA, and all things of that ilk. And then I know he's going to be listening to this podcast and wanting to hear more because it is just something that I don't think a lot of us lay people, if you will, can really grasp that this is possible for someone to do. I mean, it's a lot of hard work, it's a lot of school, a lot of dedication, and only the best will succeed, but it is possible. And what you've done in, you know, a very, very short time is so impressive. Well, thank you. Yeah, and I think, you know, it's interesting because when you grow up in Florida and you can walk in your front yard and see a shuttle take off, I feel like it feels more accessible, right? It doesn't feel like as big of a hurdle. And I think that that helps. There's a lot of people in Florida that end up studying aerospace engineering because it's like, oh, well, you know, space is right there. I can see the rockets that are going up there and, you know, carrying people. And so I think growing up in that era was really inspiring. I also, like, you know, we had quite a big gap in when we could be able to get to space from the U.S., from the shuttle to, like, SpaceX. And it was kind of interesting because that's the era I was in college. So it's like I grew up seeing all these shuttles launch and then we had a big gap. and then now I've been able to see kind of the next era go. So it's been cool to see that whole arc and be a small piece of it. What's changed? I mean, you're right, there was a huge gap, but you mentioned SpaceX, Blue Origin. There's all these things that are happening right now. It seems to be a focus now of whether it's the current administration or just the United States government in general just trying to, okay, let's get back to this, different goals now. Yeah, after Space Shuttle, there was a big, the intent was to go to commercial space flight. It just took a while to get there, you know, and to have the rockets ready to actually carry people. And so now we're really in the heyday of those rockets are ready, especially, you mentioned, you know, SpaceX is the primary one carrying people to the International Space Station now and has been doing so for quite a while. So now we're in that era of these rockets are ready, they're launching frequently. And, you know, I still have family who lives over on the Space Coast, and it's funny how normal it seems for them just to have rocket launches going off every week because there a lot more launches than the ones just carrying people they carrying science and satellites and all of that stuff and it just as when I was a kid it now become the norm again I wonder if it more the forefront because we hearing stories of common folk I remember just a while back when Captain Kirk finally went to space. And of course, this week we had Gail King and Katy Perry go on Blue Origin. Does this help the space program? Does this help create interest? I can only imagine it would. Yeah, I think it's a mix because I think that, you know, as we have more people that aren't, you know, professional NASA astronauts go to space, the hope is that it becomes more accessible over time. It's just like when planes started to be, you know, a thing, the first people that got to fly were the people that had quite a bit of money. And we're kind of in that era for rockets. So I think people don't feel like it's super accessible yet. But my hope is that it will continue to become more accessible as this becomes more of a thing. And there's some cool organizations like Space for Humanity that are sponsoring people who don't necessarily have the budget to go to space to be great representatives and stewards to be able to bring that kind of space mission back to Earth right now. Space for Humanity. I don't know much about that organization. Yeah, it's pretty cool. They sponsored a few astronauts to go on Blue Origin flights so far. I believe they sponsored Amanda who went on that flight you mentioned with Katy Perry and Gayle King, who has had an incredible journey and been an amazing advocate for women's rights, especially the United Nations. She's the first Vietnamese American astronaut to fly. And so like someone who can come back and be that role model and kind of take that mission of space back to Earth. How exciting. I think when I was younger, I'd be like, oh, that would be. Listen, as every young boy at one point or young girl might think, I'd love to go to space. Maybe we see some science fiction movie and we think, well, that'd be interesting. Or you can see the moon, a full moon. You're like, okay, that seems reachable. You watch what happened in 1969, the Apollo missions, and you're like, okay, this is doable. This is possible. This is exciting. But as you get older, I mean, that's why I was shocked when I saw William Shatner go in his 90s. It's possible. Wow. Keep that dream alive, man. Well, okay. I've seen some videos of you. You have to explain this because not many people can say that they have flown in microgravity. And you've done it. I can't imagine what it's like. Yeah. So I haven't been to space, but I work with an organization called Zero-G, and they're a parabolic flight company. And basically what this means is they follow like an up and down sort of arc pattern by flying in a normal size plane. and by going on these arcs, it's similar to if you threw a ball in an arc. It has a point where it kind of reaches at the top, slows down, and starts going down again. It flies that sort of pattern. At the top of those arcs, you experience microgravity for about 20 to 30 seconds on each of those. So I've flown on three so far. I work with them on helping share the research they do on those flights because a big mission of these is being able to conduct microgravity research in a cheaper way to test things out before they go to space primarily. because once it goes to space, you've got one shot at it, and, like, the researchers aren't able to fly with the stuff to space. Like, the astronauts up there are the eyes and hands of those researchers. So on these, the researchers can be there. Usually the research flights are 30 parabolas long, so you get about 15 total minutes of microgravity. And, yeah, I've flown on them, and I will be actually flying on three more, which I don't take for granted. It's been a dream come true as someone who worked at NASA, especially on sharing microgravity research to get to experience it myself and float and flip and also be able to do my job while doing it. Just an absolute dream come true. I am extremely envious of this for you and so proud that you get to do this. It's exciting. Thank you. Yes, you haven't been in space, but this is still pretty cool. I've got a buddy in Florida, Nick Bird, who has done hundreds of skydiving and things like this. And I'm like, okay, well, I've done iFly, which is simulated. Also cool, yeah. Not cool. Anyway, the point is, you know, it's a certain level that I can take versus actually jumping out of a plane. But microgravity, that just, oh, by the way, great hair day on microgravity. It's important to have a good hair day because it's really amazing to watch. Yes, absolutely. You have an advantage if you have long hair when you're on these flights because your shots look much more dramatic than people with a short haircut. Well, that's awesome. Back to pinball a little bit. Sure. And, you know, you were talking about what you're doing as a science communicator and mechanical engineer. You did mention CAD. Yes. That didn't go by without me noticing that. Is this something that you would love to see maybe if you have the time to develop pinball? You know, yeah. I still have two, three. I'm currently looking over to my side. I have two 3D printers in the room that I'm in, and I still work in SolidWorks sometimes. You know, I've seen some homebrews, some incredible ones. Recently I got to see the Mad Max and the Tony Hawk Pro Skater and stuff. I think it's very cool. I don't know if I have the time right now, but maybe sometime in the future. I have some friends that are, you know, into all of the more of the coding side of things. So I can see a project sometime, but I think that's on more of a far horizon. But super admire the people that do all of that, And I've got to see behind the scenes that, you know, barrels of fun a little bit here in Houston and a huge fan. Yeah, the time involved in a homebrew is just... Oh, my gosh. It's so funny. You mentioned Dune and, of course, King Kong came out and other games have come out. They're in Texas. Multimorphic has given us the wonderful Portal game. And let's not forget another game out of Texas in Merlin's Arcade, too, from Turner Pinball. I'm always amazed. You know, people are like, okay, let's look it over, look it over. and within a second, even if this took 18 months or longer to create, within a second someone's like, okay, well, what's next? Right. There are so many pinball machines that come out. It's funny. A lot of the content I create in pinball is for people that aren't necessarily super dedicated pinball people, people who might be finding out about this stuff for the first time, and they still make pinball machines. I'm like, yes, and a lot of them. Yeah. So let's talk about it. You were at Barrels of Fun. In fact, by the way, our good friend Jamie Burchill and his Jamie Burchill podcast, the JBS show, you're on episode 59. You'll talk more in depth about playing Dune, but just give us the kind of quick notes on seeing that beautiful game. Honestly, it was really stunning. What really struck me about it, and I think that most people will enjoy it, it's really a cinematic experience. They did a really good job on the speaker system on this machine, the lighting, and the shaker motor. Most shaker motors, I feel like when they're used, they're very dramatic and it shakes for a long time. They did a lot of subtle use of it. If you're familiar with Dune, there's a thumper that calls the worms. And the way that it thumps in the background and then it really uses it when the worm comes, it really pulls you into the game really well. And I had a lot of fun. It definitely takes a little bit to get some of the shots down, but I think that they did a really good job with really bringing you into that whole Dune world. Because Labyrinth is known for being the world under glass and really well put together, but I think they did a fantastic job of, yes, doing that, but trying to bring in other aspects with that sound and that feel. Talk about that worm. I saw some of the video. It looks pretty cool. Yes. Oh, my gosh. It feels like a pinball moment that you have to experience. And so we got, it's like the Apollo 13, 13-ball multiball or whatever. It's like, okay, you got to see the worm multiball and deploy onto the wire form. And it has some very cool stuff like that. I'm so happy with Dave Ennis and his team has done there. Phil Grimaldi did a lot there with Labyrinth and Bowen Kerins and everyone else that's involved there. Jessica DiNardo, let's not forget her. That team has really made a mark and it was hard to do so out of the gate for any company, right? There's always a lot of promise and sometimes a little short on delivery. The first game launch was done to perfection. And I would say what I seen so far of Dune same thing too You know not a lot of leaks Here it is when it done You know just even seeing the production line how far ahead they are and the goal to have all of these games out this year Again, bravo to everyone at Barrels of Fun. Yeah, it's been amazing to get to know so many people more, and a lot of these people that work there are like avid members of the Houston pinball community. So A, I was very impressed when they announced that they've been able to keep it under wraps for this long, because they've been going to tournaments for years knowing they were working on this and told no one. And it was a really great reveal. And it's very fun to be able to see all the people that we've played with for years now be the ones that are working on these machines. And they just care about it so much in this community that they're building. And you can really feel that in the machines. That is a key point, too, because whatever company it is, we're seeing a lot of great players. You know, there's obviously been great minds that put this together, that develop the playfields that do the software and everything. But now when you have players involved, there's something a little different. And I don't want to say it's always a more necessarily enjoyable experience, but for the most part I'm finding that there's just a better connectivity with the players who play these at home, in competitions, and we're seeing the things we want to see. And Barrels of Fun is another example of just doing that. Exactly. Totally agree. In Texas, you're busy. I mentioned Space City, the Bells and Chimes chapter and everything. You made your first Texas state finals this year. That's no small task for someone who's only been playing for a couple of years. That had to be so exciting for you. Yeah, thanks. Last year, the first time I set a pinball goal for myself to make it. And, yeah, it was really exciting. I just made it in to the women's state finals. And, yeah, competition here is no joke to make it in for that. It is everywhere, but the community here is really strong for women's pinball, which is fantastic. And I was thrilled to be able to make it in. And, you know, I've been – a lot of the pinball content that I create online is my series called Learning to Slip, which is, you know, I've been trying to share since I was bad at pinball about what the process is of getting better. And I was kind of I was really excited to be able to have this as like a milestone around two years of making content, be able to like show like, OK, this is like how I've improved and gotten better and then be able to document and share that experience as a blast. You do a lot of videos and whether it's social media, whether it's science, communicating, whatever it may be. I just do podcasts. I just do audio. You and other friends do a lot of video. I know what it's like to edit these shows. It takes me forever sometimes. And, you know, again, as you were describing about, oh, I'd love to do a pinball machine someday. Just time doesn't permit. Well, work and travel and this and family prevents me from just doing this small aspect. I don't know how you do it with learning to flip and your other videos. It's not easy. but to just set aside a time, I'm like, okay, I want to have this many done per month, or this is when I want to release it. What's it like for you? What's your schedule like? Yeah, I do a lot of batch recording when I'm doing stuff especially. So I do most of my stuff, a lot of it is scripted and me kind of delivering information to camera, which then has a lot of footage that's edited over top of it. So I have a small little area that's in my office that's always set up that I can hop over and do something quickly, but I try to set aside time to like batch script, batch record. And then when I'm like actually going to events, kind of keeping in mind what I want to be filming there before I go. So I make sure I can capture that and edit it when I come back. My priority is the space and science stuff since that's my like full-time job. And the pinball is like such a nice relief to be able to share about other stuff too. Cause like what I've been making for a long time is this stuff that's used a little bit more technical and educational. It takes a long time to script. It's nice to just sit down and talk about something fun about pinball that I learned and I can share with people. And my joke is that I make space and science people learn about pinball, and I make pinball people learn about space and science. So it all works. Not a joke. It's true. It's great, and it's fascinating. I love when I get some DMs from my space friends. They're like, oh, what is this about pinball? I'm like, yes, I've got you. I love it. Okay, now I'm going to put you on the spot, Erin. Your top three favorite space-themed pinball machines. Okay, so one of my main places I play is at Game Preserve NASA here, and we have a ton of space-themed pinball machines there. So I probably have to go with Space Shuttle, Apollo 13, and maybe Space Odyssey. I think that would probably be my top three. Okay, I know them all. That's great. Space Shuttle, my number one favorite, too. And it's just, yes, the toy is nice and everything, and it was certainly something with that Barry Oster design that people gravitated to. Did the toy actually do anything? No. The sounds were pretty darn cool. The spinner is fantastic. Hitting those drops to make the spinner worth more. Oh, you just said my number one favorite game. I've wondered what games, not even so much games, but let's go to science fiction. There has been obviously a fascination with space going back. The day the earth stood still, I would imagine, first time in cinematic history or maybe even before then, too. Science fiction has sometimes become reality based on what we've seen years ago. Some things are a little far-fetched. What are some of the things when you see some science fiction movies or television shows that you go, yeah, they're right on the marker. No, no, that's just so far-fetched. yeah well I think I mentioned I like 3D printing I think one of the ones that it's always interesting to me is kind of like the Star Trek be able to create things on the fly the fabricator refabricator and stuff because we have 3D printers on the space station now including ones that are testing biological 3D printing right now they're just printing like pieces of human tissue but the hope and goal is to potentially print full human organs that could be transplanted into people And so, like, the fact that, I don't know, Star Trek kind of predicted that we could be able to print all that sort of stuff that we needed on the go in space is that could actually happen. I think that's probably top of my list. And then there's so many, like, books, like, or movies like The Martian that do their research and really, like, okay, we've got this. This works really well. You know, but one of the ones I often see in, like, sci-fi that I feel like we're not really even looking at much is creating artificial gravity on space stations. Like people always assume that creating like a big spinning thing is like the way to go for space stations. But that's not what like any of the space stations are actually investing in. They invest in because microgravity can be an asset for a lot of scientific research. So a lot of people want to maintain that. And there's more research into trying to make people stay healthy in microgravity than trying to fix and create things that are like alternate artificial gravity. You said about staying healthy. You know, recently we had a couple of astronauts that were at the International Space Station for quite some time, many months, in fact. Were they ever in any danger, or what were some of the big concerns with that? Yeah, so you're talking about the Boeing Starliner launch. They were originally supposed to be up there for a few days, ended up being there for around nine months. What I felt was very interesting about this was I think it, A, brought a lot of attention to space station missions, but I think normally there isn't a ton of attention on them. And people don't know that they actually, like, they were nowhere near setting records for the amount of time spent up there. The people who spent over a year on the space station, they were still, you know, months away from that. So they were not in any danger. They both had, Sunny Williams had actually cumulatively spent more time in space than she spent on this mission prior to this. So, no, they do about two and a half hours of workout a day to be able to maintain muscle and bone mass. They have plenty of food. They actually sent two less astronauts up later, so there was no concern about, like, supplies and stuff. But the good news is we done a lot of research and learned a lot about how to keep people safe in space for anywhere a year or less at this point And the goal is maybe we get the people to stay up there longer so we can have a better understanding for sending people on longer missions to places like Mars in the future Erin, you've got three more microgravity sessions coming up. Is the real thing going to ever happen for you? Is that something you'd like to do someday? We'll see. You know, it's one of those things where, honestly, my dream would be to go to the International Space Station because that's where I've spent so much of my career, like researching and things like that. But sadly, it's going to de-orbit at some time in the near future. So I'm on a bit of a clock for that one. Hey, if a rocket company wants to hit me up, let me know. But we'll see. I've got a lot of life left to live. We'll see how the space industry keeps evolving from here. Well, I hope it happens if that's something that you want. You mentioned the movie The Martian, and I will admit it took me a while to eat a potato after seeing the movie, but then I eat mushrooms, so what's the difference, right? Yeah. You were saying some books, some TV shows, some movies kind of get it right. What are your three bang-on, whether it be television shows, books, or movies, that really started out as fiction that, okay, this is the best, most accurate depiction of space? Yeah, interesting. So I said the Martian is by far because he just, he like researched with NASA people to figure that out. Interstellar is like, obviously there's some parts of that that we're not traveling to other galaxies right now, but that they did some amazing black hole modeling to create like visual models of black holes that have turned into scientific papers based on that. And my niche weird thing, they got their space freezers really accurate. I was like, there's space freezers that they use to store like human like eggs or something like that while they were like on their mission. Looked just like the International Space Station Melfi freezers minus 80 degree freezers up there. So that was I was like, OK, big thumbs up. Someone did their research on that one. Number three, I so I'm a big fan of the Expanse sci fi book TV series. and I feel like that one, interestingly, gets a lot of the human dynamics of it right and kind of like how different groups of humans would kind of be very protective over living on Mars and Earth and their new identities that are not as tied to Earth. So in a different way, I found that one very interesting. Okay, I'll have to check that one out. There have been other things coming up at Expo in Chicago in October. they have certain events and some are off-site. One is the Pinball Olympics. And I think I've seen there where one of the events would be to basically play in, quote-unquote, zero gravity, where you're suspended in the air trying to play a pinball machine. And it's kind of nice to have a little bit of gravity to be able to nudge, to move games around a little bit. I get a kick out of you telling me that when you were younger you found arcades and even played space cadet. And look what you're doing now full-time. I know, right? Hindsight 2020. Who knew I was going to become this? Apparently everyone, looking back at what my hobbies used to be. You know, if you're a young parent and you've got some, you know, you want your children to be happy and do whatever makes them happy and do whatever they want to do. But if you think there's some cool things that, oh, maybe this would be good. You know, I've got friends that put their kids into flight camp at young, young ages. And every friend I know that has done this, as the child has grown up to a young adult, they've all gone to school to become pilots or mechanics or flying helicopters and things like that. So if it comes to space, maybe take them to a few space launches if you can, if you're in the Florida area or maybe a few museums and whatnot. You know, I've been to Washington, D.C. a few times, and the one museum I have not been to, I think it was closed or under renovations last time. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Uh-huh. Air and Space Museum, yeah. I mean, Houston, there's another. I've been to Houston twice and haven't really explored that, quote-unquote, space, but these are some of the best places I need to see. Am I missing other ones? Kennedy Space Center is fantastic. in Florida. And I will say, if you're trying to get your kid into space and you don't live in your only places and can't travel, one of the things I always recommend people doing is looking at Spot the Station. This is a website where you can look up when the International Space Station is going to fly over your house. Wow. Because it's actually the third brightest thing in the sky after the sun and the moon. And it'll tell you, like, when it's going to fly over, what, like, you know, direction it's going to come from and stuff. And it's really cool to be able to see this thing. It goes faster than you would expect and go, there's people living on that in space. It happens almost everywhere in the world. There are certain spots it doesn't fly over, but it's a great way to, again, anywhere in the world, show a kid, that's space and that could be you. It's amazing what warps young minds, and I don't mean that in a negative way by saying warps, but really just, you know, So maybe for me it was seeing a baseball game or seeing somebody hit a home run or being excited by the crowd or whatever it was, and I fell in love with baseball for pinball, playing a pinball machine at a young age. And many of us have talked about this at the time when there were video games and pinball machines. Video games were fun, but they cost a lot of money. Pinball machines, at least you had a chance to get a match or a free game and make the quarter last a little longer. So that's interesting. Again, what is it, Spot the Station? Yeah, exactly. It's a website, and I think NASA's app also has it in there now. Erin, this is great, and I hope to see you someday soon because I find you very fascinating. I recommend people check out your Facebook page, Eric Winnick Anthony, Science Communicator. You've got some great videos. Your content is wonderful. Let's talk about the Women's World Championships and also the Women's North American Championships series that was held at Port City Pinball in New Hampshire. The O'Neills did a great job there. That was maybe one of the greatest finishes I've ever seen. So kudos to all the participants. Kaylee Campbell was an unstoppable force until Kerry Wing said, I just need to be down 3-0 and then down by a billion on Deadpool. Here we go. So was that not just absolute bonkers to watch and so, so fun? Yeah, it was an absolute blast. And I was watching it at home on Twitch, doing something throughout the day. And then I was like, okay, I got to just sit down and watch this. This is absolutely incredible. And so immediately after it was over, it was so inspiring. I was like, I have to make a video about this. So I sat down and was like, everyone needs to know about this amazing championship that just happened. I made a learning to flip about it. And I was glad I did. All of the competitors had gone out to karaoke or something afterwards, and they were like, oh, my gosh, we saw your video. We were all trying to decompress from all of this, and they appreciated it. So, no, it was super fun. I highly recommend going back and watching the VOD if that's still available. It was very good. Appreciate it. That's an understatement. I contacted you shortly after that to say let's get together on Pinball Profile, and I'm so glad that you joined me today, Erin. Thank you very much. Of course. Thanks for having me. this has been your pinball profile you can find everything on pinballprofile.com we're on instagram twitch x at pinball profile you can email pinballprofile gmail.com we've got a great facebook group as well if you'd like to show your support don't worry the show will always be free but you can do so on patreon.com slash pinball profile thanks to rodney c to nick and to bart v to stefan r sean i and others we really appreciate that enjoyed our time here on earth for now with Erin Winnick-Anthony. Maybe someday, who knows? I'm Jeff Teolas. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 1d66ad13-78c1-489a-8c91-e4e2964aa804*