Meet Oceans, Giraffes, Cheese, and More in Season 7 of Mission Unstoppable

Have you checked out Mission Unstoppable on CBS yet? Now in season 7, this show, hosted by Miranda Cosgrove, sends roving correspondents out to meet amazing women in STEM. One of those is Fig O’Reilly, a former Miss Universe Ireland and NASA Datanaut, and I recently got to chat with her about her five years working on the show.

Fig is not only into STEM, but also into STEAM–putting the arts in science and math, most recently as a producer for Broadway shows. “I think science and art go hand in hand, and for me, as a storyteller, it’s really great to be able to work in other spaces as well, taking my background as a systems engineer and being able to apply […] the methodologies that I’ve learned previously and step into spaces where art is the priority,” she said. Mission Unstoppable meets a lot of interesting careers at that intersection, applying science to fashion, food, and more and putting women in science at the center of it all.

From my own work in the STEAM space, I’ve not only read the research, but seen firsthand that around sixth grade–age 11 or so–is a really critical spot for girls’ interest in science and math. That’s when we see the drop-off, with girls walking away from those interests and never coming back. And that’s exactly the kind of audience Mission Unstoppable is hoping to speak to.

“I didn’t know anyone personally that was a scientist,” Fig said of her own childhood. “Being able to show rather than just tell young people what it looks like to work in these roles, and then cover such a wide range of career paths. I think that really can just pull the curtain back and show young people that hey, this is an option for you for you. It may spark their curiosity; they may see it as something that inspires them.”

But of course, getting to work on a show like this, even as an adult, is a thrill. Talking to Fig, you can see how much she truly enjoys meeting people in such a variety fields and having the chance to learn through her work. So much so that when I asked what her favorite thing she’d learned in the last five years of Mission Unstoppable was, she struggled to choose just one before settling on a season 5 episode, in which the team got to talk to Michelle Peters, research director at Zero Gravity Corporation, about living in microgravity and had the opportunity to simulate that experience with zero gravity flight. “It really felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something that I may not have had the chance to do otherwise,” Fig said. “I started prepping for it, learning all about the experiments that can be done in microgravity, [how the] flight works, and the parabolic nature of the flight of the airplane.”

This season of Mission Unstoppable covers everything from bioengineering and blacksmithing to deodorant and giraffes. You’ll see Fig in that last one, which the screenshot at the top of this post is from: “I got to learn how to take an X-ray of a giraffe’s jaw to make sure that it’s healthy!” she told me.

Mission Unstoppable airs weekends on CBS, and seven episodes of season 7 are now available at CBS.com and on PlutoTV.