Last week, the well-known and well-loved park skier, LJ Strenio, posted a photo of a letter — from NASA — that was congratulating him on being accepted as an intern to the Armstrong Flight Research Facility.

Wait, what?

Turns out, it wasn’t a joke.

But how does a park skier from Vermont, this star of the LINE Traveling Circus, this guy who once served as Vin Diesel’s stunt double, and this guy who has a 29-minute crash reel that is, frankly, almost as hard to watch as it is inspiring to watch — how does this guy get accepted to work for NASA?

And this is exactly why we should never pigeonhole people. I knew LJ to be this super-likeable knucklehead who had a thing for destroying himself on rails and pillars, a guy who didn’t know when to quit. But I clearly didn’t know the half of it, and LJ was gracious enough to set me straight and to give me the full story. The result is a great conversation with an extremely interesting, bright, dedicated, and passionate guy.

And … seriously, please promise that you will go watch LJ’s “Real Ski” video and “Real Attempt” video if you haven’t seen them already. Real Ski is an impressive 90-second edit that LJ submitted for X-Games, and that won him a bronze medal and the popular vote. And Real Attempt is a hellacious 29-minute crash reel that is the absolute embodiment of flat-out, full-on commitment. LJ and I talk a good bit about Real Attempt, and he shares some things about the filming process that he hasn’t talked about anywhere else. It is fascinating, LJ’s entire life is fascinating, and we are excited to share this conversation with you.