Jack Black And His Brother Confirm That Their Mother, Who Helped Save The Apollo 13 Astronauts, Was A Total Badass

Jack Black and his brother Neil Siegel made a special appearance this week on the podcast "Periodic Talks" to talk about their late mother Judith Love Cohen, an aerospace engineer who was credited with helping create the Abort-Guidance System, which helped assist in the rescue of the Apollo 13 astronauts.

Cohen's story went viral earlier this year from a post on the subreddit Today I Learned, which linked to a story from Jason Kottke's blog that quoted Siegel's 2016 obituary about his mom:

My mother usually considered her work on the Apollo program to be the highlight of her career. When disaster struck the Apollo 13 mission, it was the Abort-Guidance System that brought the astronauts home safely. Judy was there when the Apollo 13 astronauts paid a "thank you" [visit] to the TRW facility in Redondo Beach.

Siegel additionally included a story about how his mom solved a engineering problem while she was in labor with Jack.

"She actually went to her office on the day that Jack was born… When it was time to go to the hospital, she took with her a computer printout of the problem she was working on. Later that day, she called her boss and told him that she had solved the problem. And… oh, yes, the baby was born, too."

A few months later, the story went viral again when science TikToker Maren Hunsberger recounted the tale again with a twist ending.

Black and Siegel, making their first joint interview, confirmed the story during a talk with Gillian Jacobs and Diona Reasonover. Their interview begins at 28:52.

In one highlight from the podcast, Siegel revealed that Black's role in "Orange County," co-starring with Colin Hanks, brought together Judith Love Cohen and Colin Hanks' father Tom, star of "Apollo 13," who had a spirited discussion about the space mission.