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In this episode, host Tom Betti is joined by three special guests - Pan Am flight attendant Karen Walker Ryan and adoptees Carol Mason and Dr. Matt Steiner - to mark the 51st anniversary of Operation Babylift, the frantic evacuation ordered by U.S. President Gerald R. Ford of Vietnamese war orphans in the final days of Saigon in 1975.

But this episode is about more than history. It is about what happens to people after history moves through them. It is about memory, identity, and the bonds that form in the most unlikely of circumstances. It is about three people whose lives were bound together by a single flight fifty years ago - and who have never let go of each other since.

Karen Walker Ryan served as a Pan Am flight attendant from 1969 to 1978. She volunteered to fly into Saigon in the final days of the war, and her photograph holding baby Carol Mason was later published on the cover of Reader's Digest. Karen has stayed in close contact with several of the children from that flight ever since. Her story, and her decades-long bond with Carol and Matt, was featured on ABC's Good Morning America and ABC's 20/20.

Carol Mason was five months old when she was airlifted out of Vietnam on the second Operation Babylift flight. She grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and learned about her own story at age 25 when her mother spotted Karen's photograph in a magazine. Hers is a story about what it means to search for yourself - and what you find when you finally do.

Dr. Matthew Steiner was born in Vientiane, Laos in 1966 and raised in a Saigon orphanage before being evacuated to the United States at age nine through Operation Babylift. He went on to become a high school valedictorian, and today serves as an emergency physician helping patients facing life-threatening conditions. The boy who once needed saving, now doing the saving.

This episode also features an original song, "Waking Up American," performed by Jared Rehberg - himself a Babylift adoptee - at the Pan Am Museum's 50th Anniversary event in Garden City, New York. Jared composed the song years earlier as a meditation on growing up between two worlds, and it is the only way this episode could end.

Please watch the 13-minute documentary Operation Babylift: A Celebration of the Human Spirit.

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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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In this episode, we are joined by Al Gilbert, known by his friends and family as Ace, a former Pan Am reservations employee and the author of Pan Am Stories: You Can't Make This Up.

Al's career at Pan Am gave him a front-row seat to one of the most remarkable chapters in aviation history, and the stories he collected along the way are as funny, surprising, and human as the airline itself.

After leaving Pan Am, Al channeled decades of memories and experiences into his book, a collection of firsthand accounts and tales based on true stories that capture the personality, culture, and spirit of an airline unlike any other.

This episode is a celebration of storytelling, what it means to preserve history through personal narrative, why the Pan Am story deserves to be told, and how even the most unlikely moments can become the ones that stay with you forever.

Over five years and 62 episodes, host Tom Betti has built one of the most distinctive independent history podcasts available, earning nearly 200,000 downloads, a perfect five-star rating on Apple Podcasts, several awards, and listeners in over 180 countries. He did it with no budget, no staff, and no paycheck, driven entirely by a passion for Pan Am history and the belief that great storytelling can make anyone care about a subject they never knew they were missing.

And we open with one of the best: the true story of Felix the cat, who in December of 1987 disappeared into the cargo hold of a Pan Am 747 and didn't surface for 29 days and nearly 180,000 miles.

From the sales and reservation offices of Pan Am to the pages of a book that refuses to let the legend fade, Al Gilbert's story is a reminder that history is best kept alive by the people who lived it, and by the ones who loved it enough to make sure it wasn't forgotten.

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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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In this episode, we are joined by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, a bestselling author, journalist, and adjunct professor at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

A member of the Explorers Club, her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. She is the author of The Stowaway, the true story of a teenager who stowed away on a ship bound for Antarctica during the Jazz Age, and The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the best books of the year by NPR, The New Yorker, and Smithsonian Magazine.

But before our conversation with Laurie, we set the stage, because the Amelia Earhart story is deeply a Pan Am story.

On January 9, 1929, three defining figures of the aviation age stood on the tarmac of Pan Am's new Miami terminal, Juan Trippe, Charles Lindbergh, and Amelia Earhart. Trippe invited Earhart aboard Pan Am's Fokker F-10A, captained by Edwin Musick, for the inaugural flight to Havana.

At the center of that relationship was Fred Noonan, Pan Am's greatest navigator, who charted the transpacific routes.

When Earhart assembled her team in 1937, Noonan was the navigator every conversation kept returning to. Trippe extended Pan Am's full cooperation, and Pan Am mechanics spent a week on her Lockheed Electra in Miami. On July 2, 1937, Earhart and Noonan departed Lae, New Guinea, bound for Howland Island - 2,556 miles of open ocean...and vanished.

This episode also features rare archival audio from the Elgen and Marie Long oral history collection...aired publicly for the first time. Their 220-plus hours of recordings are preserved at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum as the Amelia Earhart Project Recordings. Among those voices is Pan Am's Harry Canaday, recorded in 1985 at age 76, reflecting on Noonan, the Pacific survey flights, and the world that produced the Earhart flight.

These recordings are presented courtesy of David Jourdan of Nauticos and the Smithsonian Institution's Amelia Earhart Project.

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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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In this episode, we are joined by Cheryl Boone Isaacs, a former Pan Am stewardess from 1972 to 1974 who went on to build an extraordinary career in Hollywood.

Her journey is a remarkable one that spans aviation, Hollywood, and film education. She began her professional career as a Pan Am stewardess from 1972 to 1974, an experience that gave her a global perspective and a deep appreciation for storytelling and human connection.

After leaving Pan Am, Cheryl moved to San Franscico where she held various jobs. However, she always thought about either going back into aviation or pursuing her dream of being in the film business inspired in part by her brother, Ashley Boone, a pioneering film executive.

Learn more about Ashley here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/he-was-star-wars-secret-weapon-why-was-he-forgotten-1275211/

Through him, she attended an advanced screening of Star Wars before its release in May 1977. That moment proved transformational and solidified her belief that the motion picture industry was where she belonged. So, she packed her bags and moved to Hollywood.

Over the decades that followed, Cheryl worked on the marketing, publicity, and release of some of the most iconic films in cinema history.

Her credits include Forrest Gump, Titanic, The King’s Speech, Braveheart, The Artist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Right Stuff, Once Upon a Time in America, The Wedding Singer, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Spider-Man 2. She also worked on two Indiana Jones films and five Star Trek films.

Behind the scenes, Cheryl broke significant barriers. She became the first African American woman to lead a major studio marketing department at New Line Cinema, and later the first African American to serve as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she guided the organization through a pivotal period of reflection and change.

Today, she continues shaping the future of storytelling as the Founding Director and Professor of Practice at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University (film.asu.edu).

In that role, she mentors students and builds a program grounded in Sidney Poitier’s legacy, emphasizing inclusion, leadership, and real-world industry experience.

From the skies of Pan Am to Hollywood studios and now the classroom, Cheryl Boone Isaacs’ career reflects a lifelong commitment to storytelling, leadership, and opening doors for future generations.

Support the show

• Visit Us for more Pan Am History!
• Support the Podcast!
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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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In this episode, we’re joined by Tania Anderson, who served as a Pan Am flight attendant from 1986 to 1991, navigating a pivotal era of transition, resilience, and global adventure for the world’s most iconic airline.

Today, she still flies, carrying forward the spirit of Pan Am on international charter missions, and she is usually flying on a Boeing 747!

But Tania’s story reaches far beyond her years in uniform. She is an avid lifelong learned traveler and is always making connections and seeking adventure.

Tania has been a Hollywood film extra on productions such as the films Catch Me if You Can and War of the Worlds, as well as, the television series The West Wing.

She is the author of the powerful memoir On Butterflies’ Wings, a deeply personal journey through loss, renewal, and the healing power of human connection.

In her book, Tania intertwines her Pan Am experiences with the transformative events that shaped her life, offering readers a story that is both uplifting and profoundly human.

We’ll talk about Tania’s time with Pan Am, the soul of the airline’s culture, the moments in the sky that changed her, and the experiences—some beautiful, some heartbreaking—that ultimately became the heart of her book, On Butterflies’ Wings. Her book reminds us that even in our most difficult moments, there is grace, strength, and, as she writes, the chance to rise—just like a butterfly.

Click here to purchase On Butterflies' Wings: An Anthology of International Escapades.

She also has an exciting new project in the works for 2026 as the host of an international radio show called “The Global Gratitude Show with Tania Anderson” that will be beamed to more than 150 countries from Brushwood Media.

Support the show

• Visit Us for more Pan Am History!
• Support the Podcast!
• Donate to the Museum!
• Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear!
• Become a Member!

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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, we’re joined by screenwriter Jack Epps, Jr. and his student, up and coming screenwriter Kate Ginley, who is writing a screenplay about Pan Am and Tenerife.

Jack is now a professor and Chair of the Writing for Screen and Television Division at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, also known as USC.

But you probably already know of him from the most iconic aviation films ever made — the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, which he co-wrote with his longtime screenwriting partner, Jim Cash. Starring Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, Top Gun didn’t just redefine aviation movies — it became a cultural phenomenon. It inspired generations of aviators, reignited pride in flight, and set the gold standard for how aviation could be portrayed on screen.

The film was also a popular hit during its run as a featured movie of Pan Am’s Theatre in the Air.

Beyond the breathtaking aerial footage, Top Gun is a brilliant study in the craft of screenwriting — how character, emotion, and story structure come together to create cinematic magic.

After Top Gun, Jack Epps, Jr. and Jim Cash went on to write a series of major Hollywood hits, including Legal Eagles, The Secret of My Success, Dick Tracy, and Turner & Hooch.

Today, Jack brings that same storytelling mastery to his students at USC — shaping the next generation of screenwriters and filmmakers.

In our conversation, we’ll talk about Jack’s remarkable career, his insights into the art and discipline of screenwriting, the enduring legacy of Top Gun, and how Kate is carrying that storytelling spirit forward in her new screenplay about Pan Am and the tragedy at Tenerife.

Support the show

• Visit Us for more Pan Am History!
• Support the Podcast!
• Donate to the Museum!
• Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear!
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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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In this episode we are joined by two special guests, Steve Ford (the youngest son of President and Mrs. Ford) and adoptee Thuy Williams to mark the 50th anniversary of Operation Babylift, the frantic evacuation ordered by U.S. President Gerald R. Ford of Vietnamese war orphans in the final days of Saigon in 1975.

The Pan Am Museum, in partnership with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum, commissioned filmmaker Dirk Braun to create the documentary short film, Operation Babylift: 50 Years Later: 1975-2025, A Celebration of the Human Spirit.

Steve Ford has enjoyed a remarkable acting career spanning over 40 years, with appearances in more than 800 hours of film and television productions. He has worked on over 25 films and numerous guest-lead roles in television.

Early in his career, Steve spent six years playing Andy Richards on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. His film and TV credits include Transformers, Black Hawk Down, Contact, Armageddon, Starship Troopers, Eraser, Heat, When Harry Met Sally, J.A.G., Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Happy Days, along with many others.

Steve is the third and youngest son of President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford. He currently serves on the Board of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.

Adoptee Thuy Williams was born in Ho Chi Minh City in 1970.

When she became an adult, she wanted to serve the country that gave her a second chance by joining the U.S. Army as a tank mechanic.

After serving for eight years, Thuy returned to her adoptive hometown of Portland, Oregon and started her own business, a construction and roofing company called Acme High Performance.

She is also a missionary with One Challenge and a coach of soccer, track, and lacrosse…spending her time traveling the world, using sports to bridge the gap with traumatized people in refugee camps in third-world countries and helps these kids process trauma by using sports as a way to create friendships and smiles. Thuy is on the board the nonprofit Breaking Boundaries, which takes kids from the US to do community service projects in third-world countries.

Like Steve Ford, Thuy is also motivational speaker encouraging people to make a difference in their communities that leaves a lasting legacy for generations to come.

Support the show

• Visit Us for more Pan Am History!
• Support the Podcast!
• Donate to the Museum!
• Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear!
• Become a Member!

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we are joined by Donald Devito who worked for the Pan Am board of directors from the early 1960s until the end of the airline. Also, joining us is his son, Dr. Donald DeVito, a renowned musical educator.

The senior DeVito will share stories working for the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1950s and being hired by Pan Am in the early 1960s to work for the corporate board of directors and founder Juan T. Trippe. He was on a first name basis with Mr. Trippe and coordinated the materials and presentations for board members such as aviation legend Charles Lindbergh and banker James Rockefeller, among others.

His hiring by Pan Am was tied to his cryptography training in the U.S. Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency where he served in the 1950s during the Cold War in Rangoon, the Philippines and Libya.

Don’s son, the junior Dr. Donald DeVito, will share his memories of traveling around the world as a Pan Am kid and how that shaped his career in education. Dr. Don is a music educator at the Rawlings Elementary Center for Fine Arts since 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the University of Florida Online Masters in Music Education program.

From 2001 to 2018 he was the music director and special education teacher at the Sidney Lanier Center, a public school in Gainesville, Florida, for students with disabilities between 3 and 22. The music programs are global in scope and linked online with universities and music programs internationally through research, cooperative music making, and professional music education organizations.

Dr. DeVito was named the 2011 National Teacher of the Year by the Council for Exceptional Children.

The elder Mr. DeVito, his sons, and their families live in Florida. They even have a rescue horse that lives on their farm affectionally named "Clipper" in honor of Pan Am!

Support the show

• Visit Us for more Pan Am History!
• Support the Podcast!
• Donate to the Museum!
• Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear!
• Become a Member!

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!