"I was given geodes as a child, and I always thought of them as these magical things. Living in Southern California, my family would take road trips in the summer and we’d drive through this area outside of Death Valley called Red Rock. There were these amazing desert formations. I would sit in the backseat and dream. I knew there had to be geodes out there, and I’d fantasize about finding one and being able to crack it open, a treasure that no one’s ever seen before. That really excited me — the idea that there could be something that had been there for thousands or millions of years, and that you’d be the first person to see it."