Space on the Page

Explores the universe, not via rocket but through ideas. Our guests are authors and scientists: people who think and write about space exploration and the search for life beyond Earth.

  • Audio Recording
    Remembering Our Future in Space How does our history of exploration and identity shape our imagined future in space? How has our past limited us? And, how can science and science fiction help us to transcend these limitations with fuller understanding, broader imagination, and true curiosity? These two speakers are experts on the relationship between past and future.Betül Kaçar is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and leads…
    • Contributor: Nnedi Okorafor - Lucas Mix - Betül Kaçar
    • Date: 2022-04-14
  • Audio Recording
    To Be Taught if Fortunate What do we hope for in space travel and in astrobiology? What is so important about life that we continue to look for it and hope to spread it throughout the galaxy? These two speakers exemplify the well-informed optimism of astrobiology.Rika Anderson studies the co-evolution of organisms and environments. Teaching biology at Carleton College, she deftly weaves here scientific studies into a broader picture…
    • Contributor: Lucas Mix - Rika Anderson - Becky Chambers
    • Date: 2022-04-13
  • Audio Recording
    Life, Jim, but Not as We Know It What does it mean to talk about truly alien life? Can we even imagine what might be out there? And, how will we know what to look for? These two speakers exemplify the careful balance of skepticism and curiosity when talking about alien life.Frank Rosenzweig teaches biology and astrobiology at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on understanding major transitions in biology, including the origins…
    • Contributor: Frank Rosenzweig - Lucas Mix - John Scalzi
    • Date: 2022-04-13
  • Audio Recording
    Mars Future: Humans on the Red Planet For decades, people have fantasized about going to Mars, yet a human expedition to the red planet remains just that—a dream. NASA, other space agencies, and private entrepreneurs are taking concrete steps toward that goal, but science journalist David Whitehouse says we must still overcome many constraints and risks—biological, technological, and social—before we see the first footprint in red Martian soil. Whitehouse is author…
    • Contributor: David Baron - David Whitehouse
    • Date: 2022-03-16
  • Audio Recording
    Mars Past: The Canal Builders At the start of the twentieth century, a Mars “craze” struck Earth. Humans went wild with speculation that the red planet might harbor an advanced civilization. Historian of astronomy William Sheehan explains the science that spawned this imaginative idea. It all began with an optical illusion—a network of lines on Mars that some astronomers believed were irrigation canals. Sheehan is the author, with Jim…
    • Contributor: David Baron - William Sheehan
    • Date: 2022-03-16
  • Audio Recording
    Mars Present: The Search for Microbial Life The hunt for life on Mars has entered a new phase. NASA’s Perseverance Rover is collecting rock samples that, when returned to Earth, may reveal whether life once existed on the red planet (and perhaps still does). Biologist Sarah Stewart Johnson explains how new discoveries about Mars and a better understanding of life on Earth have propelled this quest, and she ponders what the…
    • Contributor: David Baron - Sarah Stewart Johnson
    • Date: 2022-03-16