This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

For centuries, humans have looked up into the night sky and wondered, are we alone in the universe?

The possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos remains one of the great mysteries,

and one that I don't expect to see resolved in my lifetime.

But for a brief period heading into the 20th century, much of the Western world believed that

this question, are we alone, had finally been answered. Because we had discovered evidence of an

advanced alien civilization living on Mars.

Alexander Graham Bell wrote that he thought there was no question that there was intelligent life on Mars.

There were professors at Harvard and Yale and Brown, Ivy League institutions, who were totally on board with this.

To the point where in the end of 1907, the Wall Street Journal

said the biggest news of the year was proof of intelligent life on Mars.

This is David Barron, a science journalist and author of a new book called The Martians,

the true story of an alien craze that captured turn-of-the-century America.

David says that news of extraterrestrial life at that time permeated the culture.

Martians were everywhere.

You'd see Martians depicted in Broadway plays and vaudeville skits.

There were songs about the Martians in Tin Pan Alley music.

There were Martians in advertising.

There was a Martian in the comics, a guy named Mr. Skygack from Mars, who was in newspapers

across the country.

I recently spoke with David about his book, and so much of it still resonates with

debates that we're having today about science, expertise, and truth.

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