Hello, SFIA audio listeners.

In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content,

check out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

Diplomats definitely don't get enough credit for avoiding Galactic Wars.

Serving as an ambassador on an alien world is much like a foreigner trying to understand local slang.

Just when you think you've got it, you inadvertently insult someone's mother, which is a really bad idea when dealing with insectoid

high races.

Welcome back to another sci-fi Sunday, here on SFIA, where we examine concepts popular

in science fiction and ask if they could one day become

science fact, and what that might look like. Today's topic is about alien ambassadors,

both aliens who might visit us as diplomats and our ambassadors to them, and even entire

worlds devoted to serving as meeting grounds for many alien civilizations to meet,

trade, and work together, or possibly meet to debate how they'll conquer the galaxy.

We're also deep dive into the embassy aspect from a couple well-known sci-fi settings like

Babylon 5, the Citadel of Mass Effect, and settings like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Star Gate.

Almost as soon as we started dreaming up alien civilizations, we imagined mean with them,

and wondered what a sustained interaction with those civilizations might look like.

They tended to draw on embassies and consulates from the past and present,

along with various analogies to the United Nations

and other multi-state bodies and confederacies we've seen in our history.

...