Andy Weir spills the space tea on Ryan Gosling and Project Hail Mary

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Science Quickly, author Andy Weir joins SciAm’s Bri Kane to talk all things Project Hail Mary—from working with Ryan Gosling on the new film adaptation of the book to building the extraterrestrial character Rocky’s alien world and blending real science with playful fiction. And Weir explains why he himself would never volunteer for a space mission. Recommended Reading: Ryan Gosling says Project Hail Mary is ‘a reminder of what we’re capable of’ E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was co-hosted by Bri Kane and edited by Alex Sugiura and Marta Hill. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, are all the traitors present?
0:02.0	Let's get started, shall we?
0:04.0	From rags to riches.
0:06.0	I'm so sick of this.
0:07.0	Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:09.0	Yorkshire to New York.
0:10.0	Poor climbers, you and me.
0:12.0	A life dedicated to revenge.
0:14.0	Let's make this an occasion to remember.
0:17.0	A Woman of Substance on Channel 4.
0:19.0	Stream now.
0:20.0	... A Woman of Substance on Channel 4, stream now.
0:35.8	For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Kendra Pura-Lewiluess, in for Rachel Feldman.
0:46.0	Please state your name.
0:48.8	Riley, Grace, I spoke up from a coma.
0:52.0	I'm several light years from my apartment.
0:55.0	And I'm not an astronaut. I'm not an astronaut.
0:58.0	I'm not an astronaut.
1:00.0	If you don't go, you die.
1:02.0	We're the rest of us.
1:08.0	That's the new sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary, where Ryan Gosling plays a science teacher thrown into space with no idea how he got there.
1:16.5	The film is based on the novel written by Andy Weir.
	...

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