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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

[encore] 454: On a Spaceship Somewhere, Long After Empire's Collapse by Jesús I. Valles

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s poem is On a Spaceship Somewhere, Long After Empire's Collapse by Jesús I. Valles.


The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on August 20, 2020.


In this episode, Tracy writes… “The message from the stars is simple: it doesn’t have to be this way. I hope we humans might change of our own volition. Barring that, I’m game for celestial intervention.”


Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

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0:00.0

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1:00.1

Hey there, it's Major. As we take a look back at the slowdown's deep well of episodes,

1:05.7

we're revisiting some standout moments from past hosts. Today, we're going into the vault to bring you an episode from

1:13.3

Tracy K. Smith, one of the voices that helped shape the slowdown into what it is today. This is just

1:20.2

one of the many special selections from our archives. I'm Tracy K. Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

1:40.9

The very first stories of the supernatural that spoke to me were Bible stories.

1:48.4

Maybe what's so interesting about the tales of Christ's miracles is that they're so analog.

1:55.5

No space vehicles, no bleeping communication devices, just mountains, water, ancient dusty cities.

2:06.2

Nevertheless, those gospels are tales of visitation from beyond our galaxy.

2:13.2

Growing up in the church, there were so many prohibitions on what I was supposed to believe.

2:19.3

Dinosaurs were problematic as they threatened to infringe upon the validity of the Bible's

2:25.8

creation story. And if aliens reached us, wouldn't they throw a wrench into God's plans for the

2:32.6

second coming? Being an obedient child, I allowed a number

...

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