Forum From the Archives: Rebecca Boyle on How the Moon ‘Made Us Who We Are’

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever since our moon formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago, it has “conduct(ed) the symphony of life on Earth.” That’s according to lifelong moon enthusiast and science journalist Rebecca Boyle, who says that the moon has influenced modern science, reproduction, migration, religious rituals and even possibly the blood in our veins. Boyle’s new book is “Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are,” and she joins us to talk about how the moon has inspired and guided human history and to share the pleasure of looking up at the night sky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:33.5	From KQED.
0:50.4	The From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim, and happy 4th of July.
0:55.2	Coming up on forum, if you smell fireworks tonight, you might have a sense of how the moon smells.
1:00.9	That's according to lifelong moon enthusiast and science journalist Rebecca Boyle.
1:04.8	Her new book, Our Moon, helps us really get to know the moon, our nightly companion that, yes, influences our tides,
1:12.0	but also life on Earth and how we evolved.
1:15.4	Well, listen back to my January conversation about the moon's influence on our biology,
1:20.3	how it dominated our way of telling time, and how it dominates our imaginations.
1:25.5	That's next. After this news.
1:36.3	Music dominates our imaginations. That's next. After this news. I'm Mina Kim. Welcome to Forum. Rebecca Boyle has described herself as a lifelong moon enthusiast,
1:43.0	who wanted to be an astronaut and went
1:44.9	to space camp before deciding she'd rather study it from afar. And her research did not disappoint.
	...

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