Moon Rock Heists, Part One: Lunatic Heists and Space Law

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.3 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is it legal to own a moon rock? Well... that depends. If it's a piece of the moon that made it to Earth naturally, then all good. If, however, it's a sample retrieved on purpose by NASA's Apollo program, you can get in some serious trouble for trying to snag it. In part one of this two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max explore what happens when powerful private collectors try to get their hands on forbidden moon rocks.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome back to the show.
0:28.0	Fellow ridiculous historians.
0:29.8	Thank you, as always so much for tuning in.
0:33.3	Who's that regular man on the moon?
0:35.6	Why, it's none other than our super producer, Mr. Max Williams. Max Moonman Williams. Mm-hmm. Yes, a lunar tick, if ever there was. You are Noel Brown. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've never been to the moon. I don't even think it's real, to be honest. And I am Ben Boland. Wait, are you ever?
0:54.9	Oh, thanks.
0:55.8	Who very much believes in the reality of the moon, if I'm not mistaken.
0:59.3	Oh, gosh.
1:00.2	You know, everybody has these childhood dreams of what they will be when they grow up.
1:05.9	And once upon a time, true story, Noel, I aspired to be the first werewolf on the moon.
1:12.8	I had it all figured out.
1:14.6	How are you planning on getting lycanthropy, getting the bite?
1:19.3	How are you going to expose yourself to this malady?
1:22.1	Well, that's what they would call a sunk cost, that malign in particular.
1:26.4	The idea was if you're always on the moon, then you're not, you know, vulnerable to the various
1:34.7	downfalls of lycanthropy.
1:36.8	But you'll riddle me this.
1:38.8	What do we get when we cross an aspiring astronaut, a whirlwind summer fleeing.
1:45.7	Shout out to our research associate, the one and only Jordan,
1:49.8	and a safe full of priceless moon rocks.
1:53.3	What do we get?
1:54.3	Well, we get ridiculous history, Ben.
	...

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