Our Strange New Era of Space Travel

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.3 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2022

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Humans last set foot on the Moon 50 years ago. Now we’re going back, but the way we explore space—and our relationship to it—has gone through some big changes. “Space is a vacation now… a status symbol,” Marina Koren explains to Adam Harris. The two staff writers discuss this new age of commercial space flight and the changes it’s bringing to how we see our place in the universe. Today’s spaceflight has taken a wider variety of people, billionaires or not,beyond Earth’s gravity. As people with diverse perspectives take the journey, will that complicate how we as a species think about space? Koren also spoke with William Shatner about his trip at age 90 and he reflects on why his experience ran counter to that of his most famed character: Star Trek’s intrepid optimist, Captain Kirk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It can be hard to keep up with everything that's going on in the world.
0:02.9	With Atlantic newsletters, our writers and editors
0:05.6	curate the most important stories on the topics that matter to you,
0:08.9	so you can stay focused on the essentials.
0:11.3	Sign up for free today at theAtlantic.com slash newsletters.
0:16.6	Would you want to go to space?
0:19.2	Um, yes, because it's really cool and interesting.
0:24.2	I want to be a scientist when I grow up.
0:30.2	Would you want to go to space?
0:34.0	Yeah, by one fly rocket ship.
0:38.5	What in space?
0:41.3	Planets and stars and a rocket ship.
0:48.4	I love that so much.
0:50.4	That was really cute.
0:51.7	What is in space? That's a great question.
0:53.8	It's a great question.
0:56.8	This is Radio Atlantic. I'm Adam Harris.
0:59.2	And I'm Marina Corin.
1:00.8	This week on the show, we're talking about space.
1:03.2	We just heard some of our colleagues' kids talking about space.
1:06.1	And as a parent myself, it feels like, you know, the images of space are
1:09.9	inescapable, right?
	...

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