PREVIEW: How did dante see Mars? Matthew Shindell, author, For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet Hardcover – May 18, 2023 by Matthew Shindell (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2023
⏱️ 2 minutes
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PREVIEW: How did dante see Mars? Matthew Shindell, author, For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet Hardcover – May 18, 2023 by Matthew Shindell (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Mars-Human-History-Planet/dp/0226821897/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Mars and its secrets have fascinated and mystified humans since ancient times. Due to its vivid color and visibility, its geologic kinship with Earth, and its potential as our best hope for settlement, Mars embodies everything that inspires us about space and exploration. For the Love of Mars surveys the red planet’s place in the human imagination, beginning with ancient astrologers and skywatchers and ending in our present moment of exploration and virtual engagement.
National Air and Space Museum curator Matthew Shindell describes how historical figures across eras and around the world have made sense of this mysterious planet. We meet Mayan astrologer priests who incorporated Mars into seasonal calendars and religious ceremonies; Babylonian astrologers who discerned bad omens; figures of the Scientific Revolution who struggled to comprehend it as a world; Victorian astronomers who sought signs of intelligent life; and twentieth- and twenty-first-century scientists who have established a technological presence on its surface. Along the way, we encounter writers and artists from each of these periods who take readers and viewers along on imagined journeys to Mars.
By focusing on the diverse human stories behind the telescopes and behind the robots we know and love, Shindell shows how Mars exploration has evolved in ways that have also expanded knowledge about other facets of the universe. Captained by an engaging and erudite expert, For the Love of Marsis a captivating voyage through time and space for anyone curious about Curiosity and the red planet.
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Lionsgate Plus. |
| 0:04.3 | The third season of Alliancegate Plus original series The Great is streaming exclusively on |
| 0:08.6 | Lionsgate Plus. |
| 0:10.1 | Follow Catherine the second play by L Fanning and Peter The Great, played by Nicholas |
| 0:13.7 | Holt, as they hilariously attempt to make their marriage work after some seemingly insurmountable |
| 0:18.2 | problems. |
| 0:19.2 | From attempt to murder and the imprisonment of close friends to their never-ending legal |
| 0:22.6 | responsibilities. |
| 0:24.0 | The Great, season three is streaming exclusively on Lionsgate Plus. |
| 0:30.0 | This is John Bachelor. |
| 0:31.4 | I speak with author and space historian Matthew Schindell. |
| 0:35.0 | His new book is for the love of Mars. |
| 0:37.2 | And we address Mars because Dante, the famous Renaissance poet, had a different view of |
| 0:44.0 | Mars. |
| 0:45.0 | He no longer wanted to argue that it was the God of War and that it was covered in blood. |
| 0:50.9 | So listen to Matthew and know that Dante went against the popular trend. |
| 0:56.7 | Here's Matthew. |
| 0:57.9 | Yeah, I was a little surprised by that. |
| 0:59.9 | I mean, Dante does something really interesting. |
| 1:03.0 | He's kind of, if you will, forced to make Mars more positive than it's usually depicted. |
| 1:08.7 | Because when he has come out of hell in purgatory, he's going now up into the heavenly spheres |
| 1:14.2 | and all of the planets now have to represent a virtue, as opposed to a vice. |
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