meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Throughline

The Stars (2020)

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.715K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Astrology has existed for thousands of years and has roots that span the globe. But is it a science or a religion or just a kind of personality test? And why is it more popular than ever? This week, the story of how finding our fates in the stars moved from the fringes to the mainstream and became a multi-billion dollar industry.

[This episode originally aired on February 20, 2020]

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Love cools, friendship falls

0:20.0

off, brothers divide, in cities, mutinies, in countries, discord, in palaces, treason.

0:33.5

To me astrology is the influence of the planet's sun and moon on life on earth. It goes back to

0:41.8

an indeterminate time. It began in Mesopotamia when it was mainly for the kings and spread

0:48.0

to Egypt and from there to ancient Greece. And as Andhra's poise is a pre-Napopoliger,

0:55.0

pis de beodiborus, nadiavas, ito mellus, taster. Fonus eto nea, vtoto astrolo,

1:01.0

spread out through the crackle of the world into the Byzantine world, the Arab world and so on.

1:09.0

I was a diar, a diar, a diar, a diar, a diar, a diar, a diar, a diar, a diar.

1:14.0

You were a poise that had their astrologers and were leaders that had their astrologers.

1:21.0

And even the greatest astrologers then were also astrologers.

1:25.0

So somebody like Kaplar. He was an astrologer.

1:29.0

That patholomy, St. Thomas Aquinas, Algruni, the greatest Islamic scholar of the Middle Ages,

1:36.0

Shakespeare had some knowledge of it. It always had a learned and highly educated

1:42.0

clientele and group of adherents.

1:49.0

But with what they call the Enlightenment, science became dominant.

1:54.0

Thinking became more, I wouldn't say, irreligious but secular.

1:59.0

And people saw things a different way.

2:01.0

The rise of reason has something to worship in itself.

2:07.0

That man is the measurable things. People can figure out everything for themselves,

2:13.0

explain everything, and in effect explain it away.

2:18.0

And that was when astrology fell into this favor.

2:32.0

A man who lived a long time ago believed that he could read the future in the stars.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.