What Elon Musk Isn't Telling You About Colonizing Mars w/ Zach Weinersmith [Ep. 434]

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Join my mailing list https://briankeating.com/list to win a real 4 billion year old meteorite! All .edu emails in the USA 🇺🇸 will WIN! Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? The allure of a fresh start on a new planet has captivated humans for a very long time, and now, public figures like Elon Musk are trying to make it a reality. But should we? Is it even possible? And how would life on Mars even look like? These are the questions Zach and Kelly Weinersmith tackled with a deep expertise and winning sense of humor in their new book, A City on Mars, which has become an instant bestseller. Zach is a cartoonist and writer best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). Outside of SMBC, he has worked on a sketch comedy series, a podcast, and multiple other webcomics. Kelly, on the other hand, is a biologist, writer, and podcaster. She is a faculty member in the Department of BioSciences at Rice University and an alumni collaborator with the Parasite Ecology Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Today, Zach is joining me on Into the Impossible to discuss whether and how to become multi-planetary. Tune in! Key Takeaways: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:22 Elon Musk’s obsession with Mars 00:04:38 Why Mars? 00:12:11 Why not just build bunkers underground? 00:18:03 Judging a book by its cover 00:19:37 Space psychology 00:29:16 The hard physics of colonizing space 00:36:22 The economics of space exploration 00:43:34 Audience questions 00:56:35 Elon Musk’s bizarre notions about space 01:01:17 Outro — Additional resources: 📝 Get one month of Snipd Premium for free with this link: https://get.snipd.com/Cx7S/brianSnipd Snipd lets you take Smart Notes 🧠 with AI 💡 — it’s my favorite podcast player 😀 ! ➡️ Connect with Zach Weinersmith: 💻 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/zachweinersmith ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZachWeiner/ ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can we build a base on Mars?
0:02.0	Should we settle space?
0:03.0	And have we really thought this through?
0:05.0	These questions echo down the corridors of human ambition
0:08.0	as we contemplate the next frontier, Mars.
0:11.0	Just imagine a world free of climate change war and Twitter. Well, unless that
0:16.5	old Elon joins us, the allure of a fresh start on a new planet, rebooting humanity
0:21.0	has captivated humanity for a very long time and now figures
0:25.2	like trillionaire Elon Musk are trying to make this a reality but should we?
0:30.3	Is it even possible and how would life look like on Mars?
0:33.4	These are the questions Zach and Kelly Wienersmith tackled with a deep dive using their expertise
0:38.0	and winning sense of humor in their latest book, A City on Mars, which became an instant bestseller.
0:43.6	Today, Zach is joining me in the studio to discuss weather and how to become
0:47.6	multi-planetary.
0:49.2	Let's go. Blast off to Mars. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Open the pod bay doors.
1:05.0	Welcome everybody to an exciting out of this world episode of the Into the
1:09.6	Impossible podcast with Zach Wiener Smith who's joining us all the way from his home in Virginia, but down to do a book tour and speak at the UCSD colloquium today. So, Zach, thank you so much for joining us.
1:20.4	I'm excited to talk about space.
1:23.0	We're talking about your book.
1:24.0	We're going to do a lot of things today.
1:25.0	We're going to talk about Elon Musk, who makes not a small, insignificant appearance in this book.
1:30.0	Talk about Antarctica.
	...

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