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

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

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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

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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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