Trailer
Welcome to Making New Worlds, a podcast about the ethical issues of human settlements in space. Here’s a quick trailer to give you a taste of the kinds of questions the podcast will explore. Please...
View ArticleEp 01: Why Are We Going?
Welcome to the first episode of Making New Worlds: Why Are We Going? Examining our motivations for settling space. We talk to historian Donna Gabaccia about the historical reasons for human migration...
View ArticleEp 02: Who Gets to Go?
Before we can head out into space, we have to ask: Who gets to go? What will the population of space settlers look like? Who will be allowed to go, and who will be left behind? Historian Donna Gabaccia...
View ArticleEp 03: Who Owns Mars?
Once we’ve taken that giant leap for mankind and have set foot on a new world, we have to ask: Who actually owns the land we’re standing on? If you’re planning on making your fortune in space by mining...
View ArticleEp 04: Where’s My Money?
Once we’ve reached out space settlements, what do we do next? What kind of jobs will be available, and what kind of economy will we have? What kinds of rights do we have as workers in space, and what...
View ArticleEp 05: What If Someone Steals My Stuff?
How will we handle it when someone breaks the rules of our new societies in space? Who decides whether they’re guilty? Do we need to build space prisons? Or are there alternative forms of justice we...
View ArticleEp 06: Who’s in Charge?
Who will make the decisions in future space settlements? Will they be governed remotely by nations on Earth? Will settlements develop their own local governments? How will conflicts between settlements...
View ArticleCall for Feedback
Making New Worlds will resume in 2018, but today we have a quick announcement to make about our upcoming audience feedback episode. The transcript for this announcement is below. Hi, everyone! This is...
View ArticleEp 07: What If I Want to Have Kids?
How do we sustain a stable population in our future space settlements? Do we require settlers to reproduce? How do we limit population growth when resources are scarce? What rights do children born in...
View ArticleEp 08: Should We Make Mars More Like Earth?
How do we balance out our hunger for resources in space with the desire to preserve the space environment for future generations? Will something inherently valuable and important be lost when we start...
View ArticleEp 09: What If There’s Already Life on Mars?
How do we make sure we don’t bring harmful extraterrestrial microorganisms back to Earth from space? How do we keep our Earth microbes from contaminating potentially habitable worlds like Mars or...
View ArticleEp 10: What If I Get Sick?
How can we prepare for medical emergencies in a space settlement? What equipment should we bring? What kinds of doctors? When resources are limited, who do we decide to treat first? Physician Ken...
View ArticleEp 11: Which Way Is Mecca?
How will people of faith adapt their religious practices to the space environment? How will our cultural values help us adapt to life in space? Christian theologian Michael Waltemathe and Muslim...
View ArticleEp 12: What Do You Think?
What do you think about the space settlement ethics topics we’ve covered in the podcast so far? This episode includes comments and feedback from members of the Making New Worlds audience. The...
View ArticleEp 13: Should We Settle Space?
For the last episode of Making New Worlds, we ask the question we skipped at the very beginning: Should we settle space? Featuring answers by many of our guests from previous episodes. The transcript...
View ArticleEp 14: Book Announcement
A special five-years-later bonus episode, with updates on a few projects that might interest listeners of Making New Worlds. You can preorder Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in...
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