Episode Details

What if the biggest obstacle to humanity's next great frontier isn't the technology, but us? Lt Gen (Ret.) Steven L. Kwast sits down with cohost Jonathan Drake to kick off a new series of first-principles conversations tackling the question no rocket scientist can answer: is natural law universal?

They trade the jet fuel for moral fuel, digging into what the founders actually meant by natural law (spoiler: not "law of the jungle"), why humility, wisdom, and obedience form the only stable launchpad, and how trial by jury was designed as the people's final veto on tyranny. Drake walks through Lysander Spooner's six truths about money and political power, while Kwast shares how his space company is training AI on physics rather than language so it can recognize deception by the laws of nature themselves.

The takeaway is bracing and oddly hopeful. If we head into space without sorting out our relationship with each other first, the revolution will be bathed in blood. If we do the work now, we get peace. No pressure.