Episode Details

1918 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
Humanity Long Fascination With Mars
Matthew Shindell, author of For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet: Smithsonian curator Shindell chronicles humanity's evolving relationship with Mars, moving from ancient mythology to modern space exploration. He details how ancient Maya, Chinese astrologers, and Mesopotamians projected human affairs, celestial omens, and agricultural cycles onto the red planet. The narrative outlines Ptolemy's geocentric astronomy, Islamic Golden Agescientific advancements, Dante's spiritual reinterpretation, and Enlightenment natural history. It traces early telescopic observations of Martian "canals" by Schiaparelli, Percival Lowell's theories, and H.G. Wells's science fiction. Finally, it surveys NASA's robotic missions—from Mariner and Viking to the Perseverance rover—and the complexities of human colonization. (1)