Ep 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 Outer Space now from Penguin Random House using discount code PREORDER15. See https://mitpress.mit.edu/discount-codes/ for discount code information.

The transcript for this episode is below.

This… is Making New Worlds

It’s been five years since Making New Worlds ended, so if you’re listening to this episode because you were still subscribed to the podcast… thanks for being such a loyal listener! Or maybe just one who doesn’t tidy up their podcast subscriptions.

I’m recording this bonus episode to update you on some recent Making New Worlds-related projects that you may be interested in

First of all, I’m very excited to announce that I have a book coming out on March 7 called Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space. The book is essentially an expansion of the Making New Worlds podcast: it includes some of the content from this podcast, plus a bunch of new research and interviews I’ve done since the podcast came out.

Basically, if you enjoyed Making New Worlds and just wish there was more of it, you’ll like Off-Earth!

You can pre-order Off-Earth now at any of the major online booksellers. I’ll also put a link in the show notes, along with a preorder discount code you can use if you order through Penguin Random House.

If a 13-episode podcast and an entire book aren’t good enough for you, I also have a free weekly newsletter, also called Making New Worlds, where I write about various topics and recent news stories related to ethics and human space settlement. You can find the Making New Worlds newsletter on Substack.

And finally, just after the podcast wrapped up in 2018, I realized I wanted to do more than just talk and write about how to create better futures in space and on Earth, I also wanted to actively work towards those futures. So along with another astronomer, Lucianne Walkowicz, I co-founded a non-profit organization called the JustSpace Alliance. Our mission is to advocate for a more inclusive and ethical future in space, and to harness visions of tomorrow for a more just and equitable world today. If you’d like to learn more or become a member, you can visit our website at justspacealliance.org.

And that’s what I’ve been up to in the past five years! Thanks again for listening— all the projects I just described grew out of this podcast, which exists because of interest from listeners like you. You can still listen to any of the past episodes, or read the transcripts, at makingnewworlds.com.

This has been Making New Worlds, a podcast by me, Erika Nesvold. Our intro and outtro music is by Herr Doktor.