May 12, 2021

Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary (#147)

1 hour 7 minutes

Andy Weir built a two-decade career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian, allowed him to live out his dream of writing full-time. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of such subjects as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight.

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About Project Hail Mary

A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this incredible new science-based thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian–while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

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Chapters

00:10:43 Did building things come naturally to you as reflected in the ingenuity of your characters?

12:00:00 How do you balance realism and scientific fact with a fictional narrative?

00:16:08 Could you really mobilize resources at a planetary scale?

00:19:00 Do you think it's realistic to turn an amateur avocation into a career?

00:20:48 Is there too much UFOlogy? What's your stance on SETI and UFOs?

00:25:24 Do you think we've been going about SETI the wrong way?

00:28:52 Do you think we really could communicate with an alien civilization?

00:31:46 Rapid-fire questions!

00:46:45 Would you ever want to teach?

00:48:00 What could UCSD have done better during your tenure here?

00:55:00 What science fiction novel would you make into a movie if you could?

00:55:35 Final Thrilling Three Questions: Ethical will, billion-year monument, advice to your younger self.

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