Why? with Emma Kennedy

The Moon captivates the human imagination, inspiring artistic creativity, religious fervour and scientific exploration. But what if it were destroyed in some cosmic accident – or by scientific meddling? What would happen to the Earth and its inhabitants? And could humanity survive without it?  

Emma Kennedy talks to two space experts – award-winning astrophysicist Professor Ethan Siegel and astronomy journalist Dr. Stuart Clark – about the implications of an enormous cosmic event. 

Check out Ethan's Starts with a Bang blog here.

Buy Stuart Clark's Beneath the Night: How the Stars Have Shaped the History of Humankind and Ethan Siegel's Infinite Cosmos through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.   

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Most of us think we’re too smart, stable and strong-willed to join a religious cult, or to cut ourselves off from our families to join a group devoted to a charismatic leader. But clearly somebody’s joining them. So why do people willingly give up their free will and independence to join cults? Do they realise what they’re getting themselves into? And how do they get out?

Emma Kennedy is joined by world-leading cult deprogrammer Rick Alan Ross and NXIVM cult survivor Sarah Edmondson to explore the strange allure of the cult mindset.   

Buy Sarah Edmondson’s book Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

You can watch Sarah’s fantastic Ted Talk here.

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.  

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The podcast for curious minds. Every Thursday, Emma Kennedy delves into the science and psychology of why we are the way we are. Emma is joined by leading experts and some of science's brightest minds to answer the big questions you never knew how to ask.

Why do people join cults? Why do we need the moon? Why are we drawn to evil? Why do we have fetishes?

Find out all of this and more on Why? from the makers of Oh God, What Now?, The Bunker and Paper Cuts.

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ALERT! Get yourself over to the Oh God, What Now? YouTube channel right now for all-night second-screen coverage of the election with all your favourite presenters. Coverage starts just before 10pm and runs til late… or early!

And if you’ve got questions, Tweet us at @OhGodWhatNowPod. The panel will answer as many as they can.

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From Terminators and Cylons to the War Droids from Star Wars, military robots are staples of science fiction. But they’re already here in the real world too. The US, China and Russia are all investing efforts into military machines – but they won’t be the gun-toting humanoids we see onscreen. Would taking human fighters off the battlefield increase the peace? Or should we be gravely concerned about this new era of international war?  

Today on Why?, Emma Kennedy speaks to Kelsey Atherton, an award-winning military-tech journalist and Chief Editor of the International Policy Journal.  

• “Militaries are deeply invested in the idea that things flow from the top.... The more autonomy you give a machine the harder it is to put in command and control.” - Kelsey Atherton 

• “If a robot makes an error, it’s on the person who programmed it… these weapons are brought to battle with errors built in.” - Kelsey Atherton 

WHY? is written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Anne Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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It’s been 52 years since humans last stepped onto the moon, and NASA is determined to set up a permanent base there. But there are huge challenges to overcome - not least surviving brain-damaging solar radiation and bone-wasting partial gravity.  

Today on Why?, Luke Turner speaks to Clive Neal, Professor of Planetary Geology at Notre Dame University currently working with NASA on their next moon mission and find out exactly how they plan to build a long-lasting habitat.  

• “What we’ve learned during and since Apollo, is that the moon is a very hostile environment, but now we understand the nature of that hostility. And that understanding is key to being able to keep humans alive on the surface of the moon – not only to survive, but to thrive.” - Clive Neal 

• “Radiation and humans don’t miss in the long term. Radiation is much more intense in the lunar environment. So a human habitat on the moon would have to be buried beneath about two meters of regolith to protect them.” - Clive Neal 

Written and presented by Luke Turner. Produced by Anne-Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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Most of us would like to live for as long as possible, given we’re in good health. But the definition of a long life is changing, and the rapid advancement of anti-ageing technologies could transform the idea of immortality from fantasy to reality. So the question isn’t so much can we live forever, but should we?

Anna Machin talks to Dr Stephen Cave, Director of the Institute for Technology and Humanity at the University of Cambridge, and co-author of Should You Choose To Live Forever? A Debate, to find out.

• “If we’re serious about pursuing longer lives, we have to get really, really serious about making those lives sustainable”.

• “With life-extension and anti-ageing technologies, the effects will be enormous. Many of them will be beyond what we can imagine right now. If we’re going to pursue them, we need to think of what we can do to maximise the benefits, and manage the risks.”

WHY? is written and presented by Anna Machin. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard and Anne-Marie Luff. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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Humanity has always been fascinated by the prospect of living on another planet – and our nearest neighbour is the prime candidate. Could we create livable space on Mars? What would we take with us? How would our lives be different? And how would human society change? As climate change and war make the question more urgent, we ask: Could humans really live on Mars? Anna Machin talks to Why?’s first husband-wife duo, A City on Mars authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, about life for the first Martian settlers.  

• “People talk about Mars as a backup for humanity. But if it means taking so many steps back on human rights, I don’t want that backup. Let’s wait until we can support everyone who is up there.” - Kelly Weinersmith 

• “If we do send humans to Mars, it needs to be done very slowly. It probably won’t happen in my lifetime.” - Kelly Weinersmith 

Buy A City On Mars through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

Written and presented by Anna Machin. Produced by Anne-Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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With the news full of war, terror and natural disasters, it’s increasingly looking like the so-called Doomsday Preppers were on to something after all. But most of us still don’t have a clue what – or how – we’d do in a disaster scenario. So when catastrophe does strike, is there a science behind who is more likely to cope? And what can we do to increase our chances?  

Luke Turner talks to Dr Sarita Robinson, Associate Dean at the University of Central Lancashire and an expert in survival psychology, to find out what it takes to survive when disaster strikes.  

• “Our brain is very switched on to the idea of threats in our environment. Once we’ve established there’s something that will cause us harm, our bodies and brains are very quick to mitigate the risk.” - Dr Sarita Robinson 

• “Cognitive flexibility and optimism are both really helpful to survival in emergency situations.” - Dr Sarita Robinson 

WHY? is written and presented by Luke Turner. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard and Anne-Marie Luff. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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Everything goes extinct eventually. When will it be our turn? And will humans disappear because of shifting tectonic plates, catastrophic natural disasters, the earth being engulfed by the sun… or our own ruinous activities? Basically, how long have we got? 

Dr. Henry Gee, senior editor at Nature and author of A Very Short History of Life on Earth, tells Olly Mann that it isn’t so much a question of if we will go extinct, but when and why.  

• “My feeling is that humans will become extinct within the next 10,000 years or so.” – Dr. Henry Gee

• “For most of human history, people have been living at a subsistence level. Populations of humans would become extinct quite regularly. Near-extinction is a feature of human evolution." – Dr. Henry Gee

Buy A Very Short History of Life on Earth through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

WHY? is written and presented by Olly Mann. Produced by Anne-Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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