Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur explores humanity’s long-term future through space exploration, advanced technology, and big-picture science. Hosted by National Space Society President Isaac Arthur, each episode uses real science and careful speculation to examine space colonization, megastructures, artificial intelligence, post-scarcity economies, and the physics shaping civilization beyond Earth.
Latest episodes
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36 min
The Fermi Paradox: Civilization Extinction Cycles
What if alien civilizations are common, but keep collapsing before they can spread across the galaxy?We explore civilization extinction cycles as a solution to the Fermi Paradox: n…
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36 min
The Fermi Paradox: Civilization Extinction Cycles (Narration Only)
What if alien civilizations are common, but keep collapsing before they can spread across the galaxy?We explore civilization extinction cycles as a solution to the Fermi Paradox: n…
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47 min
The Future of Elections: Who Votes, How We Vote, and What Comes Next
Elections look simple until you ask what they’re meant to measure. From ranked voting and redistricting to online ballots, AI, and paper records, we explore how future elections mi…
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47 min
The Future of Elections: Who Votes, How We Vote, and What Comes Next (Narration Only)
Elections look simple until you ask what they’re meant to measure. From ranked voting and redistricting to online ballots, AI, and paper records, we explore how future elections mi…
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35 min
Colonizing the Multiverse: Beyond the Kardashev Scale Into Infinite Universes
Why colonize one universe when reality may offer infinitely many? We explore alternate Earths, multiversal travel, dangerous new worlds, and the rise of Omega-class civilizations s…
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35 min
Colonizing the Multiverse: Beyond the Kardashev Scale Into Infinite Universes (Narration Only)
Why colonize one universe when reality may offer infinitely many? We explore alternate Earths, multiversal travel, dangerous new worlds, and the rise of Omega-class civilizations s…
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26 min
Civilizations at the Galactic Center: Thriving at the Core (Narration Only)
Could the most dangerous part of the Milky Way also be its most valuable? We explore civilizations at the galactic center, where dense stars, extreme radiation, black holes, and va…
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27 min
Civilizations at the Galactic Center: Thriving at the Core
Could the most dangerous part of the Milky Way also be its most valuable? We explore civilizations at the galactic center, where dense stars, extreme radiation, black holes, and va…
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32 min
Could We Create Artificial Universes? Narration Only)
What if the ultimate technology isn’t a starship, but a universe? We explore simulated worlds, baby universes, black holes, false vacuum bubbles, and whether civilization could one…
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33 min
Could We Create Artificial Universes?
What if the ultimate technology isn’t a starship, but a universe? We explore simulated worlds, baby universes, black holes, false vacuum bubbles, and whether civilization could one…
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28 min
White Holes: Do They Exist?
White holes are black holes run backward: nothing can enter, but matter and light can escape. We explore whether these strange solutions could exist, connect to black holes, or eve…
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28 min
White Holes: Do They Exist? (Narration Only)
White holes are black holes run backward: nothing can enter, but matter and light can escape. We explore whether these strange solutions could exist, connect to black holes, or eve…
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36 min
Mining Mercury: The First Planetary Industrial Base (Narration Only)
Mercury may be the Solar System’s first true industrial world. We explore robotic mines, solar furnaces, mass drivers, mobile cities, and how the innermost planet could help build…
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37 min
Mining Mercury: The First Planetary Industrial Base
Mercury may be the Solar System’s first true industrial world. We explore robotic mines, solar furnaces, mass drivers, mobile cities, and how the innermost planet could help build…
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34 min
Making Gasoline from: Air The Science of Synthetic Fuel (Narration Only)
What if we could make gasoline from air? We explore how carbon dioxide, water, and electricity can become synthetic gasoline, jet fuel, rocket propellant, plastics, and more.Get Ne…
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34 min
Making Gasoline from: Air The Science of Synthetic Fuel
What if we could make gasoline from air? We explore how carbon dioxide, water, and electricity can become synthetic gasoline, jet fuel, rocket propellant, plastics, and more.Get Ne…
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41 min
The Economics of Immortality
What happens when time stops being scarce? From nanobots to mind uploads, we explore the economy of immortality... and what it costs to live forever.Get Nebula using my link for 50…
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41 min
The Economics of Immortality (Narration Only)
What happens when time stops being scarce? From nanobots to mind uploads, we explore the economy of immortality... and what it costs to live forever.Get Nebula using my link for 50…
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33 min
The Prison Planet Problem - Exiled to Space (Narration Only)
Would we ever colonize space with prisoners? From penal colonies to prison planets, we explore whether exile could become a second chance, a new civilization, or a nightmare with r…
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33 min
The Prison Planet Problem - Exiled to Space
Would we ever colonize space with prisoners? From penal colonies to prison planets, we explore whether exile could become a second chance, a new civilization, or a nightmare with r…