Episode 149 - Astronomy & Space

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

This episode we’re talking about Astronomy and Space Non-Fiction! We talk about astronauts, planets, moons, rocks, and more! Plus: We despair about all the math in these books!

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In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
• Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbour by Maggie Aderin-Pocock
  • “Too much information on the Moon.. Was not expecting that.”
• Frequently Asked Questions About the Universe by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson
  • Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe (podcast)
• Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan
• Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong by Greg Brennecka, read by Sean Pratt
• The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers by Emily Levesque

Other Media We Mentioned

• PBS Eons
• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
• Cosmos with Carl Sagan
• Mapping Sam by Joyce Hesselberth
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Links, Articles, and Things

• Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Tweet about the alphabet in alphabetical order
• Bobak Ferdowsi (Wikipedia)
• Jack Parsons (rocket engineer) (Wikipedia)
  • He was an adherent of the esoteric and occult philosophy of Thelema, a religious movement founded by Aleister Crowley
• Martian canal (Wikipedia)
• Matthew’s article about Chris Hadfield
• Orion's Belt (Wikipedia)
• Space Jam (Wikipedia)
• 99% Invisible - Mini-Stories: Volume 12 (featuring Mary Roach)
• Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
• Metrication in the United Kingdom (Wikipedia)
• Thirty Meter Telescope
  • “an under-construction extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become controversial due to its planned location on Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawaii”
• Institutional review board
• Arecibo Observatory (Wikipedia)
  • “A partial collapse of the telescope occurred on December 1, 2020”
• Hank Green (Twitter)
• Spaghettification (Wikipedia)
• Episode 143 - Amish Romance

15 Astronomy books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbour by Maggie Aderin-Pocock
• The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe by Stephon Alexander
• I Have Lived Four Lives by Wilfred Buck
• Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories by Wilfred Buck
• We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe by Jorge Cham & Daniel Whiteson
• Star Stories: Constellations Tales From Around the World by Anita Ganeri
• The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth by Michio Kaku
• Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances by Leland Melvin
• Inhabiting the Earth by Leonard Moose & Mary Moose
• Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos by Priyamvada Natarajan
• The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
• Visions of the Universe by Raman Prinja
• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Join us again on Tuesday, May 17th for our 150th episode! Send us questions or topics!

Then on Tuesday, June 7th we’ll be discussing the genre of Classics!