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Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition
Featuring The Planetary Society's Chief Advocate, Casey Dreier, the Space Policy Edition podcast features unique insights by the world's leading experts in space policy and history to explain how space exploration actually happens.
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The Space Policy Edition is included as a monthly feature of the Planetary Radio podcast, which is available on all major podcast services. You can also subscribe exclusively to Space Policy Edition episodes on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
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Latest Episodes
If the United States is indeed in a space race with China, why are we abandoning space science programs across the Solar System? This question, posed by guest Maxwell Zhu in a recent op-ed co-authored by The Planetary Society’s chief of space policy, reveals the current myopia around human spaceflight and the missing focus on a growing and ambitious new entrant into space science in the 21st century.
Atlantic writer Franklin Foer joins the show to discuss how NASA enabled the rise of Elon Musk, and, in doing so, sowed the seeds of its own decline.
Dr. Bhavya Lal argues that the 2020s are a decisive decade for in-space nuclear power. Without nuclear, humans may never be more than visitors on Mars or the Moon.
Our guest, Mary Guenther, argues that the Democratic Party is ceding leadership in space policy, and how linking space to jobs, supply chains, and climate could help refocus the party’s relationship with the Cosmos.
Alicia Brown from the Commercial Space Federation and Brittany Webster from the American Geophysical Union join the show to discuss NASA’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.
Former NASA chief economist Akhil Rao explains why NASA needs economic expertise to navigate the complex — and often misunderstood — market forces that will determine the success or failure of its private partnerships.