Rockets and mass drivers each promise to launch humanity into space—but which approach will take us further, faster, smarter, and cheaper?

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Credits:
Mass Drivers vs Rockets
Episode 481; January 9, 2025
Written by: Isaac Arthur & Phil Swan
Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Editors: Phil Swan & Philip Leichauer
Graphics:
Anthrofuturism
Jarred Eagley
Katie Byrne
Mafic Studios
Phil Swan
Space Resources CGI
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Stellardrone, "In Time", "Red Giant"
Aerium, featuring Sieger, "Deiljocht"
Brandon Liew, "Into the Storm"
Special Thanks to: Transpod

Mass Drivers Vs Rockets (Narration Only)

Amid the swirling vastness of galaxies, each a cosmic city of stars and planets, the silence raises a compelling question: could the very nature of galaxies themselves hold the key to why intelligent life remains unseen?

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Credits:
The Fermi Paradox: Galactic Great Filters
Episode 484; January 30, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Phase Shift, "Forest Night"
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment"
Stellardrone, "Billions and Billions"

The Fermi Paradox: Galactic Great Filters (Narration Only)

Discover the incredible engineering and visionary potential of Bernal Spheres, futuristic space habitats designed to sustain human life in the stars.

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Credits:
Megastructures: The Bernal Sphere
Episode 485; February 6, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Editors: Ludwig Luska
Graphics: Bryan Versteeg, Fishy Tree, Jeremy Jozwik, Udo Schroeter
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Phase Shift, "Forest Night"
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment", "A New Day in a New Sector"
Stellardrone, "Billions and Billions"

The Bernal Sphere (Narration Only)

The universe is a cold and hostile place, and may be inhabited by ruthless civilizations or machine minds, bent on destroying anything in their way.

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Credits:
Xenocide
Episode 486; February 9, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Editors:Ludwig Luska
Graphics: Darth Biomech, LegionTech Studios
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator

Xenocide (Narration Only)

Xenocide

Imagine a scale that ranks civilizations not by their borders or technology, but by the sheer energy they command— some spanning entire galaxies. Join us as we explore the Kardashev Scale, the ultimate measure of cosmic power.


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Credits:
The Kardashev Scale & Population
Episode 486; February 13, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Editors: Ludwig Luska
Graphics: Fishy Tree, Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Phase Shift, "Forest Night"
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment", "A New Day in a New Sector", "Oxygen Garden"
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Billions and Billions"

The Kardashev Scale & Population (Narration Only)

What if the "magic" of tomorrow is just science we don’t yet understand? In this episode, we explore the wildest speculative technologies—faster-than-light travel, Dyson Spheres, teleportation, wormholes, and more. Could these breakthroughs redefine our future or explain the Fermi Paradox? Find out as we dive into the impossible!

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Credits:
Impossible Technologies: The Clarketech Compendium 
Episode 486a; February 16, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Editors: Ludwig Luska, Thomas Owen, Lukas Konecny
Graphics: Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual, Mihail Yordanov, Sergio Botero
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Phase Shift, "Forest Night"
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment", "A New Day in a New Sector", "Oxygen Garden"
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Billions and Billions"
Lombus, "Hydrogen Sonata", "Cosmic Soup"

Impossible Technologies: The Clarketech Compendium (Narration Only)

Imagine a world stretched along a single, endless river inside a colossal space megastructure. Explore the fascinating concept of the Topopolis, a futuristic habitat billions of miles long, where humanity might thrive in a sprawling civilization bound by physics, engineering, and imagination.

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Credits:
Topopolis: The Eternal River 
Episode 487a; February 23, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Graphics: Apogii.uk, Ken York YD Visual, Steve Bowers, Udo Scroeter
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator

Topopolis: The Eternal River Space Habitat (Narration Only)

Topopolis: The Eternal River Space Habitat

Discover the groundbreaking physics behind skyhooks, rotovators, and space ladders, and how they could revolutionize space travel in the near future.

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Credits:
Skyhooks, Rotovators & Space Ladders
Episode 488b; March 2, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Graphics: Jarred Eagley, Katie Byrne, Phil Swan, Sergio Botero
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Phase Shift, "Forest Night"
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment", "A New Day in a New Sector", "Oxygen Garden", "Wonder Cycle"
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Billions and Billions"

Skyhooks, Rotovators & Space Ladders: Lifting Humanity To The Stars Without Rockets

If civilizations can endure for eons and people can live indefinitely, what drives progress, ambition, and purpose in a world where time has no limit? Would an ageless society be a utopia of infinite wisdom, or a stagnating empire struggling to keep ambition alive across the centuries?

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Credits:
Methuselah Civilizations: A Society of the Ageless 
Episode 489; March 6, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Edited by: Ludwig Luska
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment", "A New Day in a New Sector", "Oxygen Garden", "Wonder Cycle"
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Billions and Billions"

The Bernal Sphere (Narration Only)

Isaac Arthur

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