The Man Who Would Be King (of Mars)

By
Alex Barron
The New Yorker Radio Hour | Jul 14, 2017

Phil Davies doesn’t seem like a mad scientist bent on conquering another planet: he’s a mild-mannered general practitioner in a small town in southern England. But he is using science to craft a claim that he owns Mars, and he’s presented it to the United Nations. Some thirteen thousand people have signed on to his plan, purchasing rights to Davies’s putative land on Mars (rather cheaply). Davies thinks that the U.N. will have to rewrite the fifty-year-old Outer Space Treaty in order to stop him. But what’s a country doctor going to do with a planet, anyway? Simon Parkin goes to find out.  

Profile Image
Alex Barron

WNYC is funded by sponsors and member donations

Top Stories

NYPD seizes 580 pounds of cocaine in Queens, its biggest bust in more than a decade

Prosecutors said the $10 million haul, taken from a Long Island City storage facility, would have likely been cut with fentanyl before reaching buyers.
Gothamist |

Dolly Parton's America

At the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, we drop in on a history class called “Dolly Parton’s America.” (We borrowed the name for our series!) Taught by Dr. Lynn Sacco, the class is filled with college students who grew up in rural Appalachia, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college.  Dr Sacco gives the class an assignment: Write an essay that answers the question “What is Dolly Parton’s America?” Lurking just behind that question are thornier ones about Southern shame and identity and hillbillies and football and...well, Dolly.  Is Dolly helping or hurting us? The class splits down the middle.    Editor’s Note:  We made two corrections to this podcast, originally released on December 3.  In referring to the location of the Battle of Blair Mountain, we changed “Southwestern Virginia” to “West Virginia.” And on the origin of the term redneck, we inserted narration that makes clear that the etymology of the term goes back farther than the Battle of Blair Mountain.  
Dolly Parton's America |

How 'Lake America' is about culture, not just tariffs

On today's show. Politico’s Ottawa bureau chief Nick Taylor-Vaisey talks about the escalation in President Trump's trade war with Canada.
Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast |

Advice for Sending Your Kid Off to College

All Of It with Alison Stewart |
YOU ARE ONLINE