This program is sponsored by the Kavli Foundation based in Los Angeles, California.

The Kavli Foundation is dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity. I'm Alan Alda, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

The moon is like a time capsule for us.

We can learn a lot about Earth's history by looking at the Moon in part because it has a record of our

own atmosphere and it has a record of the early sun. It has a record of any asteroids that

we're hitting both here and there.

So we can learn a lot about ourselves really from being on the moon.

And I think it's super exciting.

I also hope that people are thoughtful about who is going, why they're going, what they're doing, and what

responsibility we have to the moon.

Like what do we owe the moon?

After this whole history that we've shared with it,

are we really just gonna go and mine up there?

If we are, who is that gonna benefit?

And, you know, what countries, what cultures

are gonna reap the benefits of that and I think this is a very

important time to ask those questions of ourselves and have that conversation.

The Moon is now the goal of several space missions, including the first time people will be landing there some 50 years after the end of the Apollo program.

Science writer Rebecca Boyle's new book is called simply Our Moon,

and it celebrates our Moon's role in both the past and the future of our home here on Earth.

I've learned so many things from you, especially about the moon, that I want to share

them with our listeners. First of all, you're a model of communication, the way you opened your book with the invasion of Tarawa during World War II, they needed high tides.

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