Walt Disney's Vision for the American Space Program

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In 1953 Collier's magazine in the US publishes a series of articles under a big cover that says man will conquer space soon. The articles are written by transplanted German rocket scientists who came to the US through a then-secret CIA operation called Operation Paperclip. Walt Disney had been trying to break ground in Anaheim California on Disneyland and he was going to have Sleeping Beauty's Castle anchoring fantasy land. He also wanted adventure land where you could go off and like visit supposedly exotic countries that were very far from the US this sort of Orientalist dream. So verna flan plon writes the lead article that he calls crossing the last frontier.

Paris Marx is joined by Mary-Jane Rubenstein to discuss how ideas that underpinned colonization and Manifest Destiny are now setting the foundation for the billionaire space race and the plan to colonize the cosmos.

Mary-Jane Rubenstein is the author of Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. She’s also a Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

An excerpt of Mary-Jane’s book was published in Metapolis.
Paris wrote about the business behind the billionaire space race and the problem with Starlink.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin recently got a contract to build a moon lander for NASA.
One of Barack Obama’s legacies is pushing for the privatization of space flight.
The US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 and Artemis Accords are attempts to unilaterally rewrite space law for US commercial interest.
Catherine L. Newell wrote Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and America's Final Frontier.

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