3.10.15: The Transhumanist Presidential Candidate & The First African Americans In Space

We’ve seen this dance before: presidential hopefuls stumping in New Hampshire. On today’s show, we’ll talk to the official candidate from the Transhumanist Party who says we need a new political party and new tactics for the issues of our time.

Then, Jackie Robinson’s major league debut was an obvious, watershed moment in America’s troubled racial history. But we’ll look at a lesser known moment for American civil rights: breaking NASA’s color barrier and the story of the first African Americans in the space program.

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.

Zoltan Istvan for President

• Zoltan Istvan is a writer, futurist, philosopher, transhumanist, and the founder of and presidential candidate representing the Transhumanist Party.

Are Your Online Comments a Reflection of You?

• Anna North is staff editor of the New York Times opinion section and explored what online comments reveal about the person who posted them in her article “What Your Online Comments Say About You.” 

The Art of De-Extinction

• A group of scientists are now trying to bring extinct animals - like the woolly mammoth and passenger pigeon - back to life, in a movement called De-Extinction. But there's much more to it than biotechnology. The entire idea has an art to it. One painter, Isabella Kirkland, is making work that touches on the philosophy at the center of it all. Producer Britt Wray brings us the story.
• You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.

First African Americans in the Space Program

• Richard Paul is co-author, with Steven Moss, of We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans In The Space Program.  He also produced the radio documentary Race and the Space Race.