Ryan Bridge: What a week of news

This week NASA found the clearest sign yet of ancient life on Mars.

We learned that for the first time in human history, there more obese children on earth than underweight children.

In the Middle East, missiles bomb peace talks.

Over the skies of Europe we’ve got drones and fighter jets.

In the US, supposedly the first among free nations, another political assassination.

It’s times like this you think, what a strange species. 

If those Martian aliens turned up here, what would they think of us? How would we explain ourselves?

Religion is about loving thy neighbour, but we fight in the name of it.

Food is scarce but some have too much and others too little.

Democracy means freedom until you’re shot in the head for speaking your mind.

Of course none of this is unusual.

We’ve done this since the beginning of time. Fight, kill, war, rinse and repeat.

Animals fight for territory, food and survival. We do that to, but we also fight just because we can't agree with each other. 

I think what it all boils down to is the fact we’re social beings. It can work for us but it can work against us - arguably, social media is making this all worse.

So what are we to conclude? How are we to explain ourselves to an alien? 

What if they landed tomorrow in some big spacecraft, who would you take them to meet?

Donald Trump? Xi Jinping? The Pope? The King?

Honestly I don’t know.

Maybe we’d be better off asking a question: have you got any room for me up there? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week, NASA found the clearest sign yet of ancient
life on Mars. I know, did you see that? We
learned it for the first time in human history. There
are more obese children on Earth than underweight children. How
sad In the Middle East, missiles bomb peace talks over
the skies of Europe. We got drones, we got fighter jets,
and the US, supposedly the first among free nations, another

(00:24):
political assassination. And as times like this, you stop and
think what a strange species we are. If those Martian
aliens ever turned up here, God help us, what would
they think of us? How would we explain ourselves and
our behavior. Religion is about loving thy neighbor, but we
fight in the name of it. Food is scarce, but

(00:46):
some have too much and others have too little. Democracy
means freedom until you're shot in the head for speaking
your mind. Of course, none of this is unusual. We
have done this, this weird species. We have done this
since the beginning of time. We fight, we wore, and
we rint. Some repeat. Animals fight for territory, for food,
and for survival. We do that too, But we also

(01:07):
fight just because we can't agree with each other. You know,
I think What it all boils down to is the
fact that we are social beings. It can work for us,
but it can also work against us. Arguably, social media
is making all of this worse. So what are we
to conclude from all of this? How are we to
explain ourselves to an alien? What if they landed tomorrow

(01:28):
in some big spacecraft and said, take me to your leader?
Who would you take them to? Donald Trump? You know?
Do you tell them to Antonio Gutiraz, the Pope, the King?
I honestly don't know the answer to any of these questions.
I thought about it last night. Maybe we'd be better
off asking a question. Hey, you've got any room up
there for me? For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,

(01:50):
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