Radio Bookclub: The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America

The September 2025 selection for the Radio Bookclub is The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America, the latest book by best-selling science writer David Baron.

In the early 1900s, “Mars mania” gripped America, driven by astronomer Percival Lowell’s claim that vast canals on Mars revealed an advanced civilization. In his new book, David Baron recounts how Lowell’s vision of a utopian Mars captured the public imagination, inspiring lectures, books, and even serious debate from figures like Nikola Tesla and Alexander Graham Bell.

This episode was recorded at the Boulder Public Library on August 26, 2025, and was broadcast on KGNU on September 25, 2025, at 9 am. Listen to more of our conversation with David Baron, where he answers questions from the audience in Afterhours at the Radio Bookclub.

Radio Bookclub: The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America Maeve Conran

Subscribe to our Radio Book Club Series on iTunes to get new editions and web-only content. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. The Radio Bookclub is a collaboration between KGNU and the Boulder Bookstore. Every month, Arsen Kashkashian, head buyer at the Boulder Bookstore, selects a book to inspire listeners to read along together.