What’s left to be written about the biggest metal band of all time? Seasoned writer Ben Apatoff hopes enough to justify his new book. As a Metallica die hard, I'm keen to agree, but who else should read the cheekily named $24.95 Book? Title: Metallica: The $24.95 Book Author: Ben…

The following is the entire first chapter of For All Humankind by Tanya Harrison & Danny Bednar. The book is available now online and in book stores everywhere. Lying in bed staring up at the stone ceiling of the St. Ottilien Monastery, fatigued, exhausted, and still recovering from the most…

Twenty-five years later, why do Metallica’s Load and Reload continue to fuel so many “what if?” discussions? Danny Bednar is Canada’s second greatest geographer of outer space, an amateur heavy metal musicologist, and part-time Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at Western University. He works a…

After almost 25 years of mixing and matching Metallica’s mid-90s albums, can we use the evidence at hand to put the discussion to bed? Note: This is Part II of a discussion of Load and Reload, as part of the 25th anniversary of Load’s release. For a primer on the…

Howell & Booth’s book serves as an anthology of personal Martian stories, revealing that behind the search for life on Mars lay entirely Earthly processes. If you’re looking to really brush up on the science of Mars and the search for life it is a must read. Danny Bednar, PhD…

The following is a discussion piece for #Space2090, an undergraduate course on Space Exploration in the Department of Geography and the Environment at Western University. It is open to others in order to collect comments below for the students and I to discuss. …

A mix-tape for all of humanity, love affairs, space probes destined for the interstellar void, and a tight deadline. …

A revealing account of stories that have been largely washed aside in the retelling of Apollo over the last five decades. Maher’s impressive research reveals not only silenced voices in an era of social conflict comparable to our own, but also the inspiring potential for space exploration to respond to…

In our book For All Humankind, Tanya Harrison and I interviewed people from around the world about their experiences watching the Apollo 11 landing. In doing research for the book we dug into the pre-space age histories of many of these countries. One of the more interesting cases was that…