
🪐 NASA and beyond: My chat with space policy analyst Casey Dreier
From Faster, Please! — The Podcast by James Pethokoukis
December 4, 2025 · 29 min
About this episode
James Pethokoukis discusses NASA's ambitious goals and challenges with space policy analyst Casey Dreier.
My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers in America and around the world: NASA is attempting the difficult task of juggling highly ambitious goals, but also possibly intense budget cuts. Despite personnel losses and unclear leadership, the administration is racing to put humans on the Moon — ideally ahead of China — and then Mars. Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast , I’m chatting with Casey Dreier about this complicated new era in NASA’s history. We’ll discuss whether or not we’re really in a space race, what to make of the differing visions of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and the rise of planetary defense. Dreier is chief of space policy at The Planetary Society where he advocates for planetary exploration, defense, and the search for extraterrestrial life. He has been featured in major publications from The New York Times to the Washington Post, and hosts his own podcast, Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition . In This Episode * The return of Isaacman (1:32) * Ditch the Space Race (7:42) * Visions of space (14:48) * Planetary defense (21:23) * Proceed with optimism (24:51) (A lightly edited transcript of our conversation will be appear in my Week in Review issue on…
People in this episode
Host: James Pethokoukis
Guest: Casey Dreier
Topics covered
- NASA
- space policy
- space race
- planetary defense
- exploration
- budget cuts
Keywords
- NASA
- space policy
- Casey Dreier
- planetary defense
- space race
- Elon Musk
- Jeff Bezos
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: NASA, The Planetary Society, The New York Times, Washington Post
Products: Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition
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