Sealab: A Home on the Ocean Floor

About this episode

The episode explores the U.S. Navy's Sealab project, an experiment in building homes on the ocean floor.

From ancient myths of sea monsters lurking below to Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the ocean has long been both a source of fear and fascination. For Captain George Bond, a Navy medical officer in the 1960s, the deep sea was humanity's next frontier. Undersea agriculture, deep sea mining, and human colonies on the ocean floor made up his dream for the future. Today we bring you the story of the U.S. Navy's little-known experiment building homes on the ocean floor. They called it, Sealab. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Topics covered

• ocean exploration
• undersea agriculture
• deep sea mining
• human colonies
• Sealab

Keywords

• Sealab
• ocean floor
• deep sea
• Navy
• Captain George Bond
• underwater living
• ocean exploration

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U.S. Navy

Books & works: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

More episodes of Radio Diaries

• 30 Years of Teenage Diaries · June 4, 2026 · 16 min
• The Almost Astronaut · May 21, 2026 · 22 min
• Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair · May 7, 2026 · 28 min
• Guest Spotlight: William Parker's War on Slave Catchers · April 2, 2026 · 39 min
• Detained: A Homecoming · March 27, 2026 · 16 min
• The Real Refugees of Casablanca · March 19, 2026 · 13 min