Note: Presenting via Zoom as part of the Smithsonian Associates program.

A mere century ago, Martians were thought to be real, not fictional, creatures. “Mars is inhabited by a highly civilized and intelligent race of beings,” proclaimed Alexander Graham Bell. When in 1899 Nikola Tesla detected radio signals he believed came from Mars, an all-out craze swept society. You could read about Martians in The New York Times, hear of them in Sunday sermons, and see them depicted on the Broadway stage.

In a lively program filled with period photographs and depictions of the putative Martians themselves, journalist David Baron reveals what the episode says about the human mind: the fallibility of our senses, the power of belief, and the lure of sensationalism.