In this episode of pplpod, we examine one of the most morally complicated figures of the 20th century: Wernher von Braun. The episode opens in the collapsing chaos of Nazi Germany in 1945, with von Braun fleeing advancing Soviet forces while secretly orchestrating the surrender of hundreds of German rocket scientists and hiding tons of classified V-2 rocket blueprints in abandoned mines. What follows is not just the story of a scientist, but the story of how humanity reached the moon through a path stained by war, propaganda, ambition, and devastating moral compromise.

The episode traces von Braun’s transformation from an aristocratic German teenager obsessed with astronomy into the chief architect of modern rocketry. Inspired by early rocket theorist Hermann Oberth, von Braun became consumed with the idea that space travel was mathematical ...