Full moon, half-moon, total eclipse. What happens when we look up and the moon is missing? In this episode of Life Without, our host Alan Davies imagines a world where the moon just ceases to exist, the Earth’s natural satellite gone. What would happen to our tides and how would creatures who depend on moonlight to hunt survive? The loss of the Moon would also have a huge impact on our psyche and connection to the lunar calendar. This episode features Sara Russell a Merit Researcher in Cosmic Mineralogy and Planetary Science and artist Luke Jerram who toured the world with his replica in Museum of the Moon. An ITN production for BBC Radio 4
Introducing... Life Without
06/2/2026 | 2 min
Hosted by Alan Davies, Life Without looks at what would happen to our planet if we removed one thing. Could pulling a single thread from our world really unravel the whole thing?
What if, one day, something essential to our world suddenly vanished? No warning. No explanation. Just gone. What happens next? Life Without is a roundtable-style podcast that explores this fascinating and thought-provoking question with insight, evidence-based assumptions and a range of perspectives. Hosted by Alan Davies, each episode brings together 2 guests, scientists, psychologists, economists, sociologists and journalists to discuss the unexpected consequences of losing something vital to our world. Each episode starts with a bold, imaginative question: What would happen if something fundamental—like the moon, salt, sleep, or even something as random as rats—suddenly disappeared from the world? What's the immediate fallout? How does society cope? And how long would it take before things started unravelling?