The Best Books, Movies, Video Games, and Podcasts to Check Out After Watching ‘For All Mankind'

June 4, 2026 - 20:58

The Apple TV+ series "For All Mankind" gives viewers a rare thing in science fiction: a genuinely hopeful look at what humanity could achieve. Its alternate history, where the space race never ended, is packed with political drama, personal sacrifice, and the thrill of exploration. If you have finished the latest season and need more of that feeling, here are some solid picks across different media.

For a similar mix of space history and what-if scenarios, the book "The Calculating Stars" by Mary Robinette Kowal is a perfect match. It imagines a world where a meteorite strike in the 1950s forces an accelerated push to colonize space, and it tackles gender and racial barriers in the astronaut corps much like the show does.

On the gaming side, "Kerbal Space Program" is the ultimate sandbox for anyone who loves the engineering and problem-solving of the show. It is not a story-driven game, but it captures the joy and frustration of building rockets and sending little green people to the Mun. For a narrative experience, "Deliver Us The Moon" puts you in a lone astronaut's boots on a desperate mission to a deserted lunar base, with a quiet, lonely atmosphere that echoes the show's more tense moments.

If you prefer podcasts, "The Habitat" is a must-listen. It is a real-life documentary series that follows a simulated Mars mission in a geodesic dome in Hawaii. Six people lived in isolation for a year, and the podcast captures the boredom, the clashing personalities, and the small triumphs that feel very close to the daily life of the Jamestown base.

For films, "Apollo 13" remains the gold standard for realistic space drama. It is less about alternate history and more about the real grit of bringing astronauts home. And for a wider view of a future space economy, "The Expanse" (the TV series) starts grounded and slowly expands into a sprawling political thriller about colonizing the solar system, complete with the same attention to orbital mechanics that "For All Mankind" fans appreciate.