Do Not Open for 5,000 Years

Chesterton Radio · Sep 19, 2026 · 40m

In 1939, as the New York World’s Fair promised a dazzling “World of Tomorrow,” Americans buried a time capsule intended to remain sealed for 5,000 years.

At nearly the same moment, Columbia Workshop asked an even stranger question: What would happen if we could look 5,000 years into humanity’s past—and 5,000 years into its future?

In this Chesterton Radio Deep Dive, we rediscover William N. Robson’s remarkable 1939 radio drama Do Not Open for 5,000 Years and explore the real Westinghouse Time Capsule that helped inspire an era fascinated by the distant future.

This Deep Dive includes…