Threads

Updated 12 September 2024

Our long episodes are organized into threads, or general topics. Some Episodes fall under more than one thread, in which case they will be listed twice. Some episodes don't have a thread, since they are one off, like the Towel Day roundtable.

SETI and METI

The scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence by scanning the sky for unnatural looking signals or signs of advanced engineering.

Episode 6 with Seth Shostak

Episode 8 with Duncan Forgan

Episode 17 with Alan Penny and Duncan Lunan

Episode 19 with Bob Dixon
Season 2, Episode 12 with Andrew P.V. Siemion
Season 3, Episode 1 with Andrew Siemion.
Season 3, Episode 7, with Douglas Vakoch and the Earthling's Quest team
Episode 35 - with Douglas Vakoch and Daniela de Paulis
Episode 36 with Jon Lomborg
Episode 37 with Douglas Vakoch
Episode 39 with Sofia Sheikh
Episode 40 with Daniel Oberhaus
Episode 41 with Beatriz Villarroel
Episode 42 with Julia DeMarines

Episode 48 with Chelsea Haramia

Episode 50 with Abel Mendez

Astrobiology and Exoplanets

Applying what we know about biology, chemistry, physics and astronomy toward an understanding of what life may live on other planets and how to search for it.

Episode 4 with David Grinspoon

Season 2, Episode 1 with Geoff Marcy and Ana Heras

Season 2 Episode 4 with Steven Dick and Betul Kacar

Season 2, Episode 6 with Abel Mendez
Season 3, Episode 8, with Nathaniel Comfort

SETA (Including Bracewell Probes)

Just like SETI, except this time we hope we can reach out and touch something.

Episode 5

Episode 10 with Ben McGee and H. Paul Schuch

Season 2, Episode 5 with Alan Penny and Duncan Lunan

The Fermi Paradox

Asking why it doesn't seems as if we have been colonized by a superior species from far away in the galaxy, even though it seems we should have been. What other questions does this raise?

Episode 2 with Geoffrey Landis

Episode 9 with Fraser Crane and Duncan Forgan

Season 2, Episode 2 with Daniel Cartin
Episode 46 with Wade Roush

The Future of Humanity and The Risks We Face

There is an ostensibly intelligent species on a very nearby planet we're keeping a close eye on:

Episode 3 with Nikola Danaylov

Season 2, Episode 3 with Heath Rezabek and Robin Hanson

Episode 20 with JL Galache and Duncan Lunan
Episode 34 with David Grinspoon
Episode 38 with Frank White

Episode 49 with Thomas Moynihan

Space Exploration and Development

What humans are doing in space, and what they might do in the future:

Episode 8 with Duncan Forgan, Ben McGee and Isaac Stott

Season 2, Episode 8 with JL Galache and Duncan Lunan
Season 2, Episode 10 with David Grinspoon and Geoffrey Landis
Season 2, Episode 11 with Tom Barbalet
Season 3, Episode 2 with Martin Elvis
Episode 43 with Adam Dipert.

Episode 45 Paola Castaño

Episode 47 with David Skogerboe

Interstellar Space Flight

Space is big. Really big. How can we cross the mind-bogglingly large distance between stars?

Tabby's Star (KIC 8462852)

We have a lot of episodes that specifically deal with Tabby's Star, so let's have a Thread, overlapping as it does with Astronomy and Astrophysics:

Season 3, Episode 4 with Bradley Schaefer

Season 3, Episode 4 with Tabetha Boyajian
Season 3, Episode 5 with Stella Kafka
Season 3, Episode 6 with Bradley Schaefer
Season 3, Episode 9 with Ben Montet

Astronomy and Astrophysics

A new thread about the science underlying SETI and much else.

Season 3, Episode 3 with Bradley Schaefer
Season 3, Episode 4 with Tabetha Boyajian
Season 3, Episode 5 with Stella Kafka
Season 3, Episode 6 with Bradley Schaefer
Episode 41 with Beatriz Villarroel
Episode 44 with Stella Kafka

Episode 50 with Abel Mendez

Shop Talk

The team talks about the past,present and future of the podcast: what topics we need to cover better, which guests we'd like to have on, and more:

Season 1 to Season 2 with Paul Carr, Jim Cavera, Jude Hollingsworth, Ron Jeffries, and Mike Mongo
Season 2, Episode 9 with Paul Carr and Mike Mongo

UFOs (discontinued)

Things seen in the skies that don't fit the usual pattern.

Episode 1 with Antonio Paris

Episode 7 with Bing Garthright