Help Shape the Future of Space Exploration

Join our eNewsletter for updates & action alerts

Planetary Radio

Each week, Planetary Radio visits with a scientist, engineer, project manager, astronaut, advocate or writer who provides a unique and exciting perspective on the exploration of our solar system and beyond. We also showcase regular features that raise your space IQ while they put a smile on your face. Host Mat Kaplan is joined by Planetary Society colleagues Bill Nye the Science Guy, Bruce Betts, and Emily Lakdawalla. We hit the road now and then to produce a Planetary Radio Live show in front of an audience. Drop us a line or enter the weekly space trivia contest at planetaryradio@planetary.org.

Please support your local public radio station that airs the show! Check the station's online schedule or review our online list of affiliates. Satellite radio listeners can hear us Sunday evenings on the Sirius XM Public Radio channel. Want to hear Planetary Radio on your local station? Ask them to contact us or review our radio affiliate information page.

iTunes and other podcast aggregators like Stitcher make it easy to listen and subscribe. Just search for "Planetary Radio." or click the links below.

Parsec Awards

2011 Parsec Award Logo Icon

Planetary Radio won as the "Best Fact Behind the Fiction" podcast at the 2011 Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia.

Subscribe:

Standard RSS Feed

Recent Shows

MRO image of crater with drainage system

The Ancient Snows of Mars

08/05/2013 | 28:50

Guests

Kat Scanlon, Graduate Student and Researcher, Brown University Geological Sciences

When she was learning to forecast the weather in Hawaii, Brown University grad student Kat Scanlon didn’t suspect it would help her uncover evidence for rain or, more likely, snow that helped shape the surface of Mars billions of years ago.

More Info & Listen »

Advocating for Planetary Science/Star Trek Meets Spacefarers

05/20/2013 | 30:45

Guests

Casey Dreier, Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator, The Planetary Society

The director and cast of Star Trek: Into Darkness meet up with real space travelers. Also: Planetary science funding from NASA is in trouble, so a delegation led by Bill Nye the Science Guy descended on Washington DC last week to sound the alarm. Planetary Society Advocacy chief Casey Dreier provides a report, and comments on the Society’s support for NASA’s Asteroid Retrieval Mission.

More Info & Listen »

Alison Peck and Al Wooten of ALMA Radio Telescope Project

The Gigantic ALMA Radio Telescope in Chile

01/21/2013 | 28:50

Guests

Alison Peck, Former ALMA Commissioning Scientists Team Leader, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Al Wooten, North American Project Scientist and head of the North American ALMA Science Center, National Radio Astronomy Observatory

ALMA will make sharper images than the Hubble Space Telescope, yet it’s a radio telescope! ALMA scientists Alison Peck and Al Wooten tell us about this array of 66 huge dishes in Chile’s Atacama desert.

More Info & Listen »

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Beginning a New Year In Space

12/31/2012 | 28:50

Guests

Bruce Betts, Director of Projects, The Planetary Society
Casey Dreier, Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator, The Planetary Society
Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist, The Planetary Society
Bill Nye, Chief Executive Officer

Planetary Society experts review the challenges and triumphs of 2012 and look forward to a new and exciting year. You’ll hear Bill Nye the Science Guy, Emily Lakdawalla on new missions, Casey Dreier on “Saving our Science,” and Bruce Betts’ review of great projects, as well as a musical rendition of “Random Space Fact.”

More Info & Listen »