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Planetary Radio Episodes
Since 2002, Planetary Radio has visited with a scientist, engineer, project manager, advocate, or writer who provides a unique perspective on the quest for knowledge about our Solar System and beyond. The full show archive is available for free.
Gentry Lee, the subject of the new documentary “Starman,” reflects on nearly five decades at JPL, the missions that defined the Space Age, and the search for life beyond Earth.
Bruce Betts helps us explore the latest and last in his excellent library of space books for young people. He and host Mat Kaplan take up “Are We Alone?” and “The Size of Space.”
The delightful astrophysicist and science communicator Adam Frank shares his thoughts about the search for life and intelligence across the Universe in the Planetary Society’s member book club.
Author David Baron has written the definitive, true story of a time when nearly everyone in America was utterly convinced there was a supremely intelligent civilization on the Red Planet, and they wanted to talk with us!
In 1996, a controversial claim of fossilized life in a Martian meteorite ignited a golden age of Mars exploration. Nearly 30 years later, a potential biosignature detected by the Perseverance rover at Jezero Crater has sparked… no major policy changes. Why? Lou Friedman joins the show to present his view.
Physicist Daniel Whiteson and cartoonist Andy Warner join Sarah Al-Ahmed to explore their new book, “Do Aliens Speak Physics?”
NASA’s Perseverance rover has found potential biosignatures in Jezero Crater’s Bright Angel formation. Host Sarah Al-Ahmed speaks with Joel Hurowitz, associate professor of geosciences at Stony Brook University and lead author of the new Nature paper, about this remarkable discovery.
Knicole Colón, the deputy project scientist for exoplanet science for JWST, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the detection of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18 b.
Morgan Cable and Hiro Ono from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory join Planetary Radio to discuss the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) robot concept.
Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper project scientist, recounts the mission team's dramatic encounter with Hurricane Milton before their triumphant launch.
NASA's Perseverance rover has made a groundbreaking discovery on Mars: a sample that may hold evidence of ancient microbial life. We visit the Tenth International Conference on Mars to get the details.
We explore how Doctor Who has influenced the scientific community with Russell T. Davies, the past and present showrunner of the iconic science fiction TV series.
Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper's project scientist, visits The Planetary Society headquarters in Pasadena, CA, to share the story of the mission's vault plate, humanity's next collection of messages to another world.
We explore NASA's first tabletop role-playing game with senior multimedia specialist Christina Mitchell and a new way to find water worlds with Amaury Triaud from the University of Birmingham.
Knicole Colón, the deputy project scientist for exoplanet science for JWST, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the detection of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18 b.
Chris Glein, a lead scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, joins Planetary Radio to talk about the discovery of phosphorus in the oceans of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the implications for the search for life.
Louis Friedman, one of the three co-founders of The Planetary Society, joins Planetary Radio to discuss his new book, Alone but Not Lonely: Exploring for Extraterrestrial Life.
Amy Williams, assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the proposed Mars Life Explorer mission and the search for extant life on Mars.
Chris Glein, a lead scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, joins Planetary Radio to talk about the discovery of phosphorus in the oceans of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the implications for the search for life.
Would meeting an extraterrestrial civilization be good or bad for humanity? Astronomer Dr. Jacob Haqq Misra argues that knowing the outcome in advance is fundamentally impossible.