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.

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Tabletops and telescopes: NASA’s RPG and the hunt for habitable worlds

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.

JWST finds a new lead in the search for life on a mysterious exoplanet

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.

Revisiting the discovery of phosphorus on Enceladus

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.

Alone but not lonely with Louis Friedman

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.

Mars Life Explorer: The search for extant life on the red planet

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.

An essential ingredient for life in the oceans of Enceladus

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.

Space Policy Edition: The policy implications of active SETI

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.

Are we alone? The search for alien technosignatures

A new volunteer SETI science project to search for alien technosignatures has launched! Two of its creators tell you how to sign up.

Space Policy Edition: The Geopolitics of a Successful SETI Detection

How will nations react if (when?) humanity detects the presence of an alien intelligence or civilization? That’s the topic Planetary Society Chief Advocate Casey Dreier takes up with his guest, astrophysicist Jason Wright.

Countdown to Artemis, The Return to the Moon

Join Mat Kaplan and Planetary Society colleagues in Florida for the first attempt to launch the Space Launch System rocket on a mission to the Moon.

Space Policy Edition: Inside the Planetary Science Decadal Survey Process with Bethany Ehlmann

Professor Bethany Ehlmann served on the steering committee for the new planetary science and astrobiology decadal survey that will steer future exploration of the solar system.

Life, the Universe and Britney Schmidt

Britney Schmidt is preparing us for the day when a submarine will slip into the seas of an ocean world like Europa to search for life.

Perseverance Perseveres: A Mars rover update from Ken Farley

The Mars 2020 rover has rolled into an ancient river delta on the Red Planet. Will we find evidence of past life there?

Meet the first STEP Grant awardees

The Planetary Society’s new Science and Technology Empowered by the Public (STEP) grant program will let citizens join the search for ET and enable astronomers to discover the nature of hundreds of near-Earth asteroids.

Water, water everywhere with Bethany Ehlmann

Water may have flowed on Mars for a billion more years than was previously thought, giving possible life an extra billion years to thrive.

Astrobiologist David Grinspoon on life, the universe and everything

Astrobiologist and author David Grinspoon shares his thoughts about the search for life, where we might find it and how science works.

Discovering life elsewhere: How can we be sure?

NASA’s Jim Green and Mary Voytek want the science community to develop tools that will help us evaluate potential evidence of life beyond Earth.

Space Policy Edition: The Pentagon's UFO Report, Featuring Sarah Scoles

The Pentagon has released its assessment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Casey Dreier and science journalist Sarah Scoles talk about what’s behind the renewed interest in UFOs and Sarah’s book, They Are Already Here.

Finding Life by Looking for Complexity

University of Glasgow chemist Lee Cronin believes he and his collaborators have found a way to recognize life as we know it and as we don’t know it.

The New Great Space Observatories

Astrophysicist Grant Tremblay describes how four proposed space telescopes could reveal our solar system and the universe as never before.

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