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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Mars 2020 rover has rolled into an ancient river delta on the Red Planet. Will we find evidence of past life there?
Water may have flowed on Mars for a billion more years than was previously thought, giving possible life an extra billion years to thrive.
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.
Georgetown University planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson chronicles the long history of our fascination with Mars and the possibility of life there, culminating with Perseverance, the new rover now headed there.
The search for life on Mars is at a critical stage. What will come next if we find it?


