The Wow! Signal Podcast

Released: 3 December 2015 Duration: 13 minutes, 43 seconds   Is the cosmos a trackless wilderness in which apex predators, in the form of advanced extraterrestrial intelligences (ETIs), roam at will, and vulnerable civilizations (like ours) learn to maintain a low profile? Nick Nielsen considers some variations on the theme of the 'zoo hypothesis' of John Ball, each being a response to the Fermi p...

Released: 21 November 2015 Duration: 15 minutes, 30 seconds   Nick Nielsen talks about what we might observe from long dead ET civilizations.   Links Nick Nielsen's Blog Post How Old is ET? The Relative Rate of LGRB Formation as a Function of Metallicity Observational Signatures of Self Destructive Civilizations   Credits Written and Read by: Nick Nielsen Producer: Paul Carr Music: Jason Robinson

Released: 17 November 2015 Duration 6 minutes, 18 seconds Paul Carr briefly discusses a few issues that asteroid mining raises, at least in part responding to an Unseen Podcast blog post comment by "Khani": Mining operations around PHAs Conflicts over claims Conflicts over the same asteroid What exactly is necessary to establish a claim? An interplanetary court Music by Jason Robinson     Links: T...

Released: 2 November 2015 Duration: 53 minutes, 33 seconds   Host Paul Carr interviews Dr. Martin Elvis of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Martin Elvis has a substantial background in high energy astronomy and astrophysics, studying quasars and other huge, highly energetic phenomena deep in the universe. He tells us why he has turned his attention to asteroid mining, and explains...

Paul Carr very briefly pleads with you to listen to the Unseen Podcast if you are not already doing so. That is all.

Recorded: 30 September 2015 Released: 1 October 2015 Paul Carr walks us through a simple explanation of why we can't travel to the nearby stars - yet.  Sorry, but space is big. Really big. For more information, please visit the blog entry at: http://www.wowsignalpodcast.com/2015/10/burst-7-why-interstellar-space-flight.html Music by Jason Robinson The Wow! Signal is distributed under the Creative...

Released: 21 September 2015 Duration: 56 minutes, 40 seconds   Paul Carr talks to UC Berkeley SETI scientist Andrew Siemion about the exciting new SETI initiative called Breakthrough Listen. Introduction and context Interview with Andrew Siemion on Breakthrough Initiative Interview wrapup Begging and nagging Outro   Links The Unseen Podcast Breakthrough Inititative SETI@Home The Unseen Podcast on...

Release Date: 12 July 2015 Duration: 19 minutes, 58 seconds   Mike Mongo has a brief conversation with Jeff Nosanov about his innovative PERISCOPE concept to explore the caves of the moon with lasers. For more information, please see the blog entry for this Burst: http://www.wowsignalpodcast.com/2015/07/burst-6-caves-of-moon.html Music by Jason Robinson.      

Releast Date: 8 April 2015 A recent paper, Discrete Steps in Dispersion Measures of Fast Radio Bursts , has generated a lot of excitement. Paul Carr reviews the basic facts about the 11 known FRBs and what this strange pattern might imply.   

Thread(s): SETI Host : Paul Carr   We talk to UC Berkeley's Andrew P.V Simeon, lead author of a recent paper on what will change about SETI when the Square Kilometer Array comes online   Intro Announcement and music ("Dark Skies" by DJ Spooky) Host intro to show topic Interview with Andrew P.V. Siemion on SETI at the SKA Andrew Siemion answers questions on SETI@Home Host wrapup Promo for Under the...

  Released 17 February 2015 Paul Carr talks to Daniel Cartin about his test paper " Upper Limits on the probability of interstellar civilization arising in the local Solar neighborhood "  Music by Jason Robinson Daniel Cartin's earlier appearance on the Wow! Signal  

Release Date: 15 February 2015 Host Tim Jones engages Tom Barbalet in a wide ranging conversation centered around his Artificial Life environment Noble Ape and its applications to space exploration. Music by DJ Spooky and Erika Lloyd. Detailed Show Notes   Distributed under Creative Commons AttributionShare-Alike license.    

  Release Date: 21 January 2015     Paul Carr talks to astrobiologist David Grinspoon and NASA physicist Geoffrey Landis about the science and technology of Venus exploration.   Detailed Show Notes   Music by Dj Spooky and George Hrab

Release Date: 14 January 2015 Paul Carr and Mike Mongo talk about the near future of the Wow! Signal Podcast and the long term future of humanity. Will we colonize Mars or the Moon? How about starships? Detailed Show Notes   Music by DJ Spooky

Release Date: 20 December 2014   Nora Noffke, Associate Professor in the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University, tells us about her recent hypothesis paper that argues that certain sedimentary structures seen by the Curiosity rover on Mars could be fossilized microbial mats. Ancient Sedimentary Structures in the

Release Date: 7 December 2014 In this short Wow! Signal Burst, Paul Carr talks us through where we are on the seven terms in the Drake Equation, which more about what we don't know then what we know - so far. Music: Elbow Grease by  Jason Robinson   Calculating the Odds of Intelligent Alien Life  (video narrated by Jill Tarter)    

Host Paul Carr is joined by James Garrison and Tim Jones. Astronomer JL Galache of the IAU Minor Planet Center and author Duncan Lunan enlighten us about the threat that Near Earth asteroids pose to Earth and what we can do about it.     Music by DJ Spooky, Jason Robinson and Erika Lloyd.   Detailed Show Notes with Links

In this short Wow! Signal Burst, Mike Mongo, Astronaut Teacher, tells us about his forthcoming book, which has just completed successful crowdfunding. The Astronaut Instruction Manual for Preteens. The book is available for preorder now. KidAstronaut.com   Theme music by Jason Robinson .   The Wow! Signal is produced by Dream of the Open Channel and distributed under the Creative Commons Attributi...

This podcast is named after an event that took place on 15 August 1977 at the Ohio State Big Ear radio astronomy observatory. Astronomr Jerry Ehman noticed a signal that looked exactly like what they were looking for - an ET radio beacon. Was it? We talk to Dr. Robert S. "Bob" Dixon, who was instrumental in bringing the Big Ear instrument to bear on the SETI problem, in his very first podcast inte...

We talk to planetary scientist and astrobiologist Abel Mendez about waht is presently understood about the habitability of exoplanets, and the habitable exoplanet catalog.

Is SETA really just local SETI? It makes sense to me, and to Alan Penny, coordinator of the UK SETI REsearch Network. We talk to Dr. Penny about the future of SETI. Then, we talk to another Scottish astronomer Duncan Lunan about the scientific mystery of the Long Delay Echoes. Are the LDEs from a Bracewell Probe?   Music by DJ Spooky, Jason Robinson, Erika Lloyd and George Hrab   Detailed Show Not...

The study of astrobiology projects current scientific knowledge of the living world into the wide universe and asks the questions we all want to ask: where are the best places to search for life in the universe and what should we look for? ARe we searching for exotic microbes, living beings like ourselves, or advanced robots that have taken over from their creators? In this episode we meet Steven...

Host Mike Mongo talks to futurist librarian Heath Rezabek about preserving humanity's knowledge into the far future. Paul Carr talks to economist and former AI researcher Robin Hanson about a possible future in which huans exist, but aren't very important. Will AI put us all out of a job, and what will that mean to us if so?

A special Towel Day episode of the Wow! Signal featuring a roundtable discussion of the work, inspired ideas and philosophical jokes of Douglas Adams. Panelists are Nichols Joll, Jeremy Hunsberger, Ben Brockert, Mike Mongo and Jim Cavera. Music by Stephen Moore and Eben Brooks See Detailed Show Notes  

We talk to Dr. Daniel Cartin about his recent follow up to Geoffrey Landis' percolation framework for understanding the Fermi Paradox. We also talk about the life span of technological civilizations, and how accidental contact could be important to understanding how this life span could increase over time. See the Detailed Show Notes