Best podcasts for people interested in astronomy part 2

When I was dabbling in my interest astronomy, one of the places I went to find more information was podcasts. Personally, I have a hard time reading a lot of scientific papers as they tend to be kind of dry and, unless I have a paper as an assignment, I like to find a source of information that is entertaining, accurate, and backed up with research. Now, like everything, there are some good podcasts that are very informative and are enjoyable to listen to, however there are others that are really fun to listen to yet have no information based on research and fact. Furthermore, there are others that are uninformative and portray the science poorly. My hope is that this blog gives you resources to a number of quality podcasts and honest opinions regarding those that are worth your time and those that are not.

This week’s installment will be diving into the podcast Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science, which is a production of the planetary society. The planetary society is headed by a familiar face to all science lovers, Bill Nye (the science guy). However, he is not the reason I wanted give you all an honest assessment on this podcast because as we all know celebrities are really only what you seen on the surface, but that’s for another day’s discussion. Unlike last week’s podcast (Astronomy cast) this Planetary radio series covers more topics than just astronomy. For example, it covers other branches of science and even combines several differing branches of science to give a deeper understanding of how everything works together. In this week’s episode “The sirens of mars call to us,” their main host Mat Kaplan interviews author and professor of planetary science and astrobiology at George Town, Sarah Stewart Johnson. They discuss her new book The Sirens of Mars and her inspiration behind it. I choose this podcast episode to review and discuss because it is so different than the last episode we covered.  The platform this podcast is available from is also very different to the last one we discussed. The host Mat Kaplan has  a passion for communicating and space and he found the perfect balance of this at the planetary society podcast where now he interviews the top experts of space and science and discusses topics the everyday person would be interested in as well as the most popular topics in the media today. In this particular episode, Mat interviews Sarah Stewart Johnson whose track record speaks for itself; she is a former Rhodes scholar and worked for the White House, she has a PhD from MIT, and the cherry on top she has worked on NASA’s Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity rovers. Anyway, similar to other podcasts they are getting the cream of the crop to collaborate on episodes so that you as the listener receive the most accurate information. 

The main topic in this episode is Mars the planet that is so close but still so unattainable.  In Sarah Johnson’s current research, she is studying Martian biosignatures to see if there was ever anything living on the red planet that scientists so desperately wish to travel to. She is currently partnered with NASA on their Perseverance rover which is going to going to Mars specifically to look for the history of its microbial past and to take samples to bring back for scientists like Sarah to study and learn about the history of life on the red planet. When she discusses her research with Mat Kaplan she never gets fools the listener into getting their hopes up that this next mission will crack open the proverbial treasure chest of information on Mars and change our entire way of thinking, But she very reasonably talks about how the search for life on other planets is introducing many  question here on earth; as she puts it “what is and what isn't life in the ancient rock record?” She talks about how we gave such a biased mindset when looking for “life” in other parts of our galaxy because we only define “life” as what we know it to be here on earth as carbon-based creatures in a DNA-based world. But can we confine our definition of life to only what we are familiar to here on Earth? Of course, by using only one definition and way of looking at something you can miss so much and be blind to another definition of life staring you in the face that you haven’t bothered to consider because it defies your original notion of what life is. This idea of looking outside of the box and being so careful in the way we inadvertently bias everything we look at just because of our own history and what we have been taught is one of the main reasons this podcast had stayed in my mind for so long. In so many ways society is teaching us to only approach problems one way and that there is only one right and wrong and if you disagree, you are the problem. I am so encouraged that scientist of our time are making world changing missions to redefine our definitions of life in the universe and are utilizing an open and inquisitive mindset and encouraging others to adopt that mindset as well. 

Even though this podcast doesn’t have as much astronomy terminology or in-depth explanation of equations, I absolutely love how Sarah and Mat explain more of the inspiration and passion behind astronomy and the curiosity that fuels us to look up and wonder and literally reach for the stars. Astronomy can be misinterpreted as a dull and complex science that only the nerdiest of people peruse. Personally, being completely honest there are complex equations and topic that are more interesting than others, but astronomy is so much more attainable than most people give it credit. Mat Kaplan and Sarah Johnson talk about Bob Leighton, a man who had a passion for astronomy and pictures. He would use the public telescopes on Mount Wilson to create these breath-taking movies of Mars using just the telescopes and a camera. He was so passionate about bringing the beauty and wonder of this planet to everyone. This is what astronomy is to many people, including myself: the art of wondering about what lies all around our little sphere of water and rock. Astronomy is the simple act of looking up and asking why? Why does that star only shine during the summer months? Or, why does the moon appear to much larger when it’s closer to the horizons than when it is directly above me? Or, the larger questions of, how do we get to that speck that you can only see on the clearest night; or is there anything looking back at us as we look up and wonder? This podcast beautifully presents the idea that astronomy is available to everyone and anyone who looks up into the night sky and wonders what else is out there and how it works.

Reference:

Planetary Radio. “The Sirens of Mars Call to Us.” The Planetary Society, Planetary Society, 2 Sept. 2020, www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/0902-2020-sarah-stewart-johnson-sirens-of-mars.