January 2016

January 2016 was our best download month ever, for both this podcast and The Wow! Signal. It's the 31st of January now, and looks like we're going to get to just under 2000 downloads for the month. Not only have recent episodes been consistently getting over 200 downloads, but the back catalog continues to pull quite a few new listeners.

We are an open stats podcast, updating them here about once a week for the last 20 or so shows, and once a month for the older shows.

Thanks for listening, and please feel free to share the episodes you like with your friends and followers. The best way to stay up to date on the podcast is to subscribe with your favorite podcast aggregation service (e.g. iTunes), so that episodes automagically show up on your mobile device or computer, ready for listening. If you have any question about how to do that, please don't hesitate to ask.

Episode 41 - The Vision for Commercial Space

Recorded: 29 January 2016
Released: 30 January 2016
Duration:89 minutes, 8 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr welcomes panelists Adam Smith, Mike Bohler, James Garrison and Patrick Festa to talk about Commercial Space. Was Gerard K. O'Neill's beautiful vision a fantasy, or a blueprint for the human future? The panel tries to hash it out in the light of recent successes by SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Sierra Nevada. we did't even get to Bigelow.

Links

Falcon Heavy
Our Episode on Asteroid Mining
Questions on Asteroid Mining

Recommendations:

Adam Smith: The Expanse
James Garrison: Camp Quest
Patrick Festa: Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card
Paul Carr: The Tempest

Credits

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Panelists: Adam Smith, James Garrison, Mike Bohler, Patrick Festa
Music: DJ Spooky
Hardware: Shure, Pro Art, Focusrite, Apple, Furman
Software: Chrome, Reaper, Loopback, Google Hangouts on Air
Postproduction: Auphonic
Hosting: Libsyn

Episode 40 - Planet Nine from Outer Space

Recorded: 22 January 2016
Released: 23 January 2016
Duration: 106 minutes 52 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr welcomes Adam Smith, Ciro Villa, Nick Nielsen and Patrick Festa to talk about some recent developments: reconsideration of the Kardashev Scale, the reality and unknowns of dark matter, a possible super Earth planet deep in the outer solar system, and the dimming of Tabby's Star.

David Bowie, RIP

Links:

Kardashev's Scale at 50+
N.S. Kardashev: Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations
The Shapley/Curtis Debate
The Long and Short Dimming of Tabby's Star

RecommendationsAdam Smith: Go outside and look at the planets
Ciro Villa: The Expanse
Nick Nielsen: Disturbed covering Sound of Silence
Patrick Festa: Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
Paul Carr: Hillary Hahn - Bach solo partitas for violin

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr

Panelists: Adam Smith, Ciro Villa, Nick Nielsen, Patrick Festa

Music: DJ Spooky

Hardware: Shure, Focusrite, Apple

Software: Reaper, Rogue Amoeba Loopback

Postproduction: Auphonic.com

Hosting: Libsyn.com

Episode 39 - You Will Go To the Moon

Recorded: 15 Januaray 2016
Released: 16 January 2016
Duration:82 minutes 52 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr welcomes panelists Ryan MacDonald, Adam Smith, and David Grigg to talk about the
human future on the moon and beyond. Why go back to the moon? Who will do it, and what should motivate them?

Links

The Physics of Space Elevators
Space Colonization Using Space Elevators from Phobos

A Lunar L2-Farside Exploration and Science Mission Concept with the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and a Teleoperated Lander/Rover

ESA Head's Moon Village Idea

Recommendations:

Snapshot Serengti
Unmasking Europa by Richard Greenberg
edx.org
Moonrush
Science of the Solar System

Credits

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Panelists: Ryan MacDonald, David Grigg, Adam Smith
Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 38 - Unidentified Phenomena

Recorded:8 January 2016
Released: 9 January 2016
Duration: 86 minutes 52 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr welcomes new panelist Ted Roe, along with Jeff Boerst, Mike Bohler and Nick Nielsen to talk seriously about the subject of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), attempting to filter out all the silliness, pseudoscience, misinformation, and disinformation and cut to what the core phenomena are and how we should proceed. Ted is Executive Director of NARCAP, an organization that takes and investigates UAP reports from aviators. We talk about how to separate unknown natural phenomena from artificial, and the problems in determining what the distinguishing observables of an ET visitation would be.

Links

Ted Roe

NARCAP
Ted Roe on Project Archivist (not about UAPs)
The O'Hare Case Report (.pdf)
1968 B52 Case

Marsha Barnhart's 2014 interview with Ted Roe

The Wow! Signal
The Dream of the Open Channel
Grand Strategy
The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy

Credits

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Panelists: Ted Roe, Jeff Boerst, Mike Bohler, Nick Nielsen
Music: DJ Spooky