The Patreon account is now closed.

We have closed the Unseen Podcast Patreon page. Thanks to everyone who supported the Unseen Podcast over the years.

If you want to continue to support my podcasting efforts, please go to the Wow! Signal Patreon page and sign up. You'll only be billed when a full episode comes out.

Episode 101 - North American Farewell, part 2

Recorded: 9 November 2018

Released: 21 November 2018

Duration: 56 minutes, 36 seconds

Listen on YouTube

This is Part 2, continuing abruptly from Episode 100. The editing is a bit amateurish. Panel are Nick Nielsen, Ciro Villa, Mike Bohler, Sam Lichtenstein, and ladies and gentlemen: Mike Mongo!

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr

Music: DJ Spooky

 

All Unseen Podcast episodes are released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike license.

 

 

download the .mp3 audio file

Episode 100 - North American Farewell - Part 1

Recorded: 9 November 2018

Released: 18 November 2018

Duration: 53 minutes, 43 seconds

 

Listen on YouTube

For the final North American recording session for the Unseen Podcast, host Paul Carr welcomes Nick Nielsen, Ciro Villa, Mike Mongo, Sam Lichtenstein and Mike Bohler.

 

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr

Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 99 - At least the DJ is Spooky, part 2

Recorded: 26 October 2018

Released: 14 November 2018

Duration: 39 Minutes, 29 seconds

Paul Carr and Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy's Mike Bohler talk about the possible gaslighting of Simone Mendez and other real life craziness in part 2 of this special session.

 

Credits: 

Host and Producer: Paul Carr

Music: DJ Spooky

 

Episode 98 - at least the DJ is Spooky, part 1

Recorded: 26 October 2018
Released: 10 November 2018
Duration: 52 minutes, 45 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr is joined by Nick Nielsen and Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy's Mike Bohler to talk about conspiracies, accidents, and many other related things. This is Part 1 of two parts.

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Video Announcement

The Unseen Podcast as a separate entity is coming to an end. However, we don't want to lose what's good about it.

Episode 97 - Oh Dear, Moon!

Recorded: 28 September 2018
Released: 30 September 2018
Duration: 53 minutes, 31 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

The Big Falcon Spaceship

We don't really talk about current events here at the Unseen Podcast, but sometimes a current event inspires a discussion. We are ignoring all the (arguably justified) fuss about Brett Kavanaugh, and instead are going off on any tangents we can find related to the recent announcement about Dear Moon.

Only in our age can we talk about billionaire Japanese artists going on a trip around the moon. It's a great time to be alive.

Links:

dearmoon.earth
First Lunar BFR Mission
Which artists should SpaceX send to the Moon?
SpaceX Names Their First Private Tourist Headed to the Moon
Tough Jobs: Experimental Aircraft Test Pilot
Pilot Dies in 'Classified' Plane Crash at Nevada Training Range
List of people who died climbing Mount Everest

Credits:

Host and producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

The Unseen Podcast is released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-alike license.

Episode 96 - Meta Solo

Recorded: 14 September 2018
Released: 16 September 2016
Duration: 44 minutes 31 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

The first (and hopefully, last) solo episode, although this is our second meta episode, following a very unpopular one in 2015.

Links

Episode #1
The Unseen Podcast
About the Podcast
The Back Catalog
The Episode Sheet
The Wow! Signal

Desert Oracle Radio

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 95 - All Models Are Wrong

Recorded: 31 August 2018
Released: 9 September 2018
Duration: 44 minutes, 14 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

David Hilbert

A continuation of the discussion from Episode 94. Host Paul Carr and panelists Buck Field and Nick Nielsen jam on the theme of what are our models of reality, and what do they mean?

Links:

sieve of Eratosthenes

The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Hanne Andersen, Peter Barker, and Xiang Chen
Proofs that there are infinitely many primes

Why are there infinitely many prime numbers?

The Autonomy of Mathematical Knowledge: Hilbert's Program Revisited by Curtis Franks

THE PECULIAR MATH THAT COULD UNDERLIE THE LAWS OF NATURE

Cohl Furey

Octonion

How Much Does It Cost To Find A Higgs Boson? by Alex Knapp

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Linkage: Nick Nielsen
Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 94 - No Oranges in My Waldorf Salad

Recorded: 31 August 2018
Released: 2 September 2018
Duration:42 minutes 16 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr welcomes panelists Buck Field and Nick Nielsen to further extend the discussion
about what mathematics really means.

Episode 95 will pick up where this left off.

Links:

Episode 77 with Sam Lichtenstein and Nick Nielsen

Proofs that there are infinitely many primes
Why are there infinitely many prime numbers?
The Autonomy of Mathematical Knowledge: Hilbert's Program Revisited by Curtis Franks
THE PECULIAR MATH THAT COULD UNDERLIE THE LAWS OF NATURE
Cohl Furey
Octonion
How Much Does It Cost To Find A Higgs Boson? by Alex Knapp
sieve of Eratosthenes

The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Hanne Andersen, Peter Barker, and Xiang Chen

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Linkage: Nick Nielsen
Music: Dj Spooky


The Unseen Podcast is released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike license.

Episode 93 - The 2018 Summer Non-episode

Recorded: 17 August 2018
Released: 19 August 2018
Duration: 97 minutes, 20 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Breakthrough Starshot artist's concept

Host Paul Carr is joined by David Grigg, Nick Nielsen, Mike Bohler, and Sam Lichtenstein to talk
about a wide range of cutting edge issues in our Summer non-episode. We started with the recent article by Torres about we should not colonize space.
Please see our main site, unseenpodcast.com for more information about this episode and the podcast. You can discuss the episode and its contents.

Links:

The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy

Why We Should Think Twice About Colonizing Space by Phil Torres
Space colonization and suffering risks: Reassessing the “maxipok rule” by Phil Torres
Solar storm of 1859
Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate
A Super Solar Flare
What If the Biggest Solar Storm on Record Happened Today? Repeat of 1859 Carrington Event would devastate modern world, experts say by Richard A. Lovett
Coronal mass ejection
Stuxnet virus
On the Beach by Nevile Shute (novel)
On the Beach by Nevile Shute (film)

Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene by Will Steffen, et al.
Is Humanity About To Accidentally Declare Interstellar War On Alien Civilizations? by Ethan Siegel 
Alex Jones systematic de-Platforming does not bode well for Intellectual Dark Web
The Great Deplatforming War Rages On: Should libertarians cheer, boo, or do a shrug-emoji when a private social media platform bans the likes of Alex Jones? by Matt Welch

Licensing Order of 1643
Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England (1644) 

Licensing of the Press Act 1662
Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) 

The Neolithic origins of seafaring in the Arabian Gulf by Robert Carter
Boat remains and maritime trade in the Persian Gulf during the sixth and fifth millennia BC by Robert Carter

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky
Linkage: Nick Nielsen

A brief announcement for listeners

Released: 18 August 2018

A brief announcement about changes to the podcast format and new destinations for our audio content.  Please see unseenpodcast.com for more information.


download the .mp3 audio file

Episode 92 - Mars is wet, but the Moon is near.

Recorded: 27 July 2018
Released: 29 July 2018
Duration: 72 minutes, 2 seconds

Host Paul Carr welcomes panelists David Grigg, Nick Nielsen, and Patrick Festa. The cosmic Lyft

driver has pulled up to the curb. Where to next? Moon or Mars, and why? Why anything other than birth, copulation, and death? We get to decide.

download the .mp3 audio file

Links:

Liquid water spied deep below polar ice cap on Mars

Radar evidence of subglacial liquid water on Mars

NASA Office of Planetary Protection

With planetary protection office up for grabs, scientists rail against limits to Mars exploration

Found it! Ice on Mars

Why Can't we Remake the Rocketdyne F1 Engine?

Sputnik Crisis

Sputnik and the Origins of the SpaceAge

Into the Black

Credits: 

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky
Linkage: Nick Nielsen

Unseen Pub #9

With Mike Mongo, Nick Nielsen, Mike Bohler, Patrick Festa, and Paul Carr

Episode 91 - Speaking in Tongues

Recorded: 25 May 2018

Released: 26 May 2018
Duration: 74 minutes, 17 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr is joined by panelists Sam Lichtenstein, Patrick Festa, and Nick Nielsen to talk about the evolution and extinction of human languages.

Links:

The pre-show discussion thread

List of Endangered Languages

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (linguistic relativity)

Echoes from My Kodiak Alutiiq Ancestors

The state of the Welsh language: Number of people speaking Welsh fluently falls by 7,000 over the last decade

Revival of the Hebrew language

Who We Are: Europe

Future Strategist: Cochran History Of Europe

Infographic: A World of Languages

Recommendations:

Sam: A History of the Byzantine State and Society

Patrick: Kay Scarpetta Book Series

Nick: The History and Achievements of the Islamic Golden Age

Paul: Desert Oracle Radio

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

The Unseen Podcast is released under the Creative Common Attribution/Share-Alike license

Episode 90 - The 10,000 Year Water Nomads

Recorded: 20 April 2018
Released: 21 April 2018
Duration: 88 minutes, 9 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

The handoff Homie Naled

Host Paul Carr is joined by panelists Nick Nielsen and Sam Lichtenstein to talk about - well, just listen (or browse the links)...

 Links

The Insight Podcast by Insitome

Homo Naledi

The Hand of Homo naledi

Homo floresiensis

Indonesian divers have evolved bigger spleens to hunt underwater

Weapon of mass destruction

The Silurian Hypothesis: Would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record? (official journal link)

conservation lagerstätte

Discoveries May Rewrite History of China's Terra-Cotta Warriors

The Secret Tomb of China's 1st Emperor: Will We Ever See Inside?

The "Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project"

New digital map reveals stunning hidden archaeology of Stonehenge

The 10,000 Year Clock

10,000 Year Clock 

Atomic Priesthoods, Thorn Landscapes, and Munchian Pictograms: How to communicate the dangers of nuclear waste to future civilizations

Permanent Markers Implementation Plan

How the Baiju Sea Nomads Evolved for a Life of Diving

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

The Unseen Podcast is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike license.

Episode 89 - XRisk

Recorded: 6 April 2018
Released: 7 April 2018
Duration: 91 minutes, 56 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr welomes panelists Gita Jaisinghani, Sam Lichtenstein, Nick Nielsen and Adam Smith

Eric Drexler

to take about a selection of Existential Risks.

Topics include: nanotechnology, pandemics, AI, and Climate Change. As usual, we let the discussion wander where it will go.

Links

Future of Humanity Institute (exrisk think tank)

Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom

Nanotechnology: Armed resistance

Orthogonality Thesis

The Paperclipper

Gray Goo

Controversial US scientist creates deadly new flu strain for pandemic research

Engineered Avian Flu Could Kill Half the World's Humans

Asilomoar AI Principles

NASA on Climate Change

Early climate action has big effect on rising sea levels

Credits

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky
Links: Nick Nielsen

Unseen Pub #8 tonight - join us!

Here is the watch live link if you don't want to participate:

If you do, just meet up with us on Twitter, @podcastunseen, and tell us you'd like to be on #upub8.

Episode 88 - Chad Davies on the Scientific Odyssey

Recorded: 16 February 2018

Released: 17 February 2018
Duration:  85 minutes, 8 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr welcomes special guest Chad Davies of the Scientific Odyssey podcast, and panelists Sam Lichtenstein and Patrick Festa, to talk about the history and philosophy of science.

erratum: at the end, the host says it's the 16th of September. It was February.

Links:

the Scientific Odyssey Podcast:

Blog

On Facebook

On Apple Podcasts

On Stitcher

On player.fm

Chad Davies on Twitter

The Doom of Spacetime

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

The Unseen Podcast

Episode 87 - The Fight for Kids in Space

Recorded: 26 January 2018
Released: 27 January 2018
Duration: 104 minutes 39 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Host Paul Carr is joined by special guest panelist and documentary filmmaker Paul Hildebrandt,  director of The Fight for Space. Joining The two Pauls are Mike Mongo, Jon Eckberg, and Nick Nielsen. We talk about kids in space, and how it relates to Paul Hildebrandt's kickstarter for his film First to the Moon.

 

Links

Fight for Space
First to the Moon Kickstarter

Eric S. Raymond on Google Plus
Linus Torvalds on Google Plus

Sally Ride

Valentina Tereshkova
Who Was Sally Ride?
Christa McAuliffe
Apollo 8
Thomas Selfridge, first person to die in an airplane crash

Blanche Scott
The Apollo 1 Fire

Stowaway to the Moon

Schoolgirl sailor triumphs after battle with authorities

Fight for Space

Earthrise

The Overview Effect

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 86 - A Hyperbolic Trajectory Through the Drake Equation

Recorded: 19 January 2018
Released: 20 January 2018
Duration:126 minutes, 28 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Frank Drake and his famous equation

Host Paul Carr is joined by new panelist Jon Eckberg, and regulars Nick Nielsen, Buck Field, Mike Bohler and Patrick Festa to talk about how the discovery of the interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua affects the terms in the Drake Equation, if at all. As is typical for us, the discussion ranges wide, once again confirming the Drake Equation's role as an excellent mental lens.
affects the terms in

Links:

The Drake Equation
Through the Lens of the Drake Equation
Claudio Maccone - The Statistical Drake Equation
David Jewitt - Oddball Visitor from Outer Space
Early trace of life from 3.95 Ga sedimentary rocks in Labrador, Canada
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Case for K Dwarf Stars
This Humpback Whale Saved a Woman's Life, But Probably Not on Purpose
Face to Face with a Leopard Seal

A Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy
Oh, No Ross and Carrie

Credits: 

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 85 - Beyond Flags and Footprints

Recorded: 5 January 2018
Released: 6 January 2018
Duration: 97 minutes, 44 seconds

download the .mp3 audio file

Erratum: the 2017 Federal Budget is 4.1 Trillion dollars.

Host Paul Carr is joined by panelists Adam Smith, Nick Nielsen, Patrick Festa, and Buck Field to talk about the human return to the moon. It seems to boil down to: yes,, but who's going to pay for it? Maybe the Chinese? Maybe American or Asian billionaires? Somehow this drifts into discussion of flat Earthers and joke cults.

 

Links

Artist's conception of lunar colony

Deep Space Gateway
Space Launch System
SpaceIL

Thiel: Google has $50B, doesn't innovate  or the longer version: 2012 - Eric Schmidt and Peter Thiel - Debate
The Largest Companies by Market Cap

Robert Zubrin - Mars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet within a Decade

"There is a tide in the affairs of men."
Lava tubes as hidden sites for future human habitats on the Moon and Mars
Lunar lava tube
Budget of NASA

5 Whys

Stalinist gigantism

The World at War

A Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy
Ross and Carrie Traverse Flat Earth
Ross and Carrie Go Raelian
Church of the Subgenius
North Texas Church of Freethought

 

Credits

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Hardware: Shure, ProArt, Focusrite, Apple, Audio Technica,Tascam
Postproduction: Auphonic Desktop Application
Hosting: Libsyn

The Unseen Podcast is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike license.