Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchJames Welsh et al., "Weathering Space" (American Scientist 114:1 2026)
Episode 163
Past human space missions were protected by Earth’s magnetic field and a measure of luck, but future missions beyond the Earth–Moon system will face …
5 months, 4 weeks ago
James Franklin and Jeremiah Joven Joaquin eds., "The Necessities Underlying Reality: Connecting Philosophy of Mathematics, Ethics and Probability" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
The Necessities Underlying Reality: Connecting Philosophy of Mathematics, Ethics and Probability (Bloomsbury, 2025) is an open access book that co…
6 months ago
Yossi Yovel, "The Genius Bat: The Secret Life of the Only Flying Mammal" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)
With nearly 1500 species, bats account for more than twenty percent of mammalian species. The most successful and most diverse group of mammals, bats…
6 months, 1 week ago
Jeremy Bernstein 11–2007
In this episode from the Institute’s vault, we revisit an October 2007 presentation by theoretical physicist and Institute Fellow Jeremy Bernstein on…
6 months, 2 weeks ago
Thomas Haigh on the History of “AI” as a Brand
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Thomas Haigh, Professor and Chair of History and affiliate of the Department of Computer Science at Uni…
6 months, 2 weeks ago
Jon Willis, "The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
A thrilling tour of Earth that shows the search for extraterrestrial life starts in our own backyard.
Is there life off Earth? Bound by the limitation…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Andrew H. Jaffe, "The Random Universe: How Models and Probability Help Us Make Sense of the Cosmos" (Yale UP, 2025)
An award-winning astrophysicist looks at how the understanding of uncertainty and randomness has led to breakthroughs in our knowledge of the cosmos
…7 months ago
Carl Benedikt Frey, "How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations" (Princeton UP, 2025)
In How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations (Princeton University Press, 2025), Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventio…
7 months, 1 week ago
Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth
Humanity’s relationship with black holes began in 1783 in a small English village, when clergyman John Michell posed a startling question: What if th…
7 months, 2 weeks ago
Craig Hogan, "The Unlikely Primeval Sky" (American Scientist, November-December)
Of all the patterns that could possibly be preserved in the post–Big Bang radiation, the one we see is surprisingly smooth on large angular scales.
…7 months, 2 weeks ago