Planetary Radio

Series produced by Mat Kaplan

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The Planetary Society's travel show that takes you to the final frontier, featuring commentary by Society CEO Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Public radio's only long format, weekly series devoted to space exploration and the scientists, engineers, astronauts and visionaries who lead it. Most episodes include an in-depth interview along with regular segments that incude:

Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye the Science Guy's weekly commentaries...Emily Lakdawalla's Snapshots From Space...What's Up! (...in the night sky, with other fun and intriguing space info and a weekly contest.)

Several episodes each year are recorded live before an enthusiastic audience, often with live music. We also cover special space events, like the landing of the Curiosity Mars Rover, and take listeners to the places where scientists learn about the cosmos, like Chile's Atacama Desert.

Episodes are available from the PRSS each Tuesday on channel A68.5, from 1600-1630 Eastern. We also make a 128kb MP3 available to stations at our website.

Every week, Planetary Radio visits with a scientist, engineer, astronaut, project manager, advocate, visionary or writer who can provide a unique perspective on the quest for knowledge about our solar system and beyond. We also showcase regular features that raise your space IQ while they put a smile on your face.

Past guests have included Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride, X Prize Founder Peter Diamandis, Ray Bradbury, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Steve Squyres of the Mars Exploration Rover Project, Galileo's Daughter author Dava Sobel, interplanetary volcano expert Rosaly Lopes, the European Space Agency's Bernard Foing and scores of other leaders.

Each episode also includes an irreverent look at the current night sky with astronomer and Planetary Society Director of Projects Bruce Betts. These "What's Up!" segments also include a Random Space Fact, This Week in Space History, and our popular weekly space trivia contest.

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Public radio's only long format, weekly series devoted to space exploration and the scientists, engineers, astronauts and visionaries who lead it. Most episodes include an in-depth interview along with regular segments that incude: Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye the Science Guy's weekly commentaries...Emily Lakdawalla's Snapshots From Space...What's Up! (...in the night sky, with other fun and intriguing space info and a weekly contest.) Several episodes each year are recorded live before an enthusiastic audience, often with live music. We also cover special space events, like the landing of the Curiosity Mars Rover, and take listeners to the places where scientists learn about the cosmos, like Chile's Atacama Desert. Episodes are available from the PRSS each Tuesday on channel... Show full description


500 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: This is an artist's conception of Psyche, a metallic asteroid., Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the principal investigator for NASA’s Psyche mission to explore a metallic asteroid, joins Planetary Radio to share the missio...

Bought by KCNP, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., KICI Iowa City, KWMR, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Mar 22, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: “Universal Harmonies” (released on Mar 10, 2023) is an album comprised of sonified observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. This collection hopes to make space images more accessible to those with vision loss by allowing them to listen to images r, Credit: Chandra Labs
Kim Arcand from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory joins Planetary Radio to share her team’s new album “Universal Harmonies.”

Bought by KIYU-FM, KWMR, WJCU, WMUU-LP, KRZA and more


  • Added: Mar 14, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: With the full size Voyager spacecraft mockup behind them in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, host Mat Kaplan is joined by Project Manager Suzanne Dodd, NASA Heliophysics Divison leader Nicola Fox, and Voyager Deputy Project Scientist Linda Spilker., Credit: Mat Kaplan/The Planetary Society
Planetary Radio’s creator Mat Kaplan guest hosts for this look back at the Jet Propulsion Lab’s celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Voyager ...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, RadioStPete Florida, KIYU-FM, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WJCU and more


  • Added: Mar 07, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: Canada's lunar rover will head for the Moon's south polar region as soon as 2026. , Credit: Canadensys Aerospace
Director of Canadensys West Peter Visscher fills us in on the upcoming Canadian lunar rover. Visscher has been working on the rover for years.

Bought by KIYU-FM, RadioStPete Florida, WJCU, WMUU-LP, KWMR and more


  • Added: Mar 01, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples collected from the Mars surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover., Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-CalTech
Meenakshi Wadhwa, principal scientist for Mars Sample Return at NASA JPL, updates us on the missions that will bring bits of the red planet back to...

Bought by KIYU-FM, KWMR, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WJCU, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago and more


  • Added: Feb 21, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: Data from the 100-meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is analyzed by volunteers in the new Are We Alone in the Universe project., Credit: NRAO Green Bank Observatory
A new volunteer SETI science project to search for alien technosignatures has launched! Two of its creators tell you how to sign up.

Bought by KIYU-FM, KVSC, KWMR, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WXAV 88.3FM Chicago and more


  • Added: Feb 14, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: This color image of the Martian surface in the Chryse area was taken by Viking Lander 1, looking southwest, about 15 minutes before sunset., Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars expert Tanya Harrison shares the details on some of the newest discoveries about Mars’ history, including potential megatsunamis and the disco...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KIYU-FM, WMUU-LP, KWMR, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo. and more


  • Added: Feb 07, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 13
Caption: An illustration of LHS 475 b based on our current understanding of the planet from JWST spectroscopy., Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI)
We celebrate the James Webb Space Telescope's first confirmed exoplanet discovery this week on Planetary Radio. Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, one of the lea...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KIYU-FM, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., KCNP, KWMR and more


  • Added: Feb 01, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: An image of Ganymede obtained by the JunoCam imager during Juno’s June 7, 2021, flyby of Jupiter's icy moon., Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Dive into the latest discoveries about Jupiter’s moons, Ganymede, Europa, and Io, with Scott Bolton, the principal investigator for NASA’s Juno mis...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KIYU-FM, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., KWMR, WJCU and more


  • Added: Jan 24, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12
Piece image
Jason Achilles, a musician who partnered with NASA’s JPL to help put one of the first microphones on Mars, shares his journey and the joy of listen...

Bought by KIYU-FM, KWMR, WMUU-LP, WJCU, KRZA and more


  • Added: Jan 17, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 13
Caption: Artemis 1 begins its successful lunar mission.
Jeremy Graeber, the assistant launch director at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, joins Planetary Radio to recount his experience on the night of A...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KIYU-FM, KWMR, WMUU-LP, WJCU and more


  • Added: Jan 11, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 13
Caption: Sarah Al-Ahmed, the new host of Planetary Radio, shaking hands with Mat, creator and former host of the show after their last in-person recording on Dec. 22, 2022., Credit: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society
New host Sarah Al-Ahmed bids a fond farewell to Mat Kaplan, Planetary Radio’s former host, in a special interview as Mat shares stories from his tw...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KIYU-FM, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., KWMR, WJCU and more


  • Added: Jan 03, 2023
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals emerging stellar nurseries and individual stars in the Carina Nebula that were previously obscured., Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
For his last episode as host, Mat Kaplan welcomes many of his Planetary Society colleagues for a review of a spectacular year of space exploration.

Bought by KIYU-FM, KWMR, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., KCNP, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago and more


  • Added: Dec 28, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 9
Caption: The Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft on board the USS Portland after its historic journey around the Moon., Credit: Mat Kaplan
Host Mat Kaplan greets the Orion capsule that has just returned from the Moon.

Bought by KIYU-FM, KWMR, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WMUU-LP, KRZA and more


  • Added: Dec 20, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: Host Mat Kaplan with bestselling author Andy Weir and Jet Propulsion Lab chief engineer Rob Manning., Credit: The Planetary Society
Outgoing Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan shares a few minutes of his very entertaining conversation with bestselling author Andy Weir and Jet Propu...

Bought by KIYU-FM, KWMR, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WMUU-LP, WJCU and more


  • Added: Dec 14, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: A Mars Exploration Rover crosses the Red Planet in this artist's concept., Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Bill Nye and Planetary Society members join Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity scientists at a screening of the excellent new documentary about the...

Bought by KIYU-FM, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, WJCU, WORT, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Dec 07, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 13
Caption: Host Mat Kaplan reports from the Red Planet on Planetary Radio's 20th anniversary.
Join the Planetary Society’s CEO and others as we mark Planetary Radio’s entry into its third decade.

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, WJCU, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., KRZA, KCNP and more


  • Added: Nov 30, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: Planetary Radio host and his Mirror Lab tour guide Buell Jannuzi with one of the seven huge mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope. , Credit: Mat Kaplan
Join us for a tour of the University of Arizona’s Mirror Lab where they use a giant, spinning oven filled with molten glass to create the primary m...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KIYU-FM, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, WMUU-LP, KICI Iowa City and more


  • Added: Nov 21, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: Linda Spilker and Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan check out the geysers emanating from a model of Saturn's moon Enceladus at JPL., Credit: Mat Kaplan
Cassini Mission Project Scientist Linda Spilker has now taken on the same job for the Voyager Interstellar Mission.

Bought by KIYU-FM, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KWMR, WJCU, KRZA and more


  • Added: Nov 16, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: Carl Sagan was a co-founder of The Planetary Society., Credit: The Planetary Society
Celebrate Carl Sagan’s birthday with his longtime collaborator and life partner Ann Druyan.

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KIYU-FM, KWMR, WJCU, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Nov 09, 2022
  • Length: 28:50
  • Purchases: 12