Big Picture Science

Series produced by Big Picture Science

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Big Picture Science is a weekly one-hour science magazine that connects ideas in surprising and humorous ways to illuminate the origins and evolution of life and technology on this planet… and beyond.

From free-thinking robots... to the recipe for dark matter... to the mix-and-match genes of synthetic biology, we have it all! One episode a month, Skeptic Check, is devoted to critical thinking.

Produced at the SETI Institute and hosted by Seth Shostak and Molly Bentley.

Big Picture Science can be found on iTunes and other podcast sites. Radio stations carrying the program are listed on our "listening" page at radio.seti.org

The program is freely available to radio stations for broadcast.

The show began with the title Are We Alone? in 2002.


330 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Skeptic Check: Understanding UAPs
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Understanding UAPs, Credit: Adobe Stock free image
The newest Pentagon report on UAPs – or Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon – reflects long standing public interest about what’s in our skies. Now, NAS...

Bought by WNED Buffalo, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], CHSR-FM 97.9, WRGY and more


  • Added: Jan 30, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Headed for Trouble
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Headed for Trouble, Credit: Seth Shostak
The stone heads on Easter Island are an enduring mystery: why were they built and why were they abandoned and destroyed? The old ideas about cultu...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KZUM and more


  • Added: Jan 23, 2023
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 12
Testing Your Metal
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Testing Your Metal, Credit: Seth Shostak
Catalytic converters are disappearing. If you’ve had yours stolen, you know that rare earth metals are valuable. But these metals are in great dema...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, WVTF, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Jan 16, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Melting Down
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Melting Down, Credit: Seth Shostak
Climate change isn’t waiting for us to act. We’ve missed several deadlines to mitigate the dangers of this existential threat, which suggests we pr...

Bought by WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KZUM, KAZU Seaside, Calif., KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio] and more


  • Added: Jan 09, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
Coming to Our Animal Senses
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Coming to Our Animal Senses, Credit: Seth Shostak
Animals experience the world differently. There are insects that can see ultraviolet light, while some snakes can hunt in the dark thanks to their ...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KZUM and more


  • Added: Jan 02, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Webb Feat
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Webb Feat, Credit: Seth Shostak
The James Webb Space Telescope has turned its golden eye on the cosmos. The largest, most sensitive telescope put in space since the Hubble Space T...

Bought by WLPR , CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KZUM and more


  • Added: Dec 26, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
Skeptic Check: 5G
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: 5G, Credit: Seth Shostak
5G, the latest mobile network standard, is coming. As new cell towers sprout around the world, do we know enough to confidently claim that this new...

Bought by Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KZUM, RadioStPete Florida, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Dec 19, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Keeping Humans in the Loop
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Keeping Humans in the Loop, Credit: Seth Shostak
As our world becomes more challenging, can we maintain control of our own future? Threats arise not just from climate change or inventions such as...

Bought by WNED Buffalo, KTXK, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KZUM, WRGY and more


  • Added: Dec 05, 2022
  • Length: 54:30
  • Purchases: 17
Vaccine Inequity
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Vaccine Inequity, Credit: Seth Shostak
A radical plan could solve a historic global health inequity. Countries in the global south who waited for more than a year for ample supplies of C...

Bought by KZYX, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KMUN, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Nov 21, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
Your Inner Tree
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Your Inner Tree, Credit: Seth Shostak
Declining biodiversity is a problem as fraught as climate change. Loss of habitat, monoculture crops, and the damming of waterways all lead to mass...

Bought by WMUU-LP, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KMUN and more


  • Added: Nov 14, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Fuhgeddaboudit
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Fuhgeddaboudit, Credit: Seth Shostak
A thousand years ago, most people didn’t own a single book. The only way to access knowledge was to consult their memory. But technology – from pap...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KMUN, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Nov 08, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: AI Comes Alive
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: AI Comes Alive, Credit: Seth Shostak
When a Google software engineer claimed that a piece of chatbot software was sentient, it was a major story. Just like your dog is sentient, could ...

Bought by WVTF, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KZUM, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Oct 24, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Animals Being Jerks
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Animals Being Jerks, Credit: Seth Shostak
They’re cute and cuddly. But they can also be obnoxious. Science writer Mary Roach has numerous tales about how our animal friends don’t always bow...

Bought by WRGY, WMUU-LP, KZUM, KTXK, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Oct 10, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Phreaky Physics
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Phreaky Physics, Credit: Seth Shostak
It was a radical idea a century ago, when Einstein said space and time can be bent, and gravity was really geometry. We hear how his theories inspi...

Bought by Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KZUM, KTXK, KCNP and more


  • Added: Oct 03, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Skeptic Check: Data Bias
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Data Bias, Credit: Seth Shostak
Sexist snow plowing? Data that guide everything from snow removal schedules to heart research often fail to consider gender. In these cases, “refe...

Bought by KZYX, WVTF, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY and more


  • Added: Sep 26, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Skeptic Check: Heal Thyself
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Heal Thyself, Credit: Seth Shostak
Do we need doctors? There are umpteen alternative sources of medical advice, including endless health tips from people without medical degrees. Wh...

Bought by WVTF, CHSR-FM 97.9, KZUM, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY and more


  • Added: Aug 29, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Platypus Crazy
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Platypus Crazy, Credit: Seth Shostak
They look like a cross between a beaver and a duck, and they all live Down Under. The platypus may lay eggs, but is actually a distant mammalian co...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WUFT, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KZUM and more


  • Added: Aug 22, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Rip Van Winkle Worm
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Rip Van Winkle Worm, Credit: Seth Shostak
Your shower pipes are alive. So are your sinks, books, and floorboards. New studies of our homes are revealing just what lives there, from bacteria...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KZUM and more


  • Added: Aug 15, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: Shared Reality
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Shared Reality, Credit: Seth Shostak
One of the many shocking aspects of the Capitol attack was that it revealed how thoroughly the nation had cleaved into alternate realities. How did...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., WLPR , WGBH Radio Boston, KCPW Salt Lake City, WVTF and more


  • Added: Jul 25, 2022
  • Length: 54:04
  • Purchases: 21
Sci-Fi From the Future
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Sci-Fi From the Future, Credit: Seth Shostak
Polls show that most Americans are uneasy about the unchecked growth of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering. We all hope to guide socie...

Bought by KTXK, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KZUM, WRGY and more


  • Added: Jul 18, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15

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