Big Picture Science

Series produced by Big Picture Science

Series image

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.


329 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
DNA is Not Destiny
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: DNA is Not Destiny, Credit: Seth Shostak
We used to think that the genes you inherited didn’t change. You were stuck – or blessed – with what you got. Now we know that’s not true. Epi...

Bought by Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KTSW 89.9, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRGY, KZUM and more


  • Added: Jun 06, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: Dr. Oz
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Dr. Oz, Credit: Seth Shostak
Dr. Oz’s personable and folky approach when talking about difficult health subjects has made him a trusted source for medical information. But some...

Bought by WVTF, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KBBI Alaska, KZUM and more


  • Added: May 02, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Go With the Flow
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Piece image
Solid materials get all the credit. Don’t get us wrong, we depend on their firmness for bridges, bones, and bento boxes. But liquids do us a solid...

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


  • Added: Apr 04, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Nuclear Worries
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Nuclear Worries, Credit: Seth Shostak
The nuclear threat is back, and the Doomsday Clock is almost at midnight. How did we end up here again? In the 1930s, German physicists learned tha...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KBBI Alaska, KNCT FM and more


  • Added: Mar 21, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Identity Crisis
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Identity Crisis, Credit: Seth Shostak
DNA is the gold standard of all identification methods. Except when it’s not. So, while we refine our ability to work with the double helix, scien...

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


  • Added: Mar 14, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
You Are Exposed
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: You Are Exposed, Credit: Seth Shostak
There is no place like “ome.” Your microbiome is highly influential in determining your health and the course of disease. But it’s not the only “om...

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


  • Added: Mar 07, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Bare Bones
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Bare Bones, Credit: Seth Shostak
Without your skeleton, you’d be a limp bag of protoplasm, unable to move. But bones are also time capsules, preserving much of your personal histor...

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


  • Added: Jan 31, 2022
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Mycology Education
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Mycology Education, Credit: Seth Shostak
Beneath our feet is a living network just as complex and extensive as the root systems in a forest. Fungi, which evolved in the oceans, were among ...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WVTF, KTXK, CHSR-FM 97.9, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass. and more


  • Added: Dec 27, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
Attack of the Mutants
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Attack of the Mutants, Credit: Seth Shostak
The omicron variant is surging. More contagious than delta, omicron demonstrates how viruses use mutations to quickly adapt. Mutations drive evolut...

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


  • Added: Dec 20, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Hubble and Beyond
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Hubble and Beyond, Credit: Seth Shostak
The universe is not just expanding; it’s accelerating. Supermassive black holes are hunkered down at the center of our galaxy and just about every ...

Bought by WMUU-LP, KUHF, KTXK, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Dec 13, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Skeptic Check: Identifying UAPs
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Identifying UAPs, Credit: Seth Shostak
The Pentagon’s report on UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) said nothing about the possibility that some might be alien spacecraft. Nonetheless, ...

Bought by KTXK, CHSR-FM 97.9, WUFT, KMUN, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Dec 06, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
Suitable For Life?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Piece image
Life nearby? We’ve not yet found any on our favorite planet, Mars. But even if Mars is sterile, could we ever change that by terraforming it? Or se...

Bought by WMUU-LP, KTXK, CHSR-FM 97.9, KMUN, KZUM and more


  • Added: Nov 15, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Dimming the Sun
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Dimming the Sun, Credit: Seth Shostak
Does geoengineering offer a Plan B if nations at the U.N. climate meeting can't reduce carbon emissions? The Glasgow meeting has been called “the l...

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


  • Added: Nov 01, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Skeptic Check: Brain Gain
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Brain Gain, Credit: Seth Shostak
Looking to boost your brainpower? Luckily, there are products promising to help – smart drugs, neurofeedback exercises, and specially-designed vi...

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


  • Added: Oct 25, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 11
Radical Cosmology
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Radical Cosmology, Credit: Seth Shostak
400 years ago, some ideas about the cosmos were too scandalous to mention. When the Dominican friar Giordano Bruno suggested the existence of plan...

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


  • Added: Oct 18, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Home Invasions
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Home Invasions, Credit: Seth Shostak
As we struggle to control a viral invader that moves silently across the globe and into its victims, we are also besieged by other invasions. Murde...

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


  • Added: Oct 04, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
AI: Where Does It End?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: AI: Where Does It End, Credit: Seth Shostak
The benefits of artificial intelligence are manifest and manifold, but can we recognize the drawbacks … and avoid them in time? In this episode, ...

Bought by WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KMUN, WHCP-LP Cambridge, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Sep 27, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: Science Denial
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Science Denial, Credit: Seth Shostak
Climate change isn’t happening. Vaccines make you sick. When it comes to threats to public or environmental health, a surprisingly large fraction...

Bought by WVTF, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: Sep 20, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
True Grit
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: True Grit, Credit: Seth Shostak
Without sand, engineering would be stuck in the Middle Ages and Silicon Valley would be, well, just a valley. Sand is the building material of mod...

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


  • Added: Aug 30, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
You've Got Whale
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: You've Got Whale, Credit: Seth Shostak
We’re all missing out on important messages, and no amount of refreshing your browser will help. That’s because eavesdropping on the communications...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, WUFT, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: Aug 23, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13

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