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
Caption: Your Brains Reins, Credit: Seth Shostak
You are your brain, everyone agrees. But if your brain is damaged, are you still responsible for your actions? We hear of the first person to pl...

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


  • Added: Jan 06, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Caption: Perpetual Emotion Machine, Credit: Seth Shostak
Get ready for compassionate computers that share your pain, your joy. But wait, our own emotions can be conflicting and irrational. A suite of unc...

Bought by WMUU-LP, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, Royalton Community Radio, WRGY, WPCA-LP and more


  • Added: Jan 13, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: Frogs' Pants, Credit: Seth Shostak
An 18th century scientist fitted a pair of tailor-made briefs on a male frog to determine the animal’s contribution to reproduction. Find out what...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Feb 10, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Caption: Climate Changed, Credit: Seth Shostak
Rising waters, more destructive wildfires, record-breaking heatwaves. Scientists have long predicted these events, but reporting on climate change ...

Bought by KZUM, CHSR-FM 97.9, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., WRST-FM Oshkosh, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Feb 17, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Caption: Skeptic Check: Pandemic Fear, Credit: Seth Shostak
Contagion aside, coronavirus is a powerful little virus. It has prompted a global experiment in behavior modification: elbow bumps instead of hand...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, Royalton Community Radio, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., WRGY and more


  • Added: Mar 09, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 21
Caption: It's In Material, Credit: It's In Material
Astronauts are made of the “right stuff,” but what about their spacesuits? Find out why suiting up on Mars will require more flexibility, and the...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., Royalton Community Radio, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash. and more


  • Added: Mar 16, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Piece image
“Climate change at warp speed” is the way one scientist described the coronavirus outbreak. Recorded before a live audience at the Seattle AAAS mee...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, Royalton Community Radio, KICI Iowa City and more


  • Added: Mar 23, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Caption: Let's Take a Paws, Credit: Seth Shostak
Humans aren’t the only animals stressed-out by social distancing. Narwhals send out echolocation clicks to locate their buddies and ease their lon...

Bought by KAZU Seaside, Calif., CHSR-FM 97.9, WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KICI Iowa City and more


  • Added: Mar 30, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Caption: Zombies, Bigfoot, and Max Brooks
What do a zombie attack and a viral pandemic have in common? They are both frightening, mindless, and relentless in their assault. And both requi...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, Royalton Community Radio, WPCA-LP, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Apr 06, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Caption: Treating the Virus, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s not like waiting for Godot, because he never arrived. A coronavirus vaccine will come. But it is still months away. Meanwhile, scientists a...

Bought by KOJB 90.1 FM The eagle, Royalton Community Radio, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KUNM, WRGY and more


  • Added: Apr 20, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Caption: Covid Conspiracy
Nature abhors a vacuum, but conspiracy theorists love one. While we wait for scientists to nail down the how and why of the coronavirus, opportuni...

Bought by KZUM, CHSR-FM 97.9, KMUN, RadioFreePalmer, KICI Iowa City and more


  • Added: Apr 30, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
Caption: To the Bat Cave
To fight a pandemic, you first need to understand where a virus comes from. That quest takes disease ecologist Jon Epstein to gloomy caverns where ...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, KTRT RADIO INC, KMUN, WUFT, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: May 11, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Caption: Vaccine, When?, Credit: Seth Shostak
It will be the shot heard ‘round the world, once it comes. But exactly when can we expect a COVID vaccine? We discuss timelines, how it would wor...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, KMUN, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, Royalton Community Radio, KBBI Alaska and more


  • Added: May 18, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Piece image
Hey, Alexa, why don’t you laugh at my jokes? Teaching a computer to recognize humor is difficult because no clear definition of humor exists. Send...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WUFT, CHSR-FM 97.9, KMUN, KAZU Seaside, Calif. and more


  • Added: May 25, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
Caption: Soap, Skin, Sleep, Credit: Seth Shostak
Some safeguards against COVID-19 don’t require a medical breakthrough. Catching sufficient Z’s makes for a healthy immune system. And, while you wa...

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


  • Added: Jun 01, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Caption: Race and Covid
While citizens take to the streets to protest racist violence, the pandemic has its own brutal inequities. Black, Latino, and Native American peopl...

Bought by KWMR, CHSR-FM 97.9, KMUN, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Jun 08, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Caption: Animals Like Us, Credit: Seth Shostak
Laughing rats, sorrowful elephants, joyful chimpanzees. The more carefully we observe, and the more we learn about animals, the closer their emoti...

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


  • Added: Jun 29, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Caption: Creative Brains, Credit: Seth Shostak
Many animals are industrious and clever, but humans are unique in their creative and inventive impulses. Composer Anthony Brandt and neuroscientist...

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


  • Added: Jul 06, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Caption: COVID Curiosities, Credit: Danielle Futselaar
Some dogs and cats have become sick with COVID. But it’s not just domestic critters that are vulnerable: zoo animals have fallen ill too. There’s m...

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


  • Added: Jul 13, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Caption: Something in the Air, Credit: Seth Shostak
Our response to the virus is changing the air in unexpected ways. A pandemic-driven pause on travel has produced clear skies and a world-wide air q...

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


  • Added: Jul 20, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13