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
Skeptic Check: Flat Earth
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Flat Earth, Credit: Seth Shostak
Flat Earthers believe that our planet resembles not a slightly squashed grapefruit but a thick pancake. We look at the difference between a truly ...

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


  • Added: Apr 26, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: Rational Lampoon
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Rational Lampoon, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why a cognitive scientist says that the very idea of individual thinking is a myth: most of our thinking is done in groups. Also, you know much les...

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


  • Added: May 17, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Air Apparent
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Air Apparent, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s easy to take air for granted, but – unlike food and water – you can’t live more than a few minutes without it. This invisible chemical cocktai...

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


  • Added: May 31, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
After The Plague
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: After the Plague, Credit: Seth Shostak
Everyone is familiar with the immediate consequences of a pandemic – sickness and death. But the long-term ramifications can be just as dramatic: a...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, WKMS, Interlochen Public Radio and more


  • Added: Jun 21, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Skeptic Check: Science Breaking Bad
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Science Breaking Bad, Credit: Seth Shostak
The scientific method is tried and true. The fallible humans behind the research, however, not so much. Find out why the hyper-competitive pursuit...

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


  • Added: Jun 28, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: Pentagon UFO Report
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Pentagon UFO Report, Credit: Seth Shostak
When the government announced it would release a report about strange aerial phenomena, public excitement and media coverage took off like a Saturn...

Bought by KMUN, Interlochen Public Radio, WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: Jul 05, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Cicadas and Zombie Seeds
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Cicadas and Zombie Seeds, Credit: Seth Shostak
Rip van Winkle snoozed for 20 years, and Sleeping Beauty for 100. But seeds in an underground bottle have easily beaten both these records, germina...

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


  • Added: Jul 12, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
New Water Worlds
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: New Water Worlds, Credit: Seth Shostak
The water is coming. By century’s end, the oceans could be anywhere from 2 to 6 feet higher, threatening millions of people and low-lying property....

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, KAZU Seaside, Calif., Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Jul 19, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Skeptic Check: Anti-Vax
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Anti-Vax, Credit: Seth Shostak
They were developed in a matter of months, and they’re 90 percent effective at stopping infection. They protect against serious illness or death. A...

Bought by WVTF, KZUM, CHSR-FM 97.9, KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, WFAE and more


  • Added: Aug 09, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 23
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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

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