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.


330 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
How Hot is Too Hot
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: How Hot is Too Hot?, Credit: Seth Shostak
Extreme heat is taking its toll on the natural world. We use words like “heat domes” and “freakish” to de-scribe our everyday existence. These high...

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


  • Added: Oct 02, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
Skeptic Check: Worrier Mentality
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Piece image
Poisonous snakes, lightning strikes, a rogue rock from space. There are plenty of scary things to fret about, but are we burning adrenaline on the...

Bought by WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., KZUM, KBBI Alaska and more


  • Added: Oct 16, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Like Lightning
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Like Lightning, Credit: Seth Shostak
Every second, lightning strikes 50 to 100 times somewhere. It can wreak havoc by starting wildfires and sometimes killing people. But lightning als...

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


  • Added: Oct 23, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Extraordinary Ordinary Objects
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Extraordinary Ordinary Objecets, Credit: Seth Shostak
“To live is to count and to count is to calculate.” But before we plugged in the computer to express this ethos, we pulled out the pocket calculat...

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KZUM, WLPR and more


  • Added: Oct 30, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Night Flight
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Night Flight, Credit: Seth Shostak
Owls are both the most accessible and elusive of birds. Every child can recognize one, but you’ll be lucky to spot an owl in a tree, even if you’re...

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


  • Added: Nov 06, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Neanderthal in the Family
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Neanderthal in the Family, Credit: Seth Shostak
Back off, you Neanderthal! It sounds as if you’ve just been dissed, but maybe you should take it as a compliment. Contrary to common cliches, our P...

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


  • Added: Nov 13, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
The T-Rex Files
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: The T-Rex Files, Credit: Seth Shostak
T-Rex is having an identity crisis. Rocking the world of paleontology is the claim that Rex was not one species, but actually three. It’s not the f...

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


  • Added: Nov 20, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
In Living Color
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Piece image
The world is a colorful place, and human eyes have evolved to take it in – from vermillion red to bright tangerine to cobalt blue. But when we do, ...

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


  • Added: Nov 27, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
End of Eternity
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: End of Eternity, Credit: Seth Shostak
Nothing lasts forever. Even the universe has several possible endings. Will there be a dramatic Big Rip or a Big Chill¬ – also known as the heat de...

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


  • Added: Dec 04, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Skeptic Check: Naomi Klein
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Naomi Klein, Credit: Seth Shostak
Our information age is increasingly the disinformation age. The spread of lies and conspiracy theories has created competing experiences of reality...

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


  • Added: Dec 11, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
The Ocean's Genome
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Ocean's Genome, Credit: Seth Shostak
After helping to sequence the human genome more than twenty years ago, biochemist Craig Venter seemed to recede from the public eye. But he hadn’t ...

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


  • Added: Dec 18, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Iron, Coal, Wood
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Iron, Coal, Wood, Credit: Seth Shostak
The first coal-fired stoves changed domestic life, and that changed society. We take you back to that that era, and to millennia prior when iron wa...

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


  • Added: Dec 25, 2023
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Eclectic Company
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Eclectic Company, Credit: Seth Shostak
We present a grab bag of our favorite recent science stories – from how to stop aging to the mechanics of cooking pasta. Also, in accord with our ...

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


  • Added: Jan 01, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Your Mind on Movies
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Your Mind on Movies, Credit: Seth Shostak
By one estimate we spend a fifth of our lives watching movies or TV. In fact, we consume entertainment almost as habitually as we eat or sleep, act...

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


  • Added: Jan 08, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Tech in Check
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Tech in Check, Credit: public domain
Worried that AI will replace you? It may not seem like the Hollywood writers’ strike has anything in common with the Luddite rebellion in England i...

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


  • Added: Jan 15, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Inside Planets
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Inside Planets, Credit: Seth Shostak
With planets and moons, it’s what’s inside that counts. If we want to understand surface features, like volcanoes, or their history, such as how th...

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


  • Added: Jan 22, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: Hypnosis
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Hypnosis, Credit: Shannon Rose Geary
You are getting sleeeepy and open to suggestion. But is that how hypnotism works? And does it really open up a portal to the unconscious mind? Hypn...

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


  • Added: Jan 29, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
The Wrong Stuff
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: The Wrong Stuff, Credit: Seth Shostak
By one estimate the average American home has 300,000 objects. Yet our ancient ancestors had no more than what they could carry with them. How did ...

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


  • Added: Feb 05, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Alien Says What?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Alien Says What?, Credit: Seth Shostak
Whales are aliens on Earth; intelligent beings who have skills for complex problem-solving and their own language. Now in what’s being called a bre...

Bought by KAZU Seaside, Calif., WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KBBI Alaska, WRGY and more


  • Added: Feb 12, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Lithium Valley
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Lithium Valley, Credit: Molly Bentley
The discovery of a massive amount of lithium under the Salton Sea could make the U.S. lithium independent. The metal is key for batteries in electr...

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


  • Added: Feb 19, 2024
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15

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