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.


329 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Happy Daze
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Happy Daze, Credit: Seth Shostak
Calling all pessimists – discover why your brain is wired for optimism, the evolutionary advantage of thinking positive and other research into th...

Bought by KSKQ, KCMJ Community Radio, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and WNJR


  • Added: Mar 04, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Anthropocene and Heard
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Anthropocene and Heard, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why climate change and loss of biodiversity may mean goodbye to the "Holocene," and hello to a new geologic epoch, the "Age of Man."

Bought by WRIR, WRST-FM Oshkosh, WNJR, and Royalton Community Radio


  • Added: Apr 01, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Seth's Wine Cellar
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Seth's Wine Cellar, Credit: Seth Shostak
In this potpourri show: from atomic clocks … to solar storms … to gold particles that might make gasoline obsolete … there are lots of science surp...

Bought by KSKQ, WRIR, KREV-LP, WRST-FM Oshkosh, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 7
Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program, Credit: Seth Shostak
Just remember this: Even our memories of dramatic events that seem to burn themselves directly into our brain are riddled with errors.

Bought by WRGY, WRIR, WRST-FM Oshkosh, Royalton Community Radio, WNJR and more


  • Added: Apr 15, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Stomach This
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Stomach This, Credit: Seth Shostak
Not all conversation is appropriate for the dinner table – and that includes, strangely enough, the subject of eating. Yet, what happens during th...

Bought by WRGY, KREV-LP, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and WNJR


  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Going Viral
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Going Viral, Credit: Seth Shostak
Discover how viruses go from birds to pigs to you, how fossil viruses got into your genome, whether E.T. might be a virus, and what it takes for id...

Bought by WUFT, KKWE Niijii Radio, WRGY, WRIR, KREV-LP and more


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Skeptic Check: Hostile Climate
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Hostile Climate, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s a record we didn’t want to break. Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is at an all-time high. Meanwhile an op-ed in a leading new...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, WRGY, WRIR, KREV-LP, KVSC and more


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Cosmos: It's Big, It's Weird
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Cosmos: It's Big, It's Weird, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s all about you. And you, and you, and you and you … that is, if we live in parallel universes. Physicist Brian Greene’s case for multiverses.

Bought by KSKQ, WRGY, KBGA 89.9 FM, WRIR, and KREV-LP


  • Added: Jun 03, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
Exoplanets
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Exoplanets, Credit: Seth Shostak
You may be unique, but is your home planet? Why the astronomer who’s discovered hundreds of exoplanets is hopeful about the hunt for alien life. ...

Bought by WRGY, KBGA 89.9 FM, KREV-LP, and KVSC


  • Added: Jun 17, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Material Whirl
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Material Whirl, Credit: Seth Shostak
The future of man-made materials from 3D printers to artificial skin. Also, why ancient Roman concrete was better than ours.

Bought by WRGY, KBGA 89.9 FM, WNJR, KSKQ, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA and more


  • Added: Jul 08, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Getting a Spacelift
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Getting a Spacelift, Credit: Seth Shostak
The future of spaceflight, why humans should go to Mars, the techno-wizardry needed to get there, working on an asteroid, and a space tourist’s pri...

Bought by WRGY, KBGA 89.9 FM, WNJR, KSKQ, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA and more


  • Added: Jul 15, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Rife with Life
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Rife With Life, Credit: Seth Shostak
Follow the water is the astrobiology mantra. Where there’s water, there may be life. Join us for a tour of watery solar system bodies.

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio, WRGY, KBGA 89.9 FM, KSKQ, WNJR and more


  • Added: Jul 22, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 7
Welcome to Our Labor-atory
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Welcome to Our Labor-atory, Credit: Seth Shostak
The end of work? Hi ho, hi ho ... it’s out with work we go! As you relax this holiday weekend, step into our labor-atory and imagine a world wher...

Bought by Accessible Media Inc., WNJR, Accessible Media Inc. Station Account, KRPS, WRGY and more


  • Added: Sep 01, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 8
Catch a Wave
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Catch a Wave, Credit: Seth Shostak
What your eye sees is but a narrow band in the electromagnetic spectrum. Discover what the rest reveals about the secrets of the universe.

Bought by KSKQ, WRGY, WRIR, and KREV-LP


  • Added: Sep 02, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Skeptic Check: Follywood Science
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Follywood Science, Credit: Seth Shostak
From Prometheus to 2001: the ratio of science to fiction in sci-fi, the most accurate science fiction film; and why messing with medical facts in f...

Bought by WRGY, WRST-FM Oshkosh, WNJR, and WRIR


  • Added: Sep 09, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
You Say You Want An Evolution?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: You Say You Want an Evolution?, Credit: Seth Shostak
Just give it time.

Bought by WRGY, WRST-FM Oshkosh, WRIR, and WNJR


  • Added: Sep 16, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Skeptic Check: War of the Worlds
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: War of the Worlds, Credit: Seth Shostak
It was the most famous invasion that never happened. But Orson Welles’ 1938 “War of the Worlds” broadcast sure sounded convincing as it described a...

Bought by KCPW Salt Lake City, KQED, WUTC, WRFA-LP, WGBH Radio Boston and more


  • Added: Oct 21, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
Shutting Down Science
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Shutting Down Science, Credit: Seth Shostak
The government shut down left one Antarctic researcher's research out in the cold and raises a question about publicly funded science. What do we ...

Bought by WRGY, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KREV-LP, KVSC, and WNJR


  • Added: Oct 28, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
Life Back Then
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Life Back Then, Credit: Seth Shostak
Time keeps on ticking, ticking … and as it does, evolution operates to produce remarkable and transformative changes in species.

Bought by WRGY, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and WNJR


  • Added: Nov 04, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Skeptic Check: Science Blunders
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Science Blunders, Credit: Seth Shostak
We’ve all had an “oops” moment. Scientists are no exception. Sometimes science stumbles in the steady march of progress. Hear a few of those bum...

Bought by KSKQ, WRGY, KREV-LP, KUNM, and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Nov 25, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5

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