The Wow! Signal Podcast

The Wow! Signal Podcast is the voice is 21st Century's search for the question to the answer of Life, the Universe and Everything. The podcast is a heady mix of interviews with bleeding edge thinkers, writers, and investigators.

Episode 50 - Arecibo Wow! with Professor Abel Mendez 09/12/2024

Episode 50 - Arecibo Wow! with Professor Abel Mendez We welcome back from the University of Puerto Rico to tell us about recent research into data from the Arecibo radio telescope focused on cold hydrogen clouds and a proposed natural explanation for the Big Ear Wow! Signal that we covered in depth in . We recommend so you can follow along. Links: Astrophysical MASERs (microwave lasers) Credits Host, editor, producer: Paul Carr Music: (Black Swan), (Far), by is licensed under /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/33017422

Burst 34 - The Mystery of the Nine Transients 07/14/2021

Burst 34 - The Mystery of the Nine Transients Beatriz Villarroel discusses her latest VASCO paper in Nature Scientific Reports, "Exploring nine simultaneously occurring transients on April 12th 1950." /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/19804943

Episode 49 - Existential Risk 02/04/2021

Episode 49 - Existential Risk Co-hosts Paul Carr and Daniela DePaulis are joined by author Thomas Moynihan. The subject is the idea of human extinction and how it evolved into our present day understand of Existential Risk. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/17781575

Episode 48 - Chelsea Haramia on the Ethics of METI 11/26/2020

Episode 48 - Chelsea Haramia on the Ethics of METI Co-hosts Paul Carr and Daniela De Paulis engage philosopher Chelsea Haramia on the ethics of sending signals into space that might be received by intelligent beings in the cosmos. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/16964015

Episode 47 - Arthur C. Clarke, Godfather of Satellites 11/07/2020

Episode 47 - Arthur C. Clarke, Godfather of Satellites Co hosts Paul Carr and Daniela De Paulis welcome space historian David Skogerboe to talk about the pro-space activism of Arthur C. Clarke. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/16673057

Episode 46 - Extraterrestrials 04/06/2020

Episode 46 - Extraterrestrials Author and podcaster Wade Roush talks about his forthcoming book from MIT Press, Extraterrestrials. The book covers astrobiology, SETI, the Fermi paradox and more for a literate but non-specialist audience. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/13863011

Episode 45 - Among the Space People with Paola Castaño 03/30/2020

Episode 45 - Among the Space People with Paola Castaño Co-hosts Paul Carr and Daniela DePaulis welcome Dr. Paola Castaño to talk about her research among the science teams working on the international Space Station. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/13750526

Burst 33 - Astronomer David Blank Comments on Episode 41 03/20/2020

Burst 33 - Astronomer David Blank Comments on Episode 41 Astronomer David Blank responded to our invitation to comment on the Villarroel+ paper we covered in Episode 41, which he describes as "very fascinating." /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/13623980

Episode 44 - The Night Watch 01/22/2020

Episode 44 - The Night Watch Astronomer Stella Kafka of the AAVSO /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/12818513

Episode 43 - Adam Dipert Moves in Zero G 12/22/2019

Episode 43 - Adam Dipert Moves in Zero G Adam Dipert is a veteran circus performer and dancer who recently received his PhD in physics from Arizona State University. Her has brought his various interests together by researching human movement in microgravity. We are going to let him tell you all about that. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/12485237

Episode 42 - Moon bouncing with Julia DeMarines 12/11/2019

Episode 42 - Moon bouncing with Julia DeMarines Co-hosts Daniela DePaulis and Paul Carr welcome Julia DeMarines (@LifeNSpace) to talk about bouncing radio signals off the moon. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/12351089

Episode 41 - The Vanishing Sources with Beatriz Villarroel 11/15/2019

Episode 41 - The Vanishing Sources with Beatriz Villarroel Released: 15 November 2019 Duration: 42 minutes, 24 seconds Our guest on in 2016, , returns to give us an update on the vanishing star, following the release of detailing a much more ambitious project along the same lines that finds a number of new candidate objects. For more information, please visit Links: Villarroel+: (work of fiction that mentions the earlier research) Credits: Host and Producer: Paul Carr Music: DJ Spooky and Jason Robinson Announcer: Erin Carr This podcast is released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-alike license. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/12046598

Episode 40 - Extraterrestrial Languages 10/16/2019

Episode 40 - Extraterrestrial Languages Released: 16 October 2019 Duration: 54 minutes, 51 seconds is a forthcoming book about the human quest to craft messages that can be understood across interstellar distances. We may want to tell ET about ourselves, or it may be help ET send message to us that we will know how to interpret. Daniel Oberhaus is a staff writer at Wired Magazine, where he covers space and energy. His first book, Extraterrestrial Languages, will be released by MIT Press on October 22, 2019. For more information, please visit Support the podcast at . Links : the ontological status of mathematics Credits Host and Producer: Paul Carr Co-Host: Daniela DiPaulis Music: DJ Spooky, Jason Robinson, George Hrab Announcer: Erin Carr The Wow! Signal is released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike license /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/11637812

Episode 39 - Sofia Sheik and The Nine Axes 09/29/2019

Episode 39 - Sofia Sheik and The Nine Axes Released: 29 September 2019 Duration: 49 minutes, 52 seconds Download Sofia's paper here: A conversation with SETI researcher Sofia Sheikh about how we should evaluate technosignature search strategies. We cover three examples of technosignature searches and their relative advantages. Sofia Sheikh is a third-year graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University working with Dr. Jason Wright. She did her undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, where she became involved with the Breakthrough Listen Initiative. Her work incorporates both theoretical approaches to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and observational radio searches for technosignatures. She intends to be the first woman to complete a SETI PhD thesis. Links Credits Host and Producer: Paul Carr Announcer: Erin Carr Music: DJ Spooky, Erika Lloyd, Jason Robinson Hardware: Shure, Audio Technica, Pro Art, Behringer, Focusrite, Apple. Software: Skype, Loopback, Reaper, Auphonic Desktop Hosting: Libsyn /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/11427485

Burst 32 - Become a Boyajian's Star Scientist in Your Spare Time 02/19/2019

Burst 32 - Become a Boyajian's Star Scientist in Your Spare Time Released: 18 February 2019 Duration: 6 minutes, 48 seconds Paul Carr summarizes why we want to know more about this star, and how you can get involved. Links: Please see for the most detailed information. (Tabby's TED Talk) (Brad Schaefer) Credits: Host and Producer: Paul Carr Music: DJ Spooky /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/8697086

Burst 31 Beyond the SETI Paradigm 02/05/2019

Burst 31 Beyond the SETI Paradigm Little has been said concerning the possibility of detecting a lightsail as a technosignature in comparison to detecting a “conventional” technosignature such as the radio and laser beacons that SETI searches for. When we look out into the universe for signs of intelligence, if there are technosignatures to be seen, what technologies ought we to expect to be the most common? /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/8524106

Unseen Podcast announcement 10/14/2018

Unseen Podcast announcement A not quite so short announcement from the producer of the and the . This is for those who have not seen . /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/7179485

Burst 30 - The Gaia DR2 Release and Boyajian's Star 04/26/2018

Burst 30 - The Gaia DR2 Release and Boyajian's Star Released: 24 April 2018 Duration: 10 minutes, 1 second Paul Carr talks about today's much more accurate distance estimate to Boyajian's Star from Gaia Data Release 2, and what, if anything, this rules out. Links: Clemens+ (2018) - Boyajian+ (2015) - Castelaz and Barker (2018) - Credits: Host and Producer: Paul Carr Music: Jason Robinson /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6523239

Burst 29 - Caral Supe and Evangeline 04/24/2018

Burst 29 - Caral Supe and Evangeline Paul Carr reviews what has been happening over the Winter and early Spring with respect to Boyajian's Star. We review the Winter observations, the Castelaz and Barker paper, and the two surprise March dips, Caral-Supe and Evangeline. We also talk about the upcoming Gaia Data Release 2 and what it might mean. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6514885

Burst 28 - The Cosmic Archipelago, part III 02/07/2018

Burst 28 - The Cosmic Archipelago, part III In order to resolve our cosmic archipelago problem we will have to attempt to reconstruct a history of our universe as a part of a far larger cosmological system, and to do this we will have to extend cosmology beyond the observable universe -- but what, exactly, is the observable universe? /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6233287

Burst 27 - The Cosmic Archipelago - Part 2 01/26/2018

Burst 27 - The Cosmic Archipelago - Part 2 In Part II we focus on cosmological scales of time and what this means for human observation of a very old universe. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6190942

Burst 26 - The Cosmic Archipelago, Part 1. 01/21/2018

Burst 26 - The Cosmic Archipelago, Part 1. Released: 21 January 2018 Duration: 19 minutes A hundred years ago cosmologists were struggling to understand the nature and structure of the universe, and at the heart of this struggle was the island universe hypothesis. Today we find ourselves confronted with a similar question posed at a far greater scale. As we confront these great questions of cosmology, whether a hundred years ago or today, we find ourselves faced with as many philosophical questions as scientific questions when we challenge the boundaries of our understanding. In Part I we focus on the original problems of constructing the cosmological distance ladder. Links: , Edwin Hubble , Immanuel Kant , Shapley and Curtis , V. Trimble , Edwin Hubble , Arthur Eddington , Stuart Armstrong and Anders Sandberg and Credits: Writer and Host: Nick Nielsen Producer and Voiceover: Paul Carr Music: Jason Robinson /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6172951

Burst 25 - The Elsie Paper 01/03/2018

Burst 25 - The Elsie Paper Host Paul Carr goes over the new paper by Tabetha Boyajian and 206 coauthors: The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6110549

Episode 38 - The Overview Effect 12/17/2017

Episode 38 - The Overview Effect Released: 31 December 2017 Duration: 65 minutes, 20 seconds Daniela DePaulis and Nick Nielsen in conversation with Frank White on the Overview Effect. Detailed show notes To Be Supplied. Please see for more information. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6053762

Burst 24- The Summer of Tabby's Star 12/03/2017

Burst 24- The Summer of Tabby's Star Released: 3 December 2017 Duration: 11 minutes 43 seconds Host Paul Carr covers some recent developments with respect to Boyajian's Star, especially the 4 dips of the Summer of 2017. Links: Credits: Host and Producer: Paul Carr Music: Jason Robinson /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/6004202

Episode 37 - Sonar Calling GJ 273B 11/16/2017

Episode 37 - Sonar Calling GJ 273B A conversation with METI.org's Douglas Vakoch about the recent transmission of a "tutorial" to another, nearby star with a super-garth planet in the habitable zone. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/5950526

A short note for listeners - November 2017 11/15/2017

A short note for listeners - November 2017 Released: 14 November 2017 A short note from Paul Carr to please stay tuned for more content. Sorry for the lull, but we are not fading - we wouldn't do that to you. Meanwhile, if you haven't already, check out . /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/5946572

Episode 36 - The One Earth Message 09/03/2017

Episode 36 - The One Earth Message Released: 3 September 2017 Duration: 62 minutes, 37 seconds Host along with Paul Carr in conversation with artist , designer of Carl Sagan's , on his new crowdfunded project, the . Links: Credits: Host and co-producer: Daniela De Paulis Co-producer: Paul Carr Music: DJ Spooky, Erika Lloyd Announcer: Erin Carr /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/5703498

Burst 23 - Tabby Boyajian talks about the May 2017 dip 06/06/2017

Burst 23 - Tabby Boyajian talks about the May 2017 dip Released: 5 June 2017 Duration: 18 minutes 33 seconds 8462852 conducted when the star dipped in brightness last month, and what might happen in the near future. Links: Credits: Host and Producer: Paul Carr Music: /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/5422255

Burst 22 - Tabby's Star is Dimming 05/19/2017

Burst 22 - Tabby's Star is Dimming Released: 19 May 2017 Duration: 12 minutes 57 seconds Host Paul Carr provides some brief remarks and one or two speculations about the dimming of Tabby's Star that began today. Links: The Wow! Signal podcast is distributed under the Creative Commons/Attribution Share-Alike license. /episode/index/show/wowsignal/id/5373241

The Wow! Signal Podcast

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