Big Picture Science for Mar. 09, 2026: Skeptic Check: Moon Conspiracy

Big Picture Science: Skeptic Check: Moon Conspiracy

As NASA’s Artemis program promises to take us back to the moon for the first time in fifty years, we consider what it means that as many as 10% of Americans don’t believe we went there in the first place. Why, despite all the evidence, has the faked moon landing conspiracy persisted? We explore why this falsehood has such staying power and what it reveals about our relationship with science and its findings.

Meanwhile, lunar science continues unabated. Scientists open a lunar soil sample that’s been vacuumed sealed for a half-century and receive a blast of four and a half billion-year-old solar wind.

Guests:

• Peter Knight – professor of American Studies, English and American Studies and conspiracy expert at the University of Manchester, U.K.
• Ryan Zeigler – planetary scientist and NASA’s Lunar Sample Curator at Johnson Space Center

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Big Picture Science for Mar. 02, 2026: Chasing an Asteroid

Big Picture Science: Chasing an Asteroid

REPEAT
Everyone knows that a big rock wiped out the dinosaurs. But the danger from an asteroid hitting Earth is not limited to ancient history. To deal with this threat, scientists recently ran an experiment to deflect a potential “city killer.” We’ll hear the results of that experiment, and about a visit to another asteroid. In the dusty material NASA brought back from the asteroid Bennu, scientists found the chemical building blocks of life, including many of the amino acids that are found in our cells. Could an asteroid have brought the ingredients for life to ancient Earth? In this episode, we look at our paradoxical relationship with the space rocks that taketh way – and may help giveth - life.

Guests:

• Scott Sandford - Astrophysicist and Research Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center
• Robin George Andrews - Science journalist, volcanologist, and author of "How to Kill an Asteroid: The Real Science of Planetary Defense"

Originally aired February 10, 2025

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Big Picture Science for Feb. 23, 2026: Birds of a Feather

Big Picture Science: Birds of a Feather

With only a microscope and a collection of birds, taxidermist Roxie Laybourne became the world’s first forensic ornithologist. The “feather detective” was on the case, examining pieces of plumage to solve mysteries. From bird strikes that caused plane accidents to homicide investigations, no case was too big. In the process, Roxie changed the world of aviation safety and crime investigation forever. Even now, feathers are unraveling a new type of mystery, as scientists from the Bird Genoscape Project use them to map the migratory routes of birds.

Guests:

• Chris Sweeney – Journalist and author of “The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne”
• Kristen Ruegg – Co-Director of the Bird Genoscape Project and Associate Professor of Biology at Colorado State University

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Big Picture Science for Feb. 16, 2026: Celestial Shake-Up

Big Picture Science: Celestial Shake-Up

We’re going back to the Moon. The planned March 2026 launch of Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972. Historic as it is, it isn’t the only lunar event creating a stir at NASA. Two seismometers are to be delivered to Schrödinger’s Crater in a mission called The Farside Seismic Suite, in which the instruments will measure moonquakes and record the possible impact of asteroid 2024 YR4 on lunar surface. Meanwhile, studies of the sun are heating up. The so-called PUNCH mission, a four-satellite constellation that will create an image of the sun’s corona and solar winds, may help us better understand what drives solar storms and how we can protect Earth from their energetic blasts.

Guests:

• Eugene Cernan – Apollo 17 astronaut
• Harrison "Jack" Schmitt – Geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut
• Andrew Rivkin – Planetary astronomer at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University
• Ceri Nunn – Lunar seismologist and planetary scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Ryan French – solar physicist, at the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics, Boulder, Colorado, and author of “Space Hazards: Asteroids, Solar Flares and Cosmic Threats”
• Craig DeForest – Heliophysicist, Southwest Research Institute, principal investigator on NASA’s  PUNCH mission

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Big Picture Science for Feb. 09, 2026: Hot to Cold

Big Picture Science: Hot to Cold

There are benefits to chilling out. When we cool superconductors to 460℉ degrees below zero, they acquire extraordinary properties that help run quantum computers. Can artificially cooling human bodies also provide profound benefit? Some cryonics startup companies say yes, promising “life after death” through cryogenic freezing. While it’s one thing to freeze all the cells in a body, it is another to revive them. What happens, for instance, to memories when brains thaw? While we gauge how low human body temperatures can go, new research suggests another form of life could find home in the cooler temperatures of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Find out how NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will investigate whether that moon could support alien microbes. 

Guests:

• Steve Austad – Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research
• Olivia Lanes – Global Lead for Quantum Content and Education at IBM Quantum
• Austin Green – Planetary Scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Big Picture Science for Jan. 26, 2026: Cold to Hot

Big Picture Science: Cold to Hot

The icy-white crust of Arctic permafrost is melting, and increased plant growth is turning the glacial north green. Metals like iron, once locked inside the ice, are leaching into hundreds of Arctic rivers, giving them an orange hue. Vivid changes may catch our eye, yet invisible shifts are also afoot. Microbes locked in the frozen ground since the age of the mammoths can now be revived when they thaw. We’re exploring the consequences of changes in permafrost, how AI may help us better understand Greenland ice loss, and get reactions from scientists about the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the premier climate and weather researcher centers in the world.

Guests:

• Tristan Caro – Postdoctoral Fellow, Geological and Planetary Sciences Division, California Institute of Technology
• Twila Moon – Glaciologist and deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, within the cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder
• Abagael Pruitt – Biochemist and ecosystem ecologist, postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Davis
• Karina Zikan – Glaciologist and snow hydrologist, PhD candidate at Boise State University
• Roland Pease – Science writer and broadcaster often heard on the BBC World Service, and former presenter and host of its program Science in Action
• Alan Sealls – Retired broadcast meteorologist, adjust professor at the University of South Alabama and president of the American Meteorological Society

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Big Picture Science for Jan. 19, 2026: Where the Wind Blo

Big Picture Science: Where the Wind Blows

It’s omnipresent on Earth and absent on the Moon. When it’s blowing sand in our eyes or frigid air down our necks, we may curse the wind, but living on a planet without it would be stultifying. Join us as we sail through a discussion with journalist and author Simon Winchester about the many practical and playful uses of wind – from boats to turbines to kites – and how it has shaped history, including the growth of civilization itself.

Guest:

• Simon Winchester – Journalist and author of “The Breath Of The Gods: The History and Future of the Wind”

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Big Picture Science for Jan. 12, 2026: Life in the Solar System

Big Picture Science: Life in the Solar System

REPEAT
Spewing lava and belching noxious fumes, volcanoes seem hostile to biology. But the search for life off-Earth includes the hunt for these hotheads on other moons and planets, and we tour some of the most imposing volcanoes in the Solar System.

Plus, a look at how tectonic forces reshape bodies from the moon to Venus to Earth. And a journey to the center of our planet reveals a surprising layer of material at the core-mantle boundary. Find out where this layer was at the time of the dinosaurs and what powerful forces drove it deep below.

Guests:

• Samantha Hansen – Geologist at the University of Alabama
• Paul Byrne – Associate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
• Robin George Andrews – Science journalist and author of “Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond”

 
Originally aired May 29, 2023

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Big Picture Science for Jan. 05, 2026: Skeptic Check: Hypnosis

Big Picture Science: Skeptic Check: Hypnosis

REPEAT
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? Hypnotism can be an effective therapeutic tool, and some scientists suggest replacing opioids with hypnosis for pain relief. And yet, the performance aspect of hypnotism often seems at odds with the idea of it being an effective treatment.

In our regular look at critical thinking, Skeptic Check, we ask what part of hypnotism is real and what is an illusion. Plus, we discuss how the swinging watch became hypnotism’s irksome trademark.

Guests:

• David Spiegel – Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine
• Devin Terhune – Reader in the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London

Originally aired June 27, 2022

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Big Picture Science for Dec. 29, 2025: Beyond the Periodic Table

 

Big Picture Science: Beyond the Periodic Table

REPEAT
You interact with about two-thirds of the elements of the periodic table every day. Some, like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, make up our bodies and the air we breathe. Yet there is also a class of elements so unstable they can only be made in a lab. These superheavy elements are the purview of a small group stretching the boundaries of chemistry. Can they extend the periodic table beyond the 118 in it now? Find out scientists are using particle accelerators to create element 120 and why they’ve skipped over element 119. Plus, if an element exists for only a fraction of a second in the lab, can we still say that counts as existing?

Guests:

• Mark Miodownik – professor of materials and society at the University of College London and the author of “It’s a Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World.”
• Kit Chapman – Science historian at Falmouth University, author of “Superheavy; Making and Breaking the Periodic Table.”
• Jennifer Pore – Research Scientist of Heavy Elements at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Originally aired November 18, 2024

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Big Picture Science for Dec. 22, 2025: Movie Mayhem

Big Picture Science: Movie Mayhem

Science fiction movies force us to face a multitude of end-of-the-world scenarios. Whether the final curtain is dropped by rampaging aliens, killer rocks from space, or virus-infected zombies, these big screen glimpses of a dystopian future are as tantalizing as they are frightening. But one American city seems to be a favorite backdrop for stories of mass destruction. We speak with a cultural critic about why New York City is often the chosen setting for disaster films, and what dystopian fiction reveals about our shifting anxieties about humanity’s future no matter where we live.

Movies discussed include Deep Impact, Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes, King Kong, Cloverfield, Deluge, Failsafe, The Day After Tomorrow, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Contagion, I Am Legend, and Seth’s very own short film: The Turkey that Ate St. Louis

Guest:

• Dan Saltzstein – Deputy Editor for Projects and Collaborations, New York Times

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Big Picture Science for Dec. 15, 2025: The Best Things in Life are Tree(s)

Big Picture Science: The Best Things in Life are Tree(s)

REPEAT
While humans were leaving the Stone Age and entering the Bronze, some Bristlecone pine trees grew from seeds to sprouts. They’ve been growing ever since. These 5,000-year-old pines are among the oldest organisms on Earth. Superlatives are also appropriate for the towering redwoods.

Trees are amazing in many ways. They provide us with timber and cool us with shade, they sequester carbon and release oxygen, and are home to countless species. But they are also marvels of evolutionary adaptation. We consider the beauty and diversity of trees, and learn why their future is intertwined with ours.

Guests:

• Kevin Dixon - Naturalist at The East Bay Regional Park District, Oakland, California
• Daniel Lewis - Environmental historian and senior curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, art museum and botanical gardens in Pasadena, California, professor of the natural sciences and the environment at Caltech, and author of “Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of our Future”

Originally aired January 20, 2025

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Big Picture Science for Dec. 8, 2025: A Real Gas

Big Picture Science: A Real Gas

REPEAT
Just because something is invisible doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We can’t see gases in our atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen, but we benefit from their presence with every breath we take. From the bubbles that effervesce in soda to the vapors that turn engines, gases are part of our lives. They fill our lungs, give birth to stars, and… well, how would we spot a good diner without glowing neon? In this episode, a materials scientist shares the history of some gaseous substances that we don’t usually see, but that make up our world.

Guest:

• Mark Miodownik – Professor of materials and society at the University College London and the author of “It’s a Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World.”

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/a-real-gas

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Big Picture Science for Dec. 01, 2025: Amazing Amazonia

Big Picture Science: Amazing Amazonia

REPEAT
The Amazon is often described as an ecosystem under dire threat due to climate change and deliberate deforestation. Yet there is still considerable hope that these threats can be mitigated. In the face of these threats, indigenous conservationists are attempting to strike a balance between tradition and preserving Amazonia. Meanwhile, two river journeys more than 100 years apart – one by a contemporary National Geographic reporter and another by “The Lewis and Clark of Brazil”— draw attention to the beauty and diversity of one of the world’s most important ecosystems.

Guests:

• Cynthia Gorney – Contributing writer at the National Geographic Society, former bureau chief for South America at The Washington Post
• Larry Rohter – Reporter and correspondent in Rio de Janeiro for fourteen years for Newsweek and as The New York Times bureau chief. Author of Into the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist
• João Campos-Silva – Brazilian researcher and conservationist, and cofounder of Instituto Jura, a conservation organization.  His work, along with that of other conservationists, is featured in the National Geographic issue devoted to the Amazon.

Originally aired November 11, 2024

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Big Picture Science for Nov. 24, 2025: Flu the Coop

Big Picture Science: Flu the Coop

The worry about whether H5N1 will trigger a human pandemic has concealed a startling reality. Avian influenza has already taken an enormous toll on the lives of other animals. Since 2005, the number of wild and domesticated birds killed is greater than the combined human populations of the United States and Russia. Bird flu is burning through wild flocks, poultry farms, and mammal populations, including those of sea mammals. We look at the places where the virus can recombine and mutate, and why this version is not simply dying out as it has in years past. At a squawking live poultry market in Brooklyn, and on a Long Island duck farm, we hear about the difficult experience of euthanizing 100,000 birds and whether a farm can recover from such a devastating loss. And finally, we ask, why poultry vaccines that could curb the spread of H5N1 aren’t being used. But we begin our episode with descriptions of the soaring global migrations of birds whose feats of endurance help us understand why H5N1 is widespread in birds worldwide.

Guests:

• Scott Weidensaul – Ornithologist, bird migration researcher, and author of "A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds"
• David Swayne – Bird flu veterinarian
• Doug Corwin – Farmer and owner of Crescent Duck Farm, Aquebogue, New York
• Jon Cohen – Senior correspondent with Science Magazine, where you can find his recent article, “The Pandemic Next Time,” and author of "Planning Miracles: How to Prevent Future Pandemics"

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