The Cosmic Controversy Podcast

Guest Benjamin Greenhagen, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, outlines the lunar surface’s remaining mysteries --- everything from permanently shaded regions at the North and South poles to near and far side impact craters. Greenhagen is the deputy principal investigator of the Diviner Lunar Radiometer instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and is an expert on the geology of the Moon’s surface.

Guest Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist and director of the BEYOND Center at Arizona State University, gives an enlightening and fascinating interview on the true nature of the Cosmos and why there is something rather than nothing. We also discuss his new book: “What’s Eating the Universe? --- and Other Cosmic Questions.”

Guest Christopher Combs, an assistant professor of aerodynamics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, discusses current prospects for supersonic. hypersonic and even suborbital spaceplane passenger flight. Combs clearly communicates the technical aspects of flight faster than sound and the issues that are hindering our ability to hop from one corner the Earth to the other within 90 minutes or less.

Acclaimed U.K. journalist Mark Piesing chats about his first book N-4 DOWN: THE HUNT FOR THE ARCTIC AIRSHIP ITALIA (Harper-Collins) which tracks the long-forgotten history of how airship and early aviators tried to conquer the North Pole. Umberto Nobile’s Italia airship crashed onto the Arctic ice in May 1928 and sparked an international search before Nobile and what was left of his crew were eventually saved by the then relatively novel technology of radio.

Guest Sheryl L. Bishop, a social psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston gets real about what we need to make happen if astronauts are going to be able to thrive off-world beyond low-Earth orbit. Bishop chats candidly about her new book “Space Habitats and Habitability: Designing for Isolated and Confined Environments on Earth and in Space,” co-authored with Sandra Hauplik-Meusburger.

Guest Edwin (Ted) Bergin, professor of astronomy and Chair of the Dept. of Astronomy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, discusses whether our existence in this solar system is directly related to the initial chemical makeup of our star’s protosolar disk from which our planets formed.

University of Chicago associate professor Dorian Abbot chats about his research on the controversial Snowball Earth Hypothesis. That is, the idea that at least twice in Earth’s geological past, our planet was basically a glacial ball of ice and snow. Abbot says it likely happened some 2 billion years ago and again some 600 to 800 million years ago. There's evidence for at least four such snowball events that likely persisted for tens of millions of years.

Our civilization and technology as we know it owes itself to a fluke of evolution that enabled the development of human intelligence. It’s a marvelous and nuanced intelligence that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the cosmos. That doesn’t mean that intelligent life isn’t out there. But it’s likely not very similar to our own. Guest Bret Stetka chats about his new book “A History of the Human Brain” from Workman Publishing and tackles some of humanity’s biggest questions.

Darren DePoy, Professor of Astronomy and Associate Dean for Research at Texas A&M University in College Station, talks about using one of Einstein’s little-known and underappreciated method of microlensing to look for extrasolar planets around sunlike stars. An expert on building telescope instrumentation, DePoy outlines the other methods of planet detection and a bit about the difficulties of funding huge astronomical projects such as the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Guest Earl Swift, a former reporter for The Virginian-Pilot and New York Times bestselling author of “Chesapeake Requiem” discusses his brand-new book “Across the Airless Wilds---the Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings,” just out from William Morrow. Swift talks candidly about how NASA’s Apollo Lunar Moon Rover transformed the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions and argues that these last six moon-walking astronauts don’t get enough credit as bona fide explorers.

University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward, co-author of the famed non-fiction title, “Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon In The Universe" is my guest. He and University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee’s controversial book was published two decades ago, but even in this age of astrobiological plenty, remains as prescient as ever.

Guest Gerald Jackson, former Fermilab physicist and advanced propulsion entrepreneur chats about his plans for an Antimatter Propulsion interstellar robotic probe. First stop would be Proxima Centauri. In a wide-ranging interview, Jackson talks about the politics and pitfalls of advance propulsion research. Too many people seem to think antimatter is something that is still science fiction. It’s not. It’s as real as the chair you’re sitting on.

Matt Anderson, the John and Horace Dodge Curator of Transportation at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, speaks candidly about the early days of The Ford Motor Company and its foray into aviation via its revolutionary Tri-Motor airplane. Although the Ford Tri-Motor was in production for less than a decade, its influence spawned much of what we take for granted about today’s passenger airline industry. Lots of interesting tidbits make for a lively episode.

Marc Pinsonneault, a professor of astronomy at The Ohio State University in Columbus, and an expert on stellar open clusters, chats about some of the most famous star clusters in the sky, including the beautiful, blue Seven Sisters of The Pleiades; the Hyades star cluster and the Beehive star cluster. We also cover what such clusters teach us about our own Sun and the evolution of stars in general.

Historian and former Clinton presidential speechwriter Jeff Shesol chats about his new book, “Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War” just out from W.W. Norton. Shesol makes the case that the Cold War and the Space Race were inextricably intertwined in ways that are rarely appreciated in most conventional histories of the subjects. Shesol gives us a great inside look into this mostly-forgotten early era.

Guest Ben K.D. Pearce, a Ph.D student in astrophysics and astrobiology at McMaster University in Toronto, and an expert on the origins of life’s building blocks here on Earth. We discuss the idea that all the genetic components from which life emerged were incredibly readily available biogenically very early in Earth’s evolution. As early as 4.5 billion years ago. Pearce is part of a group making great strides in learning how this all may have happened in Earth’s very ancient warm little ponds.

Villanova University astrophysicist Edward Sion, an expert on stellar white dwarfs chats about our Sun’s own endgame and planet Earth’s ultimate future which may end in cinders. We also discuss the possibility of finding remnant solar systems around these hyperdense stellar cores.

Geneticist Christopher Mason chats about his new book, “The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds” from MIT Press. We discuss both the nuts and bolts and the philosophy driving our expansion offworld. Mason’s goal is to preserve our species by expanding to an Earth 2.0 in order to avoid our star’s own Red Giant endgame.

Guest commercial pilot and author Jack Hersch talks about his 2020 book, “The Dangers of Automation in Airliners: Accidents Waiting to Happen.” It’s both a fascinating and harrowing read but prompts questions and nagging issues that the aviation industry needs to continue to address.

World-renowned, University of Hawaii cosmologist Brent Tully on 50 years of mapping the nearby universe which includes our own home supercluster ‘Laniakea.’ Tully candidly assesses the state of cosmography, the science of making 3-D maps of the nearby universe and speculates on when astronomers will finally map the cosmos in its entirety.