Welcome to the first episode of Paranormal Optimist! In this episode, we discuss the most important question first: Are we alone in the universe? Hear the history of people asking this question, the science behind believing and not believing, and suggestions of where we can go from here.

If you’d like to be a guest on the show, suggest an episode, or have a story you’d like to share for the podcast, send me an email at [email protected].

Music: www.purple-planet.com

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Sources cited in today’s episode:

"The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark" (Ballantine Books, 1997)

The Nobel Foundation. (n.d.-b). The nobel prize in physics 1938. NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1938/fermi/facts/

Frank, A. (2023). The little book of aliens. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Ward, P. D., & Brownlee, D. (2000). Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe. Springer.

Druyan, A. (2020). Cosmos: Possible worlds. National Geographic.

SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The Planetary Society. (n.d.). https://www.planetary.org/sci-tech/seti#:~:text=SETI%2C%20which%20stands%20for%20the,the%20search%20for%20extraterrestrial%20intelligence.)

Is there anybody out there?. The Planetary Society. (n.d.-a). https://www.planetary.org/articles/20171025-seti-anybody-out-there

Spectroscopy 101 – introduction | webb. (n.d.). https://webbtelescope.org/contents/articles/spectroscopy-101--introduction

Hanson, R. (1998, September 15). Are we almost past it?. The Great Filter. https://web.archive.org/web/20100507074729/http:/hanson.gmu.edu/greatfilter.html

Source, R. O. (2015, October 7). 6 mind-bending solutions to the Fermi paradox. Medium. https://medium.com/o-s/6-mind-bending-solutions-to-the-fermi-paradox-c0f32e47a0f7#:~:text=On%20Earth%2C%20we’ve%20decided,to%20join%20the%20extraterrestrial%20community.

NASA. (2019, June 20). 5 ways to find a planet. NASA. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/ways-to-find-a-planet/?intent=021

Gronstal, A. (2022, September 2). NASA astrobiology. Astrobiology at NASA Life in the Universe. https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/in-memoriam-frank-drake/

NASA. (2024, October 28). Alien worlds - NASA science. NASA. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/

Aquilecchia, G. (2024, November 4). Giordano Bruno. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giordano-Bruno

Westman, R. S. (Westman, R. S. (2024, November 7). Nicolaus Copernicus. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus

NASA. (2025, February 18). Exoplanets - NASA science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/

Carey, J. M. (n.d.). This Day in History: February 26. Italian Art Society. https://www.italianartsociety.org/2017/02/on-26-february-1616-galileo-galilei-was-formally-banned-and-banished-by-the-roman-catholic-church-for-teaching-and-defending-the-opinion-that-the-earth-orbits-the-sun/