Blue Dot

In this episode we revisit two authors we interviewed in 2017. Jeff Goodell is the author of The Water Will Come, a sobering look at what lies ahead as the world's oceans expand and rise due to climate change. A contributing editor to Rolling Stone, the New York based writer was inspired to write the book in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast with flooding in 2012, previewing what is certainly going to be a major and ongoing slow motion disaster in the near future.

Sea level rise and eclipse phenomena highlight this episode. First Dave talks to NASA Oceanographer Josh Willis about two new studies. The first reports that sea level rise isn't increasing at a linear rate -- it is accelerating. The second study demonstrates how much our understanding of ice melt from Antarctica's glaciers has advanced in just the past few years. Then we revisit The Great American Eclipse of 2017 with Dr. Gordon Telepun. A plastic surgeon from Alabama, Telepun created the smart

In this week's episode Dave is joined by Nolan Ford for an in depth conversation with Jad Abumrad, host of WNYC's Radiolab which is one of public radio's most popular and innovative programs. Jad was fascinated with recording sounds from an early age and after pursuing a college education that concentrated both on writing and musical composition, he kind of stumbled into a career in radio reporting which led, eventually, to the fascinating storytelling soundscapes that make up Radiolab with his

In this episode we bid a temporary aloha to our longtime friend and surfer buddy, William Patzert. Dave is joined by former producer (and the composer/performer of Blue Dot's theme music) Matt Shilts to interview Bill, who just retired after 35 years from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The guru of California climate forecasters, Bill Patzert has been the go to guy for news media outlets across the country from Southern California TV stations to StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

On this episode of Blue Dot, Dave talks to fellow science communications host Ira Flatow who joined us from his home in Connecticut. The award winning host of Public Radio International's Science Friday tells us about being on the NPR staff in the early days as a science correspondent, the PBS television series he hosted for kids, Newton's Apple, his love of science and gadgets plus some tips for would be guests on the show. Ira also tells us about what it was like to play himself on the hit CBS

In this episode of Blue Dot, Dave is joined by Kate Fullam to interview Ann Druyan. Ann was the Creative Director of the Voyager Interstellar Message Project. She co-wrote ‘COSMOS: A Personal Voyage’ with her late husband Carl Sagan. She was awarded the Emmy and Peabody awards for ‘COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey. In this wide ranging discussion we'll hear about Ann's relationship with her late husband the creation of the reboot of Cosmos on Fox Television and the release of the catalog of books by

On this episode of Blue Dot, we talk to the creators of "I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere" and "Trifles." Scott Monty and Burt Wolder are not only highly successful businessmen (Monty was the head of social media for Ford Motor Company from 2008-2014), they are also two of the world's most respected Sherlockians -- experts on the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Great Detective and his chronicler, Dr. John H. Watson. The Holmes character was patterned after Professor Joseph Bell, Doyle's

Climate Change. It generates controversy as well as extreme weather. In this episode we talk to Josh Willis and John Morales, two atmospheric experts on the frontlines of communicating climate science. Willis won a Presidential Early Career award from Barack Obama in 2009. A frequent contributor to Blue Dot, Josh's expertise is studying the interactions between warming oceans and melting ice. John Morales isn't just your average TV meteorologist. He is one of the few elected to be a Fellow with

For the debut episode of our new hour-long Blue Dot format, Dave talks to David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg, the filmmakers behind Bill Nye: Science Guy . The film ambitiously follows Nye over the course of a year as he debates creationist Ken Ham and takes on climate change denier Joe Bastardi. The film takes us on a journey from the persona that was created on the iconic Bill Nye The Science Guy television series to the man behind the bowtie. Find out what it was like to be in the whirlwind

Eli Ennis is a leader and grandson of a chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht first nations tribe of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. His work as an educator and activist is featured in Gleb Raygorodetsky's book The Archipelago of Hope , which was featured on a previous episode . We dive deeper into how Ennis is leading a cooperative effort of land stewardship based both on science and traditional tribal practices. The west coast of Canada is a rich maritime rainforest and fishery that is home to