Cool Science Radio

Rod Pyle is our guest; he has written Interplanetary Robots, the True Stories of Space Exploration . Exploring the planets has been a goal of America's space program since the dawn of the space race. This insider's perspective examines incredible missions of robotic spacecraft to every corner of our solar system and beyond. Pyle also details plans now in development to look for signs of life on Jupiter's moon Europa, submarines that will dive into the hazy hydrocarbon lakes of Saturn's moon

Brian Switek who has written Skeleton Keys...The Secret Life of Bone. In Skeleton Keys Switek tells us that Bone is a marvel, an adaptable and resilient building material developed over 500 million years of evolutionary history. It gives our bodies their shapes and the ability to move. It grows and changes with us, an undeniable document of who we are and how we lived.

Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret.) wrote, Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World Oceans. A retired 4-star admiral with 35 years of active service in the Navy, Stavridis served as the Supreme Allied Commander for Global Operations at NATO from 2009 to 2013. We speak with Admiral Stavridis about naval technology 50 years ago, today and into the future and we will speak with him about rising sea waters, piracy and political hot spots in China and Russia.

Jeremy Bailenson has written Experience on Demand, a book about virtual reality (VR). Jeremy is a professor of communication at Stanford University and founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab. He offers expert guidelines for interacting with VR and describes the profound ways this technology can be put to use to hone our performance, help us recover from trauma, improve our learning, and even enhance our empathic and imaginative capacities so that we treat others and ourselves

Documentarian Bill Neal is our guest. He wrote and directed the 2019 documentary Long Gone Wild . This film carries an important message regarding the cruel and inhumane treatment of one of the world's most spectacular and beloved animals: Orcinus orca, the killer whale. Long Gone Wild picks up where Blackfish left off. We will speak with Bill about his film and the technological advancements that helped him make this film in less than a year.

Bestselling author Blake J. Harris joins Cool Science Radio to tell the story of then19-year old Palmer Luckey - a boy who set out to build a virtual reality goggle and two years later sold the company to Facebook for $2 billion dollars. The story weaves a human drama that comes with trying to build the future. What drives the imagination and creativity and technological expertise of young Palmer Luckey, how did Mark Zuckerberg recognize the genius, what drove the decision to acquire Oculus for

A uthor AJ Jacobs has taken on a quest to unite the entire human race in one all-encompassing family tree. His book is It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree . In his adventures, he finds that indeed he is a cousin of George H.W. and Barbara Bush, Ricky Gervais, John Legend, and Steven Pinker — which just goes to show you that we are all cousins. Listen in on the conversation to hear how he makes the connections. And it’s not just 23 and Me or Ancestry.com.

Our guest is Wall Street Journal writer Meghan Cox Gurdon. Gurdon joins us to discuss her new book, The Enchanted Hour that brings to light the neuroscience behind reading, especially reading aloud. Gurdon argues that this ancient practice is a fast-working antidote to the fractured attention spans, and the distraction of the tech era, helping to replenish what our devices are leaching away.

Blyncsy is a Salt Lake based technology firm, founded in 2014 by CEO Mark Pittman. Blyncsy has created a unique traffic sensor that picks up your electronic signals as you pass regularly throughout the day—without acquiring any of your personal or private data. The data that is retrieved is completely anonymous and is housed in a secure database. This revolutionary service has made it possible to understand trends and give insights and analytics from the real world. Mark Pittman joins Cool

Mike Giddings from Pro Scout, Inc. joins the show. Giddings’ company has a science-based system for evaluating NFL players that he provides to more than ten NFL teams, and has been used by 16 Hall of Fame coaches on 33 Super Bowl teams. Listen in to hear how he does it and to what he attributes his success.