Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, has officially joined the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In this episode, we speak with Bill about what this rare honor means to him and to science communication. Then, we take you inside the star ceremony in Los Angeles, where friends and fans, including Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, paid tribute to his legacy. From there, we shift to Washington, D.C., where NASA faces the threat of deep budget cuts. Planetary Society Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier and Director of Government Relations Jack Kiraly share the latest updates as we prepare for the upcoming Day of Action. We close with Bruce Betts and What’s Up, reflecting on the unexpected adventures that come with working in space science.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-bill-nye-star

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Only six people have received The Planetary Society’s Cosmos Award for Outstanding Public Presentation of Science. We were honored to present it to author and historian Dava Sobel in May of 2025. She has created a brilliant library of books that illuminate the lives and work of great scientists, many of whom have been under-appreciated. Each of Dava’s works is also overflowing with the wonder of science and discovery. It’s no wonder we decided to feature Dava and her books in the Society book club. That month-long celebration was capped by a live, online interview conducted by Dava’s friend and fan Mat Kaplan.  Here’s that conversation. 

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/book-club-dava-sobel

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Pack your cosmic suitcase. This week on Planetary Radio, host Sarah Al-Ahmed is joined by Mark McCaughrean, astronomer, science communicator, and former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency, to talk about his new book, “111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss.” Part of the popular “111 Places” travel series, the book transforms the guidebook format into a tour across the Solar System and beyond, from Apollo landing sites on the Moon to Europa’s hidden oceans, and even the afterglow of the Big Bang.

Mark shares highlights from the book, stories from his career on missions like Hubble, Rosetta, and the James Webb Space Telescope, and reflections on how science and imagination come together to inspire exploration.

And in this week’s What’s Up, Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts joins Sarah to talk about his brand-new children’s books, “The Size of Space” and “Are We Alone?,” part of our growing series with Lerner Publishing Group.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-111-places-in-space

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This week on Planetary Radio, we look forward to International Observe the Moon Night on October 4, 2025. Host Sarah Al-Ahmed speaks with Staci Horvath, outreach coordinator for NASA’s Solar System Exploration Division at Goddard Space Flight Center and director of International Observe the Moon Night, and Theresa Summer, astronomy educator at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, about the history of the event, how it connects people around the world, and the many ways you can participate.

We also hear from Kate Howells, public education specialist at The Planetary Society, about her new book, “Moons: The Mysteries and Marvels of Our Solar System,” which combines striking space images and original illustrations to showcase the surprising diversity of moons in our Solar System.

And Chief Scientist Bruce Betts joins Sarah for What’s Up with tips for observing the Moon and other wonders in the night sky.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-international-observe-the-moon-night

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NASA, the crown jewel of 20th-century technocratic liberalism, was the first to land humans on the Moon but now depends on SpaceX for its access to space. Atlantic writer Franklin Foer believes this reflects a diminishment of national capability and that NASA was inadvertently responsible for its own decline. He traces this transformation from a collective pursuit of higher values to a more individualistic — and idiosyncratic — motivation based on utility and extraction, and ties it to a larger trend in American politics over the past 50 years. Along the way, Frank and host Casey Dreier discuss if Elon Musk is the antithesis of Carl Sagan, the tensions between individualism and collectivism in American politics, and the role of the romantic ideal in the symbolism of space exploration.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/franklin-foer-on-nasas-decline

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For decades, Uranus has puzzled scientists. Unlike the other giant planets, Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby suggested the ice giant emitted no excess heat. Now, thanks to new analyses of Voyager data, decades of ground-based and space-based observations, and refined models, scientists have confirmed that Uranus does radiate more heat than it receives from the Sun.

Host Sarah Al-Ahmed speaks with atmospheric scientist Michael Roman (Assistant Professor at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile) about his team’s new study showing Uranus emits around 12.5% more energy than it absorbs. Together, they explore what this means for our understanding of Uranus’s atmosphere, its bizarre seasonal cycles, the planet’s violent past, and why these findings strengthen the case for a future flagship mission to the Solar System’s overlooked ice giants.

Stick around for What’s Up with Bruce Betts, Planetary Society chief scientist, for a look at Uranus’ newly discovered moon and a new random space fact.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-uranus-energy-balance

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BASILISK, the first esports organization dedicated to promoting science, has teamed up with The Planetary Society and Caltech’s Institute for Quantum Information and Matter to bring the banner of “Science Victory” to gamers around the world. Their roster includes world champions in StarCraft II, chess, Magic: The Gathering, and fighting games, all united by a shared mission to inspire the next generation of scientists. Joining us to talk about this unique collaboration is Kyle Hill, award-winning science communicator and BASILISK’s head of science education and outreach. Kyle shares how his career in science communication led him from YouTube into the world of professional gaming, where science and play are coming together in powerful new ways. Then, stick around for What’s Up with Bruce Betts, our chief scientist, as we share our favorite space-themed video games and a new random space fact.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-basilisk

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In 2020, the YSES-1 system became the first directly imaged multiplanetary system around a Sun-like star. It features two giant exoplanets orbiting a star just 16 million years old. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope is revealing new insights into these distant worlds. Host Sarah Al-Ahmed speaks with Kielan Hoch, Giacconi Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute and principal investigator of the JWST program that captured these observations, and Emily Rickman, ESA science operations scientist at STScI and member of the JWST Telescope Scientist Team for coronagraphy. They explore what makes this system so unusual, including a dusty circumplanetary disk around YSES-1b and high-altitude silicate clouds in the atmosphere of YSES-1c.

Later in the show, Bruce Betts joins for What’s Up to talk about how future telescopes like the Habitable Worlds Observatory could help us image smaller, colder, and older planets.

Discover more at:  https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-yses-1

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Author Frank White has interviewed well over 100 astronauts. Almost all of them report the sense of awe they experienced as they looked down or back at Earth, and how deeply this has affected their understanding and appreciation of our planet and the Cosmos. It’s what author Frank White calls The Overview Effect. Frank joined Planetary Society Senior Communications Adviser Mat Kaplan for a deep conversation about the ideas he shares in his book of the same name, now in its fourth edition. Here’s a great introduction to the Universe-spanning yet very personal ideas Frank has shared.  

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/book-club-frank-white

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What do “Star Trek,” space advocacy, and the fight to save NASA science have in common? In this episode of Planetary Radio, we share a special panel recorded live at STLV: Trek to Vegas 2025, featuring Robert Picardo, actor and Planetary Society board member who played the Emergency Medical Hologram on ”Star Trek: Voyager,” and Tim Russ, actor, telescope enthusiast, and Voyager’s Lt. Tuvok. They’re joined by Andrew Pauly, director of marketing at The Planetary Society, and Ambre Trujillo, the Society’s digital community manager, for a conversation about how science fiction inspires real-world space exploration — and how fans can take action to protect it.

Later in the episode, Jack Kiraly, director of government relations at The Planetary Society, discusses the recent wave of NASA employee departures and what it could mean for the future of space science. Then, in What’s Up, our Chief Scientist Bruce Betts reflects on the end of NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-a-star-trek-future

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