Guest: Prof. Lisa Kaltenegger

Professor Lisa Kaltenegger, Director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, beams aboard to talk about her book, Alien Earths, the search for life in the cosmos, what exoplanets teach us about our home world, and her love for Star Trek.

Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos, by Lisa Kaltenegger: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250283641/alienearths/

Guest: Thomas White

Mike speaks to propulsion engineer Thomas White about their experience participating in The Planetary Society's 2025 Day of Action, where they met with six Congressional offices to lobby in support of space science at a critical time.

Inspired to take action? Visit The Planetary Society's Action Center: https://www.planetary.org/action-center

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Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim

Fungi are everywhere—from forests to deserts to cities to Star Trek! Science journalist Dr. Shi En Kim beams back aboard to talk about some of the latest developments in fungal research.

"Can Fungi Save This Endangered Hawaiian Tree?" by Shi En Kim for Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-fungi-save-this-endangered-hawaiian-tree-180985171/

"Why scientists are enlisting fungi to save endangered plants" by Shi En Kim for Knowable Magazine: https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2025/mycorrhizal-fungi-help-save-endangered-plants-ecosystems

"Biocrusts: The secret world living at the surface of drylands" by Shi En Kim for BioScience: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biae119/7927803

"The Netherlands’ Surprising Bus Stop Bounty" by Shi En Kim for bioGraphic: https://www.biographic.com/the-netherlands-surprising-bus-stop-bounty/

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In a few weeks, Professor Lisa Kaltenegger—the Director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University—will be a guest on Strange New Worlds to talk about the search for life in the universe.

To prime us for that discussion, on this episode, Mike shares his review of Professor Kaltenegger's new book, "Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos."

Want to read Mike's review instead? Just click here: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/earth-2.0-could-be-just-around-the-corner

Guest: Dr. Erin Macdonald

Star Trek science consultant Dr. Erin Macdonald returns to unpack the quantum mechanical themes in the mind-bending and universe-hopping fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Crowdfunding for Erin's short film "Long Away": https://seedandspark.com/fund/long-away?token=c03b8b5fafc2effbb976d3c5566c1bddbb1154cb4a8b856e4ccde26c259585c4#story

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Guest: David Mack

Award-winning Star Trek writer David Mack beams aboard to discuss his Star Trek: Picard novel Firewall, which tells the story of how Seven of Nine becomes a Fenris Ranger.

More about Firewall: https://davidmack.pro/writing/firewall/

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Guest: Bernadette Mary Dineen

Astrochemist Bernadette Mary Dineen speaks about her love for Star Trek: The Original Series, her quest to search for life on Mars, her experience participating in the NASA Astrobiology Mission Ideation Factory, and her TEDxTufts talk "Looking Out Is Looking In."

Bernadette's TEDxTufts talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nT7g3nOWxs

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim

Science journalist Dr. Shi En Kim joins Mike to discuss the final episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks, from Tendi and T'Lyn's competitive relationship in "Fully Dilated" to Malor's crucial insight in "The New Next Generation."

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Guest: Dr. Anirudh Prabhu

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a part of every aspect of our lives—and science is no exception. Data scientist Dr. Anirudh Prabhu returns to the show to discuss the 2024 Nobel Prizes involving AI. Then, Anirudh and Mike use the Lower Decks episode "The Stars at Night" as a launchpad to talk about how they're using AI to help search for signs of life in the universe.

Anirudh & Mike's paper "A robust, agnostic molecular biosignature based on machine learning": https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2307149120

Mike & Anirudh's paper "Toward Network-Based Planetary Biosignatures": https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JE007658

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Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim

Mike and science journalist Shi En Kim discuss the first half of Star Trek: Lower Decks' fifth season. Is solar sailing a real thing? When is it advantageous to play dead?

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