The Cosmic Shed

In our first episode for some time, we discuss the delights of the new Neil Armstrong biopic First Man and hear from Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean who Andrew was fortunate to spend some time with. We also hear from the Harvard Professor, Avi Loeb, whose explorations tell him that there might be an alien spacecraft in our solar system right now.

First Man is a beautiful film. See it on the biggest screen you can.

Alan Bean took off on Apollo 12 and walked on the moon, becoming only the fourth man to do so. On his return to Earth, he became an artist and painted the moon and the experiences he and his friends had there. Andrew met him a few years ago and shares part of their conversation in this packed episode of The Cosmic Shed podcast.

Alan Bean tells us about his art and more.

Andrew is joined in the shed by Ti, who recently won Pointless and he's full of useless but entertaining facts as usual and Tushna returns to share her love of the film and her exasperation with the press (and PR people) in their handling of the Oumuamua story.

All smiles in the shed...

Andreas Heim also joins us to tell us about Project Lyra, the proposed mission to Oumuamua and as if all that weren't enough, Ben joins us for a poem and Tom Adams sings us a song from The Apollo 11 Campervan.

Tom and Andrew's show The Apollo 11 Campervan

Sorry it took us so long to get a new episode out. We won't bore you with the reasons but we're delighted to be back. 

Tell your friends. Leave us reviews. Spread the word. We do this for the love. Please feel free to share it.

In our first episode for some time, we discuss the delights of the new Neil Armstrong biopic First Man and hear from Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean who Andrew was fortunate to spend some time with. We also hear from the Harvard Professor, Avi Loeb, whose explorations tell him that there might be an alien spacecraft in our solar system right now.

First Man is a beautiful film. See it on the biggest screen you can.

Alan Bean took off on Apollo 12 and walked on the moon, becoming only the fourth man to do so. On his return to Earth, he became an artist and painted the moon and the experiences he and his friends had there. Andrew met him a few years ago and shares part of their conversation in this packed episode of The Cosmic Shed podcast.

Alan Bean tells us about his art and more.

Andrew is joined in the shed by Ti, who recently won Pointless and he's full of useless but entertaining facts as usual and Tushna returns to share her love of the film and her exasperation with the press (and PR people) in their handling of the Oumuamua story.

All smiles in the shed...

Andreas Heim also joins us to tell us about Project Lyra, the proposed mission to Oumuamua and as if all that weren't enough, Ben joins us for a poem and Tom Adams sings us a song from The Apollo 11 Campervan.

Tom and Andrew's show The Apollo 11 Campervan

Sorry it took us so long to get a new episode out. We won't bore you with the reasons but we're delighted to be back. 

Tell your friends. Leave us reviews. Spread the word. We do this for the love. Please feel free to share it.

In our first episode for some time, we discuss the delights of the new Neil Armstrong biopic First Man and hear from Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean who Andrew was fortunate to spend some time with. We also hear from the Harvard Professor, Avi Loeb, whose explorations tell him that there might be an alien spacecraft in our solar system right now.

First Man is a beautiful film. See it on the biggest screen you can.

Alan Bean took off on Apollo 12 and walked on the moon, becoming only the fourth man to do so. On his return to Earth, he became an artist and painted the moon and the experiences he and his friends had there. Andrew met him a few years ago and shares part of their conversation in this packed episode of The Cosmic Shed podcast.

Alan Bean tells us about his art and more.

Andrew is joined in the shed by Ti, who recently won Pointless and he's full of useless but entertaining facts as usual and Tushna returns to share her love of the film and her exasperation with the press (and PR people) in their handling of the Oumuamua story.

All smiles in the shed...

Andreas Heim also joins us to tell us about Project Lyra, the proposed mission to Oumuamua and as if all that weren't enough, Ben joins us for a poem and Tom Adams sings us a song from The Apollo 11 Campervan.

Tom and Andrew's show The Apollo 11 Campervan

Sorry it took us so long to get a new episode out. We won't bore you with the reasons but we're delighted to be back. 

Tell your friends. Leave us reviews. Spread the word. We do this for the love. Please feel free to share it.

Andrew and Maddy report back from the wonderful Blue Dot Festival at Jodrell Bank. We hear from Prof Tim O'Brien, Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Festival and Dr Lucy Quinn, the woman largely responsible for mobilising a nation into rethinking the way we rethink our use of plastic. There's Professor Jim Wild, Professor of Space Physics telling us about Space Weather and how to live on Mars and a whole lot more.

The Blue Planet Live! kicked off the festival

The Thursday night the Halle orchestra took the stage to perform The Blue Planet in Concert. Anna Brigham joined us to tell us what it's like to be part of the orchestra for such an awe-inspiring performance. Anna is no stranger to such projects having worked with Andrew on Polar Explore, the educational shoot off of his own concert Polar.

Anna Brigham's Tattoo is a mixture of Science and Music.Dr Lucy Quinn shot to public consciousness in the final episode of the Blue Planet 2 series as she sat among the albatrosses and showed us the awful devastation caused by our disposal of rubbish and plastics. Lucy joined Andrew to talk all things ornithology and, somehow, Andrew manages to turn it into a talk about Star Wars.

Dr Lucy Quinn and Andrew with the Lovell Telescope.

The Flaming Lips threw what can only be described as the best 5 year old's birthday party for adults ever on the Friday night.

Jodrell Bank parties like only the Flaming Lips can.

Before that, a really wonderful conversation between Prof Tim O'Brien and Wayne Coyne took place on one of the other stages.

Do you realise? A Rockstar explaining life to an Astrophysicist

There's still more but, let's face it, you should stop reading this and start listening to the episode. It ends with Maddy and Andrew in conversation with Prof Tim O'Brien.

Maddy, Tim and Andrew at Blue Dot Festival.

Show notes

Tickets for Blue Dot 2019 are available now hereAndrew mentions his Moon shows. One of them is hereYou can hear our conversation with J Wilgoose of Public Service broadcasting hereTim O'Brien's record is on Spotify here

Andrew and Maddy report back from the wonderful Blue Dot Festival at Jodrell Bank. We hear from Prof Tim O'Brien, Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Festival and Dr Lucy Quinn, the woman largely responsible for mobilising a nation into rethinking the way we rethink our use of plastic. There's Professor Jim Wild, Professor of Space Physics telling us about Space Weather and how to live on Mars and a whole lot more.

The Blue Planet Live! kicked off the festival

The Thursday night the Halle orchestra took the stage to perform The Blue Planet in Concert. Anna Brigham joined us to tell us what it's like to be part of the orchestra for such an awe-inspiring performance. Anna is no stranger to such projects having worked with Andrew on Polar Explore, the educational shoot off of his own concert Polar.

Anna Brigham's Tattoo is a mixture of Science and Music.Dr Lucy Quinn shot to public consciousness in the final episode of the Blue Planet 2 series as she sat among the albatrosses and showed us the awful devastation caused by our disposal of rubbish and plastics. Lucy joined Andrew to talk all things ornithology and, somehow, Andrew manages to turn it into a talk about Star Wars.

Dr Lucy Quinn and Andrew with the Lovell Telescope.

The Flaming Lips threw what can only be described as the best 5 year old's birthday party for adults ever on the Friday night.

Jodrell Bank parties like only the Flaming Lips can.

Before that, a really wonderful conversation between Prof Tim O'Brien and Wayne Coyne took place on one of the other stages.

Do you realise? A Rockstar explaining life to an Astrophysicist

There's still more but, let's face it, you should stop reading this and start listening to the episode. It ends with Maddy and Andrew in conversation with Prof Tim O'Brien.

Maddy, Tim and Andrew at Blue Dot Festival.

Show notes

Tickets for Blue Dot 2019 are available now hereAndrew mentions his Moon shows. One of them is hereYou can hear our conversation with J Wilgoose of Public Service broadcasting hereTim O'Brien's record is on Spotify here

Ahead of their performance at The Blue Dot Festival, Public Service Broadcasting's J Wilgoose joins Andrew in this very special episode of the Cosmic Shed.

The Race for Space is a simply glorious piece of work.

Blue Dot Festival takes place at the iconic Jodrell Bank site in Cheshire. We brought you a podcast from the festival before. You can hear that here.

Blue Dot Festival - Just brilliant.

At the festival, Public Service Broadcasting will be performing songs from across their catalogue including their brilliant new album Every Valley. The album is themed around the tribulations of the miners of South Wales under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government.

Every Valley is far from a mining disaster.

We'll be at Blue Dot this weekend. See you there. Get your tickets here.Show notes

Some day tickets are still available for the Blue Dot Festival. J Wilgoose and Public Service Broadcasting are on the Friday.Andrew buys CDs. This is a thing people do. You can do it here.PSB and Andrew will also be at The Green Man Festival

Ahead of their performance at The Blue Dot Festival, Public Service Broadcasting's J Wilgoose joins Andrew in this very special episode of the Cosmic Shed.

The Race for Space is a simply glorious piece of work.

Blue Dot Festival takes place at the iconic Jodrell Bank site in Cheshire. We brought you a podcast from the festival before. You can hear that here.

Blue Dot Festival - Just brilliant.

At the festival, Public Service Broadcasting will be performing songs from across their catalogue including their brilliant new album Every Valley. The album is themed around the tribulations of the miners of South Wales under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government.

Every Valley is far from a mining disaster.

We'll be at Blue Dot this weekend. See you there. Get your tickets here.Show notes

Some day tickets are still available for the Blue Dot Festival. J Wilgoose and Public Service Broadcasting are on the Friday.Andrew buys CDs. This is a thing people do. You can do it here.PSB and Andrew will also be at The Green Man Festival

How did the birds survive the Asteroid Strike that wiped out the Dinosaurs? Is Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom better than Jurassic World...or even Jurassic Park? Is the Cosmic Shed really surrounded by Dinosaurs?

We answer all these questions (apart from the last one) in this brand new episode of The Cosmic Shed.

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. Image Credit: Universal Pictures

We are joined by Dr. Daniel J Field from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the Univeristy of Bath who led the group who made some recent breakthroughs in our quest to find out just how the birds did survive the Asteroid strike.

Dr. Daniel J. Field. He likes birds and bones. 

You can't talk about Jurassic Park without talking about music so we also hear from Pete Harrison, conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Richard Jacques, the composer of 007 Blood Stone ahead of the concert Heroes and Monsters.

Heroes and Monsters. Image credit: Colston Hall.And there's even more than that but you'll have to listen to find out what.

It's Dinosaurs. It's Science. It's a lot of fun. 

Show notes

There's plenty more Dinosaur science on our Jurassic World episode from 2015.

Andrew's hayfever has kept him out of the garden and it seems that maybe, just maybe, the Shed has been transported to Jurassic World...

The plants are breaking through. Life finds a way.

How did the birds survive the Asteroid Strike that wiped out the Dinosaurs? Is Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom better than Jurassic World...or even Jurassic Park? Is the Cosmic Shed really surrounded by Dinosaurs?

We answer all these questions (apart from the last one) in this brand new episode of The Cosmic Shed.

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. Image Credit: Universal Pictures

We are joined by Dr. Daniel J Field from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the Univeristy of Bath who led the group who made some recent breakthroughs in our quest to find out just how the birds did survive the Asteroid strike.

Dr. Daniel J. Field. He likes birds and bones. 

You can't talk about Jurassic Park without talking about music so we also hear from Pete Harrison, conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Richard Jacques, the composer of 007 Blood Stone ahead of the concert Heroes and Monsters.

Heroes and Monsters. Image credit: Colston Hall.And there's even more than that but you'll have to listen to find out what.

It's Dinosaurs. It's Science. It's a lot of fun. 

Show notes

There's plenty more Dinosaur science on our Jurassic World episode from 2015.

Andrew's hayfever has kept him out of the garden and it seems that maybe, just maybe, the Shed has been transported to Jurassic World...

The plants are breaking through. Life finds a way.

Noam Chomsky and Douglas Vakoch are in the business of universal communication. In the case of Doug Vakoch, it's literally Universal as he seeks to communicate with potential alien life out there among the stars.Doug talks to the Cosmic Shed in this special episode about the language and forms of communication that might enable us to speak with aliens. 

Douglas Vakoch is the President of METI - Messaging Extra Terresttrial Intelligence

Noam Chomsky is co-author on a paper that argues that the universality of language that he identified decades ago might just extend out into the Cosmos.

Noam Chomsky - A Universal Language

Doug Vakoch was talking to Andrew ahead of a workshop organized by METI called “Language in the Cosmos,” held on Saturday, May 26, 2018, at the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Los Angeles.

Is Klingon more human than alien? Would aliens sing? Would aliens speak Dothraki? None of these questions are answered but don't let that stop you listening to this brand new episode of the Cosmic Shed.

show notes

Douglas Vakoch joined us previously to discuss Star Trek DiscoveryAndrew mentions our episode on Lost in Space