Third Pod from the Sun

By American Geophysical Union

What's Third Pod from the Sun about?

Third Pod from the Sun is back, and we’re going weekly! We’re breaking things up into six-week mini-series and our first series is all about the true, personal stories from scientists, for everyone. Join us as we combat misconceptions about sharks, learn how to lasso lizards, hear from a Martian here on Earth, spark science joy via TikTok, journey to Antarctica, and fight over food with some capuchins!

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Third Pod from the Sun episodes:

11.06.2023
Tales from the (manus)crypt: This is the end
Horror stories (especially movies) have a tradition of long series capstoned by an “ending” movie. Halloween Ends. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. THE Final Destination. And while Third Pod isn’t a horror movie, we are ending (but like some...
10.30.2023
Tales from the (manus)crypt: The sound of screams
There’s something powerful about the sound of a scream. Whether it pierces the silence of an empty building or rings out through a crowded room, it forces you to stop what you’re doing and take note. It turns out there’s...
10.23.2023
Tales from the (manus)crypt: Zombie-making fungi
Carolyn Elya is the Zombiologist in Chief, aka incoming Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. She’s been obsessed with parasites for a while, but it was the flies zombified by a fungus that made them climb,...
10.16.2023
Tales from the (manus)crypt: Volcanic video games
One of the scariest things for scientists is watching entertainment media portray your field of study inaccurately—the horror! Flood resilience officer and social volcanologist Jazmin Scarlett turned her hobby of playing video games into a paper discussing the depictions of...
10.09.2023
Tales from the (manus)crypt: Mind-controlling mushrooms
The video game and TV show “The Last of Us” captivated audiences with the concept of a fungal pandemic. The story is set in a world ravaged by a fungus that infects people and turns them into zombies. But what’s...
10.02.2023
Tales from the (manus)crypt: Evolved bloodsuckers
We're diving into the intriguing world of vampire bats and their unique genetic adaptations to a blood-based diet. Shenglin Liu is a researcher at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany tells us that vampire bats have evolved specialized...
09.25.2023
Tales from the (manus)crypt
It’s that time of year again! For many of us, temperatures are cooling, leaves are changing, Pumpkin Spice Lattes are…latte-ing. While that all sounds lovely, it’s also spooky season, and we’re celebrating with a special series we’re calling, Tales from...
09.15.2023
Invisible forces: Weathering the (academic space) storm
As a young child in India, Nithin Silvadas picked up Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, and it may have changed his life. From that moment on, he was enraptured with they universe. An undergraduate in engineering (where he literally helped build satellites) and PhD...
09.08.2023
Invisible forces: Gravity of the (Venus) situation
What goes up must come down, right? Well, what if things go up and come down slightly slower than you might expect? Are there balloons attached? Filled with helium?Are you on Venus?Probably not, but the planet does have a similar...
09.01.2023
Invisible forces: Through the cloud of atmospheric aerosols
If you’re a scientist in an oceanography department, you’re probably studying the ocean, right? Well, part of your job might be studying things like phytoplankton, the tiny oceanic powerhouses that play a crucial role in our planet's ecosystem. But how...
08.25.2023
Invisible forces: Fielding Earth's magnetic mysteries
What was the first big project you worked on at your job? An important report? An interesting experiment?How about helping to build a satellite?Ashley Greeley, research scientist in the Heliophysics Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, joined us to...
08.18.2023
Invisible forces: Sharpening our cosmic vision
When you look up into the night sky, what do you see? Is it a clear picture? Do you see anything at all? What if we could enhance our view of the cosmos and develop technology that promises to clear...
08.11.2023
Invisible forces
We’re journeying into the mysterious world of invisible forces that shape our lives in ways we often overlook for our next series! Join us as we, explore nuclear energy, feel the pull of magnetic fields, and more. We'll also uncover...
08.07.2023
Fieldwork rocks: Icy balloons & (natural) gaseous fumes
What do Antarctica, Nepal, South Korea, and rural NE Pennsylvania all have in common? They’re all places where Doug Goetz of UC Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics has done fieldwork. From releasing balloons next to an active Air Force...
07.28.2023
Fieldwork rocks: Can it be accessible for all?
The mountains are calling! But the trail to get there is pretty bumpy…can everyone come along? When we imagine a geologist striding through the mountains, carrying heavy samples and equipment, the picture omits a lot of people. Scientists with mobility, vision...
07.21.2023
Fieldwork rocks: Tree rings of the Civil War
Many of us know that tree rings can tell us how old a tree is. But there’s so much more we can learn from these seemingly simple lines. In the mid 1800’s, right before the start of the U.S. Civil War,...
07.14.2023
Fieldwork rocks: Marooned on purpose
You might think of a deserted island when you picture being marooned, but for some geology researchers the island is their research ship. To collect samples of rocks and sediments from deep beneath the ocean, scientists park a ship called...
07.07.2023
Fieldwork rocks: Head in the (funnel) clouds
Every year between June and November, researchers take to the skies to better understand and measure hurricanes. Heather Holbach is part of NOAA’s Hurricane Research division and is one of the scientists on the flight team who gets up close...
06.30.2023
Fieldwork rocks: From sea to quaking sea
Seismologist Margaret Boettcher has ventured to the depths of South African gold mines and the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a quest to find earthquakes that are predictable enough to measure and simple enough to understand. Performing fieldwork in...
06.23.2023
Fieldwork rocks: Picturing science
Joris De Raedt, a passionate scientific illustrator dedicated to capturing the beauty and significance of nature through his art, strives to foster a deep connection between people and the fauna and flora that inhabit our world. Despite utilizing modern tools...
06.16.2023
Fieldwork rocks
It’s that time of year again where many scientists head out into the field, from far-flung locations to local backyards. In recognition of the lengths that some scientists go to to get answers to questions that only the field can...
06.09.2023
Solving for climate: Understanding the "wild" in wildfire
Wildfires seem to be happening more often, and in 2020, Colorado experienced the worst fire season in its recorded history. Extreme fire events are often assumed to be caused by climate change, but it is not immediately clear this is...
06.02.2023
Solving for Climate: The silent killer in your urban backyard
The different temperatures humans experience can be as localized as the variance from a suburban area to its urban center. The urban heat island effect - UHI for short - is one such danger. Cities are hotter due to concrete...
05.26.2023
Solving for climate: Earth’s next top (climate) model
We all know the saying “history repeats itself” but to what extent is that true when it comes to Earth’s climate? In order to understand and even predict future climates, transitions from one historical climate state to another can be mathematically...
05.19.2023
Solving for climate: (Health and) safety in (climate) numbers
We’ve all probably heard about how climate change is affecting the ice sheets and polar bears, but what about human health? More severe and numerous floods, droughts, and heat waves impact a wide range of health outcomes, and shifting biomes...
05.12.2023
Solving for climate: Do go chasing hurricanes
Jane Baldwin is a storm chaser, only her mode of chasing is computational modeling using multiple streams of data. As an Assistant Professor of Earth System Science at UC Irvine, she models how hurricanes and other natural hazards respond to...
05.05.2023
Solving for climate: Coasts in the machine
The Earth's oceans play a crucial role in regulating the planet's climate by absorbing and storing vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation,...
04.28.2023
Solving for climate
Are you a math person? Does thinking about math make your head hurt? Well, we hate to break it to you, but we’re all math people! Math is part of our everyday lives, whether we realize it or not. And...
04.21.2023
One giant leap: For first-generational beginnings & talking rockets!
Peter Falcon is an Earth Science communications specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory with an atypical background: behavioral science. As a communications specialist, Peter acts as a liaison between NASA projects – such as the CloudSat program – and students,...
04.14.2023
One giant leap: For beating the odds and troubleshooting telescopes
Hashima Hasan is the program scientist for NASA’s James Webb, XP, and NuSTAR telescopes, helping to bring those missions from cradle to grave. Hashima followed the space race closely growing up in India, which inspired her to navigate into the...
04.07.2023
One giant leap: For opening up the sciences
Cynthia Hall is the community coordinator for NASA’s Transform to Open Science program, where she works with organizations and communities to build diverse scientific collaborations with NASA. She works to make scientific research and processes more inclusive and accessible to...
03.31.2023
One giant leap: For James Webb and scientists on the silver screen
Dr. Alex Lockwood is the project scientist on the science communication team for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute. While earning her Ph.D. in Planetary Astronomy and Science, Alex had the unique opportunity to star...
03.24.2023
One giant leap: For space librarians & accessible data
When it comes to data archiving, Michele Thornton has you covered. As a Geospatial Data Professional for ORNL-DAAC, Michele ensures that NASA funded research is accessible not only to researchers out in the field but to a larger user community...
03.17.2023
One giant leap: For meteorology & climate communication
As a leading international expert in weather and climate and Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia, James Marshall Shepherd knows a lot about climate, and just as importantly, how to talk...
03.10.2023
One small step...for Third Pod?
We're back! And this time, we're heading to the moon! Well, not the moon, but to space! Well, that's not quite true either. But we are starting season two with a series all about folks who with for and with NASA....
03.03.2023
Your favorites: Not your science fair volcano
For many of us, the word “extinctions” conjures up images of dinosaurs, asteroids, and (maybe?) volcanos. And while that last point did likely play a role in the demise of the dinosaurs, volcanos in their own right can go extinct....
02.24.2023
Your favorites: A Martian on Earth
Tanya Harrison never thought she was going to be an astronaut. But she was determined to go to space. And she did just that – through satellites, first to Mars, and now looking back at our own third rock from...
02.17.2023
Your favorites: Dinosaurs, a big rock, and…climate change?
When you hear the word “extinction,” chances are you probably think of the extinction of the dinosaurs and a big rock. But did you know that there were other factors at play that lead to that extinction including volcanos and...
02.10.2023
Your favorites: The ice ships of Project Habbakuk
Dive down into the freezing depths of Patricia Lake, in Alberta’s Jasper National Park, and you will find the wreck of the Habbakuk—a sixty-foot model battleship originally constructed of wood and ice.This “berg ship” was the brainchild of the eccentric...
02.03.2023
Spaceship Earth: Overseeing space...& Earth
When Christa Peters-Lidard cold-called the head of NASA’s hydrology lab as an undergrad, she wasn’t thinking she’d eventually land that very position. Now as the Acting Director for Sciences and Exploration at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Christa oversees several...
01.27.2023
Spaceship Earth: The (visual) beauty of science
As the Scientific Visualization lead for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Mark SubbaRao oversees the translation of NASA science into images and movies. For Mark, science visualization is a key communication tool that allows the public to interact and explore...
01.20.2023
Spaceship Earth: Powering humans in space
As the Deputy Program Manager for NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program at Glenn Research Center, Concha Reid leads a team overseeing and monitoring devices that heat and give power to NASA space projects, such as the recent Orion spacecraft for...
01.13.2023
Spaceship Earth: Discovering water on Earth from space
Being a Hydrologist was never on Matthew Rodell’s radar, let alone working for NASA. But he always trusted the path ahead. Now as their Deputy Director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HGB) at Goddard Space Flight Center,...
01.06.2023
Spaceship Earth: A love of space through a son's telescope
Dorian Janney is a science communicator for NASA asking the big question: how do we make science accessible? Sparked into Earth Space Science through her son’s curiosity with space, we talk to Dorian on how her journey as an educator...
12.30.2022
Spaceship Earth: Using satellites to feed the world
Chris Justice is a geographer and professor at the University of Maryland whose research on land use changes and global agriculture has taken him around the world. His research has had a hand in a variety of NASA programs, including...
12.23.2022
Spaceship Earth
What do folks who fight food insecurity with satellites, do outreach about Pluto, and map out the Earth's gravitational fields have in common? How about a common thread between those who study light pollution, create science visualizations, and direct exploration?They...
12.16.2022
Distillations: Mapping the seafloor with computer games
Many might think that we know most or all there is to know about our world. On the surface, that might be somewhat true. But below the surfaced, we mapped less of the oceans than of places outside our world...
12.15.2022
Distillations: Quilting science & changing climates
When you think of a combo of science & art, what comes to mind? Drawings? Dance? Music? How about quilting? Laura Guertin, Professor of Earth Science at Penn State Brandywine, was looking for creative and innovative to do just that...
12.14.2022
Distillations: Bringing equity to community science in Chicago (& beyond)
While climate change is a global issue, it affects people on a local, and sometimes personal level. And it disproportionately affects those from traditionally marginalized backgrounds. Luckily, there are people out there like Amaris Alanis Riberior, Center Director of the...
12.13.2022
Distillations: Clean water in the Navajo Nation
Fresh water is something that many of us take for granted. But for Carmen George and Brianna John, it's not a trivial thing. They're working to bring clean water to the Navajo reservation through Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment. (https://www.copeprogram.org/)...

What's Third Pod from the Sun about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Third Pod from the Sun episodes:

Tales from the (manus)crypt: This is the end

Tales from the (manus)crypt: The sound of screams

Tales from the (manus)crypt: Zombie-making fungi

Tales from the (manus)crypt: Volcanic video games

Tales from the (manus)crypt: Mind-controlling mushrooms

Tales from the (manus)crypt: Evolved bloodsuckers

Tales from the (manus)crypt

Invisible forces: Weathering the (academic space) storm

Invisible forces: Gravity of the (Venus) situation

Invisible forces: Through the cloud of atmospheric aerosols

Invisible forces: Fielding Earth's magnetic mysteries

Invisible forces: Sharpening our cosmic vision

Invisible forces

Fieldwork rocks: Icy balloons & (natural) gaseous fumes

Fieldwork rocks: Can it be accessible for all?

Fieldwork rocks: Tree rings of the Civil War

Fieldwork rocks: Marooned on purpose

Fieldwork rocks: Head in the (funnel) clouds

Fieldwork rocks: From sea to quaking sea

Fieldwork rocks: Picturing science

Fieldwork rocks

Solving for climate: Understanding the "wild" in wildfire

Solving for Climate: The silent killer in your urban backyard

Solving for climate: Earth’s next top (climate) model

Solving for climate: (Health and) safety in (climate) numbers

Solving for climate: Do go chasing hurricanes

Solving for climate: Coasts in the machine

Solving for climate

One giant leap: For first-generational beginnings & talking rockets!

One giant leap: For beating the odds and troubleshooting telescopes

One giant leap: For opening up the sciences

One giant leap: For James Webb and scientists on the silver screen

One giant leap: For space librarians & accessible data

One giant leap: For meteorology & climate communication

One small step...for Third Pod?

Your favorites: Not your science fair volcano

Your favorites: A Martian on Earth

Your favorites: Dinosaurs, a big rock, and…climate change?

Your favorites: The ice ships of Project Habbakuk

Spaceship Earth: Overseeing space...& Earth

Spaceship Earth: The (visual) beauty of science

Spaceship Earth: Powering humans in space

Spaceship Earth: Discovering water on Earth from space

Spaceship Earth: A love of space through a son's telescope

Spaceship Earth: Using satellites to feed the world

Spaceship Earth

Distillations: Mapping the seafloor with computer games

Distillations: Quilting science & changing climates

Distillations: Bringing equity to community science in Chicago (& beyond)

Distillations: Clean water in the Navajo Nation