Wild Thing

American culture is saturated with extraterrestrial and UFO references—and we still can’t get enough. Hollywood has raked in billions on alien-themed programming and it comes in every flavor you can imagine—from horror to camp to science fiction to documentary. What’s the cultural appeal? Why aliens as opposed to any other topic? How have these imagined aliens evolved as we have?

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

We’ve been broadcasting our presence for about 85 years now, with radio, television, and radar, essentially spamming space with all kinds of messages. What would we do if someone answers back? What if our message reaches someone, or something, hostile? Others argue that we should be trying to communicate with whoever might be out there. But who should do the talking? And what would we say?

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

To really look for intelligent extraterrestrial life, say scientists, we have to look way far out into space. A new set of initiatives—the Breakthrough Initiatives—are experimenting with cutting-edge technology to do just that. These new ideas, funded by private industry instead of the government, are the future of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence—and we hear from the scientists who are leading the charge.

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

In 2017, the nation’s prominent newspapers published outlandish-sounding stories about a secret UFO program run by the Pentagon. We talk to retired Navy pilot Ryan Graves who recalls seeing some weird objects and speak with Luis Elizondo, who supposedly ran this Pentagon program. What was the military looking for? What did they find? And what are they hiding?

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

For all the people who think there’s life somewhere out there in space, there are also those who think the best place to look for it is closer to home. Thousands of people claim to have seen UFOs or have had alien encounters and one of those most famous of these happened in 1947 in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico.

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

What’s the actual likelihood of extraterrestrial life? Especially intelligent life? 60 years ago, astronomer Frank Drake took a crack at calculating those odds and his famous Drake Equation still resonates with scientists and UFO enthusiasts alike. We breaks down the equation for us, piece by piece, and talks about the chance of finding something and whether we’re any closer to the answers.

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

We’re surrounded by life here on Earth—and given how huge the galaxy is, it’s got to be out there on other planets, too, right? But where to look? What to look for? And would life on other planets be anything like life here? It turns out that while we know a lot about life on this planet—like what it needs to survive—we’ve still got a lot to learn.

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

'Oumuamua almost slipped past Earth before an astronomer caught sight of this weird object. What was it? Some scientists thought it was just a comet; others, like Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, theorized it could be an alien spacecraft. And why not? While tabloid aliens elicit giggles, loads of serious scientists, statesmen, and even members of the military, consider extraterrestrial life a real possibility.

*Season 2 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lipinski. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

Back for its second season, Wild Thing: Space Invaders turns our eyes skyward in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Coming September 17, 2020.

Back for its second season, Wild Thing: Space Invaders turns our eyes skyward in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Coming September 17.