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PODCAST

What The If?

Learn how to think like EINSTEIN! Every week we learn science running imaginative thought experiments. Our brilliant guests are some of the world’s greatest science fiction writers, scientists & science communicators. Leap into a journey to answer the most fascinating question in the universe: What The IF?

science & medicine history

All Episodes

00:38:58

If NASA Won MEGAMILLION$$$ - with CASEY DREIER from...

What The If? ·

2020/01/30

Dateline WASHINGTON DC: The Planetary Society's DAY OF ACTION is coming up! In honor of this incredible opportunity for citizens to meet with their legislators to talk about NASA funding, we present this encore of our very popular episode with the Planetary Society's Casey Dreier. Listen and dream, then sign up and join: https://www.planetary.org/get-involved/be-a-space-advocate/take-action/2020-day-of-action.html (Registration ENDS on Monday Feb 3, sign up now!) * * * "No BUCKS, no Buck

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00:52:38

POWER From PEOPLE??? Bow To Our MATRIX Overlords!

What The If? ·

2020/01/26

We answered the ringing telephone in The Matrix and on the line was the great filmmaker, game designer, and composer Robyn Miller with a sizzling good IF! Robyn asks "If you were an evil robot overlord and you wanted to use people as your power source... how'd ya do it? Can people be used as batteries?" Let's find out! Take the correct colored pill and we'll see you on the other side... of the IF! * * * Share your love for the IF by dropping a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Have you subscribed

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00:53:08

MEGASTRUCTURES! With Journalist & Science Fiction...

What The If? ·

2020/01/15

SCIENCE JOURNALIST and SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR Matt Williams joins us and asks: What’s the absolute biggest thing you could build… in the entire Universe! Have Aliens beaten us to it? How big does our civilization need to be to outgrow even MEGASTRUCTURES and build even bigger? Can we build GIGASTRUCTURES? What about PETASTRUCTURES? How about a GOOGLESTRUCTURE. We’re gonna need THOR’S HAMMER for this project, and his screwdriver and rivet maker, too! Let’s get to work and make some IF! * * * MATT

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00:49:35

Can We Open A PUB On MARS? w/the Author of ALCOHOL IN...

What The If? ·

2020/01/09

We're joined by Chris Carberry, the distinguished CEO of EXPLORE MARS and author of the awesome new book, ALCOHOL IN SPACE... Join us for a fun and fabulous Happy Hour on What The IF! * * * CHRIS CARBERRY is the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars, Inc. a nonprofit space advocacy organization that was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades. Carberry is a well-respected expert and influential director of strategic alliances in the space community and has

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01:02:42

ALASTAIR REYNOLDS: Come Fly With Me... To MARS!

What The If? ·

2020/01/01

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our listeners around the WORLD! We’re celebrating with an encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes ever, with one of the greatest Science Fiction authors of all time, ALASTAIR REYNOLDS as our guest! PRE-ORDER his exciting upcoming novel, BONE SILENCE at your local bookstore or on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0819W4456/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i10 Al brings a whopper of an IF, loosely inspired by one of his newest stories, "Different

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00:40:07

LIGHTSABERS For Hands! It’s a STAR WARS If!

What The If? ·

2019/12/24

Our listener MIGUEL from South Africa wrote in and asked us, “What The IF… we replaced our HANDS with LIGHTSABERS?” This idea was so insane it sat on our list for a year and a half… as we SEARCHED OUR FEELINGS… waiting for the just the right moment to begin this wicked thought experiment.. We celebrate the conclusion of the Star Wars saga by diving into this great space-operatic question. Happy Holidays to ALL our listeners AROUND THE WORLD, you folks are incredible! Keep the cards and letters

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00:50:37

Welcome to LAMARCK-issic Park! No Darwins Allowed!

What The If? ·

2019/12/18

What the if EVOLUTION were very DIFFERENT? Strap on your pith helmet, and lock the doors! OUR LISTENER Jon from Sweden wrote us and asked: What if Charlie “Eye of the Tiger” DARWIN was wrong and “Hoist Up The” Jean-B. LAMARCK was right? These two scholars had very different ideas about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees, and especially about YOU and me’s! * * * Share your love for the IF by dropping a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts

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01:01:06

Planet NIBURU Crashes Into EARTH! With Astronomer BOB...

What The If? ·

2019/12/12

Is there a DOOMSDAY PLANET named Nibiru heading our way? Nope! But what the IF there was? We challenge astronomer & astrophotographer Bob King to play out the RAM-ifications of this Earth SHATTERING scenario, from which we learn a WHOPPING amount of real science! BOB KING is the author of URBAN LEGENDS FROM SPACE: The Biggest Myths About Space Demystified, where he cuts through the fog of myth to bring the truth behind 51 celestial legends and exposes the scientific truth at their core. Emily

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01:03:49

LEAP Into a QUANTUM COMPUTER!

What The If? ·

2019/12/04

Do Electrons dream of having feet? WTIF you were an ELECTRON jogging through the hot circuits of a CLASSICAL COMPUTER and all of a sudden you lept into a QUANTUM COMPUTER? What does it look like inside the bizarre new machine? Why is it so COLD in here? What’s with all the signs posted everywhere saying “DON’T LOOK!” The astounding final chapter of our journey through the EVOLUTION of COMPUTERS! Fear not if you haven’t heard the previous episodes, each one stands on it’s own! * * * Share your

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00:58:00

I Married A NEANDERTHAL - A SciFi Love Story

What The If? ·

2019/11/26

Science Fiction FILMMAKERS Carylanna Taylor & Jacob Okada bring us the IF of their new film, ANYA, a contemporary sci-fi love story about a couple whose determination to have a child leads them to a cutting-edge geneticist, an ancient outlier community hiding in plain sight in New York City, and ultimately, a life-changing question: are they willing to have a gene-edited baby, no matter the cost? ANYA is now available on demand, DVD, and hosted screenings: https://www.anyamovie.com/watchnow ANYA

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00:51:09

Spelunking Deep Inside A SOLID STATE Brain!

What The If? ·

2019/11/19

GOOGLE just announced that its' researchers have built a QUANTUM COMPUTER that has achieved... Quantum Supremacy. ACK!!! Do you feel like standing and cheering, or fleeing for your life? It's essential that we all learn how a quantum computer works, but... Most of us don't even understand how a regular computer works! What's really going on inside that humming typewriter on your desk? What about the one that's heating up your lap? Or the one that's in your hand? WTiF you could go INSIDE your

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00:39:31

Waltz INSIDE A Classical COMPUTER!

What The If? ·

2019/11/12

GOOGLE just announced that its' researchers have built a QUANTUM COMPUTER that has achieved... Quantum Supremacy. ACK!!! Do you feel like standing and cheering, or fleeing for your life? It's essential that we all learn how a quantum computer works, but... Most of us don't even understand how a regular computer works! What's really going on inside that humming typewriter on your desk? What about the one that's heating up your lap? Or the one that's in your hand? WTiF you could go INSIDE your

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00:38:10

The AZTECS Were Awesome SEISMOLOGISTS - with Robin...

What The If? ·

2019/11/05

Ancient Science Secrets! DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS returns with an incredible story of how modern day SEISMOLOGISTS are hunting through ancient AZTEC inscriptions, and the records of indigenous peoples around the world, to uncover a nearly FORGOTTEN HISTORY of the vibrating and violent EARTH! * * * ROBIN ANDREWS is a doctor of experimental volcanology, a full-time freelance science journalist, a part-time photographer, a scientific consultant, an occasional lecturer, public speaker and

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00:55:22

Did VENUS Have VENUSIANS? w/Planetary Geologist KIRBY...

What The If? ·

2019/10/29

This week's show is ripped from the headlines! A study by Michael Way and Anthony Del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies reveals that VENUS may have been habitable for it's first THREE billion years! For some unknown reason, 750 million years ago, a catastrophic amount of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere. The hellish conditions consumed the entire planet, resurfacing it from pole to pole. What the if... we found an archaeological site on Venus? Like Pompeii, a city

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00:38:58

If NASA Won MEGAMILLION$$$ - with CASEY DREIER from...

What The If? ·

2019/10/22

"No BUCKS, no Buck Rogers," says astronaut Gus Grissom in "The Right Stuff." So we ask, what the if... NASA got hundreds of billions more, or even TRILLIONS of dollars more in funding? Imagine it happened today! Can we build a SPACE UTOPIA worthy of the most optimistic science fiction... or are there some things money can't buy? Will we sing "Can't buy me love," or "Fly ME to the Moon"? Our guide on this joyous spending spree is CASEY DREIER, the Chief Advocate & Senior Space Policy Adviser of The

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00:46:59

The COMET from Beyond!

What The If? ·

2019/10/15

COMET BORISOV just showed up in our solar system, only the second INTERSTELLAR OBJECT known to visit us! What is it, where does it come from, where's it going and will Earthlings be able to study it before it vanishes forever? What The IF you could RIDE the comet? That'd be a heck of a way to learn about it! This week we imagine being passengers exiled from our home world, sent on an eternal cometary road trip... and, wow, we've got a sight seeing trip about to happen like no other. Look at that

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00:46:55

All the TREES are GONE? With Kyle Crichton!

What The If? ·

2019/10/08

What The IF... All the TREES were GONE? Would we still have air to breathe? Water to drink? Well don't ponder those questions too long because there's an AVALANCHE coming your way! Our guest Kyle Crichton is a filmmaker and an experienced backcountry snowboarder and skier who's new documentary, "LEAVE NICE TRACKS" is about the importance of keeping our planet, including the lovely wooded mountains of his home state Vermont, livable, breathable, and lovable. KYLE CRICHTON has worked alongside some

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00:56:53

Let's CRISPR with Carl ZIMMER!

What The If? ·

2019/10/01

Would you CRISPR your baby? The great science journalist Carl Zimmer, award winning columnist for the New York Times and author of thirteen (!) books joins us to imagine the steep up sides and the slippery down sides of the revolutionary technique for modifying genes. Fix those typos in your DNA! Write a better life for baby! And why not rewrite your own bad self? What The IF... you could? CARL ZIMMER's newest book is "She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Power, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity"

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00:47:16

SEAN CARROLL: Phone Calls from MANY WORLDS!

What The If? ·

2019/09/24

As you read these words, copies of you are being created. Theoretical physicist SEAN CARROLL says the astonishing MANY WORLDS theory might be correct, and if it is… 5,000 times per second your reality is splitting into alternate universes. Like, a lot of em. But Sean says... Don't Panic! Sean is one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science and with his newest book, SOMETHING DEEPLY HIDDEN, he is rewriting the history of 20th century physics -- and urging physicists, and all of us, to

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00:40:52

111 - Is There GOLD In Them ASTEROIDS!

What The If? ·

2019/09/17

Listener Daniel asks: WTiF we could get rich from drilling for gold… in space? --- Please REVIEW our podcast! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE (for free!) pod.link/1250517051 EINSTEIN'S WAR by our very own MATT STANLEY is on sale now! The Washington Post says "Stanley is a storyteller par excellence." A starred review recipient from KIRKUS, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, and BOOKLIST. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608113/einsteins-war-by-matthew-stanley/ Thanks & Keep

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