Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe

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Phil Plait: How do we attain that goal of a rational, reasonable, enlightened society? And the key is obvious to me at least, it's communication. The best idea ever thought of in the history of humanity is useless unless someone communicates and it will die in the test tube. In this episode, we're going to talk about his new book, Under Alien Skies,. A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe.

Astronomer Phil Plait joins us to discuss his new book, Under Alien Skies, in which he describes what it would be like (through human eyes and real physical experiences) to actually travel to Saturn, Mars, asteroids, and distant stars. Also, we discuss the recent surge in UFO sighting as well as his famous talk at The Amazing Meeting more than a decade ago in which he asked all science communicators and critical thinkers to approach those who believe in pseudoscience with empathy and respect instead of scorn and vitriol. And, we run through the history of James Randi's popularization of the big-S Skeptic movement.

- Phil Plait’s Substack: https://badastronomy.substack.com/

- How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome

- David McRaney’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidmcraney

- YANSS Twitter: https://twitter.com/notsmartblog

- Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com

- Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com