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

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Phil Plait is an astronomer and science communicator. He recently published Under Alien Skies, A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe. In his last book, Death from the Skies, he came up with this idea of having a short vignette in each chapter. "I've said that I'm a frustrated science fiction writer," says Plait.

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