Futurology How to Spot an Alien Civilization (with Adam Frank and Claire Webb)
For the first time in human history, we can see other worlds. Nearly six thousand planets have been discovered orbiting distant stars — and more appear every year. Each one is a reminder that Earth is not unique, and humanity is not the center.
Astrophysicist and astrobiologist Adam Frank joins Claire Webb to talk about what this means for science and for us. From NASA’s search for technosignatures — the fingerprints of alien civilizations — to the planetary traces we ourselves leave behind, Frank argues that the hunt for life beyond Earth is also a way of seeing our own species differently.
Episode Resources:
Vladimir Vernadsky — The Biosphere (1926)https://www.amazon.com/Biosphere-Vladimir-I-Vernadsky/dp/038798268X
Cordwainer Smith — The Rediscovery of Manhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rediscovery_of_Man
East of Eden (1955 film)https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048028/
Frank Herbert — Dune
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(franchise)
Kim Stanley Robinson — Red Marshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy
The Expanse (novel series by James S. A. Corey)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(novel_series)
Follow Adam Frank
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/adamfrankscience/?hl=en
Bluesky-https://bsky.app/profile/adamfrank4.bsky.social
https://www.adamfrankscience.com/
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Credits
Executive Producers: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Nils Gilman, Dawn Nakagawa, and Jason Hoch.
Producers: Grant Slater, Alex Gardels, and Nathalia Ramos.
Associate Producer: Elissa Mardiney
Theme Music: Marcus Bagala.
Audio Engineer: Aaron Bastinelli
Futurology is a production of Studio B and Wavland and distributed by Realm.