Book Club Edition: Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts’ latest for kids

Book Club Edition: Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts’ latest for kids

Author: The Planetary Society February 20, 2026 Duration: 56:54
Bruce Betts helps us explore the latest and last in his excellent library of space books for young people. He and host Mat Kaplan take up “Are We Alone?” and “The Size of Space.”

Every week, Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science charts the human adventure from our own Solar System out to the distant cosmos. This isn't just a recap of headlines; it's a direct conversation with the people making discovery happen. Host Sarah Al-Ahmed guides these discussions, sitting down with the engineers plotting spacecraft trajectories, the scientists interpreting data from alien worlds, and the astronauts who have experienced orbit firsthand. The Planetary Society's own advocates and experts, like Bill Nye and Bruce Betts, frequently join in to offer their unique perspective, making complex topics both accessible and genuinely exciting. You'll hear the latest on robotic missions to Mars, the search for exoplanets, and the technology pushing our boundaries. Alongside these deep dives, the podcast includes lighter, regular segments designed to inform and entertain, turning abstract concepts into engaging stories. It’s a comprehensive audio journey for anyone curious about our place in the universe, offering both the grand vision of exploration and the detailed human stories behind it. Tune in to let your curiosity roam as far as the subjects covered in each episode of this essential science podcast.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science
Podcast Episodes
Book Club Edition: Alien Oceans by Kevin Hand [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:05
Planetary scientist Kevin Hand joins us for a deep exploration of his excellent book about the search for life in the oceans of other worlds.
Star Trek at 60: What do we value the most? (Part 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:56
Robert Picardo, the Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek: Voyager and now Starfleet Academy, traces the sixty-year bond between Star Trek and The Planetary Society, from Gene Roddenberry's 1980 letter to the halls o…
Space Policy Edition: The Long Space Age with Alex MacDonald [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:37
Alex MacDonald, former Chief Economist at NASA and author of "The Long Space Age," joins Casey Dreier to explore more than two centuries of privately funded space exploration in America.
World Space Week and farewell to Swift [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:25
Dennis Stone, president and co-founder of the World Space Week Association, shares how the largest annual space event on Earth came to be and how you can join the celebration this October. Plus, Science Editor Asa Stahl…
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is ready to launch [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:15
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is preparing to launch, promising to transform our understanding of dark energy and exoplanets. We talk with Julie McEnery, senior project scientist for Roman at NASA Goddard, and Ja…
Book Club Edition: Becoming Martian by Scott Solomon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:17:58
How will living in space change our bodies and minds? That’s the sub-title of Scott Solomon’s great new book, “Becoming Martian”, and it’s the question he takes up this month on the book club edition of Planetary Radio.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 that crashed into the Moon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:32
Jared Head, museum facilitator at Columbia Memorial Space Center and co-host of All Space Considered at Griffith Observatory, breaks down how a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage ended up crashing into the moon. Plus, Planetary…
Total solar eclipse 2026: Astrophotography and birdsong [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:26
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy and bioacoustics researcher David Mann, join Planetary Radio to talk about the August 12th total solar eclipse and how birds responded to totality.