Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Mike and Kim chat about themes in DSC: "Whistlespeak" and "Erigah." Is cloud seeding a real thing, how do you create ultra-distilled water, and what are some contaminants that plague our waterways here on Earth?Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrekMike: twitter.com/miquaiKim: twitter.com/goes_by_ki…

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Mike and Kim unpack DSC: "Face the Strange" and "Mirrors." Can you use relativity to defeat a temporal shield? What do they make of Moll and L'ak's backstory?Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrekMike: twitter.com/miquaiKim: twitter.com/goes_by_kimBy miquai

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Mike and Kim take a closer look at DSC: "Jinaal." What do they make of the Trill's test? And why was Stamets so bubbly about isotope half-lives?Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrekMike: twitter.com/miquaiKim: twitter.com/goes_by_kimBy miquai

Guest: Dr. Shi En KimMike and Kim examine the themes in DSC: "Under the Twin Moons." What does it take to get a double solar eclipse? And what do they make of Captain Rayner's advice?Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrekMike: twitter.com/miquaiKim: twitter.com/goes_by_kim…

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Science journalist Dr. Shi En Kim joins Mike to talk about DSC: "Red Directive," from sand avalanches to the big revelation at the end of the episode.Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrekMike: twitter.com/miquaiKim: twitter.com/goes_by_kimBy miquai

Guest: Dr. Stuart Bartlett Complexity scientist, astrobiologist, and artificial life researcher Dr. Stuart Bartlett joins us to discuss how information processing has been a key feature of life, from its emergence 4 billion years ago to artificial intelligence today.Stuart's paper "Provenance of life: Chemical autonomous agents surviving through as…

Guest: Prof. Paul Rimmer In the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale, Q and Picard time travel to the origin of life on Earth. How does that scene compare to our modern scientific understanding of life's emergence? Prof. Paul Rimmer walks us through what Star Trek gets right and wrong—and what we still don't know—about our humble beginnings."Could…

Guest: Jaime Green Author Jaime Green beams aboard to talk about how we imagine alien life in science and in science fiction. Her new book is "The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos.""The Possibility of Life" by Jaime Green: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-possibility-of-life-jaime-green?va…

Guest: Kayla Smith Getting accepted to grad school isn't something that happens every day. Episode 167 of Strange New Worlds is dedicated to celebrating Kayla Smith, an undergraduate who works with Mike, and her recent acceptances to PhD programs in planetary science. Kayla talks about watching her first Star Trek episode, her journey in academia, …

Guest: Elise Cutts Science journalist Elise Cutts returns to reflect on Caltech's 2016 Star Trek musical, "Boldly Go!", and dissect the 2023 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode, "Subspace Rhapsody."Watch "Boldly Go! A Star Trek Parody Musical": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdtBArmWHdY&ab_channel=BoldlyGo%21"The Simple Geometry That Pre…

On the first episode of 2024, we present Mike's interview on the Dice in Mind podcast, where hosts Jason and Brad ask Mike about his scientific journey, his podcasting journey, and his Star Trek journey.Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrekDice in Mind: https://twitter.com/diceinmindMike: https://twitter.com/miq…

Guests: Jason von Stietz & David SmithSport psychologists Jason von Stietz and David Smith return for the final installment of our trilogy about Data as a strategist. In this episode, we analyze how Data defeats Lore in PIC: "Surrender" and saves the galaxy with his gut instinct in PIC: "The Last Generation."Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds:…

Guests: Jason von Stietz & David SmithSport psychologists Jason von Stietz and David Smith return for part two of our trilogy about Data as a strategist. In this episode, we examine how Data deals with prejudice from his subordinates while commanding of the U.S.S. Sutherland in TNG: "Redemption, Part 2." Then, we talk about how Data foils the Borg …

Guests: Jason von Stietz & David Smith Sport psychologists Jason von Stietz and David Smith join Mike to explore Data's evolution as a strategist. In Part I of this conversation, they focus on TNG: "Peak Performance," where Data faces off against Strategema master Sirna Kolrami and learns how to deal with defeat.Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Wor…

Guest: Desun Oka Historian Desun Oka beams aboard to talk about the intersection of nationalism and Star Trek. The United Federation of Planets is often likened to the United States of America, but in space. In what ways is the Federation like a modern nation state? In what ways is it not? And how might Star Trek reflect, examine, and critique what…

On this short solo episode, Mike shares his address to the students of the 2023 International Society for Artificial Life summer school.Read more about the concept of "lyfe": https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/10/4/42Read more about the concept of "genesity": https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/12/6/783"Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ‘Artificial Life’…

Guests: Tim Russ & Dr. Kayla Iacovino On this episode of Strange New Worlds, we're bringing you a panel that Mike hosted for the Nichelle Nichols Foundation's "Hailing Frequencies Open!" speaker series. This panel features Star Trek actor and citizen scientist Tim Russ as well as NASA volcanologist and TrekMovie.com editor Dr. Kayla Iacovino. Toget…

On this short solo episode, Mike reflects on his trip to the "Oxygen in Planetary Biospheres" workshop at Green Bank Observatory."Can You Decode an Alien Message?" by Shi En Kim: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-you-decode-an-alien-message/A Sign in Space: https://asignin.space/Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scie…

On this short solo episode, Mike reflects on his trip to the "Cosmic Visions" conference at Johns Hopkins University.Follow us on Twitter!Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrekMike: twitter.com/miquaiBy miquai

Guest: Walter Koenig Star Trek actor Walter Koenig joins Mike to reflect upon his friendship with Nichelle Nichols and her boundary-breaking legacy. Both Walter and Mike are on the advisory board for the Nichelle Nichols Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase diversity and inclusion in STEAM fields. Find out more about t…

Guest: John Jackson Miller New York Times bestselling author John Jackson Miller joins Mike to discuss his Star Trek: Strange New Worlds novel "The High Country"—the first piece of the Star Trek Universe that features Mike's name in it!Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The High Country, by John Jackson Miller: https://farawaypress.com/2022/04/08/stran…

Guest: Dr. Scott Perl NASA JPL astrobiologist Dr. Scott Perl joins us to discuss the science of biosignatures and his work on developing ways to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life in the Solar System and beyond.Scott's paper, "A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses": http…

Guest: Dr. Peter Gao Planetary scientist Dr. Peter Gao beams back aboard Strange New Worlds to discuss the latest JWST exoplanet findings and the Star Trek: Picard series finale. Warning: we don't hold back on spoilers!Follow us on Twitter:Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrekMike: https://twitter.com/miquaiPeter: https://twitter.co…

Guest: Dr. Anirudh Prabhu What's the history of artificial intelligence, and where is A.I. headed next? Most importantly, how close are we to creating Data? In the second half of Mike's conversation with data scientist Dr. Anirudh Prabhu, we explore all of these questions—and more!Anirudh's website: https://www.anirudhprabhu.com/Follow us on Twitte…

Guest: Dr. Anirudh Prabhu Mike speaks to his Carnegie Science officemate, data scientist Dr. Anirudh Prabhu, about the groundbreaking field of mineral informatics and how mineral association analysis can revolutionize Earth and planetary exploration.Anirudh's paper, "What is mineral informatics?" https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.1002/essoar.105…