About this podcast
SETI Live is a weekly production of the SETI Institute and is recorded live on stream with viewers on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Twitch. Guests include astronomers, planetary scientists, cosmologists, and more, working on current scientific research. Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity's quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the Universe and to share that knowledge with the world.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 165 episodes
- Hide the Star: How Roman Will See Exoplanets · 37 min · Season 4 Episode 28NASA's next great observatory is here. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is designed to revolutionize our understanding of the universe, from dark energy to thousands of…
- 50 Years on Mars: From Viking to Today's Rovers · 54 min · Season 4 Episode 27Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1976, Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to successfully land and operate on Mars, transforming our understanding of the Red Planet and launching a…
- A New Way to Search for Alien Civilizations · 51 min · Season 4 Episode 26Are we searching for extraterrestrial intelligence the wrong way? For decades, SETI researchers have focused on finding narrowband radio signals that might stand out from the…
- Alien Skies Under Fire: What UV Radiation Does to Exoplanets · 32 min · Season 4 Episode 25Could hazy exoplanet atmospheres be hiding important clues about alien worlds? Many potentially habitable planets orbit small, active stars that frequently unleash powerful…
- How Clouds Hide Alien Worlds—and How Astronomers See Through Them · 41 min · Season 4 Episode 24The James Webb Space Telescope is transforming our understanding of exoplanets—but what happens when clouds get in the way? Astronomers have developed a new method to detect…
- Humanity's Plan for First Contact: Who Speaks for Earth? · 1 h 0 min · Season 4 Episode 23What happens after we discover evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence? The International Academy of Astronautics has just ratified the first major update to the SETI…
- What Juice Revealed About Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS · 34 min · Season 4 Episode 22What can a visitor from another star system teach us about our own cosmic neighborhood? Join host Dr. Franck Marchis and guest Dr. Cecilia Tubiana (INAF) for a conversation about…
- Life is But a Stream: Planetary Systems Along Stellar Streams · 34 min · Season 4 Episode 21In this episode of SETI Live, Jeremy Webb joins Moiya McTier to discuss Life is But a Stream: The Distribution of Planetary Systems Along Stellar Streams and Their Properties…
- Not Planets, Not Stars: NASA Volunteers Doubled the Number of Known Brown Dwarfs · 35 min · Season 4 Episode 20What happens when hundreds of thousands of volunteers team up with NASA to explore the sky? In the case of Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, thousands of new brown dwarfs. NASA citizen…
- The Sounds of Intelligence: A Conversation with 2026 Drake Award Recipient Lori Marino · 40 min · Season 4 Episode 19What does intelligence sound like? For decades, scientists studying whales and dolphins have uncovered remarkable evidence of sophisticated communication, social complexity…
- Lava Worlds & Nightside Volcanoes on K2-141 b · 29 min · Season 4 Episode 18How do you study volcanoes on a planet more than 200 light-years away? Join us for SETI Live as host Moiya McTier talks with planetary scientist Claire Marie Guimond about the…
- Galactic Islands of Tranquility: How "Little Red Dots" May Brew Life's Building Blocks · 38 min · Season 4 Episode 17A newly identified class of distant galaxies—nicknamed "little red dots"—may be doing something extraordinary: quietly creating the raw ingredients for life. Join host Dr. Simon…
- The 45 Best Places to Look for Alien Life · 37 min · Season 4 Episode 16Where should we actually be looking for life beyond Earth? Astronomers have identified 45 Earth-like worlds that could be among the most promising places to search for…
- SkyMapper is Live! Explore the Sky in Real Time · 45 min · Season 4 Episode 15Join us for a special episode of SETI Live as host Lauren Sgro sits down with astronomer and entrepreneur Franck Marchis to explore the newly launched SkyMapper platform—now open…
- Planet Crash: Cosmic Collision Caught in Action · 33 min · Season 4 Episode 14Astronomers may have just witnessed the aftermath of a massive planetary collision in another star system—offering a rare glimpse into how worlds are destroyed… and possibly…
- From Moon to Mars: What Artemis II Means for the Future · 47 min · Season 4 Episode 13As NASA prepares to return humans to the Moon with Artemis II, what does it really take to live and work on the lunar surface? Join host Simon Steel and planetary scientist…
- The Science of SETI: Inside the First Modern Textbook · 45 min · Season 4 Episode 12How do scientists actually search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Astronomer, professor, and Drake Award winner Jason Wright joins host Beth Johnson on SETI Live to discuss…
- The Titan Impact: Saturn's Moon System May Have Had a Catastrophic Past · 42 min · Season 4 Episode 11Saturn's largest moon may have had a violent birth. New research led by SETI Institute scientist Matija Ćuk proposes that Titan formed when two earlier Saturnian moons collided…
- Rethinking Radio: A New Way to Hear the Universe? · 33 min · Season 4 Episode 10Astronomers have unveiled a novel technique for detecting faint signals from stellar and exoplanetary systems — potentially opening new pathways in the search for…
- Unistellar + Citizen Science (Part 8): 2025 Observations, An Exoplanet Candidate, and Rockets! · 35 min · Season 4 Episode 9Dr. Franck Marchis, Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of SkyMapper, and Dr. Lauren Sgro, Outreach Manager at the SETI…
