What The If?

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The AZTECS Were Awesome SEISMOLOGISTS - with Robin George Andrews! Nov 05, 2019

Show notes

Ancient Science Secrets! DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS returns with an incredible story of how modern day SEISMOLOGISTS are hunting through ancient AZTEC inscriptions, and the records of indigenous peoples around the world, to uncover a nearly FORGOTTEN HISTORY of the vibrating and violent EARTH! * * * ROBIN ANDREWS is a doctor of experimental volcanology, a full-time freelance science journalist, a part-time photographer, a scientific consultant, an occasional lecturer, public speaker and explain-how-volcanoes-work TV guest, as well as a pending author of a rather curious book. He can tell you exactly how powerful the Death Star is, how cryovolcanoes on alien worlds work, why a supervolcano probably isn’t what you think it is, and why the Moon is shrinking. His work has appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE ATLANTIC, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, EARTHER, GIZMODO, FORBES, THE VERGE, ATLAS OBSCURA, DISCOVER MAGAZINE, WIRED and elsewhere. VISIT his website: robingeorgeandrews.com * * * Like the show? Share your love for the IF by dropping a review on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one (always free!) at pod.link/1250517051 and never miss an episode! Keep On IFFin', Philip & Matt, WhatTheIF.com

Did VENUS Have VENUSIANS? w/Planetary Geologist KIRBY RUNYON! Oct 29, 2019

Show notes

This week's show is ripped from the headlines! A study by Michael Way and Anthony Del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies reveals that VENUS may have been habitable for it's first THREE billion years! For some unknown reason, 750 million years ago, a catastrophic amount of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere. The hellish conditions consumed the entire planet, resurfacing it from pole to pole. What the if... we found an archaeological site on Venus? Like Pompeii, a city that captured a record of it's in habitants attempting to survive a world that is erupting around them. What would it have been like to live on Venus during the years of transformation from Eden to Hell? Planetary Geologist KIRBY RUNYON a member of the team at John's Hopkins Applied Physics Lab that sent NEW HORIZONS to Pluto. What caused the apocalypse on Venus, and what would it have been like to live through it? Let's fly there now, to find out! * * * Follow Kirby on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/nasaman58 And visit his WEBSITE: https://kirbydanielrunyon.space * * * This episode is sponsored by ASTRONOMY Magazine's "Space And Beyond Box," an awesome subscription where you'll automatically receive boxes and boxes of super educational and super fun stuff from Astronomy's editors. Visit the website -- SpaceAndBeyondBox.com/Giveaway -- to learn more, and get a chance to WIN a free annual subscription! * * * Like the show? Share your love for the IF by dropping a review on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one (always free!) at pod.link/1250517051 and never miss an episode! Keep On IFFin', Philip & Matt, WhatTheIF.com

If NASA Won MEGAMILLION$$$ - with CASEY DREIER from The PLANETARY SOCIETY! Oct 22, 2019

Show notes

"No BUCKS, no Buck Rogers," says astronaut Gus Grissom in "The Right Stuff." So we ask, what the if... NASA got hundreds of billions more, or even TRILLIONS of dollars more in funding? Imagine it happened today! Can we build a SPACE UTOPIA worthy of the most optimistic science fiction... or are there some things money can't buy? Will we sing "Can't buy me love," or "Fly ME to the Moon"? Our guide on this joyous spending spree is CASEY DREIER, the Chief Advocate & Senior Space Policy Adviser of The PLANETARY SOCIETY and an expert in how NASA gets funded by the US Congress, and how citizens can play a role. Casey reveals to us that our current TECHNOLOGY enables us to do incredible things... if we have the WILL and can pay the BILL. * * * Learn more about The PLANETARY SOCIETY at planetary.org -- and how you can join them on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC for their annual DAY OF ACTION at planetary.org/dayofaction Visit Casey Dreier on Twitter: @CaseyDreier * * * This episode is sponsored by ASTRONOMY Magazine's "Space And Beyond Box," an awesome subscription where you'll automatically receive boxes and boxes of super educational and super fun stuff from Astronomy's editors. Visit the website -- SpaceAndBeyondBox.com/Giveaway -- to learn more, and get a chance to WIN a free annual subscription! * * * Like the show? Share your love for the IF by dropping a review on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one (always free!) at pod.link/1250517051 and never miss an episode! Keep On IFFin', Philip & Matt, WhatTheIF.com

The COMET from Beyond! Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

COMET BORISOV just showed up in our solar system, only the second INTERSTELLAR OBJECT known to visit us! What is it, where does it come from, where's it going and will Earthlings be able to study it before it vanishes forever? What The IF you could RIDE the comet? That'd be a heck of a way to learn about it! This week we imagine being passengers exiled from our home world, sent on an eternal cometary road trip... and, wow, we've got a sight seeing trip about to happen like no other. Look at that fine yellow sun, and what's that blue planet up ahead? Can we get off this flying snow ball? Hold on tight while we have a wild ride through the SCIENCE of Comet Borisov! ----- This episode is sponsored by ASTRONOMY Magazine's "Space And Beyond Box," an awesome subscription where you'll automatically receive boxes and boxes of super educational and super fun stuff from Astronomy's editors. Visit the website -- SpaceAndBeyondBox.com/Giveaway -- to learn more, and get a chance to win a FREE annual subscription! ----- Like the show? Share your love for the IF by dropping a review on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one (always free!) at pod.link/1250517051 and never miss an episode! Keep On IFFin', Philip & Matt WhatTheIF.com

All the TREES are GONE? With Kyle Crichton! Oct 08, 2019

Show notes

What The IF... All the TREES were GONE? Would we still have air to breathe? Water to drink? Well don't ponder those questions too long because there's an AVALANCHE coming your way! Our guest Kyle Crichton is a filmmaker and an experienced backcountry snowboarder and skier who's new documentary, "LEAVE NICE TRACKS" is about the importance of keeping our planet, including the lovely wooded mountains of his home state Vermont, livable, breathable, and lovable. KYLE CRICHTON has worked alongside some of the best documentary filmmakers of the day, including Barak Goodman, Morgan Spurlock, and Sandi Dubowski. He has contributed to documentaries and other programs that have aired on DISCOVERY Channel, HISTORY Channel, and PBS. Similarly, his work has premiered at both the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL and the TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. Raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Kyle has a passion for snowboarding, as well as all things winter-related. After traveling to Vermont on several occasions, he discovered his overwhelming appreciation for the serenity that accompanies the vast openness that is the backcountry. Working on LEAVE NICE TRACKS is the opportunity of a lifetime, giving him the chance to showcase his love for storytelling with his desire to explore the outdoors. He also may or may not be related to the legendary science fiction author Michael Crichton... What The IF! Visit the film's website: http://www.leavenicetracks.com Check out the rewards available at the film’s Kickstarter Page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dwccoast2coast/leave-nice-tracks-the-state-of-vermonts-backcountry?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=leave%20nice%20tracks ----- Like the show? Share a review with us on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one (always free!) at pod.link/1250517051 Keep On IFFin', Philip & Matt WhatTheIF.com

Let's CRISPR with Carl ZIMMER! Oct 01, 2019

Show notes

Would you CRISPR your baby? The great science journalist Carl Zimmer, award winning columnist for the New York Times and author of thirteen (!) books joins us to imagine the steep up sides and the slippery down sides of the revolutionary technique for modifying genes. Fix those typos in your DNA! Write a better life for baby! And why not rewrite your own bad self? What The IF... you could? CARL ZIMMER's newest book is "She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Power, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity". His column "Matter" appears each week in the New York Times. Zimmer’s writing has earned a number of awards, including the 2016 Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science. In 2017, he won an Online Journalism Award for his series of articles in which he explored his genome. She Has Her Mother’s Laugh won the 2019 National Academies Communication Award. It was also named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review and selected for Publisher’s Weekly Best Ten Books of 2018 and the 2018 shortlist for Baillie-Gifford Prize for Nonfiction. The Guardian named it the best science book of 2018. Zimmer created the podcast “What Is Life?” and is a familiar voice on other programs such as Radiolab. A professor adjunct at Yale University, he lives in Connecticut with his wife Grace and their children, Charlotte and Veronica. He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom a species of tapeworm has been named. Visit his website: https://carlzimmer.com Learn more about his newest book: https://carlzimmer.com/books/she-has-her-mothers-laugh/ Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/carlzimmer ----- Like the show? Share a review with us on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one at pod.link/1250517051 Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! Philip & Matt WhatTheIF.com

SEAN CARROLL: Phone Calls from MANY WORLDS! Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

As you read these words, copies of you are being created. Theoretical physicist SEAN CARROLL says the astonishing MANY WORLDS theory might be correct, and if it is… 5,000 times per second your reality is splitting into alternate universes. Like, a lot of em. But Sean says... Don't Panic! Sean is one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science and with his newest book, SOMETHING DEEPLY HIDDEN, he is rewriting the history of 20th century physics -- and urging physicists, and all of us, to accept that there is more than one of us in the universe. There are many, many Sean Carrolls. Many of every one of us. Rarely does a book so fully reorganize how we think about our place in the universe. We are on the threshold of a new understanding—of where we are in the cosmos, and what we are made of. SEAN CARROLL is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, host of the Mindscape podcast, and the author of From Eternity to Here, The Particle at the End of the Universe, and The Big Picture. He has been awarded prizes and fellowships by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the American Institute of Physics, and the Royal Society of London, among many others. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, writer Jennifer Ouellette. Read his new book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566988/something-deeply-hidden-by-sean-carroll/9781524743017 Listen to his podcast: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/ Visit his website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll ----- Like the show? Share a review with us on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one at pod.link/1250517051 Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! Philip & Matt WhatTheIF.com

111 - Is There GOLD In Them ASTEROIDS! Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

Listener Daniel asks: WTiF we could get rich from drilling for gold… in space? --- Please REVIEW our podcast! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE (for free!) pod.link/1250517051 EINSTEIN'S WAR by our very own MATT STANLEY is on sale now! The Washington Post says "Stanley is a storyteller par excellence." A starred review recipient from KIRKUS, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, and BOOKLIST. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608113/einsteins-war-by-matthew-stanley/ Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

110 - Inter-Galactic MAILBAG! Sep 10, 2019

Show notes

Once again, our listener mail bag is exploding! Our fans, aka our #SuperIFFers discuss our most mind-blowing shows and share their own mind-bending IF's! What the IF... you could hang out with the smartest, funniest, science-y-ist audience in the galaxy? You can! Listen now and FEEL THE IF! --- Please REVIEW our podcast! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE (for free!) pod.link/1250517051 EINSTEIN'S WAR by our very own MATT STANLEY is on sale now! The Washington Post says "Stanley is a storyteller par excellence." A starred review recipient from KIRKUS, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, and BOOKLIST. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608113/einsteins-war-by-matthew-stanley/ Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

109 - CONQUER the SOLAR SYSTEM with Matt Williams! Sep 03, 2019

Show notes

Science journalist and Science Fiction author Matt Williams joins us and asks: What the IF humanity conquered the entire solar system, inhabiting every planet, moon, asteroid, nook, cranny and whatever else we could latch onto… and hang on? What in all the worlds would this society look like? How many new forms of bodies, new cultures, new languages, new levels of snobbery by Earthlings? The immense distances would challenge us in ways that we never, ever have experienced. Can humanity survive living so far from it’s mother? Can mother survive with all her kids changing their body types? What the IF!!! --- MATT WILLIAMS has written many short stories and two full-length novels, all which take place within the same fictional universe. In addition, he’s written over one thousand articles on subjects of science, technology, astronomy, history, literature, pop culture, and general knowledge. His first published novels, The Cronian Incident and its sequel The Jovian Manifesto (published by Castrum Press) can be purchased on Amazon.com, or Castrum Press. They are also available as audiobooks through Audible.com. Visit his Website at https://storiesbywilliams.com At Twitter: @storybywill And at UniverseToday.com and InterestingEngineering.com --- Please REVIEW our podcast! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE (for free!) pod.link/1250517051 EINSTEIN'S WAR by our very own MATT STANLEY is on sale now! The Washington Post says "Stanley is a storyteller par excellence." A starred review recipient from KIRKUS, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, and BOOKLIST. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608113/einsteins-war-by-matthew-stanley/ Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

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