Today’s episode is all about contact.

Have we really discovered alien life on Venus? How do you even look for life when you don’t know what it will look like? What would happen if we did find it? Should we be sending messages out into the universe? Are aliens going to kill us? What would happen if they showed up?

Guests:

• Dr. Clara Sousa — quantum astrochemist at Harvard University
• Moiya McTier — astrophysicist at Columbia University and host of Exolore
• Dr. Michael L. Wong — planetary scientist at the University of Washington and host of Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast
• Michael Oman Reagan — anthropologist & founding board member of the JustSpace Alliance
• Dr. Kathryn Denning — anthropologist at York University
• Jaime Green — writer & editor working on a book about aliens

Voice Actors

• Dr. Jaad — Johnnie Jae
• Alex Jenkins — Keith Houston
• Radio reporter — Ashley Kellem
• Alien 1 — Henry Alexander Kelly
• Alien 2 — Brett Tubbs

Further Reading:

• Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus (original paper)
• Re-analysis of Phosphine in Venus’ Clouds (re-analysis of the original paper by the same team)
• No phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus (a separate team arguing that there is not phosphine in the atmosphere)
• A stringent upper limit of the PH3 abundance at the cloud top of Venus
• Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds
• Promising sign of life on Venus might not exist after all
• Prospects for life on Venus fade — but aren’t dead yet
• A Precursor Balloon Mission for Venusian Astrobiology
• A sign that aliens could stink
• Astronomers Find Water on an Exoplanet Twice the Size of Earth
• Defining Lyfe in the Universe: From Three Privileged Functions to Four Pillars
• Detection Technique for Artificially Illuminated Objects in the Outer Solar System and Beyond
• Will we soon see city lights glittering on distant planets?
• Mysterious Purple Sea Orb Stymies Scientists
• First Contact with Possible Futures
• Habitable Worlds Require Prime Galactic Real Estate
• Protocols for an ETI Signal Detection
• The Politics of Protocols or: How I Spent My (Southern Hemisphere) Spring Vacation
• Arecibo Message
• The Golden Record
• METI
• Searching for trouble?
• Is Stephen Hawking right about aliens?
• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
• Impossible Predictions of the Unprecedented: Analogy, History, and the Work of Prognostication
• How to build a nuclear warning for 10,000 years’ time
• Our Living Message for Extraterrestrials
• How to Host an Extraterrestrial
• Alien mindscapes – Perspective on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Flash Forward is hosted by Rose Eveleth and produced by Julia Llinas Goodman. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool.

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That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.