Pale Blue Pod is an astronomy podcast for people who are overwhelmed by the universe but want to be its friend. Astrophysicist Dr. Moiya McTier and comedian Corinne Caputo demystify space one topic at a time with open eyes, open arms, and open mouths (from so much laughing and jaw-dropping). By the end of each episode, the cosmos will feel a little less “ahhh too scary” and a lot more “ohhh, so cool!” New episodes every Monday.
Latest episodes
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1 h 01
Lifeforce Movie Review
To celebrate spooky season, Connie and Moiya watched about the 1985 sci-fi horror movie Lifeforce. They share the parts of the move that peeved them and stole their hearts, then ra…
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59 min
Rerun: Scary Stuff in Space
Moiya and Corinne reveal what scares them about space and try to soothe each other's fears. Get ready for cold temperatures, lonely rovers, empty voids, and galaxy clusters full of…
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1 h 17
What's the best constellation?
Connie is back to help Moiya prepare for a lecture on the history of constellations. After tracing the evolution of the zodiac and pole stars, they decide which constellation is th…
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53 min
Star Trek with Zila Treks
Happy 60th birthday to Star Trek! To celebrate, Moiya chats with Zila Treks about the franchise's history and cultural impact. Zila tells Moiya about her favorite series, Deep Spac…
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59 min
Entangled States with Dr. Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
What can quantum physics tell us about a life lived at the intersections and margins? According to Karmela and their new book, a lot! Moiya interviews Karmela and they talk about b…
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55 min
Invisible Rainbows with Dr. Alfredo Carpineti
Astronomy writer Alfredo Carpineti tells Moiya about his new book, covering everything from fast radio bursts to historical book burnings to the late, great Dolly Parton. GuestDr.…
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53 min
Cloudy With a Chance of Starships by Dr. Seven Rasmussen
Moiya interviews fellow astronomy writer Dr. Seven Rasmussen about her new book. They discuss the Drake equation, Fermi paradox, and Hollywood's disappointing portrayal of alien di…
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1 h 08
Rerun: Let's Play Outer Wilds
Moiya and Mischa gather around a campfire to play the video game Outer Wilds... or rather, Mischa plays and Moiya watches in fascination. Listen to hear what Moiya thinks about the…
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53 min
Rerun: "Active Galactic Nuclei" with Rory Bricca
Moiya invites Rory to talk about his black hole-inspired symphony composition and explain how he got musical instruments to sound like event horizons and gravitational time dilatio…
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1 h 18
Mothers of Invention: A History of Creativity from the Greek Muses
Merry Muses Week! This week, Connie interviews Moiya about her new book, Mothers of Invention. They cover Moiya's inspiration for the book, the muses personalities, and a dream cas…
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55 min
Heliocentrism, the biggest blow to humanity's ego
Moiya tells Connie how astronomers broke the millennia-old narcissistic belief that Earth sits at the center of the universe. From Aristarchus to Copernicus, you'll meet the most i…
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1 h 07
Creativity: a history and a crisis
To kick off Moiya's book month, here's a deep dive into the philosophy and science of creativity. Between Plato's thoughts on poets and tips for surviving the creativity crisis, ho…
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1 h 03
the Edge of the Universe
Moiya and Connie zoom out past the cosmic web of galaxies and the surface of last scattering to discuss the shape of the universe at its largest scales. At the end, Connie ranks so…
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1 h 01
Is CERN shifting timelines?
Short answer: No. Listen to learn the longer answer involving timeline inconsistencies and energy thresholds, and stick around to test your mettle against the Mandela Effect.**Corr…
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1 h 12
B is for Bastronomy
Besties Moiya and Connie babble about a bunch of astronomical bywords beginning with B. But beware, some are a bit bonkers.Note: Moiya realized during review that she mispronounced…
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1 h 10
What Marvel got wrong about the Quantum realm
...everything. Marvel got everything quantum wrong, but that's okay. Moiya is here to tell Connie the true history and science of quantum physics. MessagesPRE-ORDER OUR MERCH! cert…
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1 h 10
How NASA pushed an asteroid away
Happy Asteroid Day! Honor those dearly departed Tunguska reindeer by learning about NASA's DART mission, which made sure we never have to go out like the dinosaurs! Next five near…
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54 min
2001's Space Odysseys
Moiya watched 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time and has big opinions! She ends up telling Connie about actual space news from 2001 so the whole episode isn't full of negativ…
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1 h 02
The Universe has a Queer Agenda
From nonbinary quantum particles to polyamorous galaxy groups, Moiya's telling Connie how the universe clearly isn't straight! And since we're all space, doesn't that say something…
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58 min
Microwave light
Moiya tells Connie about microwaves, the lights and the ovens, then they play a special game of FMK.MessagesBecome a star and join the patreon at patreon.com/palebluepod!Go superno…