The battle against light pollution goes through policy and legislation. Certain regions of the world are actually in a better situation than you might think. While the road ahead is long, we talked to those who are paving the way. The episode features: Yana Yakushina , lawyer at the Space Court Foundation Rayan Khan , founder of Cosmic Tribe Dr John Berentine , Principal Consultant at Dark Sky Consulting LLC Robert Massey , Deputy Executive Director of the Royal Astronomical Society Jasmine van ...
Aug 22, 2025•29 min
For most people, a dark enough sky can only be accessed on holiday, away from cities. There is a growing movement of astrotourism, so we look into what that’s like, and how it helps the fight against light pollution. The episode features: Rayan Khan , founder of Cosmic Tribe Megan Eaves , author of Nightfaring Shweta Kulkarni, founder of AstronERA Dani Robertson , Dark Sky Officer for Eryri National Park and the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Carol Redford , Founder & CEO of Astroturism...
Aug 15, 2025•31 min
This episode of Starless focuses on the impact of light pollution. How has anthropogenic light changed the world in less than two centuries? The full impact is not completely understood, but what we know makes for a very concerning tale. The episode features: Dr Michelle Wooten , Assistant Professor of Astronomy Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr Mario Motta , Cardiologist and astronomer, whose work has specialized in the effect of light pollution on human health. Dr Brett ...
Aug 08, 2025•28 min
In this introductory episode, we will be talking about dark skies and light pollution in general, and what some organizations are doing to protect the night sky, as well as some of the misconceptions about reducing light pollution. Featuring: Rayan Khan , founder of Cosmic Tribe Megan Eaves , author of Nightfaring Shweta Kulkarni, founder of AstronERA Dr John Berentine , Principal Consultant at Dark Sky Consulting LLC Robert Massey , Deputy Executive Director of the Royal Astronomical Society Be...
Aug 01, 2025•26 min•Season 7Ep. 1
For the 2024 Christmas Special, we tackle Special Relativity and Chris's issues with time dilation and relativity in general! Link for Invisible Rainbows
Dec 22, 2024•20 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Chris and I decided to find out when humans realized that meteorites came from beyond Earth: it could be a lot older than it was once thought! Egyptologist Dr Victoria Almansa-Villatoro joins us to discuss meteorite artifacts and intriguing hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt.
Aug 06, 2024•19 min•Season 6Ep. 9
We are talking about ancient aliens. (No, not the racist conspiracy theory!) We look into the concept of extraterrestrials over history and how it originated. Who were the first recorded people who pondered about life outside Earth?
Jul 19, 2024•18 min•Season 6Ep. 8
In this episode, we tackle the classic concept of sound in space, what can we measure, and why it is important that some sound waves move through the cosmos.
Jul 02, 2024•13 min
Our position inside the Milky Way doesn't give us an advantageous view of our galaxy. But that doesn't mean we haven't found a way around it. Joined by Dr GyuChul Myeong, we explore how we make sense of the Milky Way and its past collision with the Gaia-Sausage galaxy. If you are interested in my book, here is a link to the crowdfunding page .
Jun 18, 2024•22 min•Season 6Ep. 1
In the last episode , we looked at how stars end up dead. So Chris has an important follow-up: can you find a way to heal and save a dying star? #InvisibleRainbows
Jun 04, 2024•16 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Our Sun and many other stars will become larger later in life. But is this a condition common to all stars? Guest questioner Francis wonders about the future of stars and their ultimate demise!
May 21, 2024•13 min•Season 6Ep. 4
In this episode, we tackle the peculiar carbonado diamond, a black diamond that looks very different from the glittering gems we might be more familiar with. And we will discover that its origin might be out of this world! Carbonado Diamond going on auction Invisible Rainbows
May 07, 2024•20 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Planets in sci-fi are often portrayed as having a single climate, but how truthful is that idea? This audience question gets the full treatment from Alfredo & Chris as they deal with the tatooines, hoths, risas, synnaxes of the real universe!
Apr 23, 2024•18 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Join us in this unplanned video & audio diary as we go after the April 8 total solar eclipse in Mexico. For the video version: https://youtu.be/SR00jigmgR0?si=LKLYaoqvq_YaUo6V For #InvisibleRainbows: https://unbound.com/books/invisible-rainbows
Apr 12, 2024•16 min•Season 6Ep. 1
The Astroholic Explains Xmas Special is inspired by Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics on the 100th anniversary of the author's birth. Join us for an imaginative tale, not fantasy nor sci-fi, but one based on science facts: the formation of elements in stars and how they spread across the universe. ✨ And if you are interested in my book, here is a link to the crowdfunding.
Dec 21, 2023•13 min•Season 5Ep. 10
I'm writing a book all about the astronomy we do with the light we cannot see with our own eyes. It's called Invisible Rainbows and features astronomers from all around the world. If you are interested in finding out more and maybe pledge for a copy, click on this link .
Nov 30, 2023•6 min
In this episode, Alfredo and Chris are joined by cosmologist Professor Peter Coles. Together they explore the limits of the visible universe, whether finite or infinite, why there is no center, and what might be beyond the most distant region we can see.
Aug 17, 2023•25 min•Season 5Ep. 9
We don't know and will likely never know what happened before the Big Bang, but Chris is curious about it, so we take a journey in the land before time and space!
Aug 03, 2023•16 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Conspiracy theories and misconceptions about the Moon extend far beyond the Moon-landing! In this episode, we take a trip 4.5 billion years into the past to witness how Luna came to be.
Jul 20, 2023•18 min•Season 5Ep. 7
We sat down with KeShawn Ivory to talk about satellite galaxies, something weird happening around the Milky Way, and how it feels to win a major award from the Royal Astronomical Society !
Jun 29, 2023•20 min•Season 5Ep. 6
This episode starts with a whimsical question of what could we grow on Mars that we could use in a cocktail or mocktail, but we quickly expand on some important topics like what future space travelers might need in order to survive and ways to make agriculture on Earth more sustainable. And it all starts with a delicious cocktail designed by a team at NASA for The Astroholic Explains (here is the recipe ).
Jun 15, 2023•14 min•Season 5Ep. 5
When we think of asteroid impacts, we often just picture Chicxulub and the mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, 66 million years ago. But asteroid impacts can be less impactful to life, like the Popigai and Chesapeake impactors - not as big as Chicxulub but still big enough to create craters of over 80 kilometers across, way back around 35 million years ago. Cosmic material could even actually help life bloom.
Jun 01, 2023•28 min•Season 5Ep. 4
We talk about everything, everywhere all at once as we enter the multiverse! In this episode, we describe some ideas that scientists have proposed to explain things we see in the universe with no explanation, or simply to indulge in the idea of parallel dimensions.
May 18, 2023•23 min•Season 5Ep. 3
In this episode, we focus on alternative energy approaches for future missions to Mars. NASA Ames' Dr Victoria Hartwick has recently published research about utilizing wind power on Mars, showing that it is not all solar or nuclear when it comes to exploring other worlds in the Solar System.
May 04, 2023•13 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In this episode, we talk all about JUICE, the European Space Agency mission that launches today April 13 to study the Icy moons of Jupiter (Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) and the Jovian system - and also why I am in Germany to make a mocktail!
Apr 13, 2023•14 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Our Christmas Special this year is a little tale of realistic sci-fi, set just a few years from now. An astronaut is being interrogated about the events that took place in a space station around the Moon: The Gateway. Playing the characters are Chris and Alfredo, with a cameo from the ever-wonderful Katy Evans.
Dec 21, 2022•20 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Measuring the length of a day on Earth is relatively easy thanks to the Sun and stars. But it isn't as easy on some of the other planets, and astronomers had to get pretty clever to actually achieve those measurements. We spoke to Dr Chris Mankovich who was able to measure the length of a day on Saturn via an ingenious method.
Oct 20, 2022•17 min•Season 4Ep. 9
We got to play with a Unistellar telescope and even collect data about an exoplanet, to learn we talked with Unistellar Chief Scientific Officer Dr Franck Marchis
Oct 06, 2022•19 min•Season 4Ep. 8
In the zone of avoidance, far from us, something is pulling the Milky Way and so many other galaxies. It is time to meet The Great Attractor, a fascinating gravitational object.
Sep 22, 2022•22 min•Season 4Ep. 7
In this episode, we turn back time to the moment known as cosmic dawn ready to understand the first stars and how they changed the Universe. A guiding light in this journey is Dr Emma Chapman , author of the book First Light.
Sep 08, 2022•15 min•Season 4Ep. 6
