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...
Oct 15, 2019•47 min
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 som...
Oct 08, 2019•47 min
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...
Oct 01, 2019•57 min
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 a...
Sep 24, 2019•47 min
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 &...
Sep 17, 2019•41 min
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 say...
Sep 10, 2019•43 min
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 l...
Sep 03, 2019•49 min
What the IF you could travel to the very EDGE of the SOLAR SYSTEM... and beyond? What would you see when you looked BACKWARDS? What would happen when you encountered the river of energized particles swirling through our galaxy? We're joined by KIRBY "Nasa Man" RUNYON, one of the scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab who works on the New Horizons mission that visited PLUTO and Ultima Thule. When it launched, New Horizons was the fastest object ever rocketed into space... and today, ...
Aug 27, 2019•43 min
It's Opposite Apollo Day! In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the first landing on the Moon, our special guest today is Nancy Atkinson from Universe Today! Her amazing new book is "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Mission." We ask: What The IF we lived on the Moon and had to send the first mission to EARTH? This lunacy gives rise, as with all our IFs, to an amazing about of information about the REAL Apollo mission, and the science, engineering and chutzpah it took to do it. Th...
Aug 20, 2019•45 min
Our TWIS Special, Part TWO! TWIS the IF? What The TWIS? You put your science in my what! It's a special, double stuffed, super combo show. Dr. Kiki invited us to bring the IF to her long-running public radio show and podcast, This Week In Science. In Part 1 we got some science up in the NEWS! Dr. Kiki, Justin & Blair invite Philip & Matt to join the insightful, hilarious and very, very bizarre news stories that fly around the roundtable this week. Now In Part 2: Join us as we take the NE...
Aug 13, 2019•1 hr 9 min
Our TWIS Special, Part ONE! TWIS the IF? What The TWIS? You put your science in my what! It's a special, double stuffed, super combo show. Dr. Kiki invited us to bring the IF to her long-running public radio show and podcast, This Week In Science. Here in Part 1 we get some science up in the NEWS! Dr. Kiki, Justin & Blair invite Philip & Matt to join the insightful, hilarious and very, very bizarre news stories that fly around the roundtable this week. In Part 2 join us as we take the NE...
Aug 13, 2019•53 min
DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS, science writer for The NY Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and many more, joins us with an IF that'll keep you on your feet: What The IF we could walk on Jupiter's ultra volcanic moon, IO? Would you walk on a hot pizza? If so, you're ready for the trip! The views of Jupiter would be spectacular, but bring your kevlar umbrella because lava's gonna come flyin' out of the sky. One of the most spectacular places in the solar system, Io is also terribly myste...
Jul 30, 2019•59 min
Best selling author ALASTAIR REYNOLDS is our guest! He's Philip's favorite author on the planet and one of the world's most popular Science Fiction writers. Al brings a whopper of an IF, loosely inspired by one of his newest stories, "Different Seas" which he wrote for the new prophetic anthology, "TWELVE TOMORROWS" from MIT Press. WTiF Elon Musk sent a bunch of dummy bots to the red planet into whose bodies we could transport ourselves, via telepresence, and explore from the comfort of our own ...
Jul 23, 2019•1 hr 6 min
In honor of the 50th Anniversary of APOLLO 11, we're featuring an encore of our episode with FRASER CAIN -- veteran space journalist and publisher of UNIVERSE TODAY! Fraser asks: WTiF we NEVER STOPPED going to the MOON? Imagine! By now we would have already spent FIFTY YEARS traveling to, and building on The Moon. What incredible things would we have achieved by now? What does this alternative today look like? Where can we fly? What can we see? Let's IF all the way TO THE MOON, and beyond! Frase...
Jul 16, 2019•45 min
Pollution run AMOK! Imagine if no one -- no one at all -- tried to stop the poisoning of our land, water and air? Our listener Daniel asks: What The IF the Environmental Protection Agency were never, ever, ever created? What would America look like, smell like, and taste like? Our most pungent IF yet! -------- EINSTEIN'S WAR by our very own MATT STANLEY is also in stores now! The Washington Post says "Stanley is a storyteller par excellence." A starred review recipient from KIRKUS, PUBLISHER'S W...
Jul 09, 2019•58 min
The incredible Science Fiction author PAUL McAULEY joins us to celebrate episode 100! With a preview of the science behind his upcoming novel, WAR OF THE MAPS, Paul asks: What The IF we could save the Earth from the inevitable death of the Sun? It's gonna be a lotta work! First we've gotta MOVE the Earth outward when the Sun expands into a RED GIANT, then we need to HUDDLE UP close when the Sun shrinks into a WHITE DWARF. Yep, Paul treats us to some EPIC ENGINEERING and ultra vivid SOLAR SCIENCE...
Jul 01, 2019•46 min
Listener Bob from Virginia asks what it would be like if you found yourself INSIDE the BIG BANG? Does time flow differently? Can you Netflix and BANG? Why is your best friend who's right next to you suddenly... TRILLIONS of miles awaaaaaayyyyy!!! Put on your helmet and join us inside the freakish inflating spacetime bubble that began it ALL! REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE for free: https://pod.link/1250517051 BUY, GIFT, READ Matt Stanley's engrossi...
Jun 24, 2019•50 min
Listener Jon from Sweden ascends to the rank of Super IFFer by submitting a winning IF! Jon asks, "What The IF... we knew EXACTLY how the BRAIN worked?" Would we be stuck as mere observers of the working brain, or could we fiddle with it, improve it, HACK it? How would it feel if you were changing the code of your own brain? Does the BRAIN have an ESC KEY? Let's hope so, because we're pluggin' yours in and messing with your MEATWARE. What the IF you dare! REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcas...
Jun 17, 2019•48 min
100 years ago, the British Astronomer Arthur Eddington confirmed that, as Albert Einstein had said, Spacetime exists, and YOU FEEL Gravity because it's CURVED all around your body... in the 4TH DIMENSION. Wouldn't you like to SEE all this stuff that's tossing you around? Could we ever even HANDLE seeing the 4th dimension? Well, we monkeys are a clever bunch! What the IF we could invent a pair of GOGGLES that allow us to SEE SPACETIME? If they were fashionable... they'd be awesome, so let's try '...
Jun 10, 2019•48 min
A brand new, super fun and mostly delicious episode, based on a fabulous question from listener and Super IFFer, Guy Rader! Beam up with us and let's get cookin'! REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE for free: linktr.ee/whattheifshow BUY, GIFT, READ Matt Stanley's engrossing new book! EINSTEIN'S WAR: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I. Choose your favorite store here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608113/einst...
Jun 07, 2019•45 min
Astrology is super complicated and totally crazy. But! What The IF... Astrology were REAL? Would there be "personality rays" shooting out of the planets? So many, many questions. Our crack Crazy Elaborate Systems Construction Department is working overtime to make this Astrology thing work in a genuinely SCIENTIFIC way. Amazingly, our WIZARD OF SCIENCE AND SCIENCE HISTORY AND CRAZY OLD BELIEF SYSTEMS, Professor Matt, is an unstoppable font of REAL knowledge about everyone from Ptolemy to Newton ...
May 29, 2019•45 min
What the IF everyone in the world STOPPED eating MEAT? Delicious, delicious meat... be gone! REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE for free: linktr.ee/whattheifshow BUY, GIFT, READ Matt Stanley's engrossing new book! EINSTEIN'S WAR: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I. Choose your favorite store here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608113/einsteins-war-by-matthew-stanley/9781524745417/ Thanks & Keep On IFFin'...
May 20, 2019•58 min
Matt has an amazing new book! Here in part two of our journey with Einstein, we dive even deeper (!) into Professor Stanley's incredible story about how, while living through hunger, freezing and fear, the unknown and unheard of Professor Albert Einstein became... EINSTEIN. What The IF, we ask: World War I never, ever happened? Would Einstein have solved his Theory of Relativity sooner -- or, perhaps, NEVER AT ALL? REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE fo...
May 14, 2019•39 min
Matt has an amazing new book! We dive into Professor Stanley's incredible story about how, while living through hunger, freezing and fear, the unknown and unheard of Professor Albert Einstein became... EINSTEIN. What The IF, we ask: World War I never, ever happened? Would Einstein have solved his Theory of Relativity sooner -- or, perhaps, NEVER AT ALL? REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE for free: linktr.ee/whattheifshow BUY, GIFT, READ the book! EINST...
May 07, 2019•44 min
KIRBY RUNYON, science team affiliate on the NEW HORIZONS mission to Pluto, Charon, and the Kuiper Belt and a science team collaborator on the HiRISE camera currently in orbit around Mars, takes us to the gateway to the Kuiper Belt! Where on PLUTO would you LAND? What would it be like to WALK there? Could you JUMP to it's moon Charon? How much SCIENCE could you do, and how much FUN could you have? Kirby knows it all! Follow Kirby on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/nasaman58 And visit his WEBSITE: ht...
Apr 30, 2019•48 min
Archaeologist and self-described Volcano Fetishist Dr. Karen Holmberg LOVES Volcanos… so we make her dream come true: What The IF you could invite ALL THE VOLCANOES in the world to a COCKTAIL PARTY! Dr. Holmberg takes us around to meet all her favorite exploding mountains, and the people who live at their feet, and we learn how each giant has it’s own personality. As the night progresses, and the CRYOVOLCANO bartenders pour ever more deliciously dangerous drinks… we dive deeper and learn the SEC...
Apr 23, 2019•44 min
We're super honored to be joined this week by an incredible special guest: FRASER CAIN, veteran space journalist and publisher of UNIVERSE TODAY! In celebration of the upcoming 50th Anniversary (!!!) of APOLLO 11's historic landing on the Moon, we ask... WTiF we NEVER STOPPED going to the MOON? Imagine! By now we would have already spent FIFTY YEARS traveling to, and building on The Moon. What incredible things would we have achieved by now? What does this alternative today look like? Where can ...
Apr 16, 2019•45 min
We're honored to be joined this week by the awesome Science Fiction writer, and esteemed technology journalist, DAN MOREN, who brings us an important, enigmatic, spooooooky IF... You are being watched, listened to, logged, sorted, faved, hashed and salted by TECHNOLOGY every moment of the day, including right now! Our devices are tattle-telling on us to their corporate bosses, gathering GIGABYTES of GOSSIP every second. What The IF we decided, enough with the convenience, we'd rather have TOTAL ...
Apr 09, 2019•1 hr 8 min
Our cup of listener mail overfloweth! This week: our fans, aka our #SuperIFFers discuss our most mind-blowing shows and the latest science news stories. 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! Share your love of the show REVIEW: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don't miss An IF SUBSCRIBE: linktr.ee/whattheifshow Thanks and Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt
Apr 03, 2019•53 min
Our listener, the awesome Super IFFer Bill Prokopchak wrote in and asked “What the IF there was a place in the Universe where there was absolutely NOTHING?” It turns out there’s a mysterious force that prevents space from ever, ever, EVER being truly, absolutely, totally, EMPTY. But… this force only acts when YOU’RE NOT LOOKING. The very strange and exceptionally vivacious life of VIRTUAL PARTICLES… and YOU… this week on What The IF! Share your love of the show REVIEW: itunes.apple.com/podcast/i...
Mar 26, 2019•44 min
