175: Comet NEOWISE, Firefly #13 ‘Heart of Gold’

Today on the Space Nerds podcast:SPACE NEWS (Starts at 7:24): Jesse and Jayne discuss our intergalactic visitor, the comet NEOWISE currently visible with the naked eye! We discuss how to see the comet this week, as detailed in this space.com article: https://www.space.com/comet-neowise-visibility-july-2020.html FIREFLY (Starts at 21:18): We chat about the penultimate episode of Firefly ‘Heart of Gold,’ in which Mal Reynolds and crew save a whorehouse from a laser toting asshole.

174: Filmmaking in Space, Star Trek Generations

Today on the Space Nerds podcast: SPACE NEWS: (Starts at 4:30) Recent reports have confirmed that Tom Cruise is working with Elon Musk and SpaceX to produce the first big budget Hollywood film in space onboard the International Space Station, but it turns out they won’t be the first filmmakers to shoot on the ISS! Back in 2008 Richard Garriott paid 30 million for a ticket to the ISS, and shot a short film called Read more…

173: 36 Alien Civilizations, Technosignatures, Firefly #12 ‘The Message’

Today on the Space Nerds podcast: SPACE NEWS: (Starts at 6:13) Jayne and Jesse discuss new developments in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, including a study claiming the most likely number of alien civilizations in our galaxy is 36, and a SETI grant focused on searching for alien technosignatures. Check out the articles from The Guardian and Forbes. FIREFLY: (Starts at 46:14) As we near the end of our journey through the Firefly ‘verse, we Read more…

172: Doug Space Nine ‘The Forsaken’ (S01E16) // ‘Dramatis Personae’ (S01E17)

Today on Doug Space Nine we debut our synthtastic theme song, then deep dive through two episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, ‘The Forsaken’ and ‘Dramatis Personae.’ Debates erupt over whether Odo would be safer going gooey in a dress or a wig, and we marvel at THE CLOCK!

171: Particle Accelerator on the Moon, Arrowverse Year 6

Today on the Space Nerds podcast: SPACE NEWS: (Starts at 7:45) Would it make sense to build a particle accelerator on the moon? Doug and Jesse discuss the possibility as proposed in Popular Mechanics: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a32814164/particle-accelerator-moon/ ARROWVERSE: (Starts at 26:03) Our massive TV watching side project continues with year 6 of the CW Arrowverse, including Arrow season 6, Flash season 4, Supergirl season 3, Legends of Tomorrow season 3 and Black Lightning season 1. We bounce Read more…

170: Black Lives Matter, SpaceX Launch, DS9 ‘Progress’ and ‘If Wishes Were Horses’

This week on the Space Nerds podcast: We start off by discussing the Black Lives Matter movement with Jayne, Alexandria, Andi and Jesse. We talk about the fight to end systemic oppression, and ways we can all get involved. Here are links to the foundations we discussed: Campaign Zero: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/ Anti-Defamation League: https://www.adl.org/ SPACE NEWS: (Starts at 48:50) This time, we actually lived the Space News! We chat about watching the launch of the SpaceX Read more…

Addressing the George Floyd Protests

We are pausing our regular content in solidarity with the protests happening nationwide, in response to the continued brutality of police against the Black community including the murder of George Floyd. Instead, Jesse has recorded this message about the importance of standing up to support the Black Lives Matter movement during this critical time.

169: Antimatter Universe, Firefly #11 ‘Trash’

Today on the Space Nerds podcast: SPACE NEWS: (Starts at 8:22) A new theory claims there may be an antimatter universe extending backwards in time from the big bang, mirroring our own universe in reverse. Read more from physicsworld.com: https://physicsworld.com/a/our-universe-has-antimatter-partner-on-the-other-side-of-the-big-bang-say-physicists/ FIREFLY: (Starts at 20:14) Jayne returns to continue our journey through the Firefly ‘verse with episode 11, ‘Trash.’ We discuss Christina Hendricks’ return as Saffron, personal floating islands and Mal’s glorious butt. Jayne and Jesse Read more…