BD Blue Dot

Podcast

Blue Dot

Blue Dot, named after Carl Sagan's famous speech about our place in the universe, features interviews with guests from all over the regional, national and worldwide scientific communities. Host Dave Schlom leads discussions about the issues science is helping us address with experts who shed light on climate change, space exploration, astronomy, technology and much more. Dave asks us to remember: from deep space, we all live on a pale, blue dot.

Website ↗ Last published 30 October 2026 37 posts collected by Sputnik

Said on Blue Dot

“These planets are extremely faint relative to their host star. Trying to image directly an exoplanet, a planet orbiting another star next to its star, is equivalent to trying to image a firefly next to a lighthouse located in New York when observing from Los Angeles.” — Bertrand Meneson, Blue Dot
Bertrand Meneson · 30 Oct 2026 Listen →
“We got it from the Congo, and the wood had to go from the Congo to be sustainably certified up to Germany, where it was stamped… And then it flew from Germany to France to be milled, and then it flew from France to Washington State to be installed on the boat. So our sustainably harvested wood has a carbon footprint that none of us are proud of. But this is all stuff you learn.” — John Gregg, Blue Dot
John Gregg · 16 Oct 2026 Listen →
“It's like, I would say it's borderline criminal in the sense that there is the potential for us on the research side to be missing important information because of this incomplete data sharing… It seems that every time we send people into space on a more ambitious mission, longer, farther away, whatever it is, some new medical thing happens. And it sure would be nice to be able to anticipate those things and not just be taken by surprise all the time.” — Mark Shelhamer, Blue Dot
Mark Shelhamer · 9 Oct 2026 Listen →
“I'll be honest with you, radiation confuses me. I shouldn't say that as a professional spaceflight researcher… Depending on who you talk to… deep space radiation is either the single biggest problem and a potential showstopper and a real major concern… or it's almost of no consequence at all. And really, I cannot figure out who's right.” — Mark Shelhamer, Blue Dot
Mark Shelhamer · 9 Oct 2026 Listen →

Recent Episodes

  1. 30 Oct 2026

    Blue Dot: Move over Hubble and Webb! The new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

    With Bertrand Meneson and Patrick Lawrence

  2. 23 Oct 2026

    Blue Dot: Inside one of California's crown jewels: the Monterey Bay Aquarium

    With James Cavell and April Ridland

  3. 16 Oct 2026

    Blue Dot: John Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts and the epic story of the Western Flyer

    With John Gregg and Sherry Flumerfeldt

  4. 9 Oct 2026

    Blue Dot: Can the human body survive the long trip to Mars?

    With Mark Shelhamer

  5. 2 Oct 2026

    Best of Blue Dot: California's wild and scenic Eel River and California Fly Fisher magazine

    With Charles Schneider , Tracy Diaz and George Revelle

  6. 25 Sep 2026

    Blue Dot: Dark skies for ecosystem and human health with The Nature Conservancy

    With Scott Hartage and Rod Kelsey

  7. 18 Sep 2026

    Best of Blue Dot: The International Geophysical Year 1957-58 with Mark O'Connell

    With Mark O'Connell

  8. 11 Sep 2026

    Best of Blue Dot: Understanding the basic science of spaceflight with Trisha Muro

    With Trisha Muro

  9. 4 Sep 2026

    Blue Dot: A new look at Freud and neuroscience with Dr. Mark Solms

    With Mark Solms

  10. 28 Aug 2026

    Blue Dot: All things El Niño with NASA's Josh Willis

    With Josh Willis

  11. 21 Aug 2026

    Best of Blue Dot: All that glitters: a conversation with Dominic Frisby author of The Secret History of Gold

    With Dominic Frisby

  12. 14 Aug 2026

    Blue Dot: The Big One times two? The link between Cascadia and the San Andreas Fault with Chris Goldfinger

    With Chris Goldfinger

Guests

Trisha Muro (2 episodes), Charles Schneider (2 episodes), Sarah Reisman , Tracy Diaz , Joe Polin , Michael Bond , John Gregg , Louise K. Blight , Patrick Lawrence , Mark Shelhamer , Mike Mercer , Bertrand Meneson , and 20 more.