Lately, when driving home during the weekends from college, I have found myself getting bored of my music. I find the same 15 songs on repeat, and I start to mumble the words unconsciously—like a repeated chant from some childhood camp your parents may have sent you to.
The spice of life in my usual songs simply was not there anymore. I had killed my love for the usual pastime on road trips—jamming out at an unsafe level for high speeds, like in a car. However, using SoundCloud as my main music player, I came across a radio/podcast talk show that gave me a passion for something I never knew I had.
Astronomy, stars, galaxies, wormholes, and everything contained in our impossibly large universe.
The show is called "StarTalk Radio" and they host sound clips on their SoundCloud channel for the world to listen to for free. "StarTalk" is hosted by none other than Neil Degrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist that has become widely popular in the United States for his way of approaching tough scientific concepts and bringing them to a larger audience. He is not speaking in a way only for the scientific community. Tyson acts for anyone at all who has even an inkling of interest in these subjects.
What makes this show truly unique is more than the esteemed guests Neil Degrasse Tyson has had on air (Bill Nye, Alan Rickman, Elon Musk even), but the other co-hosts he has on with him as well. In one of his talks featuring a British physicist Professor Brian Cox, he has an interesting co-host who is a comedian, Maeve Higgins. A myriad of other hosts join throughout the show as well, and this is something Neil Tyson consistently brings to the table that is unique. Tyson, like many other scientists, believes that an appreciation for science is not only limited to those who understand it intimately, on the deepest level intellectually. He looks forward to the insights that his co-hosts and guests bring to the table that are often refreshing to hear.
"StarTalk Radio" also tackles scientific subjects that are considered on the "fun" side, or topics mainly conceptual than being likely feasible. They have covered lightsabers (mentioned in the same talk with Brian Cox linked above), and also do something called Cosmic Queries—answering questions pulled from the internet based on a scientific question, or something mentioned in a previous episode that needed clarification. The audience has come up with questions that challenge Neil Degrasse Tyson, and at times also Bill Nye, to spin a few gears in their head fairly well.
If this sounds like something you are interested in, "StarTalk Radio" has six seasons (and growing) of recorded broadcasts to listen too! So take a stroll over to their website or SoundCloud channel and prepare to have your mind blown, in a good way of course.
