What The If?

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 some of the best documentary filmmakers of the day, including Barak Goodman, Morgan Spurlock, and Sandi Dubowski. He has contributed to documentaries and other programs that have aired on DISCOVERY Channel, HISTORY Channel, and PBS. Similarly, his work has premiered at both the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL and the TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. Raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Kyle has a passion for snowboarding, as well as all things winter-related. After traveling to Vermont on several occasions, he discovered

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". His column "Matter" appears each week in the New York Times. Zimmer’s writing has earned a number of awards, including the 2016 Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science. In 2017, he won an Online Journalism Award for his series of articles in which he explored his genome. She Has Her Mother’s Laugh won the 2019 National Academies Communication Award. It was also named a Notab

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 accept that there is more than one of us in the universe. There are many, many Sean Carrolls. Many of every one of us. Rarely does a book so fully reorganize how we think about our place in the universe. We are on the threshold of a new understanding—of where we are in the cosmos, and what we are made of. SEAN CARROLL is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, host of the Mindscape podcast, and the author of From Eternity to Here, The Particle at the End of the Universe, and The Big Pic

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 & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

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 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 & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

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 living so far from it’s mother? Can mother survive with all her kids changing their body types? What the IF!!! --- MATT WILLIAMS has written many short stories and two full-length novels, all which take place within the same fictional universe. In addition, he’s written over one thousand articles on subjects of science, technology, astronomy, history, literature, pop culture, and general knowledge. His first published novels, The Cronian Incident and its sequel The Jovian Manifesto (published by Castrum Press) can be

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, Kirby takes us even further! We strap ourselves aboard a mission that NASA is conceptualizing to send a robotic spacecraft to explore the very edge of the Solar System, beyond the Kuiper Belt, beyond the Oort Cloud, right to the very zone where the Sun's particles crash into the matter that flies between the stars. Jump in and join us, let's fly faster than anyone has ever gone, to see how it feels to be truly INTERSTELLAR. --- DR. KIRBY RUNYON is a planetary geomorphologist and morphodynamicist seeking to understand

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. The only thing that could have been harder would have been if we... lived on the Moon and had to send a Moon-person to the Earth and, as Moon-Kennedy proclaimed, "return them safely to the... MOON!" If you wanna visit the Earth, if you want to get off it again, how you gonna do it? OMG, you gotta bring your own Saturn V with you, so good luck with that. Landing on the Earth is hard! It's one of our most crunchy and delicious meals of Sci and Fi yet. Check it out. --- NANCY ATKINSON is a science journalist and author

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 NEWS to the IF! There was a really, really weird news story this week about a scientist in China injecting HUMAN cells into a PRIMATE embryo. Happy Birthday! Or is it??? What the IF this procedure becomes commonplace? What miracles could it bring? What horrors? What horrific miracles??? Question marks run amok! --- This Week in Science (TWIS) is a weekly, hour-long web and radio show presenting an humorous, often opinionated, and irreverent look at the week in science and technology. In each episode, TWIS discusses the la

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 NEWS to the IF! There was a really, really weird news story this week about a scientist in China injecting HUMAN cells into a PRIMATE embryo. Happy Birthday! Or is it??? What the IF this procedure becomes commonplace? What miracles could it bring? What horrors? What horrific miracles??? Question marks run amok! --- This Week in Science (TWIS) is a weekly, hour-long web and radio show presenting an humorous, often opinionated, and irreverent look at the week in science and technology. In each episode, TWIS discusses the la

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 mysterious, bizarre, and confusing to even the greatest scientists of our time. Pack your bags, bring some galoshes, and let's go! --- Robin Andrews is a doctor of experimental volcanology, a full-time freelance science journalist, a part-time photographer, a scientific consultant, an occasional lecturer, public speaker and explain-how-volcanoes-work TV guest, as well as a pending author of a rather curious book. He can tell you exactly how powerful the Death Star is, how cryovolcanoes on alien worlds work, why a supervol

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 home? It's just like being there! But WTiF there's other bots being run around the planet, too, by people who's minds may be filled with the itch to cause mischief... or murder??? Watch your back, you n00b! --- ALASTAIR REYNOLDS is a science fiction writer based in Wales. A former space scientist, he turned from studying pulsars and binary stars to fiction. He's now the author of sixteen novels and more than seventy short stories. His work has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Arthur C Clarke and Sturgeon awards, an

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! Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today and the co-host of Astronomy Cast. He's been writing about space and astronomy since he founded Universe Today in 1999. He lives on Vancouver Island, Canada with his wife, children and dog. Visit https://UniverseToday.com to read the latest space and astronomy news from Fraser and his team! And check out their latest book, the Ultimate Guide to Viewing THE COSMOS, available at bookstores everywhere and on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1624145442/ref=dbs_a_def_

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 WEEKLY, and BOOKLIST. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608113/einsteins-war-by-matthew-stanley/9781524745417 REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE for free: https://pod.link/1250517051 Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

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. --- PAUL McAULEY'S first novel won the Philip K. Dick Award, and he has gone on to win almost all of the major awards in the field. For many years a research biologist, he now writes full-time. McAuley's novel THE QUIET WAR made several "best of the year" lists, including SF Site's Reader's Choice Top 10 SF and Fantasy Books of 2009. His latest novel is AUSTRAL: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Austral-Paul-McAuley/dp/1473217318 And his latest short story is featured in Wade Roush's exciting anthology TWELVE TOMORROW

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 engrossing new book! EINSTEIN'S WAR: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I. In bookstores now. Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

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/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'! -- Philip & Matt

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 'em on! 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'! -- Philip & Matt

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/einsteins-war-by-matthew-stanley/9781524745417/ Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip & Matt

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 to Nancy Reagan. Join us for a journey of nearly 2,000 YEARS of people looking up and asking WHAT THE IF? (PS: Read your horoscope before listening, because after this episode you won't read it ever again.) This is one of our funnest, most skepticalist, wackiest, mythbustingest episode yet. Ok click that button and let's fly to the ZENITH. An encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes. REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE for free: linktr.ee/whattheifshow BUY, GI