Ancient galaxies carpeting the sky like jewels on black velvet. Fledgling stars shining out from deep within cumulus clouds of interstellar dust. Hints of water vapor in the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet.
This week, NASA released new images captured from a point in space one million miles from Earth.
Today, we discuss the James Webb Space Telescope, the ... Show More
Yesterday
1979: How the U.S. and Iran Went From Allies to Enemies
At the heart of the current U.S. war against Iran is an inconvenient truth: that the United States is, in many ways, responsible for creating the very regime it now seeks to topple. Today, Scott Anderson, a New York Times Magazine contributor, tells the story of America’s outsize ... Show More
49m 32s
Jun 11
The Young Economic Populists Reshaping the Left
College graduates used to lean right politically, but over the past few decades, they have increasingly moved to the left. Today, Noam Scheiber, the author of “Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class,” explains the economic forces that have left many col ... Show More
37m 25s
Jun 10
The Iran War's Devastating Butterfly Effect
The war in Iran has had some visible consequences, like skyrocketing energy costs and higher gas prices, but the effects of this war are often far less obvious and much more serious for the world’s most vulnerable people. Today, Peter S. Goodman tells us what he learned on a rece ... Show More
26m 56s
Dec 2021
The James Webb Space Telescope Is About To Launch
Soon the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope will blast off into space, hurtling almost a million miles away from Earth, where it will orbit the Sun. Decades in the making, scientists hope its mission will last a decade and provide insights into all kinds of things, inc ... Show More
14m 26s
Apr 2023
The News Roundup Goes Intergalactic
It's our latest roundup of science news! This time, with Ailsa Chang of NPR's All Things Considered, who joins us to discuss three stories that take us on a journey through space — from the sounds of Earth's magnetosphere, to the moons of Jupiter, to a distant phenomenon NASA cal ... Show More
12 m
Sep 2021
The James Webb Time Machine
To look into deep space is to look back in time. With the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists hope to see “cosmic dawn,” a period long ago when the first starlight transformed the universe. But what happened before cosmic dawn? The Webb can’t tell us, th ... Show More
28m 30s