Are We Doomed?

The universe should be crawling with life. With hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy and hundreds of billions of galaxies, at least someone must have gotten a few billion years’ head start on us. So where is everybody?
This is the Fermi Paradox. And the simplest solution may be that intelligent life is common, but civilizations always destroy themselves before they get very far. And so will we.
But that’s not the only answer…
With the help of some ants, and a planet named Steve, Ben Bradford takes on the mystery of an apparently empty universe.
Guests:
Seth Baum, executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute
Michael Travisano, evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota
Sara Seager, astrophysicist at MIT
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Why are babies born young? How come a squirrel lives longer than a rat, but not as long as a naked mole rat (or Ben’s cousin’s tortoise)? Scientific breakthroughs over the past few decades suggest the ultimate doom awaiting us all — aging, and eventually death — isn’t simply an inevitable slide. Aging is a process inside the body, with mechanisms researchers are beginning to understand … and interfere with.

Now billions of dollars are pouring into secretive longevity labs, and the first attempts to rejuvenate aging cells inside human beings are underway.

So: are we getting closer to a real Fountain of Youth? And if we are, who gets to drink?

Guest:

Susan Dominus, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine

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You’re a critter in the forest, peacefully munching on a tree — until it’s chopped down, turned into a pallet, and you’re shipped across the ocean. What do you do? Sometimes, the answer is escape, find defenseless trees in your new home, and eat them to extinction. The emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly, “murder hornet,” and other invasive insects have all threatened destruction across North America in the past few decades alone.

Ben Bradford investigates why invasive bugs keep getting worse — and how, exactly, you’re supposed to stop millions of tiny creatures once they’ve decided they like it here. Schemes have grown increasingly intricate, including spy-movie hijinks, citizen squishers, the power of fire, and creating a Bug Fight Club.

Only some of these work.

Guests:

Andrew Liebhold, Chief Scientist, Forest Invasion Synthesis Centre

Chris Looney, Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologist (and murder hornet MacGyver)
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Also check out:
How Do You Kill a Mosquito?

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“Uh oh,” said several Manhattan Project scientists after they helped build a bomb and then it got used. They jumped to stop it from ever being used again. Solution: a newsletter. Through a somewhat convoluted chain of events that spawned the most famous symbol of humanity’s dance with extinction: the Doomsday Clock.
Alex Bell, the CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the Clock, tells its strange origin story and describes why the hands now sit closer than ever toward midnight — as well as what “midnight” actually means. 
Guest: 
Alexandra Bell, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
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Listen to related episodes:
More Nukes!
How to Start a Nuclear War
We Design the AI To Kill Us All
Did AI Just Escape?
Is the World Ending ... Or Are We Just Online?

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Scams are old. Mesopotamia old. Snake oil old. They haven’t doomed us yet.

But investigative journalist Joseph Cox of 404 Media sees something changing: new technology is making the oldest cons more personal, more convincing, and much harder to check.

Ben Bradford follows the scam from fake bosses and Nigerian princes to AI tools, celebrity deepfakes, and live video masks that can make a scammer look like someone you trust. But with Joseph, he also finds a few hallmarks that have accompanied cons throughout history, whether in ancient Sumer or a phishing email. Because as long as we can spot the spell scams seek to cast, we still have at least a chance to break it.
Guest:
Joseph Cox, investigative reporter and co-founder of 404 Media
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