Featured Content: Wild and Wonderful Adventures with ‘NASA’s Curious Universe’
Our universe is a wild and wonderful place, so much so that people dedicate their entire lives to learning and discovering new things about it. A lot of what makes up the universe comes down to complex science, which most people don’t understand even when we want to. Luckily, we can tune in to “NASA’s Curious Universe,” a podcast that takes you on a new adventure with NASA astronauts, scientists, and engineers each week. All you need is your curiosity.
At the helm of the show are host Padi Boyd and Executive Producer Katie Atkinson. Padi’s described as “a NASA planet hunter and black hole enthusiast,” who loves to sing about science in her spare time. Katie is an audio producer telling the NASA stories, like robot sound tours and explorations inside of the Sun, through sound. Together, these two lead listeners to the depths of the Earth and distant galaxies through compelling story and engaging sound design.
In conjunction with their new season — which starts today, October 12! — we’re featuring “NASA’s Curious Universe” here on TRAX.fm! Up first: we spoke with Katie on what goes into making the podcast, what makes for a good Curious Universe story, and what listeners can expect from the new season.
Who is “NASA’S Curious Universe” made for?
“NASA’s Curious Universe” is for anyone who wants to learn more about the world around them and how NASA explores it. First-time space explorers welcome! We hope this show is a great entry point to NASA stories. We know that often science and engineering can feel daunting to step into, so we try to introduce the listener to complex topics in accessible ways. We hope listeners will be entertained by Curious Universe, but come away having learned a lot, too.
Katie is the executive producer of “NASA’s Curious Universe.”
Host Padi Boyd is a NASA planet hunter, black hole enthusiast, and your tour guide to the universe.
What makes for a good Curious Universe story? How do you find them?
We want every episode to feel like you’re going on an adventure with a NASA scientist, astronaut, or engineer, so we work with NASA experts across the country to bring the most exciting stories to our listeners’ ears. For me, a good Curious Universe story should feel like you’re a fly on the wall during some of the most thrilling mission advancements happening at NASA.
We try to tell stories that get to the heart of science and spaceflight, and why we explore! One of the ways we do that is by focusing on the sounds that could help tell the story. It might be a splash from an astronaut training pool, a field recording from a snowy mountaintop, or astronaut chatter from a Hubble repair mission. It also helps that many mission milestones represent the culmination of a scientist or engineer’s life work. We are able to feature a lot of very passionate people who genuinely want to share their love for what they do!
Curious Universe isn’t necessarily a kids’ show, but it’s perfect for TRAX’s audience! How do you produce the show in a way that’s digestible from anyone at any age?
With any Curious Universe episode, we hope that adults are able to learn a lot about NASA and the world around them, and we want younger listeners to feel entertained and to come away from the episode having learned a few fun things about NASA adventures, too. This show is an entry point to NASA, a “beginner’s guide” to learning all about the cool things the agency is doing in space, the air, and from the ground, too. When I’m working on a new episode, I always return to this image of a family on a road trip. That’s the audience I want to reach! As a team, we’ve got to ask ourselves, how do we create a show where both adults and kids can be entertained, learn something new about NASA, and not feel overwhelmed? That question is always top of mind for us.
How do you approach explaining complex ideas in an easy to understand way?
One of the biggest questions we like to tackle is, “Why should the listener care?” We focus on the humans behind the complex ideas. We also have a coaching method we use to help our guests get in the audio storytelling mindset, often asking them to close their eyes and describe NASA locations and missions in great detail to really help the listener feel truly immersed. We have fun with our guests and each episode assumes that it’s a listener’s first time hearing about a topic. We guide the listener on a journey of understanding!
Some episodes of the podcast are about things on Earth, which is pretty easy to find sounds for. How do you go about sound designing outer space, stars, and other planets?
NASA has a diverse collection of some amazing sounds that help us immerse our listeners in the world of NASA. We try and think of creative ways to break down complex topics, and music and sonification are two tools that help us get the job done. One episode that comes to mind is our Hubble episode, which allowed listeners to join astronauts on a nail-biting rescue mission to repair the telescope. Music is also essential, we use it to build suspense and even to explain difficult topics. For example, we’ve used the progression of notes on a piano to explain how telescopes see different wavelengths of light. NASA also has a rich collection of archival mission audio which helps bring the listener to outer space.
Which episode from the upcoming season are you most excited for people to hear and why?
It’s hard to choose just one adventure! But I’m really excited to bring listeners up-close-and-personal with a black hole this season. These are some of the most perplexing cosmic objects in the galaxy and we’ll learn all about them from NASA astrophysicists. Black holes have amazing origin stories so I’m excited to have an episode about how these mysterious objects form! In season two, you’ll also hear from a European Space Agency astronaut, explore a mission that will collect samples from an asteroid, and much more —so stay tuned!
For people who can’t get enough of Curious Universe: what’s your favorite episode from the first season?
We pack a lot of love and hard work into every “Curious Universe” episode, but if there’s one I could recommend from season one, it would be “The Astronaut Training Pool.”
Some of my favorite stories that we get to tell are the ones we think will really make our listeners say, “wow.” This episode takes listeners on a tour of NASA’s underwater training ground (the size of NINE Olympic-sized pools!) where astronauts prepare for their space adventures. Cool, right?
Will there ever be an episode of Curious Universe recorded outside of Earth?
I hope so! NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, is traveling to the Red Planet with microphones on board right now. Perseverance is going to collect the first recorded sounds from the surface of Mars, so it would be awesome to include those in a future episode.
What can listeners expect to hear from “Curious Universe”?
If you’re looking for a sound-rich adventure with NASA, Curious Universe is for you. Every Curious Universe episode is anchored in the energetic, friendly voices that belong to explorers of all kinds. Surrounding those voices are sounds that put you amidst the hustle of an engineering lab, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest or underwater with an astronaut-in-training. Each episode is a brand new adventure.
Our universe is a wild and wonderful place… and what better tour guide than NASA?