Offworld, Episode 1: Contact with Dr. Jill Tarter
Welcome to Offworld, a new show we’re making that explores the fun places where space and pop culture intersect! In each episode, we’ll examine a science fiction story and discuss how it holds up under some scientific scrutiny. For our inaugural episode, we talk about the 1997 film Contact with special guest Dr. Jill Tarter, whose work at SETI was the inspiration for the main character of the book and film.
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That was a delightful conversation with Dr Tarter. Enjoyed the new show, worthy of a BBC Radio 4 spot.
I remember seeing that movie in college and falling in love with it. I then downloading the SETI screen saver which, at the time; would download pieces (104 seconds audio files) of data from SETI and use your computer to crunch the numbers in reviewing that piece of data. Once it was complete (4-8 hours depending on once computer) it would transmit it’s findings back to SETI and download a new piece data to review. I ran that program for 8-9 years and logged something like 13,000 hours of computer time (they’d track all that stuff).
Very cool new series!
That was a wonderful discussion!
Idea for a future show: We’ve all heard Neil deGrasse Tyson’s views on Interstellar, it would be interesting to hear other physicists’ views (Stephen Hawking or Steven Weinberg for example).
This is a great idea for a series and a wonderful inaugural episode!
Reminds me a bit of this:
I suppose as long as you pick movies that are too good to ruin by pointing out the inaccuracies, nobody can get too upset! And Contact fits that bill, in my opinion.
Also, I noticed that Ariel is now listed in the Tested crew on youtube video description which is super cool! Great to see you’re part of the team, Ariel!
(*psst*… Hey peeps, go check out her youtube channel if you haven’t already! https://www.youtube.com/user/arielwaldman )
Very enjoyable. Fantastic addition.
Excellent new show! Really looking forward to more, great job!
i enjoyed this new TESTED SHOW and am looking forward to future episodes. With the recent passing of John Young would you consider getting some of the remaining moonwalkers and capsule commanders on you show. TOO many people under 35 do not who they are & what they did.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE SHOW
That was great, looking forward to subsequent episodes.
Might I suggest more comfortable chairs next time? Those ones make everyone look a little uneasy.
Excellent interview. May we please have more?
I legit fell off one of those chairs the other day. They are pretty though!
Ariel is one of my fave science communication people. Check out her work at Science Hack Day http://sciencehackday.org/ too. Great series of events around the world.
Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the warm welcome and I’m so excited to geek out with all of you!
Thanks so much! And that’s a huge compliment! Much love for BBC.
SETIholds a place in history – so many people remember using it!
Thanks! And thanks for checking out the very first episode!
I think we’ll definitely get to Interstellar at some point.
I am super excited to be part of the team! I think with the series, we’ll be diving into the science without being overly nit-picky or cynical. Science should be about getting excited IMHO.
Thank you! Thanks for watching!
Thanks so much!
This was great, can’t wait to see where this show goes.
That was brilliant. Looking forward to more episodes. I’ll probably listen to this one again as well. Good stuff.
By the way, I would have never spotted that innumeracy in a million years.
I really enjoyed this. Contact is one of my favorite stories. I love both the book and the movie. This is a great concept for a show and it’s really well done; I look forward to more. I hope you consider also making this available as a Podcast. Selfishly, I would really love to listen to the interviews on my ride into work. Thanks for making this and keep up the good work!
Love the show! Any plans to put these out in podcast form?
I think there is! Stay tuned.
oooh, this looks like a fantastic idea for a new series! loved this tons. 🙂
films wise, i don’t know if this is much of a viable candidate, but i can’t quite shake stalker (1979, tarkovsky) from my mind after watching this episode. it doesn’t portray science and scientists much, but i wonder whether there is something usable in there about how we access and make sense of phenomena/the world, the interplay of humans/their differing perspectives and matters in research, etc.
Can you give me the signal to watch this show and commentary for the future ? Please ?
The part of the interview right towards the end where Dr. Tarter is talking about how contact would change our views and bring humanity together was an opportunity to talk about how the book explored this aspect a million times better than the film.
In the book, it’s not just Jodie Foster getting into the machine and going for the ride, it’s five people from all over the world. There is also more of an emphasis on how the whole world had to club together to build the thing in the first place.
With all due respect, that is what the movie should have been. The unremarkable romantic sub plot with McConaughey was chewing old soup. We’ve seen it a million times before. Showing how humanity would choose who got to go into the machine to represent us and report back would have been a story nobody has told on film before.
I’d love to know how hard Carl Sagan fought that crucial change, if at all.
Love the new series! Excited to see more!