The following is a conversation with Sarah Seeger, a planetary scientist at MIT known for her work on the search for exoplanets,

which are planets outside of her solar system.

She's an author of two books on this fascinating topic.

Plus, in a couple days, August 18th, her new book, a memoir called The Smallest Lights in the Universe, is coming out.

I read it, and I can recommend it highly, especially if you love space and are a bit of a romantic like me.

It's beautifully written. She weaves the stories of the tragedies and the triumphs of her life, with the stories of her love for and research on exoplanets,

which represent our hope to find life out there in the universe.

Quick summary of the ads, three sponsors, public goods, that's a new one, Power Dot and Cash App.

Click the links in the description to get a discount. It really is the best way to support this podcast.

As a quick side note, let me say that, extraterrestrial life, aliens, I think represent our civilization longing to make contact with the unknown.

With others like us, or maybe others that are very different from us, entities that might reveal something profound about why we're here.

The possibility of this is both exciting, and, at least to me, terrifying, which is exactly where we humans do our best work.

If you enjoyed this thing, subscribe on YouTube, review it with five stars on Apple Podcasts, support it on Patreon, or connect with me on Twitter, Alexa Friedman.

As usual, I'll do a few minutes of As Now, and never any ads in the middle that could break the flow of the conversation.

I try to make these ad reads interesting if you do listen, but if you like, I give you timestamps so you can skip to the conversation, but still please do check out the sponsors by clicking the special links in the description.

It's the best way to support this podcast.

This show is sponsored by Public Goods, the one-stop shop for affordable, sustainable, healthy household products.

Their products have a minimalist black and white design that I find to be just clean, elegant, and beautiful.

It's a style that makes me feel like I'm living in the future.

I imagine we'll all be using Public Goods products once we colonize Mars.

They got all the basics you need from healthy snacks, like almonds, to my favorite, the bamboo toothbrush, and other stuff for personal care, home essentials, healthy food, and vitamins and supplements.

I take their official, for example, which I recommend highly for everyone.

...