Welcome to the After-On podcast. I'm your host, Rob Reed.

And this is a series of conversations with thinkers, founders, and scientists.

Take a little time and stretch out because these talks are unhurried and meant to bring

you to a top percentile understanding of something important.

So whether you're ready to start up score ideas, a techie or a lit major, take your time,

engage your mind, and you'll be glad you did.

Especially this week when we'll be talking to Harvard Astronomy Department Chairman Avi

Loeb, as his title indicates Avi is an extremely credentialed astronomer.

So when he asserted that an object currently passing through our solar system could well

be the artificial product of an alien intelligence, eyebrows went up, including my own.

He made this argument in a scientific paper published on the 12th of this month in the

Astrophysical Journal, which itself is one of the top research publications in all of

astronomy.

I got wind of this paper before its official release date and reached out to Avi, and

we ended up having the longest and most in-depth interview he's given on this fascinating

topic thus far.

And also he noted an email to me yesterday and invited me to share this characterization

the most intellectually stimulating interview from his personal standpoint.

Now I was delighted to hear this because like anything connected to aliens this story

has inevitably led to an avalanche of soundbites and clickbait.

It's also triggered a fair amount of controversy amongst professional astronomers.

The negative reactions have ranged from skepticism to something verging on moral outrage.

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