I'm Alan Alder and this is Clear and Vivid, Conversations about Connecting and Communicating.

Welcome to a preview of season 19, which begins next week.

In this preview, Graham and I will introduce you to some of the fascinating people you'll

be meeting and will give you a taste of their stories.

They really are fascinating, aren't they, Graham?

They certainly are and will be previewing five of the upcoming episodes now.

The rest of the season will be recording in the next few weeks.

Primering in mid-December, we have an episode about a tiny spacecraft that piggybacked on the giant

Artemis one rocket that NASA launched just the other week. That little robot is going to literally

sail to an asteroid, but its designer hopes it will also be the first step towards

giant spaceship propelled by immense sails that can take humans to the stars. Later in the season

you'll be talking with a woman whose insights into how babies learn about the world

and now helping artificial intelligence learn about the world and get a little more intelligent.

We have the amazing untold story of the six women who programmed the first modern computer

75 years ago. The giant Eniac machine that was 80 feet long and 8 feet tall when exactly

fit on your lap. There's an episode on the incredible world of sounds nature uses to

communicate or world that we humans have been shut out from until just recently.

And there's a whole show on your favorite animals, the microscopic tardigrades,

nature's ultimate survivalists. But first, but first, I get to talk with Melissa McCarthy and Ben

Falcone. They act together, they write together, he directs her in movies and streaming series,

and they're married. They're extremely successful, but I wonder if all these joint activities

ever get in the way of one another. Or are they able to work so closely together because they both

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