The Universe Is On The Other Line

The Box of Oddities

John Elliott and Kat Walls

True Crime, Society & Culture, Comedy

4.9 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this special interview episode of The Box of Oddities, Jethro sits down with acclaimed science journalist Becky Ferreira—author of the new book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens. Together they explore humanity’s oldest question: Are we alone? Ferreira, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, Popular Science, MIT Technology Review, and NPR’s Science Friday, guides us through the deep history of alien speculation—from ancient Greek and Roman philosophers to Hopi star-people traditions to the modern UAP debate. Jethro taps into his inner UFO enthusiast as they dive into:• Why ancient cultures believed the sky itself was communicating with them• The earliest “alien life” theories from Christian and Muslim scholars• The Fermi Paradox, Drake Equation, and what science gets wrong about “Where is everybody?”• Water worlds like Europa and Enceladus, and why alien life may be hiding inside dark interior oceans• Whether interdimensional phenomena at places like Skinwalker Ranch could explain UAP encounters• How humans might emotionally—and chaotically—respond if we picked up an alien signal• The surprising ways religion is preparing for extraterrestrial discovery• Whether we’ll make contact in our lifetime… and what form it might take Ferreira’s insights blend cutting-edge astronomy with anthropology, psychology, and the strange human tendency to project our own fears and hopes onto the stars. Equal parts science, myth, and cosmic mystery, this conversation asks why the idea of alien life has been with us since the beginning—and why we can’t stop looking up. Becky Ferreira’s book First Contact is available now in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook wherever books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	How's the business going?
0:01.2	We're busier than ever, but struggling to get the staff we need. Oh, recruiting can be such a distraction. We gave Job Centre Plus a try, and they've really helped us out. Really? Yeah. It was dead easy. We got our own employer advisor, Julie, who helped advertise our jobs, shortlisted candidates for us and letters interview at the Job Centre. We've hired some great people, and Job Centre Plus really took the hassle out of it, And there was no fee.
0:23.1	Brilliant. That's straight on my to-do list. view at the job center. We've hired some great people and Job Center Plus really took the hassle
0:21.2	out of it and there was no fee. Brilliant. That's straight on my to-do list. Find out more at
0:25.9	business.gov.com.uk slash recruit. Eligibility criteria apply. What's something you learned in
0:31.5	history class that you feel like wasn't the whole truth? Better yet, what's something you didn't learn
0:37.3	at all that was omitted
0:38.6	completely? That's what I like to call redacted history. My name is Andre White, the host of the
0:45.0	Redacted History Podcast, the place where histories forgotten events, heroes, and villains get their
0:50.9	story told, one episode at a time. The Redacted History Podcast, Real History Never Dies.
0:58.8	Stream the Redacted History Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your
1:04.4	podcasts.
1:05.3	Wouldn't it be weird if we got some sort of message from the stars?
1:09.5	It was verified that it came from an intelligent source.
1:12.6	And when it was decoded, it said, send more cool ranch Doritos.
1:17.4	Yes, that's the best. There's also a Craigslist ad that was sent into space in the early 2000.
1:22.0	So I'm also like, are they going to show up for a used futon? Like,
1:26.0	Today on the box of I'mody, something a little bit different.
1:28.3	We're joined by somebody who has been years tracing our species.
1:33.9	The long, curious, and sometimes downright obsessive relationship with the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
1:41.2	Becky Ferreira, a renowned science reporter whose work has appeared in the New York
1:46.8	Times in Wired Popular Science, MIT Technology Review. You might have heard her on NPR's
	...

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