#78: Ready, SETI, Go with Richard Factor

In this episode, Eventide founder Richard Factor takes us to outer space on a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Richard is the founder and president of the SETI League: a non-profit, membership-supported group of amateur sky watchers hoping to catch signals of intelligent life from outside our solar system. Richard walks John and Stewart through the inception of SETI, the hows and whys of this galactic search, and one story about a real-life tin foil hat.

For more information on SETI, or to join the league, visit setileague.org. The full episode of This American Life that was mentioned can be found here.

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Available on Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, and most podcast apps. Scroll down for full listing.

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Richard Factor at the Project Argus launch ceremony (Credit: Gerry Fleming, KE2RC)

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SETI directors (left to right) Richard Factor, Heather Wood, and H. Paul Shuch at lunch with Kenny Schaffer, N2KS (Credit: Kibo)

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Richard Factor with Queen member and astrophysicist, Brian May. (Credit: Eventide)

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Richard at a SETI League Board of Trustees Meeting during the pandemic. (Credit: SETI League)

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Richard Factor (WA2IKL) and EME Chairman Al Katz (K2UYH) at the Lowell Observatory (Credit: WA2IKL)

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The HF Antenna on top of Richard Factor's home in Sedona, AZ. (Credit: WA2IKL)

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SETI members at The Western Conference of SETI’s sister organization, the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA). (Credit: SARA)

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Richard Factor at the SETI Trustees' Meeting in 1999.

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A photo of the Moon Bounce Beacon Rack.

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Overhead view of the Very Large Array in Arizona (Credit: Richard Factor)

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Richard unpacking a Big Ear Memorial Plaque. (Credit: SETI League)

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Richard throwing the big switch at the Project Argus launch ceremony. (Credit: SETI League)

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IAA SETI Committee chairman Claudio Maccone (left) pays a visit to SETI League president Richard Factor. (Credit: WA2IKL)

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Richard Factor with SETI League executive director emeritus H. Paul Shuchand secretary/treasurer A. Heather Wood. (Credit: SETI League)

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SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

LINKS

• Eventide

• Richard Factor’s blog

• Project Cyclops

• Arecibo Observatory

• Superconducting Super Collider

• SETI League

• Voyager Gold Record

• Carl Sagan

• Star Trek movie

• Heliopause

• Jocelyn Bell Burnell

• Pulsar

• Neutrinos

• Atlantis

• Fermi Paradox

• Los Alamos

• National Radio Quiet Zone

• Far Side of the Moon

• Ham Radio

• Water Hole

• Galactic Plane

• Microwave astronomy

• Palomar Observatory

• Very Large Array

• Contact Movie

• Moon Bounce Beacon

• NPR Episode