The universe should be crawling with life. With hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy and hundreds of billions of galaxies, at least someone must have gotten a few billion years’ head start on us. So where is everybody?

This is the Fermi Paradox. And the simplest solution may be that intelligent life is common, but civilizations always destroy themselves before they get very far. And so will we.

But that’s not the only answer…

With the help of some ants, and a planet named Steve, Ben Bradford takes on the mystery of an apparently empty universe.

Guests:

Seth Baum, executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute

Michael Travisano, evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota

Sara Seager, astrophysicist at MIT

Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/

Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod

Why are babies born young? How come a squirrel lives longer than a rat, but not as long as a naked mole rat (or Ben’s cousin’s tortoise)? Scientific breakthroughs over the past few decades suggest the ultimate doom awaiting us all — aging, and eventually death — isn’t simply an inevitable slide. Aging is a process inside the body, with mechanisms researchers are beginning to understand … and interfere with.

Now billions of dollars are pouring into secretive longevity labs, and the first attempts to rejuvenate aging cells inside human beings are underway.

So: are we getting closer to a real Fountain of Youth? And if we are, who gets to drink?

Guest:

Susan Dominus, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine

Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/

Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod

You’re a critter in the forest, peacefully munching on a tree — until it’s chopped down, turned into a pallet, and you’re shipped across the ocean. What do you do? Sometimes, the answer is escape, find defenseless trees in your new home, and eat them to extinction. The emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly, “murder hornet,” and other invasive insects have all threatened destruction across North America in the past few decades alone.

Ben Bradford investigates why invasive bugs keep getting worse — and how, exactly, you’re supposed to stop millions of tiny creatures once they’ve decided they like it here. Schemes have grown increasingly intricate, including spy-movie hijinks, citizen squishers, the power of fire, and creating a Bug Fight Club.

Only some of these work.

Guests:

Andrew Liebhold, Chief Scientist, Forest Invasion Synthesis Centre

Chris Looney, Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologist (and murder hornet MacGyver)

Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/

Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod

Also check out:
How Do You Kill a Mosquito?