Star Stuff

About Star Stuff

Star Stuff is a top astronomy podcast by Lowell Observatory. Learn about the wildest parts of our universe, from black holes to mad scientists, through the eyes of our hosts!

Publisher

Lowell Observatory

Category

science · science · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Nov 2021

Latest episode

5 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

88 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Nov 2026

   Appreciating the Magic with Steve Smith

   Steve Smith has flown four Space Shuttle missions and logged seven spacewalks, including five to repair the Hubble Space Telescope and two to help build the International Space Station. Beyond the launchpad, his career has taken him from diplomacy to the tech industry to the keynote stage. In this episode of Star Stuff, Steve sits down with historian Kevin Schindler and Lowell astronomer Dr. Kyler Kuehne, Director of Science and Technology, to look back on his time in orbit, talk about what it felt like to return to Earth, and consider where humankind’s relationship with space goes next.

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Saving the World with Dr. Ed Lu

   When retired NASA astronaut Dr. Ed Lu co-founded B612 Foundation, he and the rest of the team asked themselves one question: “Can we raise $400 million to save the world?” The world in question is ours, and the threat is the asteroids that share our neighborhood of the solar system. B612 set out to find them before they find us, and that takes a rare mix of engineering ambition, scientific rigor, and a willingness to ask for a very large amount of money. In this episode, Historian Kevin Schindler and astronomer Dr. Nick Moskovitz sit down with Ed to talk about his spearheading of the Sentinel Mission, an infrared space telescope built to orbit the Sun and map roughly 500,000 hazardous near-Earth asteroids.

3. 

   1 Sept 2026

   Crew Members of Spaceship Earth with Nicole Stott

   Astronaut Nicole Stott has spent 104 days in space, orbited Earth over 1,600 times, and even painted with watercolors aboard the International Space Station. In this episode of Star Stuff, Stott reflects on why she believes we’re all crew members of Spaceship Earth, how art became part of her work in orbit, and what she’s watching for as NASA’s Artemis missions push us back toward the Moon.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

4,219,087

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.8 / 5

11 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

46 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 72 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

73

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

85

Contact Star Stuff

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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