Continuing our holiday break, we're bringing you some of Carter's favorite episodes from this year! His first Best of 2024 pick re-examines the question that's been debated by scientists and ufologists for decades: Are we alone in the universe? And if not... where are all the aliens? We’ll be back with new episodes of Conspiracy Theories on December 25! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
If you watched last month's congressional UAP hearing, you're probably asking yourself where our extraterrestrial friends are hiding. In my first best of 2024 pick, we'll revisit the Fermi paradox and attempt to answer that very question. We'll be back with new episodes of Conspiracy Theories on December 25th.
In the Milky Way alone, there are approximately 200 billion stars, around 20 billion of which are Sun-like stars, complete with an Earth-like planet orbiting them. Scientists estimate there may be 11 billion planets orbiting Sun-like stars, just in our home galaxy.
Now if we apply those numbers to the whole universe, where our current estimates approximate about 200 billion or more galaxies, well, the point should be fairly clear. There is an astounding number of Earth-like planets in the universe. Countless planets, billions of years older than our own, that had the very same preconditions for life as Earth.
Even if we use the most conservative estimate for life forming under these conditions, the conclusion is fairly straightforward. The universe should be teeming with life. And given the incredible amount of star systems much older than our own, many of these life forms would have billions more years to evolve, far beyond humanity's wildest dreams.
But if this is the case, if the universe is so incomprehensibly vast and so richly populated with intelligent life, one fundamental question remains. Where is everybody? Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at theconspiracypod. And we would love to hear from you.
So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Today, we're traveling back to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which we're all very familiar with from Oppenheimer, the best picture from the 96th Academy Awards. But we aren't talking about the Manhattan Project today. We're eavesdropping on a lunchtime conversation that changed UFO theory forever.
In this episode, we're digging into the Fermi Paradox, the scientific formulaic paradox that asks the question, where is everybody? Stay with us.
Hi there, this is Steve Fishman from Orbit Media. Our new series, Season 4 in the Burden Feed, is Get the Money and Run.
You'll love it. Here's the trailer.
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