Miles Ahead
Episodes
Episode 52: The Hunt for the White Bird, part 3
20 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the final chapter of this three-part series, Miles O'Brien and aviation historian Ric Gillespie examine the physical evidence suggesting that the l...
The Hunt for the White Bird — Part 2
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Did the first transatlantic flight nearly happen two weeks before Lindbergh? In Part 2 of this special Miles Ahead series, Miles O'Brien follows the t...
The Hunt for the White Bird - Part 1
07 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Miles Ahead: The Hunt for the White Bird is a three-part investigative podcast exploring one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in aviation history: t...
Episode 49: We Have No Money, So We Have To Think - with Peter Beck
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck is often mentioned alongside billionaire space entrepreneurs — but his motivations are strikingly different. In this e...
Episode 48: Titan Unfinished: A Conversation With OceanGate Co-Founder Guillermo Söhnlein
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of Ocean Gate, shares his journey from military service to entrepreneurship in the marine and spa...
Episode 47: From The End of Nature to a New Beginning - with Bill McKibben
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Miles O'Brien sits down with legendary climate activist and author Bill McKibben to talk about his new book Here Comes the Sun. They discus...
Episode 46: Science Under Siege — Michael Mann and Peter Hotez on the War Against Truth
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Miles to Go, Miles O'Brien speaks with climate scientist Michael Mann and vaccine researcher Peter Hotez — two scientists who ha...
Episode 45: Powering the Final Frontier: The Case for Nuclear on the Moon
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
NASA wants to land a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030. Is this the real deal—or another paper plan? Miles O'Brien talks with Bhavya Lal (RAND, fo...
Episode 44: "Collision Course over the Capital"
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Miles to Go, I'm joined by veteran airline captain and aviation analyst Les Abend to examine the deadly midair collision near Reaga...
Episode 43: "Cutoff: When a Pilot Becomes the Threat – Air India 171"
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Air India Flight 171 fell from the sky just seconds after takeoff, killing all aboard and many on the ground, investigators were baffled. The Boe...
Episode 42: Leroy Chiao on the perils of long-duration spaceflight
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this wide-ranging conversation, astronaut Leroy Chiao joins Miles to talk candidly about what it's really like to live and work in space — and in...
Episode 41: Lars Perkins on the Mid-Air Collision over the Potomac
15 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this special edition of Miles to Go, I sit down with longtime friend and aviation expert Lars Perkins to analyze the NTSB's latest findings on the ...
Episode 40: Harold Coghlan on the Mid-Air Collision near Reagan National Airport
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A tragic mid-air collision near Washington Reagan Airport has put a spotlight on the dangers of D.C.'s complex airspace. In this episode, veteran pilo...
Episode 39: Jared Isaacman: From Entrepreneur to Space Pioneer and NASA's Next Leader?
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of Miles To Go features Jared Isaacman, serial entrepreneur, space explorer, and nominee for NASA Administrator. From founding Shift4 Pay...
Episode 38: Not a Landslide, but too Big to Rig - with Alex Halderman
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Miles O'Brien and J. Alex Halderman discuss the critical issues surrounding election security, focusing on the importance of tru...
Episode 37: The Hunt for Methane Leaks - with Melissa Ostroff
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Miles to Go, we delve into the invisible world of methane leaks with environmental advocate Melissa Ostroff. Armed with a thermal ...
Episode 36: The Fight for Secure Elections - with Donna Curling
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today is Election Day—at long last. I am exhausted, and I suspect many of you feel the same way. I am in Georgia to cover this important day in hist...
Black Box Episode 3: Inside the Cockpit of JAL 123, The Worst Single Aircraft Accident in History - Part 3
19 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this three part miniseries, Miles O'Brien and Lars Perkins - along with several special guests - investigate the bizarre circumstances that led to ...
Black Box Episode 2: Inside the Cockpit of JAL 123, The Worst Single Aircraft Accident in History - Part 2
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this three part miniseries, Miles O'Brien and Lars Perkins - along with several special guests - investigate the bizarre circumstances that led to ...
Black Box Episode 1: Inside the Cockpit of JAL 123, The Worst Single Aircraft Accident in History - Part 1
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this three part miniseries, Miles O'Brien and Lars Perkins - along with several special guests - investigate the bizarre circumstances that led to ...
Episode 32: What Happened to China Eastern Flight MU5735
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Miles to Go returns after a long hiatus. In this "black box" special, Miles O'Brien talks with two pilots to try and understand why the 737 plummeted ...
Episode 31: The Challenge of Robots and Artificial Intelligence, a Retrospective – with AI Pioneer Marvin Minsky
17 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Marvin Minsky is often regarded as the father of modern AI, but when Miles visited him in 2010, Minsky wasn't a proud father. In fact, Minsky was disa...
Episode 30: How and Why We're Sampling Asteroid Bennu – with NASA's OSIRIS-REx Team
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How did our early solar system form? What are the origins of life? How likely are we to get hit by a dangerous asteroid? A daring NASA mission called ...
Episode 29: Why Europa is the Most Likely Spot We'll Find Aliens – with NASA's Kevin Peter Hand
26 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jupiter has many moons, but none are quite like Europa: it has a thick crust of ice and a huge amount of liquid saltwater underneath its surface. In f...
Episode 28: How Average Americans are Fighting Climate Change – with Clean Air Carolina's June Blotnick
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hurricane Florence was a perfect example of how climate change supercharges extreme weather events. But climate change also affects us in other more s...
Episode 27: Steve Squyres – On Exploring Mars, and Other Celestial Objects
23 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Squyres is the principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Program, which gave us the plucky and productive rovers Spirit and Opportun...
Episode 26: The Murky World of Science Transparency – Hash it Out with NYU Professor George D. Thurston
26 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There are calls in the EPA and in Congress for the use of more transparent science. But what does that mean? Why do scientists seem united against the...
Episode 25: Snorkeling with Some Wild Dolphin Friends – or Another Day in the Office for Denise Herzing
16 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For more than three decades, behavioral biologist Denise Herzing has tracked and observed a pod of wild spotted dolphins that live in the warm clear w...
Episode 24: The Blessing and Curse of Methane – Hash it Out
11 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Methane is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of gas: on one hand, it is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel. On the other, if it leaks, methane itself is a ...
Episode 23: Inside the Legal Battle to Ban a Deadly Neurotoxin - with Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For several years, environmental advocacy groups have been fighting to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos from agricultural use. A turnover in leadership ...
Episode 22: The Chemical Ban That Got a Reprieve from Trump's EPA – with Miriam Rotkin-Ellman of the Natural Resources Defense Council
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After years of exhaustive research linking the pesticide chlorpyrifos to a host of developmental and cognitive deficiencies in children, the EPA was p...
Episode 21: The Promise and Peril of AI – Hash it Out with Tech Entrepreneur Lars Perkins
19 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not off in the distant future... in some ways it is already here. How is AI already changing our lives? Does it work i...
Episode 20: Welcome to the Madhouse – with Michael Mann and Tom Toles
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Communicating the science of climate change, with its overwhelming expert consensus, seems like it should be easy. However, a science-averse media and...
Episode 19: What is Machine Learning and How is it Used? – Hash it Out with Cameron Hickey
07 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What is machine learning? How does it work? What are these artificially intelligent algorithms useful for? Considering they are used by Amazon, Google...
Episode 18: Searching for Methane, the Other Greenhouse Gas - with Robert Green of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide. It is more short-lived than CO2 (about a decade as opposed a century), but it is 85 ...
Episode 17: The Software We Wrote to Understand Junk News - with Producer Cameron Hickey
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode in our series on Junk News, some wisdom from one of the leading experts in the murky world of online misinformation. He also happ...
Episode 16: Inside Facebook - with Tessa Lyons, Head of News Feed Integrity
21 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook was created for people to share family photos and memories. But as ads entered the mix, the platform was refined to hold our attention for as...
Episode 15: Inside the Filter Bubble - with Eli Pariser, the man who coined the phrase
15 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Internet was supposed to provide a utopian virtual world where all of us could come together in peace, love and harmony to better understand each ...
Episode 14: Understanding the Eruption at Kilauea – with Geologist Mike Garcia
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As Hawaii trembles with earthquakes and the Kilauea volcano continues to spew forth lava and gas, residents and the wider world watch and wonder: how ...
Episode 13: A Junk News Pioneer - with Cyrus Massoumi, Part 2
03 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Russian actors may have run an online disinformation campaign during the 2016 US presidential elections, but they likely learned their tactics from Am...
Episode 12: A Junk News Pioneer - with Cyrus Massoumi, Part 1
02 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Russian actors may have run an online disinformation campaign during the 2016 US presidential elections, but they likely learned their tactics from Am...
Episode 11: Mapping Misinformation and Russian Influence Online – with Data Journalist Jonathan Albright
25 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Top US intelligence agencies agree that Russia meddled in the 2016 US Presidential election using an organized campaign of online trolling and misinfo...
Episode 10: Whose Best Interest - Can Facebook's Business Model Be Repaired?
23 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Cambridge Analytica scandal has placed Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook at the center of the data privacy debate. But is Facebook's ad-driven business...
Episode 9: Aviation and the "Tombstone Mentality" - How Southwest 1380 Could Have Been Avoided
19 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The uncontained engine failure of Southwest flight 1380 reminds us once again that commercial aviation is a business that does not always put safety f...
Episode 8: Just the Facts - with Brooke Binkowski of Snopes.com
16 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Long before Facebook, Twitter or even Google existed, the fact checking website Snopes.com was running down the half-truths, misinformation and outrig...
Episode 7: Misinformation on the Internet - Untangling the Web
10 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How did the internet become a tangled web of misinformation? Miles speaks to danah boyd, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, founder of Data &...
Episode 6: How Your Facebook Newsfeed Works
30 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Who or what determines what's in your Facebook Newsfeed? It's a complex algorithm that aims to put what interests you most at the top of the queue. In...
Episode 5: Astronaut Scott Kelly's Guide To The Universe
14 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Miles catches up with Astronaut Scott Kelly and learns about what it's like to spend a year in space. Kelly talks about the physical and emotional tol...
Episode 4: Entering A New Dimension In 3D Printing
05 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of 3D printing, you may envision useless trinkets, a cheesy iPhone cover, or extruded cheese doodles. But that would be so 2014 of you!...
Episode 3: Inside North Korea's Nuclear Complex
13 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Siegfried Hecker is a Metallurgist and Nuclear Scientist. He served as the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986-1997 and is a prof...
Episode 2: Talking Trash
07 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Eugene Tseng describes himself as the most "overeducated garbage man" in the world. An environmental engineer and lawyer who teaches at UCLA and Cal S...
Pilot Episode: The Worst Airline Accident That Nearly Happened
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In July of 2017, an Air Canada passenger jet loaded with 135 passengers and 5 crewmembers nearly landed on a taxiway at San Francisco International Ai...