Dr. Starkid

19 Episodes

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Life on Earth Might Have Started on Mars

2026-09-0401:37:56

You might be a Martian. In this installment of the Dr. Starkid astrobiology series, I’m making the case that life on Earth may have actually started on Mars first. This idea does not yet have scientific consensus, but there is a convincing evidence-based argument for what might be the simplest explanation for why life showed up on Earth so early. Expect to learn about panspermia, LUCA, the origin of life, why Mars may have been chemically ready for life before Earth, how early Earth may hav...

Physics Is At Play In Your Personal Life

2026-08-2157:29

Momentum is a basic concept in physics: mass in motion, moving in a particular direction. But it also provides an interesting way to think about how a human life takes shape. In this episode, Dr. Dakotah Tyler starts with the physics of momentum, inertia, conservation laws, and the strange rotations of planets like Uranus and Venus. From there, the conversation moves into biology, energy efficiency, the high metabolic cost of the human brain, learning, automaticity, and why repeated behaviors...

The Worst Thing You Can Lose Is Hope in Yourself

2026-08-2015:51

Dr. Dakotah Tyler reflects on the lowest periods of his life, finding purpose through football, losing that identity after a knee injury, and eventually starting over academically on the path toward a PhD in astrophysics. But the point of the story is the difference between believing in yourself and maintaining hope in yourself. You can doubt whether you’ll succeed. You can get exhausted. You can question whether the path you chose is going to work. But as long as you still have some vision o...

The Cosmic History of the Atoms Inside You | Astrobiology Series Part IV

2026-08-1735:01

Stars do much more than light up the universe. They create the environments where planets form, provide energy to those planets, manufacture new elements through fusion, and eventually return that material to the galaxy where another generation of stars, planets, and potentially life can form. In this episode of the Dr. Starkid astrobiology series, Dr. Dakotah Tyler explains what happens inside stars, why quantum tunneling is necessary for fusion in the Sun, and why more massive stars actuall...

Two Football Players Go Deep on Physics, God & the Universe | Arian Foster, NFL Running Back

2026-08-0901:20:09

Arian Foster is a former NFL running back who played for the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins. He also studied philosophy and, after reaching the NFL, developed a deep interest in science, physics, and some of the biggest questions about reality. In this conversation, expect to hear Arian and Dr. Dakotah Tyler talk about general relativity, scientific expertise, misinformation, distrust of science, “doing your own research,” and why changing your mind when new evidence appears is a feature o...

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