After Things Podcast

The episode opens with a long discussion of NASA's Space Launch System and its failed wet dress rehearsal. Andrew says the test hit valve, cooling, and sensor problems, leaving most of the liquid hydrogen unloaded, and he argues the program is an outdated, expensive government rocket that should be scrapped rather than preserved by sunk-cost logic. The panel contrasts SLS with newer commercial launch companies and notes the oddity that Artemis would use SLS to ferry astronauts to SpaceX hardware, which they describe as inefficient and hard to justify. After the space segment, Andrew launches into a series of science and weird-news stories. He explains a 1832 Darwin-era observation that leads into spider ballooning, where the hosts discuss the idea that spiders use electrostatic charge on silk rather than wind alone to lift off. They then move to a story about bacteria that help nucleate ice in clouds and can influence rain, followed by a Florida python-and-bobcat video that prompts joking interpretation, and