# What If Humanity Ranks Among The First Spacefaring Civilizations? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/what-if-humanity-is-among-the-earliest-spacefaring-civilizations Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/what-if-humanity-is-among-the-earliest-spacefaring-civilizations.md Podcast: [PBS Space Time](https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773) Published: 2026-06-14T22:30:00+00:00 Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG9270221742.mp3 Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG9270221742.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pbs-space-time-7778773/episodes/what-if-humanity-is-among-the-earliest-spacefaring-civilizations Duration seconds: 1534 ## Resource Thank you to Squarespace for supporting PBS. Go to ​https://www.squarespace.com/pbs for a free trial, and when you are ready to launch, go to Squarespace.com/PBS to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Half of the universe is filled with expansionist alien civilizations, and it’s only a matter of time before they’ll reach us. OK, that sounded a little sensationalist. But it’s also the conclusion of a recent astrophysics paper. Let’s see how they figure this, and whether we should take it seriously. Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Euan McLean & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Caique Oliveira, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2022 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka Special Thanks to Our Patreon Supporters Big Bang Sponsors Devin Wiley… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pbs-space-time-7778773/episodes/what-if-humanity-is-among-the-earliest-spacefaring-civilizations/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/what-if-humanity-is-among-the-earliest-spacefaring-civilizations.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.