00:00:00 – The Paleopals Ryan, Patrick and Charlie are all drinking beers (shocking!) and they’re all in locations (also: shocking!) but the only way to learn what those beers are and where they’re being consumed is to listen!

00:05:44 – This week the Paleopals are talking with Dr. Seth Shostak who hunts aliens and has a real radio show. (He also uses radios to hunt aliens.) They’re talking specifically about an article positing that the search for ET may need to focus more on the AI than the squishy EBE’s that made them.

Some other links to check out:

• Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientists Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
• SETIcon
• SETI@home
• setiQuest

00:33:03 – Because everybody loves George Clooney this week’s Trailer Trash Talk features The American (not the one from The Bugle).

00:42:23 – Charlie, widely considered the most energetic of the Paleopals, brings us a story about some of the problems facing alternative energy. The guys are sure to get this problem solved, they just need some organic matter to be broken down over a few million years until it’s some sort of fuel… made from fossils. That would do the trick!

01:03:01 – PaleoPOWs are as follows: Patrick cheated by using a facebook post from David Precht earlier when we talked with Seth Shostak. Elli wants to know if you can smell in space. And Ryan gets some love for the “sort of side” from Danielle when it comes to stripping.

Other media we talked about:

• Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (Also see Episode 33 – Sex, Bugs and Rock’n'Roll)
• Futurama (specifically the Smell-o-scope)
• and the graphic novel Laika, the true story of the first (and maybe cutest) dog in space!

Thanks for listening, be sure to check out our blog for regularly updated content all week long at http://paleocave.sciencesortof.com/!

Direct download: Episode 51 – Area-51

Music for this week’s show:

12:51 – The Strokes

Aliens Exist – blink-182

American Idiot – Green Day

Royal Oil – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

The Theme: Below the Crust.

Be sure to check out each of the Paleopal’s solstice shopping recommendations under their individual “About” pages.

Patrick, Charlie, Ryan, and Justin (sort of).

Intro: 00:00:00 One of the Paleopals is missing but, on the other hand, that means that 75% of them are here.  That’s a passing grade.   It could be a lot worse.

Crocs… sort of: 00:02:55 Patrick is his usual crusty self in examining this feast of fossils.  Did these fossil crocs rule the world? Are they even crocs? Does duckcroc satisfy Kirk Cameron?

Nitrogenous Isopterans: 00:21:35 We interview Professor Kena Fox-Dobbs about her work suggesting that when in Africa, the termite is king of the nitrogen hill (or mound).  You might think that big organisms would hold the keys to moving nitrogen around the savannah, but you might be wrong.

Trailer Trash Talk -  Clash of the Titans: 00:43:54 A remake of a 1980′s stop-motion classic.  Patrick reminisces about the original movie that tells the story of the myth of Perseus.  Will the remake be a Greek tragedy?

Fish on Europa? 00:53:47 There is almost certainly a vast ocean on Europa (everybody knows that).  There may be some oxygen dissolved in the water (Ok). There may be 600 million tons of fish on the planet (I’m listening)!?!   The question is, would the sushi be any good by the time you got it back to Earth?  Call me back when there is life on Uranus.

Music from this episode:

We Want Fun – Andrew W. K.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy – Great White

Rock The Casbah – The Clash

Big Eyed Fish – Dave Matthews Band

Direct download the show

or stream it below.