The podcast 365 Days of Astronomy is a great show about space and astronomy. It was created as part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, and was renewed for 2010 and again 2011.

The cool thing is, the podcast is created by you, the listener! Every daily episode is written and recorded by volunteers who want to talk about some aspect of the Universe that excited them. I think this is a great idea, since it really motivates people and gets them involved.

The problem is, though, they need more episodes! Right now, for example, the schedule for May 2011 is only half full.

Do you have some idea about astronomy you’re dying to talk about? Galaxies get you going, supernovae blow you away, you bought a new ‘scope and have advice for another newbie? If you have a topic you’d like to discuss, then check the podcast calendar, look for an open slot, and get to work!

If you’re looking for the very definition of "adorable", then look no farther than Aaron’s World, a science podcast made by a six-year-old boy who loves science. Each segment is just a few minutes long, and has a story with Aaron and his friend INO as they explore space and time. Aaron then explains a little bit about the science of the story.

Aaron does a great job talking about the science, and he is clearly an enthusiastic young scientist. I bet he’ll go a long way getting people excited about the Universe.

The podcast is helped along behind the scenes by Aaron’s father, who also does the Actually Speaking podcast. Aaron’s World is on iTunes, too.

If you have a kid who likes science — or dinosaur stories — then check out Aaron’s World, which is a pretty cool world to visit.

This week on the Are We Alone radio/podcast show, Seth Shostak and I talk about the Intention Experiment, a group of people who think they can meditate away various problems in the world… including the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. You can guess how I feel about this. Oh wait, you don’t need to! I’ve written about it.

Go to the Are We Alone website for a synopsis as well as a list of other segments on the show, or get the direct download here.

Great news, everyone! The 365 Days of Astronomy citizen podcast will go on for at least another year!

365DoA is an International Year of Astronomy project that lets you, the astronomy enthusiast, create your own astronomy podcast, upload it, and let everyone on this pale blue dot hear it. It was wildly successful, with spots filling up rapidly once it was announce last year. It also won a coveted Parsec podcast award this year, too.

But given this was an IYA 2009 project, I was wondering if it would continue on to 2010 and beyond, and it will! It’ll become a legacy project, and will be handled by Astrosphere New Media Association, a (charitable and tax-deductible!) online astronomy support group made up of dedicated people. I know this for a fact, because I’m a part of it.

Slots for 2010 are going fast, so you better grab a date if you want to participate! And if you want to help, then we could use some sponsors, too:

The podcast team also invites people and organizations to sponsor the podcast by donating $30 to support 1 day of the podcast, with your dedication appearing at the start of the show. For just $360, it is possible to sponsor 1 episode per month. Alternatively, you can also have a dedication message at the end of the show for a week, for a donation at the $100 level. These donations will help pay for editing, and posting of the podcasts.

Each episode gets between 5000 and 10,000 listeners, so it’s not a terrible way to advertise if you’re looking for that. But submitting an entry is free. If you read this blog — and you do, I see you there — then astronomy is something you enjoy. I bet you can think of some topic here that inspires you, that fires you up, that makes you think.

Go ahead! Make my year.

The SETI Institute’s latest episode of the podcast Are We Alone is now up, and I talk with Seth Shostak about the idea that somehow, forces unknown (God? The Universe Itself? The Doctor? Tony Newman and Doug Phillips?) have tried to sabotage the Large Hadron Collider… from the future!

Personally, I’m not buying it, but it’s an interesting idea. The authors of a published study say that we should perform some sort of experiment before turning the LHC on to see if someone from the future is trying to contact us. But I have a better idea: let’s turn the LHC on and see if it works. If it does, then we’re done with this idea. And if it doesn’t, hand me my sonic screwdriver. There’s work to do!

[Edited to add: Well, the folks at CERN have been injecting particles into the LHC stream since Friday. They'll be ramping it up to full speed in the coming weeks, so we'll know soon enough about all this!]