ORAU
418 episodes listed below
Plainspoken conversations about science at work.
Further Together the ORAU Podcast is an interview show about the people and projects connected to ORAU. It moves from NASA fellowships and space instruments to AI-biotechnology risk, nuclear waste conversations, and staff stories with a steady explanatory style.
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Further Together the ORAU Podcast is an interview series about the work, people, and programs connected to ORAU. It is strongest when a technical guest brings the detail and the interviewer keeps the conversation grounded. The show has a patient rhythm. It asks what something means, then asks why it matters. Recent NASA-focused episodes spend time with fellows working on space instrumentation, X-ray optics, materials, detectors, and data-heavy astronomy. Those conversations can get specific, but the show keeps returning to familiar images: Legos, hospital X-rays, clean rooms, telescopes, cameras, and the challenge of making machines do useful work. That makes the science feel reachable without pretending it is simple. A detector can become a layered object built under a microscope. X-ray coatings can become a way of persuading difficult light to reflect. Neural networks can become a sorting tool that lets scientists spend more time on the work they love. The show also steps outside space research. One episode considers the convergence of AI and biotechnology, using caution, guardrails, and drug development as practical anchors. Another looks at ORAU's role in nuclear waste management conversations and the value of long-running institutional relationships. The Black History Month episodes shift the focus toward people making Black history at ORAU, with reflections on family, education, career support, and quiet encouragement. Across those topics, the show is less interested in spectacle than in translation. It gives guests room to explain their work and then circles back to the listener's likely question: what does that actually mean? That makes it well suited to curious listeners who enjoy science, organizations, and the human stories behind technical programs. It feels like a guided office-door conversation with someone who wants the point to land.
Made for: For listeners who like science, research careers, organizations, and technical work explained without hype. It suits people who want enough detail to learn, but enough guidance to keep the conversation accessible.
What sets it apart: The show pairs institutional access to ORAU programs with an unusually patient interview style. It does not just profile projects; it repeatedly translates the machinery, science, and career paths behind them into everyday terms.
Join your host Michael Holtz as he discuss all things ORAU, through interviews with our experts who provide innovative scientific and technical solutions for our customers. Michael and his guests will talk about ORAU’s storied history, how we’re impacting an ever-changing world, as well as our commitment to our community.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Researchers explain both what their tools can do and where the evidence, risks, or next questions set limits.
Further Together the ORAU Podcast turns working science into approachable interviews about how research questions become instruments, models, safeguards, and careers.
Black soldier fly larvae and Mars detectors: your curiosity may need a bigger filing cabinet.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clean-room path from childhood ambitions to detectors already flying around Mars and the Moon.
Ricardo Branco, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, walks through a path that starts with childhood plans to become a doctor and moves through physics, engineering, and materials work in a clean room.
A grounded look at AI's promise in biotechnology and the caution needed when human lives are involved.
AI and biotechnology meet here through a plain but urgent question: what happens when tools advance faster than people can comfortably understand them?
A clear, question-led look at when machine learning helps medical research and when it does not.
This episode tracks Dr. Sarah Howard's argument that machine learning has value in medical research, but only when the research question leads and traditional methods are used where they fit better.
A clear, grounded look at Oak Ridge, physics, and the partnerships that shaped both.
Lee Riedinger's conversation with Michael Holtz and Amber Davis treats ORAU history as part of the wider Oak Ridge story, with the lab, the University of Tennessee, and the people who moved between them kept firmly in view.
A measured look at how insect research may point toward health, materials, and future space uses.
The segment frames a black soldier fly project as a practical research story rather than a novelty. Michael Holtz speaks with Holly Holtz and Jeff Tomberlake about an ORAU-directed grant project, and the discussion moves cleanly through nutrition, new research directions, and…
Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser build single reported stories around one scientific question.
Flora Lichtman interviews scientists, from gut-health researchers to Queen's Brian May.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
Long interviews with neuroscientists and philosophers on consciousness, decision-making, and whether AI is anything like a brain.
Bob McDonald anchors weekly multi-segment interviews on new research, from cricket courtship to moon missions.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
Amber Davis welcomes Ricardo Branco, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, and sets the conversation around ORAU's long history with NASA.
This episode features an interview with NASA postdoctoral fellow Kirtan Dixit about his work on optics and telescope development at Marshall Space Flight Center, highlighting the importance of teamwork in scientific research.
On Further Together, the ORAU podcast, hosts Michael Holtz and Amber Davis interview ORAU operations manager Greg Nichols about his Springer book chapter on governing the convergence of artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
This episode introduces ORAU's role in providing nuclear solutions and partnerships, featuring colleagues Kathy Rollo and Chelsea Hill for a new audio experiment on the podcast.
This episode features an interview with Kelly Whalen, a second-year NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center, discussing her research and fellowship experience.
An interview with a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow about her background and research at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Host Michael Holtz interviews Myron Porter about his role at ORAU and the organization's impact on scientific research and STEM programs.
A Black History Month interview series where the host and co-host discuss family heritage and the legacy of ancestors with an ORAU employee.
Michael Holtz talks with Dr.
Host Michael Holtz interviews NASA Postdoctoral Fellow Alka Rani about her research on planetary evolution differences between Earth and Mars.
This episode discusses a new program called Extreme Trades Makeover Future Welders, aimed at recruiting welders through innovative methods like virtual welders.
Lee Riedinger joins Michael Holtz and Amber Davis for a broad conversation about ORAU, Oak Ridge, and the scientific world that grew around them.
Michael Holtz opens the conversation with a black soldier fly.
The episode discusses the movement around ultra-processed foods and health outcomes, featuring a conversation with the health communications team about social listening.
The episode discusses the Man Up to Cancer organization, which encourages men to be vulnerable and seek help while also providing support to others.
Host Michael Holtz interviews NASA postdoctoral fellow Akash Chhabra about the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and the importance of pursuing scientific ideas.
This episode discusses a white paper on strengthening regional food system resilience through a framework for risk assessment and emergency preparedness.
Host Michael Holtz interviews NASA postdoctoral fellow Rachel Harris about her background and research.
Interview with a NASA postdoctoral fellow about supplementing astronaut diets with fresh food and growing food in space.
A NASA postdoctoral fellow discusses his research on permafrost and the zero curtain phenomenon.
A NASA postdoctoral fellow discusses her research on solar storms during the peak of the solar cycle.
This episode features an interview with Jim Sears, ORAU's Senior Vice President, discussing his first year at the organization and ORAU's training programs and mission.
A NASA postdoctoral fellow discusses using yeast as a model organism to understand human biology.
Host Michael Holtz interviews a NASA postdoctoral fellow about research on the origin of life and space science.
Host Michael Holtz and co-host Matthew Underwood discuss nutrition topics, including unrealistic serving sizes, with guest Brenda Blunt.
This episode features an interview with NASA postdoctoral fellow Ben Hord about his research on exoplanets and his experience in the fellowship program.
An interview with a NASA postdoctoral fellow about their background and the mentorship program they co-founded.
This episode discusses the Power Award program that provides seed funding for junior faculty researchers at ORAU consortium universities.
A NASA postdoctoral fellow discusses the importance of scientist-engineer collaboration in building a telescope.
Host Michael Holtz discusses ORAU's scientific and technical solutions with experts, covering history, impact, and community commitment.
This episode discusses how interactive exhibits like the 'super colon' can motivate cancer screening more effectively than traditional methods, highlighting the role of partners in health behavior change within the context of creating a fair healthcare system.
This episode features an interview with Bryan Goettel of Exact Sciences discussing their cancer screening tests, including Oncotype DX for breast cancer and Cologuard for colorectal cancer, and their mission to improve cancer care.