December 18, 2013 9:17 pm

What Were the Top 10 “Most Listened To” StarTalk Radio Episodes of 2013?

The snow is on the ground. The chill is in the air. The Geminids have come and gone and the calendar is winding down. And that means it’s time for the Top 10 “Most Listened To” Episodes of 2013.

The results are actually a little surprising, because 6 of our Top 10 most listened to episodes didn’t even make your list of favorite episodes. What’s up with that? Your hearts say Eureka! Asteroid Mining but your ears say zombies, aliens and sex!

This year, we’ll go in order, starting with the most listened to episode. Keep in mind that the order is based on total downloads for the year, so some of our newer episodes like StarTalk Live: I, Robot (Part 1) haven’t had the time to rack up enough downloads to be in the Top 10. And if you missed any of them, or you just want to listen again, you can click on any of the episodes to go to their page here on the site to listen.

#1: Zombie Apocalypse (Part 1)

#2: Cosmic Queries: Aliens

#3: Cosmic Queries: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

#4: Cosmic Queries: Dark Mysteries of the Universe

#5: StarTalk Live at Town Hall with Buzz Aldrin (Part 2)

#6: The Joe Rogan Experience

#7: A Conversation with Dan Aykroyd (Part 1)

#8: The Science of Sex (Part 1)

#9: Cosmic Queries: Human Endurance in Space

#10: Space Chronicles (Part 1)

This has been an exciting year for StarTalk Radio. It has been our “most listened to” year ever. We’ve been able to put up nearly 100 new StarTalk Radio YouTube videos, and the era of the hand-held, shaky cam is over. We’ve jumped into SoundCloud, Stitcher, Tumblr and Instagram. Our StarTalk Live shows are selling out regularly now at The Bell House in Brooklyn, and we only had a handful of seats left for our most recent Town Hall in NYC.

And that brings us to you, our fans. You’ve been a big part of this year, too, as you always are. Without your help, we couldn’t have produced 16 Cosmic Queries episodes. You ask the most incredible questions – and I don’t just mean that from a scientific point of view. Some of them are way, way out there, but they’re always good for a laugh. My personal favorite: in Cosmic Queries: Asteroids, Comets and Meteor Storms when a fan asked Neil deGrasse Tyson whether he’d rather be a pirate or a ninja – and he answered.

But more than just your questions, you have helped us build a vibrant, engaged community of scientifically literate fans. Some, more scientifically literate than others: we still have people in our audience who question whether we ever actually landed on the Moon, for instance, but when they do, you all remain civil (if incredulous, or even frustrated) as you point them in the direction of incontrovertible fact. You’ve come to treat our social media channels as your own, communicating with each other, sharing advice, scientific data, astonishing amateur photographs, and so much more.

As the Social Media Director of StarTalk Radio, on behalf of the show, I want to thank you all for having made 2013 such an incredible year. If you feel so inclined, we’d love you to use the comment section on this post to share some of your favorite moments, thoughts, or take one last chance to let us know what we can do to improve your StarTalk Radio experience. (As if you need any encouragement to tell us what you really think!)

Just a heads up: We’ll be repeating our holiday podcasts this week and next week, Holiday Lights on Dec. 22 and Cosmic Queries: Holiday Edition on Dec. 29. The next new episode will be our Season 4 Time Capsule (Part 2) on January 5^th, 2014.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons