All Posts

What if the greatest time travel device in movie history is just a glowing Y-shaped excuse to ask bigger questions about science, storytelling, and human imagination? In the premiere episode of Unobtainium, Hollywood veteran Adam Sigel and rocket scientist Amy Mainzer unpack the science — and glorious nonsense — behind the flux capacitor in Back to the Future. Episode Summary In the debut episode of Unobtainium, Hollywood writer/producer Adam Sigel and rocket scientist Amy Ma

Can dreams be hacked, shared, manipulated — or even weaponized? In this episode of Unobtainium, Adam, Amy and neuroscientist David Eagleman dive into Inception to explore the real science of dreams, memory, consciousness, and the fragile nature of reality itself. Episode Summary In this mind-bending episode of Unobtainium Podcast, hosts Adam and Amy are joined by neuroscientist and bestselling author David Eagleman to unpack the science behind Inception. Together, they explor

Is It Actually Possible to Bring Back Dinosaurs? Unearthing Ancient DNA, CRISPR, Chaos Theory in Jurassic Park with Astrobiologist Betül Kaçar Description: In this episode of Unobtainium Podcast, hosts Adam Sigel and Amy Mainzer are joined by astrobiologist and evolutionary scientist Betül Kaçar to explore the real science beneath Jurassic Park. Could dinosaur DNA really survive inside amber for 65 million years? How close are modern scientists to resurrecting extinct species

Is the Force real? From Hyperspace to Parsecs, Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson joins us to discuss the science of Star Wars. Is the Force science or spirituality— or both? In this episode of Unobtainium, Adam, Amy, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explore the science, philosophy, and enduring mythology behind Star Wars and its most iconic idea: the Force. Episode Summary: In this episode of Unobtainium Podcast, hosts Adam and Amy sit down with astrophysicist Neil

In this episode of Unobtainium, Amy, Adam, and UCLA planetary scientist Dave Jewitt explore Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey—a film that remains one of the most scientifically realistic depictions of space travel ever put on screen. From artificial gravity and the silence of the vacuum to HAL 9000, alien intelligence, human evolution, and the search for life beyond Earth, the conversation examines what the movie gets right, where it bends the rules, and why

What makes us human? More than forty years after its release, Blade Runner remains one of the most influential and thought-provoking science fiction films ever made. Ridley Scott's cyberpunk masterpiece continues to shape conversations about artificial intelligence, robotics, consciousness, memory, identity, and the future relationship between humans and machines. In this episode of Unobtainium, Adam and Amy are joined by roboticist Hiro Ono of Georgia Tech and the former Jet

What makes Godzilla such an enduring icon? In this episode of Unobtainium, Adam and Amy dive into the science, history, and emotional power of Godzilla Minus One with Professor Stephanie Diem, a nuclear engineer and professor of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Godzilla films ever made, Minus One returns the King of the Monsters to his roots as a terrifying symbol of nuclear destruction while telling a deeply h

What makes Alien one of the scariest science fiction movies ever made — and how much of its science is actually real? In this episode of Unobtainium, Dr. Amy Mainzer and Adam Sigel explore Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien, from faster-than-light space travel and hypersleep to exoplanets, extraterrestrial life, parasitic biology, facehuggers, chestbursters, and the real creatures on Earth that may be even more disturbing than science fiction. The conversation looks at how Ali

Could the Moon power Earth? Moon imagines a future built on lunar helium-3 mining—but the real science reveals an even more fascinating story about fusion, AI, space exploration, and the ethical price of humanity's next frontier. In this episode of Unobtainium, planetary scientist Dr. Amy Mainzer and producer Adam Fratto are joined by lunar expert Dr. Dave Paige (UCLA) to separate science fact from science fiction in Duncan Jones' Moon. Could we actually mine the Moon for hel

Could your mind really be split in two? In this episode of Unobtainium, hosts Dr. Amy Mainzer and Adam Sigel explore the astonishing neuroscience behind Severance, the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series that imagines a world where work memories and personal memories can be permanently separated. Joining us is renowned neuroscientist, bestselling author, and creator of Inner Cosmos, David Eagleman, who explains what modern brain science actually says about memory, identity, conscio

Join hosts Amy Mainzer and Adam Sigel on Unobtainium as they explore one of the greatest science fiction films ever made: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. More than four decades after its release, The Wrath of Khan remains the definitive Star Trek movie, combining unforgettable characters, emotional storytelling, and fascinating scientific ideas into one of the most influential sci-fi adventures ever made. In this episode, Amy and Adam explore the real science behind the film

Could humanity actually stop an asteroid? How scientifically accurate is Don't Look Up? Academy Award-winning director Adam McKay joins planetary scientist Dr. Amy Mainzer and producer Adam Frattofor an inside look at the making of Don't Look Up—one of the most scientifically grounded disaster films ever made. Amy served as the film's science advisor, helping shape everything from the comet's trajectory to NASA's real planetary defense strategies. Together they reveal what Ho