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About
What is the Jodcast?
The Jodcast is the UK's longest running astrophysics podcasts, produced entirely by volunteer PhD students and staff from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. We aim to share cutting-edge astrophysics research with the wider public, and challenge the stereotypes of who can be an astronomer.
Why did we choose the name 'The Jodcast'? The name arose because Tim wasn't listening properly when Stuart was explaining what a podcast was. We know it is cheesy but we like it.
We release an episode each month, packed full of astronomer content. Episodes include:The Jodcast is released (except where stated otherwise) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 England & Wales Licence so you can take it away and create stuff with it.
Where to Start?
Episodes are released each month (keep your eyes peeled around the 1st!) - why not listen to our most recent episode?
You can download the podcast from the website, or subscribe on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you listen to your podcasts from!
Want to keep up with what we do? Follow us on social media, and even send your astro questions or a message to feature on our next episode - the email is found at the bottom of this page.
Why make a podcast?
As astronomers we love astronomy. We also love to tell other people about the things that interest us. Podcasting is a way to share our love of astronomy with a wider audience. When we started in early 2006 there were already a handful of astronomy podcasts in existence but we thought we would add our own international range of accents to the mix. Although the astro-podcasting world has since become a much larger and widely listened-to genre, we still believe the Jodcast stands alone in the content put out and cover aspects of astronomy that others don't.
However, from 2024, with all of the original Jodcast folk moving on to new pastures and the subsequent three year hiatus, a lot of the original knowledge on how to run the website and produce each episode has been lost and has become very outdated. With the help of a few remaining old 'jodcasters' and a brand new bunch of keen PhD students we have taken the task of becoming the new editors, producers and hosts to the Jodcast with the hope to keep it going. With this new team we hope to bring some new updates like this website. We are still working on updating all the episodes and making it functional so some links may still take you back to the old webpage/not work!
Recent Episodes
Highlights
Contributions
The Jodcast is made by the efforts of many people and full credits for each show can be found on the individual show notes pages. The Jodcast is created by the hard work of many people who do this in their spare time. Despite our time being free, equipment and travel isn't. During 2007 the Jodcast was proudly supported by grants from the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Institute of Physics. These grants were used to buy some portable recording kit, and to make a special "Best of 2006" CD-ROM which we distributed to schools and educational groups. A second grant from STFC in 2008 was used to create video episodes of the Jodcast. A third grant from STFC in the latter half of 2009 kept the Jodcast going through to mid-2010. We received an Ignite grant from The University of Manchester's Doctoral Academy in 2025, with which we redecorated our studio, funded new outreach material and hosted a live event (in collaboration with The Pint of Science!).
Making a podcast like this is a team effort, so we want to say thanks to some stand out contributions over the years:
If you want have anything you want to share with the Jodcast, all contributions - from Jodcasters & listeners alike - are welcome!
Statistics
Number of Episodes
Number of countries reached
Years Running
Contact
Location:
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics Alan Turing Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Email:
Ask an Astronomer disclaimer: If you don't want your name included in the episode or our website please specify this in your email, the absence of this will be taken as permission to include it.
Simons Observatory
For their first in-person meeting here at Manchester, The Jodcast spoke to some members of the collaboration about what it takes to build a telescope.
We interviewed early career researchers Katie Harrington & Bernie Saunders about how their research fits into such a vast international collaboration, as well as sitting down over lunch with a range of astrophysicists, engineers and data scientists about who is needed to construct the Simons Observatory.
Professor Michael Brown gives us an overview of the UK’s role in such an international collaboration.
Jodcast Live x Pint of Science
We were delighted to take part in the Pint of Science and host a live recording of the Jodcast in Manchester.
The night - titled ‘Planets, Pints and Podcasts’ - featured talks with Dr Phil Bull, Dr Eamonn Kerins and Bárbara Cabrales.
Audience members also took part in a science-themed pub quiz throughout the night, and submitted their space questions to our ‘Ask an Astronomer’ box. Everyone had a lovely evening and we look forward to hosting the next event.
Visit from Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
During her visit to The University of Manchester, we sat down with Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell to talk about her groundbreaking discovery of pulsars and her work championing gender equality in academia.
Her interview forms part of our equality & diversity episode, where we also spoke to Louise Carvalho from CERN about the importance of understanding individuals' hidden diversity.
