December 17, 2014 8:45 pm

What Were the Top 10 “Most Listened To” StarTalk Radio Episodes of 2014?

Every year, once the Geminids have come and gone, it’s time for us to take a moment to look back at the season that’s coming to an end. No, not winter… that’s still in full swing.

In this case I’m talking about Season 5 of StarTalk Radio. And what a busy, busy season it’s been. We put up more new shows than in any previous season, along with 5 “Extended Classics” each with 10 minutes of new content.

We did more StarTalk Live! shows than ever, including taking the show on the road with guest host Bill Nye the Science Guy and co-host Eugene Mirman. And while most of them haven’t made it onto the air as podcasts or videos yet, we recorded them all, and you should get to hear or see them in Season 6.

Speaking of guest hosts, while Neil was busy working on COSMOS this year we relied on guest hosts for the first time: Bill Nye, Dr. David Grinspoon and Dr. Amy Mainzer. And from your comments, votes and listening stats, it looks like you welcomed Bill, David and Amy with open arms and ears.

Which brings us to you, and the shows you listened to most in Season 5. Once again, you voted differently with your ears than you did in our Fan Favorites poll. Then again, given that hundreds of thousands of people listen to our episodes, while only hundreds vote in our poll, some variance is to be expected. You all agreed on one thing, though: the most listened to episode of the year is also the top vote getter in the poll: A Conversation with Seth MacFarlane.

Keep in mind that the order is based on total downloads for the year, so some of our very popular newer episodes like November’s Cosmic Queries: Gravity and StarTalk Live! SF Sketchfest haven’t had the time to rack up enough downloads to be in the Top 10. 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.

Season 5’s Top 10 Most Listened To Episodes

1. A Conversation with Seth MacFarlane
2. A Conversation with God
3. Cosmic Queries: New Discoveries
4. Cosmic Queries: Space and Science with Bill Nye
5. Cosmic Queries: Time Travel
6. MythBusters (Part 1)
7. Cosmic Queries with Bill Nye and Astro Mike
8. A COSMOS Conversation with Steven Soter
9. Cosmic Queries: More Space and Science with Bill Nye
10. Reporting on Science (Part 1)

Every year at this time I also indulge in a bit of something that may seem like pandering, but it’s really not. When we say that we couldn’t do what we do without you, we mean it. We would never have been able to put out 22 Cosmic Queries episodes without your never-ending stream of questions for your own personal astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. And we could never have been named to the iTunes Best of 2014 Podcasts list without you. You are one of the most engaged, intelligent and polite communities any show could hope for. You ask great questions, you are not afraid to tell us when we do something you don’t like, and you continually spread the word about what we’re doing here at StarTalk Radio, which has helped us continue to grow.

This has been a year of change for us: expanded presence on SoundCloud, Stitcher and TuneIn, including the launching of our own 24/7 streaming channel on TuneIn. Next year will bring even more changes, and a few surprises we think you’re absolutely going to love.

Until then, please enjoy our “Extended Classics” and Season 5 Time Capsule episodes while we’re hard at work getting Season 6 ready for you to listen to in January.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
— Jeffrey Simons