The October 2026 episode of Paul Meier’s In a Manner of Speaking is just the second installment of the podcast to focus on non-human speech. In January 2025, Paul and his guest, zoologist and author Arik Kershenbaum discussed how animals communicate. Now Kershenbaum returns to the podcast to discuss potential conversations with extraterrestrials.
Using the origins of voice and speech on Earth as a guide, Paul and Arik speculate on what human speech and alien speech might have in common and how they might differ. Author of The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves (published by Penguin Books), Dr. Kirshenbaum is also a member of METI.org, a think tank on the topic of messaging extraterrestrial intelligence.
In addition to serving as the Herchel Smith Research Fellow in zoology at the University of Cambridge from 2014 to 2017, Kershenbaum was the postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 2012 to 2014. He received a PhD in evolutionary biology and ecology from the University of Haifa, Israel, and is currently a college lecturer, tutor, and director of studies at Girton College, University of Cambridge.
To listen to his previous podcast episode, from January 2025, go here.
For more information about the IDEA video submissions Paul references in this podcast, go here.
Film has speculated for years on what alien language might sound like. For insight into Emily Blunt’s character’s alien speech in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, check out this YouTube clip.
See the videos below for more on what the movies have to say about this topic:
(Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)
