On this hour of Modern Notion Daily, we’re talking to Bekah Sosland, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At 25, Sosland has worked with Opportunity, the 11-year-old Mars rover, as a flight director. Staff writer Josh Hrala joins us later in the hour to talk about the Fermi paradox: if the universe is so big, why haven’t we encountered other life yet?

Music this hour:

• “Elle va au Japon” by Nic Bommarito, from the album A Quiet Age
• “Take Me Higher” by Jahzzar, from the album Tumbling Dishes Like Old-Man’s Wishes