Paleontologist Peter Ward, the co-author of Rare Earth, discussed the hypothesis that complex life forms are relatively uncommon in the universe. Based on his research, Ward said that the conditions for multicellular life are so rare that he believed there may be only a few planets with life in our galaxy of at least 100 billion stars. This is due to the fact that it takes a few billion years of time to allow life to develop and evolve, he said. "We are so geographically separated (from other habitable planets) that we are essentially alone," he pointed out, and commented that the efforts of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) were basically a waste of time and money.

Ward also discussed issues covered in Art and Whitley Strieber’s 1999 book "The Coming Global Superstorm" and projected how long it would take before climate change and other factors would end human civilization. Art was amazed to learn that Ward had consulted on the script for the movie ("The Day After Tomorrow") based on the book. Ward pointed out that Europe should have very cold winters but that it is protected from this by warm ocean currents. Any warming on the Earth would change these currents and conversely cool Europe to the point where it would need to either buy most of its food from other areas or (more likely, Ward said) invade and take over areas or countries.

Ward also discussed experiments to check for life on other planets and even Earth fossils that were blasted by asteroid impacts and ended up on the Moon. The first hour featured news and Open Lines.