Some days at work go beyond just the task at hand. They remind you why you do what you do.
When Steve Bourdow, Director of Development at SETI Institute, visited India, we had the chance to sit down with him for a team lunch and an open Q&A session. We expected a good conversation. What we got was perspective.
Conversations Beyond Work
The lunch didn’t feel formal at all. It was easy, candid, and genuinely engaging.
Steve spoke about his journey, his role at SETI Institute, and what it takes to build support for an organization doing this kind of work. But more than that, he talked about why the mission matters, in a way that felt real and not rehearsed.
Our team asked questions along the way. Some about fundraising, some about science, and some just out of pure curiosity. One answer in particular stayed with us.
How do you think about life beyond Earth?
We’ve always wondered how scientists actually think about the possibility of life beyond Earth. Not the textbook answer, but the real way of approaching it. Steve answered that for us, almost in passing, when he brought up the Drake Equation.
He walked us through it in a very approachable way, breaking down how scientists estimate the possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth by considering:
- the number of stars in the universe
- how many might have planets
- how many of those planets could support life, and
- how many civilizations might actually be able to communicate
What stayed with us wasn’t the numbers. It was the fact that a question this big can be approached this way. Methodically. Curiously. Step by step.
It made “Are we alone?” feel less like science fiction and more like a shared human question worth asking.
As Carl Sagan once said, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is, in the deepest sense, a search for ourselves.
A Different Way of Seeing Work
Meeting Steve gave us more than insights, it gave us context. And that context shapes how we think about the work we do every day.
It reminds us that we’re not just working for SETI Institute. We’re working with them, contributing in our own way to something much larger.
Because now, when we sit down to build a campaign, or solve a problem, there’s a bigger picture in mind. One that the Drake Equation tries to frame, and one that keeps inspiring people across the world to keep asking questions…
