Ira Flatow is a radio and television journalist and author who hosts Public Radio International's popular program Science Friday. On TV, he hosted the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Newton's Apple, a television science program for children and their families. Later he hosted another PBS series, Big Ideas. He has published several books, the most recent titled Present at the Future: From Evolution to Nanotechnology, Candid and Controversial Conversations on Science and Nature.

Newton's Apple is an American educational television program produced and developed by KTCA of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and distributed to PBS stations in the United States that ran from October 15, 1983, to January 3, 1998, with reruns continuing until October 31, 1999. The show's title is based on the legend of Isaac Newton sitting under a tree and an apple falling near him—more popularly, on his head—prompting him to ponder what makes things fall, leading to the development of his theory of gravitation. The show was produced by Twin Cities Public Television (TPT). For most of the run, the show's theme song was Ruckzuck by Kraftwerk, later remixed by Absolute Music. Earlier and later episodes of the show featured an original song.