Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Big Bang Productions Inc.
Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
Episodes
Mentioned books
25 snips
May 7, 2026 • 41min
The Equation That Changed How Physicists Think About Reality | Juan Maldacena
Juan Maldacena, a leading theoretical physicist known for AdS/CFT, offers a tour of radical ideas linking wormholes and quantum entanglement. He explores what happens to information in black holes, how black hole physics helped explain cosmic structure, and whether science-fiction wormholes can exist. He also names the one deeper problem he thinks matters most for quantum gravity.
84 snips
Apr 29, 2026 • 52min
Princeton Scientist: We Don't Understand AI - Tom Griffiths - #553
Tom Griffiths, Princeton professor bridging psychology and computer science, tackles why AI still cannot learn like a child. He explores the 250-year thread from Boole to Turing, why scale alone will not close the human-machine gap, and why sycophantic AI — not hallucinations — should worry us. Short, sharp takes on language learning, inductive bias, and what a child’s mind reveals about true intelligence.
30 snips
Apr 21, 2026 • 50min
The Universe Is Trying to Destroy All Matter. Hakeem Oluseyi - #552
Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, astrophysicist, NASA researcher and author, reframes gravity, cosmology and imagination. He argues Earth accelerates upward through warped spacetime. He recounts a heat-flow discovery from washing dishes. He estimates ~100,000 multicellular-world candidates and explains why contact is unlikely. He maps nine realms of reality and warns about the danger of thinking you already know.
16 snips
Apr 20, 2026 • 13min
Quantum Computers Aren't Useless. You Just Don't Know How to Use Them.
Cora Barrett, a quantum systems PhD student and instructor of Quantum 101 on Quantum Rings, teaches practical quantum computing labs. She discusses hands‑on tools and simulators that let students run real algorithms, how education not hardware is the bottleneck, and why accessible training is accelerating quantum progress and new AI applications.
70 snips
Apr 16, 2026 • 1h 13min
This AI Broke Every Benchmark — Then It Did Something Worse. Vivienne Ming - #551
Dr. Vivienne Ming, neuroscientist, AI researcher, and author of Robot Proof, built an AI that refuses to answer and boosted human thinking. She discusses training a Socratic model that creates high-performing human-AI hybrids. Topics include why asking beats answering, how tools like GPS and GPT reshape memory, the Sexy Face project that reunited refugees, and what ‘robot-proof’ learning looks like.
45 snips
Apr 13, 2026 • 1h 34min
AI Insider CEO: The Models Too Dangerous for You to See. Emad Mostaque - #550
Emad Mostaque, founder of Stability AI and creator of Stable Diffusion, speaks about the models that will never be released and an urgent 800-day transformation timeline. He explores why trillion-dollar labs lock away frontier models. He discusses diffusion, world models from video to 3D, personalized persuasive agents, and how AI reshapes organizations, religion, and human roles.
32 snips
Apr 7, 2026 • 42min
Genius Philosopher: The Law of Physics That Explains Why Your Life Falls Apart. Rebecca Goldstein - #549
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, philosopher, novelist, and MacArthur 'Genius' Fellow, links meaning to physics. She explores why humans crave to matter. Short takes cover thermodynamics and Boltzmann's tragedy, four ways people seek significance, fame and millennial attention, depression as entropic collapse, life as resistance to entropy, and whether AI can ever share our mattering instinct.
13 snips
Apr 4, 2026 • 50min
You're full of SHIT! Piers Morgan & Brian Keating take down Moon Landing Denier
William Shatner, actor and recent spaceflyer, reflects on the emotional awe of human spaceflight. Charlie Duke, Apollo lunarwalker and experienced astronaut, shares firsthand moon memories and practical advice. Bart Sibrel, controversial conspiracy proponent, argues the landings were staged. Brian Keating, astrophysicist and science communicator, pushes back with physics and historical context. Tense debates on Van Allen belts, photos, and mission authenticity ensue.
7 snips
Apr 3, 2026 • 22min
Dark Energy Is Dying: The Cosmological Crisis Nobody's Telling You About. Marcos Palerjo - #548
Marcos Pellejero, a cosmologist working on large-scale structure, simulations, and DESI analyses. He tours the Royal Observatory, explains baryon acoustic oscillations as a cosmic ruler, dives into N-body simulations and machine-learning emulators, and discusses whether DESI hints that dark energy may not be constant.
Mar 30, 2026 • 34min
Are the Van Allen Belts Deadly? Debunking the Biggest Moon Landing Hoax!
James Altucher, entrepreneur, author, and podcaster, joins to probe moon-landing skepticism. They tackle claims about the Van Allen belts, radiation risks, the moving flag, and why photos and press behavior fuel doubt. Short, sharp discussions unpack technical rebuttals and why debunking these popular hoaxes matters.
