

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

Dec 3, 2020 • 1h 33min
Sheldon Glashow: The Power of Useless Ideas! (#099)
Sheldon Glashow is a theoretical physicist and emeritus professor at Harvard, where he also earned his Ph.D. He was the first to propose a grand unified theory and also worked as a visiting scientist at CERN. Glashow shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg. He is a member of the Board of Sponsors for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. It was an honor to have Sheldon Glashow on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE podcast.He joins our Nobel Minds playlist, having won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, for his “contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current.”Shelly recounts a remarkable life as the son of a plumber who went to the acclaimed Bronx Science high school and then worked his way through some of the most notable laboratories in the world, meeting colleagues and forming collaborations along the way. Having won science’s top prize over 40 years ago didn’t slow him down, as he only recently retired from research and teaching. Shelly’s 1988 book, “Interactions: A Journey Through the Mind of a Particle Physicist and the Matter of this World,” holds up decades later as one that asks important questions about physics and guides future generations of scientists.I recommend that everyone curious about the field read it. His writing style is enviously humorous and accessible. I was interested to hear about how his love of science fiction encouraged his career as a physicist. Considering many of the topics we cover would have been considered science fiction even in the time that Shelly has been alive, he is properly impressed and optimistic about the benefits technology can have on scientific discovery. It was also encouraging to see how interested and engaged he still is in the pursuit of knowledge. Though he does express some pessimism about the future of humanity. Perhaps it’s hard not to during the pandemic, combined with the grim news about climate change and other threats. Hopefully, the fields he and I know and love – “useless fields” as he calls them – can continue that Nobel legacy of bettering humankind. You will enjoy this Full course: Quantum Field Theory by Sidney Coleman (1975) [Havard Physics 253 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhsb6tmzSpiwrZuDMyweABm7FShZu3YUvBrian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE N
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Nov 28, 2020 • 1h 6min
Bill Perkins: Winners DIE WITH ZERO! (#098)
We all have limited time on Earth, so how should we spend it? Financial advisors urge us to be more like the ant than the grasshopper: work hard to maximize our earnings, save early and often, and, in retirement, reap the fruits of our labors and the rewards of compound interest. “What a monumental waste of human life,” says multi- millionaire Bill Perkins. If you spend a lifetime working and die with lots of money left over, you’ve squandered a huge amount of life energy, bypassing the opportunity to enjoy your money — or to give it away — during your lifetime. Our lives are only as fulfilling as the sum of our experiences, Perkins argues, so the more time and money we invest in experiences during our lifetime, the richer our lives become. “Bill Perkins’ Die With Zero opens up a completely different avenue of thinking to realize that your life can be maximized through memorable experiences. Why wait? Being present is a priority. This book provides an amazing blueprint to living your life while using your resources correctly!” —Kevin Hart, Award-Winning Comedian, and Actor Follow Bill on social media: https://www.diewithzerobook.com https://twitter.com/bp22 https://www.instagram.com/billperkins https://www.instagram.com/diewithzero/ https://www.twitch.tv/thirstloungeBrian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php
Join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php
Join my Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/losingthenobelprize
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Nov 28, 2020 • 1h 40min
Eric Weinstein: Imposter Syndrome, Donald Trump, & the Future of Theoretical Physics (#097)
Eric Weinstein joins me live to take your questions about the past, present and future of physics. We’ll discuss my recent chats with Lenny Susskind, Shelly Glashow, and Barry Barish and Eric’s recent podcasts with Lex Fridman too. Eric and Stephen Wolfram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Join us in the chat room to ask questions! Previously featured: Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1 Join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php Podcast mentioned: The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJUskAl8mzw?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe for new interviews with Sheldon Glashow, Barry Barish, Cumran Vafa and more! Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php
Join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php
Join my Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/losingthenobelprize ️Please subscribe, rate, and review the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast on iTunes
A production of http://imagination.ucsd.edu/
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Nov 20, 2020 • 50min
Paul Sutter – How To Die In Space (#096)
Paul M. Sutter is a research professor in astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Computational Science at Stony Brook University and a guest researcher at the Flatiron Institute in New York City. Paul earned his PhD in physics in 2011 as a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow at the University of Illinois. He then spent three years at the Paris Institute for Astrophysics followed by two years as a research fellow at the Trieste Observatory in Italy. Prior to his current appointment, he served as the chief scientist at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio while maintaining a cosmological researcher position at the Ohio State University. Paul’s areas of research include studying the largest empty regions in the universe, mapping the leftover light from the big bang, and developing new techniques for finding the first stars to appear in the cosmos. He has authored over 60 academic papers and given over 100 seminars, colloquia, and conference talks at institutions around the world. A prolific and globally known science communicator, Paul is the author of two books, Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence and How to Die in Space: A Journey through Dangerous Astrophysical Phenomena. He writes for Space.com, Universe Today, LiveScience, and more, with his articles syndicating to news outlets worldwide. Paul hosts a variety of science shows across all platforms, including as a contributor to How the Universe Works on Science Channel and host of Space Out on Discovery. He also writes and hosts his own shows, including his hit Ask a Spaceman podcast, which is one of the top podcasts across all subjects globally, and his weekly live show Space Radio. Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php
Join my
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Nov 20, 2020 • 31min
Evan Carmichael: What Is Your One Word? (#095)
Evan Carmichael believes in entrepreneurs. At 19, he built then sold a biotech software company. At 22, he was a venture capitalist helping to raise $500,000 to $15 million. He now runs EvanCarmichael.com, a popular website for entrepreneurs. He breathes and bleeds entrepreneurship. He’s obsessed, aiming to help one billion entrepreneurs and change the world. He has set two world records, uses a stand-up desk, rides a Vespa, raises funds for Kiva, wears five-toe shoes and created Entrepreneur trading cards. He speaks globally, but Toronto (#EntCity) is home. He loves being married, his son, salsa dancing, DJing, League of Legends and the Toronto Blue Jays.Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php
Join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php
Join my Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/losingthenobelprize ️Please subscribe, rate, and review the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast on iTunes
A production of http://imagination.ucsd.edu/
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Nov 19, 2020 • 1h 28min
Lenny Susskind: Black Hole War My BATTLE w Stephen Hawking Made the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics (#094)
The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics is a 2008 popular science book by American theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind. The book covers the black hole information paradox, and the related scientific dispute between Stephen Hawking and Susskind. Susskind is known for his work on string theory and wrote a previous popular science book, The Cosmic Landscape, in 2005.
00:00 Introduction
05:00 What has been lost due to COVID: congeniality and v
07:00 Imposter syndrome 10:00 HOW DID IT FEEL TO DISCOVER STRING THEORY?
15:00 SUSPICIOUS OF BIG BANG SINGULARITY
20:00 LENNY ON GOD!
25:00 Can you test Bell Inequalities near a Black Hole’s stretched horizon?
30:00 ENTROPY 2ND LAW…why it’s sacred to Lenny
35:00 What would be his advice to young Lenny?
40:00 What does he think about all the competing TOEs?
45:00 Three things would push him to believe the Multiverse
50:00 Does the String Landscape of vacua imply different physical laws in each ‘pocket universe?’
55:00 What would he put in his ethical will?
60:00 What would he put on a billion year time capsule? 70:00 Who would Lenny have for coffee?
75:00 His favorite quote
Hawking proposed that information is lost in black holes, and not preserved in Hawking radiation.[2] Susskind disagreed, arguing that Hawking’s conclusions violated one of the most basic scientific laws of the universe, the conservation of information. As Susskind depicts in his book, The Black Hole War was a “genuine scientific controversy” between scientists favoring an emphasis on the principles of relativity against those in favor of quantum mechanics. The debate led to the holographic principle, proposed by Gerard ‘t Hooft and refined by Susskind, which suggested that the information is in fact preserved, stored on the boundary of a system. Leonard Susskind (born 16 June 1940) is an American physicist, who is a professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University, and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. His research interests include string theory, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences,[and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an associate member of the faculty of Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and a distinguished professor of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study.Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at
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Nov 14, 2020 • 60min
Janna Levin: How to Survive A Black Hole Encounter! (#093)
Janna is back to discuss her wonderful new book, BLACK HOLE SURVIVAL GUIDE https://amzn.to/2IlbpKSKeep your distance and enjoy the ride! Please subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 & watch my previous conversation with Janna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEtGYQ7A0B4?sub_confirmation=1 Leave a comment in the comment section or join the livechat…we all want to engage with Janna! Several Topics are on the menu on our voyage, including: 1. Black Hole basics 2. Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose 3. Are singularities real? 4. What is your favorite BH? 5. Black Hole Batteries! Janna Levin is the Claire Tow Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Barnard College. She earned a PhD in theoretical physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993, and a Bachelor of Science in astronomy and physics with a concentration in philosophy at Barnard College in 1988, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Much of her work deals with looking for evidence to support the proposal that our universe might be finite in size due to its having a nontrivial topology. Other work includes black holes and chaos theory. She joined the faculty at Barnard College in January 2004 and is currently the recipient Tow Professor grant. She is also the Chair and Director of Sciences, Pioneer Works! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 13, 2020 • 1h 1min
Clifford Will and Nicolas Yunes: Is Einstein Still Right? (#092)
Albert Einstein is often viewed as the icon of #genius, and his theories are admired for their beauty and correctness. Yet the final judge of any theory is the rigorous test of experiment, not the fame of its inventor or the allure of its mathematics. For decades, general relativity has passed test after test with flying colors, including some remarkable new tests using the recently detected gravitational waves. Still, there are reasons for doubt. Einstein’s theory of gravity, as beautiful as it is, seems to be in direct contradiction with another theory he helped create: quantum mechanics.Until recently, this was considered to be a purely academic affair. But as more and more data pour in from the most distant corners of the universe, hinting at bizarre stuff called “dark energy” and “dark matter,” some scientists have begun to explore the possibility that Einstein’s theory may not provide a complete picture of the cosmos.This book chronicles the latest adventures of scientists as they put Einstein’s theory to the test in ever more precise and astonishing ways, and in ever more extreme situations, when gravity is unfathomably intense and rapidly churning. From the explosions of neutron stars and the collisions of black holes to the modern scientific process as a means to seek truth and understanding in the cosmos, this book takes the reader on a journey of learning and discovery that has been 100 years in the making.Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php
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Nov 13, 2020 • 1h 42min
Astronomy’s Great Debate – The Nature of the Universe and the Future of Astronomy! (#091)
Host of Into The Impossible Professor Brian Keating, David Spergel, Janna Levin, Sara Seager, Wendy Freedman, & Nobel Prize winner Adam Riess debate the hottest topics in modern astronomy while celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope’s 30th birthday!An all-star (get it??) party featuring observations of Hubble’s ‘greatest hits’, courtesy of Wyoming Stargazing Association! Plus we debated the greatest mysteries in the Universe including:
What is the nature of Dark Matter?
How did the Universe begin?
How will it end?
Is there life beyond earth?
What is the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy?
What is causing the Hubble Tension and how will it be resolved?
Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php
Join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php
Join my Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/losingthenobelprize ️Please subscribe, rate, and review the
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Nov 9, 2020 • 2h 23min
Sir Roger Penrose: Conformal Cyclic Cosmology, Black Holes Nobel Prize w/ Eric Weinstein Janna Levin (#090)
Join me for a very special discussion with Sir Roger Penrose, co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics. We will discuss Conformal Cyclic Cosmology, Black Holes, and of course, Nobel Prizes!GET OUR SLIDES: https://kingsumo.com/g/vn03wc/sir-roger-penrose-on-the-into-the-impossible-podcast-slides Sir Roger Penrose is co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics. We discuss Conformal Cyclic Cosmology, Black Holes, and of course, Nobel Prizes! Roger is a mensch. He always makes time for me and provided one of the first and most enthusiastic “blurbs” for my book, Losing the Nobel Prize. He has always been so generous with his time, even after winning the Nobel Prize when demands for his attention are relentless. You may also enjoy this video recorded at UC San Diego in late- 2018 “Hawking Points in the CMB Sky“, based loosely on his precursor book, “Cycles of Time: Conformal Cyclic Cosmology, Hawking Points in the CMB Sky“.Get Cycles of Time: https://amzn.to/2JCdKl7Sir Roger Penrose and I will discuss his latest research including this article: Apparent evidence for Hawking points in the CMB Sky https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/495/3/3403/5838759?guestAccessKey=4dc2bb6c-c7f3-455a-b7ee-843d084f601f He will also share insights into the thinking of a modern day theoretical physicist. Is the Universe destined to collapse, ending in a big crunch or to expand indefinitely until it homogenizes in a heat death? Roger will explain a third alternative, the cosmological conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC) scheme—where the Universe evolves through eons, each ending in the decay of mass and beginning again with new Big Bang.Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos:
Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1
Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1
Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1
Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw
Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM
Host Brian Keating:
♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating
Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_c
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