Into the Impossible With Brian Keating - podcast cover

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Big Bang Productions Inc.briankeating.com
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
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Episodes

Eric Weinstein Part 2: Parenting, Peak Prosperity, & Weinstein University (#052)

Part 2 of Brian Keating’s conversation with Eric Weinstein on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE podcast pivots from faith & family to the course catalog at “Weinstein University” (fictional, for now!) which would combine scholarship with wonder. We also contemplate the notion of legacies, not just for our actual children, but for our ideological children as well. Show notes and, by popular demand, Eric’s slides from his famous 2013 “Geometric Unity” lecture at Oxford are available when you join my mai...

Jun 17, 202059 min

Stephon Alexander: The Jazz of Physics! (#051)

Physicist, jazz musician, & President of the National Society of Black Physicists, Stephon Alexander is this week’s guest on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE podcast. He discussed the foundations of the cosmos, his advice for balancing academic and creative pursuits, and his book “The Jazz of Physics.” Support the National Society of Black Physicists: https://nsbp.org/support-nsbp/support-us Show notes and resources for this episode are available: simply join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/...

Jun 04, 20201 hr 33 min

Sarah Frier : No Filter — The Inside Story of Instagram (#050)

Sarah Frier is a prolific technology reporter for Bloomberg. Her new book, “No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram,” is both a compelling account of Instagram’s history and a record of the social media platform’s impact on society. Professor Brian Keating’s interview with Frier covers a range of topics, including the inspiration to research and write the book, the role of augmented technology, and how social media will be changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Show notes and resources are available...

Jun 02, 20201 hr 4 min

Dr. Jud Brewer : Fear, Freedom, and his book The Craving Mind (#049)

Dr. Jud Brewer is a mindfulness expert, using his background in addiction psychiatry to help people around the world. In this interview with Brian Keating, on INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE, Brewer talks about his book, “The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits.” Show notes and resources are available here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 00:08:53 The effects of nature versus nurture on cravings. 00:17:04 Are some cultures resistant to p...

Jun 02, 20201 hr 14 min

Eric Weinstein: Theories of Everything, Geometric Unity & Science’s Paths. Into the Impossible (#048)

Part 1 of Brian Keating’s fascinating interview with mathematician & economist Eric Weinstein on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast. Topics include Eric’s provocative new ideas on physics and science culture. Weinstein is a vocal critic of modern academic hierarchies and advocates for advances in scientific theory over an emphasis on experimental results. Keating’s own issues with what he calls the “academic Hunger Games” leads to a lively debate about funding, academic freedom, and theoretical...

May 20, 20201 hr 53 min

Author, Filmmaker Tiffany Shlain discusses her films, book 24/6, and the human side of tech (#047)

#TechShabbat #character #neuroscience Filmmaker, and author Tiffany Shlain discusses her life, films and her book 24/6, about the neuroscience of how technology reshapes our brains and how the practice of turning off all screens 24 hours each week can make us healthier and more creative. http://tiffanyshlain.com https://twitter.com/tiffanyshlain Get the book This practice of turning off all screens for twenty-four hours each week, which she’s done for over a decade with her husband and kids (six...

May 20, 202032 min

Sasha Sagan: Cosmic Rituals (#046)

Sasha Sagan’s stirring debut book, “For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World,” is the topic of this week’s episode of INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE. Sagan is the daughter of late astronomer/author Carl Sagan and writer/producer Ann Druyan. Show notes and resources are available here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php Highlights: 00:10:02 The power of secular rituals versus relying on habits and willpower. 00:23:48 Rituals span the distinction between belief through...

May 19, 20201 hr 14 min

Peter Diamandis, Founder of the XPrize Foundation and Singularity University (#045)

Peter Diamandis is a remarkable entrepreneur, and futurist, best known as the Founder & Executive Chairman of XPRIZE Foundation. His new book, written with Steven Kotler, is “The Future is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives.” Already a bestseller, it is both timely and important. In this discussion with Brian Keating, Diamandis shares his vision for technological and educational advances over the next decade and how COVID-1...

May 15, 202057 min

Galileo & the Science Deniers with Mario Livio (#044)

Mario Livio is a renowned astrophysicist & best-selling author. His new book “Galileo and the Science Deniers” is the gripping first biography of Galileo Galilei written by an astronomer. Though Galileo’s quest to prove that Earth orbits the sun was correct, he eventually recanted his belief as punishment for heresy. Livio describes parallels to our modern world where, even 400 years later, some people assail science when it conflicts with their ideology. Show notes and resources are availab...

May 14, 20201 hr 26 min

Sarah Scoles, Journalist and Author of “They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers” (#043)

Science journalist and author Sarah Scoles talks about her new book “They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers”, a study of UFO culture and its critics. What makes people believe intelligent alien life has visited the Earth? Fresh off this week’s news that the Pentagon has declassified and released three videos of UFOs (or UAPs Unidentified Aerial Phenomena as the government prefers to call them), Scoles talks about why some people are more prone to believe than others. And, for ...

May 12, 202045 min

Brian Keating & Dave Rubin — DON’T BURN THIS BOOK: using free speech to avoid a Sci Fi dystopia (#042)

Brian Keating interviews Dave Rubin (The Rubin Report) on the most interesting issues of the day: free speech and expression, classical liberalism, lessons from Jordan Peterson, and the imperative of tolerance. More about Dave Rubin: https://daverubin.com/ Find Dave on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RubinReport Get Dave’s book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason: https://amzn.to/2KCurtT 00:01:00 The mellifluousness of the Long Island accent! 00:05:00 Coming out of the Closets: fi...

May 05, 20201 hr 10 min

Stephen Wolfram, Founder & CEO of Wolfram Research, Computing the Cosmos (#041)

Stephen Wolfram, Founder & CEO of Wolfram Research, Creator of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, Author of A New Kind of Science, discusses computational science, his new Project to Find a Fundamental Theory of Physics, and more. Over the course of 4 decades, Stephen Wolfram has pioneered the development & application of computational thinking. He has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions & innovations in science, technology, and business. In this wide-ranging interview with Br...

Apr 23, 20202 hr 37 min

Greg Zuckerman, author of THE MAN WHO SOLVED THE MARKET: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution (#040)

Find show notes and other resources here Brian Keating, Director of the Simons Observatory , interviews Greg Zuckerman , author of the bestselling biography of Jim Simons, “The Man Who Solved The Market”. Portfolio/Penguin has published Greg Zuckerman’s latest book, THE MAN WHO SOLVED THE MARKET: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution. This book, the culmination of two challenging years of research, is the story of how Simons, a secretive mathematician and code breaker, set out to conquer ...

Apr 20, 202049 min

A Conversation with Physicist and Science Fiction Author David Brin (#039)

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2020/04/more-repercussions-in-plague-year-and.html https://www.davidbrin.com http://www.davidbrin.com/fiction/givingplague.html A Conversation with Physicist and Science Fiction Author David Brin about his work and his recent post: More repercussions in a plague year… and some long term (excerpted here) : And yes, some foresee all this accelerating the exodus of the uber-rich, abandoning us to simmer in festering cities and suburbs. Connecticut, Wyoming and New Zeal...

Apr 13, 202053 min

Giving the Devil His Due: a conversation with Michael Shermer & Brian Keating (#038)

Brian Keating Interviews Skeptic Magazine publisher and author of “Giving The Devil His Due” Michael Shermer. Get Michael Shermer’s Books here: GIVING THE DEVIL HIS DUE HEAVENS ON EARTH THE MORAL ARC : Find Show Notes and Links here Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the Science Salon Podcast, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He is the autho...

Apr 13, 20201 hr 58 min

The Physics of Krav Maga with author and physics Professor John Eric Goff (#037)

https://www.mmaacademy.com https://www.facebook.com/John.Eric.Goff.Sports.Physicist http://johnericgoff.blogspot.com https://www.lynchburg.edu Krav Maga (“contact combat” in Hebrew) is a hard-hitting and efficient form of self-defense that was popularized by Israeli soldiers. Stressing practical, real-world fighting and a philosophy of self-defense, its popularity has grown worldwide over the past few decades. In The Physics of Krav Maga, John Eric Goff, a physicist, best-selling author, and mar...

Apr 13, 202038 min

Brian Keating interviews Professor Elena Aprile about the search for dark matter and her life in science (#036)

https://chasingeinsteinfilm.com http://www.xenon1t.org Elena Aprile is UCSD’s Margaret Burbidge Visiting Professor at UC San Diego and Professor of Physics at Columbia University. She is the founder and spokesperson of the XENON Dark Matter Experiment. Aprile is well known for her work with noble liquid detectors and for her contributions to particle astrophysics in the search for dark matter. Professor Aprile appears in the documentary CHASING EINSTEIN about the search for dark matter. Could Ei...

Mar 12, 202046 min

SETI and Beyond: A discussion with Brian Keating, Paul Davies, Jim Benford and Mat Kaplan (#035)

Books mentioned in this episode: The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence by Paul Davies The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Solving the Mystery of Life by Paul Davies Starship Century , Edited by Greggory & James Benford A technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization could likely detect life on Earth, if such beings exist. Life on Earth could be detectable in our planet’s atmospheric spectral lines for over a billion years. Most of our...

Feb 10, 202042 min

Brian Keating interviews Sir Roger Penrose: The Emperor’s New Mind — Consciousness & Computers (#034)

Books mentioned in this episode: The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. Penrose has ...

Jan 14, 202059 min

UC San Diego Alumni discuss their careers & Quantum Design Inc. with Brian Keating (#033)

Dr. Stefano Spagna, PhD. and Ivy Lum Fipps, MS are both alumni of UC San Diego Physics. Dr. Spagna is Chief Technology Officer and Mrs. Fipps is Final Test Engineer specializing in dilution refrigerators. Since its inception in 1982, Quantum Design International (a privately held corporation) has developed and manufactured automated temperature and magnetic field testing platforms for materials characterization. These systems offer a variety of measurement capabilities and are in widespread use ...

Jan 14, 202030 min

Brian Keating Interviews Richard Panek about The Trouble With Gravity (#032)

Books mentioned: The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet Empiricism, heavens and earth, gravity in history, god, religion, and politics, a thrilling tour guide from ancient concepts to the very present. The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality Richard Panek is most recently the author of The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet, published in July 201...

Jan 07, 202052 min

UC San Diego Alumnus, Nanome.ai Co-Founder & CEO Steve McCloskey interviewed by Stuart Volkow (#031)

https://nanome.ai/ @StevenMcCloskey Steve McCloskey is an Alumni from the first class of Nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego. Steve’s work is focused on emerging technologies applied to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). During his time at UC San Diego Steve worked directly with the founding Chair of the Nanoengineering Department, Ken Vecchio helping set the foundation for the Nanoengineering Materials Research Center and developing thermodynamic pr...

Dec 21, 201932 min

Brian Keating Interviews Jim Gates about Proving Einstein Right, supersymmetry and other mysteries (#030)

Proving Einstein Right on Amazon Jim Gates is the Ford Foundation Professor of Physics, and the Director of The Brown University Theoretical Physics Center. He is a 2013 recipient of the National Medal of Science He was a Distinguished University Professor, University System of Maryland Regents Professor, John S. Toll Professor of Physics, and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory. Gates is well known for his pioneering work in supersymmetry and supergravity, and his 1977 doctora...

Dec 20, 201937 min

Brian Keating interviews Sean Carroll about his book Something Deeply Hidden & Many Worlds (#029)

Buy Sean’s books on Amazon Find Sean Carrol online and listen to his Mindscape podcast Sean Carroll on Joe Rogan Sean M. Carroll is a Research Professor of Physics at CalTech. He is a theorist who thinks about the fundamental laws of nature, especially as they connect to cosmology. His research involves theoretical physics and astrophysics, especially cosmology, field theory, and gravitation. He has worked on questions involving dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, violations of Lorent...

Dec 20, 20191 hr 6 min

Dan Hooper discusses his book At The Edge of Time (#028)

At The Edge of Time Dan Hooper is a senior scientist and the head of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He is also Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago . Dr. Hooper received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was later a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the David Schramm Fellow at Fermilab. Dr. Hooper’s research focuses on the interface between ...

Nov 14, 201939 min

Innovator Series – Additive Rocket Corporation (#027)

Links: The Additive Rocket Corporation Reiley Weekes, C SO Kyle Adriany, CTO The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination on Facebook and Twitter Email us at info@imagination.ucsd.edu . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Sep 11, 201929 min

The Origins of Life and the Work of Primo Levi (#026)

Links: Dr. Luca Legnani, Ph.D., The Blackmond Lab, Scripps Research Institute Primo Levi The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination on Facebook and Twitter Email us at info@imagination.ucsd.edu . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Jul 16, 201930 min

A Discussion of Quantum Theory and the book “What Is Real?” by Adam Becker (#025)

This podcast is about the book, "What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics". The conversation was part of the "Into the Impossible" podcast at the UC San Diego Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, featuring a discussion between Professor Chip Sebens (UCSD Philosophy), Dr. Andrew Friedman (UCSD Physics), and the book's author, Adam Becker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Jun 25, 20191 hr 18 min

Julian Guthrie Discusses Alpha Girls (#024)

Co-Director of the Clarke Center Professor Brian Keating interviews bestselling author Julian Gurthrie about her latest book Alpha Girls. The stories of 4 women who achieved prominence in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley venture capital. How did these women do it? What makes them so successful? Julian also reveals how she's written and published 4 successful non-fiction books over the past 8 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Jun 04, 201933 min

Matthew Stanley & Einstein’s War (#023)

How history can shape science, and how science can change the tide of history? NYU Professor Matthew Stanley is our guest, here to discuss about his latest book: Einstein's War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I . Brian Keating, associate director of the Clarke Center and professor of physics at UC San Diego, talked to Professor Stanley about his interest in the history of science and the relationship between science and society. We learn about Einstein's first...

May 21, 201948 min
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