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

Last refreshed: June 15th, 2026 at 3:18 PM

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Episodes

Journalist & Author Annalee Newitz (#022)

Meet Annalee Newitz, nonfiction and fiction author, science-journalist, and co-host of the podcast series Our Opinions are Correct. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award and nominee for the Nebula and Locus awards, her ability to use her scientific knowledge in both her fiction and nonfiction works is something that makes Newitz unstoppable. Dr. Brian Keating begins to unravel the creative process behind her newest novel Autonomous, as well as The Future of Another Timeline, and more. Annalee Newi...

Apr 22, 2019•38 min

Beyond 10,000 Hours (#021)

On this episode, we explore physics, education, and what it takes to train imaginative scientists with Carl Wieman, Nobel Prize winning physicist with joint appointments as Professor of Physics and Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Dr. Wieman is interviewed by Brian Keating, UC San Diego Professor of Physics, Director of the Simons Observatory, and Associate Director of the Clarke Center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Mar 06, 2019•28 min

The Second Kind of Impossible (#020)

THE SECOND KIND OF IMPOSSIBLE: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter is the exciting, first-hand story of how Paul Steinhardt, the award-winning physicist and Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, predicted a new type of matter – the quasicrystal – shattering centuries-old laws of physics. Steinhardt’s quest to prove the natural existence of quasicrystals takes him on a globe-hopping scientific journey from Princeton to Italy to the remote mountains of Russia’s...

Jan 08, 2019•52 min

Nature Has More Imagination (#019)

In a ranging conversation, associate director Brian Keating interviews the preeminent scientist and thinker Freeman Dyson, discussing his career in science and letters, the role of creativity and subversiveness, the perils of prizes, and how nature always shows more imagination than we do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 01, 2018•1 hr 2 min

Internet of All Kinds of Things (#018)

How is the internet changing our humanity, and what can we do about it? We explore these questions and more with Antonio Garcia Martinez (author of Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley) and Douglas Rushkoff (author most recently of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus and host of the fantastic podcast Team Human). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 01, 2018•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 18

Graphic Science (#017)

On May 8th, the Clarke Center will host an evening of Graphic Science: Comics Engage the Cosmos. In advance of that, associate director Brian Keating chatted with Jorge Cham, creator of PHD Comics, and Daniel Whiteson, physicist at UC Irvine, about their new book We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe, a witty, creative look at the biggest open questions in cosmology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Apr 18, 2018•39 min

Alien Contact: Part 2 (#016)

We’re continuing our conversation from episode 14 about alien contact by focusing on language barriers: barriers betweens humans and aliens, humans and animals, and, in what some consider the most alien encounter of all, between scientists and artists. With acclaimed science fiction writer Ted Chiang, dolphin researcher Christine Johnson, and visual artist Lisa Korpos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 01, 2018•39 min

Bonus Episode: Remembering Stephen Hawking (#15b)

In 2007, Erik Viirre, Associate Director of the Clarke Center, was fortunate to share a unique experience with the great Stephen Hawking: taking him into zero gravity. He shares his remembrance of the intellectual giant with Brian Keating here, in honor of Hawking's passing on March 14, 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 15, 2018•23 min

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