Podcasts about The Elegant Universe

Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, director of its centre for theoretical physics, and the chairman of the World Science Festival. He is best known for his work on string theory, especially in his book “The Elegant Universe”, which turns 25 this year.

In this episode, we delve into the unique fusion of musical styles between artists like John Mayer and the Grateful Dead. The discussion broadens to examine how technology has revolutionized our ability to learn and share captivating stories, such as the tale of Jesse James's gold, and probes into the reasons why individuals feel compelled to share their creative outputs.The conversation shifts to the influence of personal challenges on creativity, prompting a debate over the motives behind sharing such experiences - is it a search for attention or a means of healing? Insights are offered on how these deeply personal stories can mold one's artistic endeavors and the intricate balance between what we choose to keep to ourselves and what we decide to share with the world.Concluding the episode, we reflect on the importance of taking time to pause and the effects of the rush to disseminate creative work. The discussion touches on the role of feedback, the management of expectations, and the critical importance of staying true to our authentic selves in our creative pursuits. - aiShow Notes:John Mayer Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaaOoyclkE8The Grateful Dead - https://www.dead.net/The Power of Myth - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiYnNom7SVRMjsi2WSpIGBlo1UDhlXyvzWhat The Bleep Do We Know? - https://watchdocumentaries.com/what-the-bleep-do-we-know/The Elegant Universe - https://shop.shakeandco.com/book/9780393338102The Stanford Prison Experiment - https://www.prisonexp.org/The Zone of Interest - https://a24films.com/films/the-zone-of-interestAs I Lay Dying - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_I_Lay_DyingBryan Birks - https://www.youtube.com/@BryanBirksThe Social Network - https://youtu.be/k5fJmkv02is?t=92 If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and/or a review. We read and appreciate all of them. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. Links To Everything: Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT Matt's YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT Matt's 2nd Channel: https://geni.us/PhotoVideosYT Alex's YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT Matt's Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG Alex's Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG

Is it still possible to make a case for string theory? And should we treat the multiverse as a serious idea and explore it mathematically? Here to discuss these fundamental questions with me today is the one and only Brian Greene. Brian Greene, of course, needs no introduction. He is an American theoretical physicist and mathematician. He's a professor at Columbia University and the director of Columbia's Center for Theoretical Physics.  Greene has gained a lot of popularity through his books that bring complex physical issues closer to general audiences: The Elegant Universe (1999), Icarus at the Edge of Time (2008), The Fabric of the Cosmos (2004), and The Hidden Reality (2011), a book he promoted in the TV show The Big Bang Theory!  In this episode, Brian and I discuss the experimental relevance of string theory, the multiverse hypothesis, the likelihood of alien life, and much more.  Tune in! Key Takeaways:  Intro (00:00) What's the experimental minimum? (01:05) String theory's experimental relevance (08:35) An alternative path to Einstein's equations (20:17) Are we neglecting some ideas? (25:35) Calabi-Yau manifolds in string theory (34:26) Lorentz invariance and signals that are faster than the speed of light (40:13) The multiverse and its implications for science (57:47) Inflation doesn't resolve all questions (1:02:18) The role of a scientist as an educator (1:15:04) UFO sightings and the likelihood of alien life (1:27:45) Outro (1:38:26) — Additional resources: 

PROTAGONIST - the leading Character or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc. by OnlyMusic™Track list:Cyantist - Soulbound (Extended version)Monkai - Deeper (Original mix)Final Request - The Lost HawkLadytron - RunawayMonkai - Biomarker (Original mix)Analog Junga - Futura (Dowden remix) Elegant Universe Vs Plastic Pimps - Music (Smoked To The Bone)Vakabular with RIKO & GUGGA - Algorithms (Extended mix)Elegant Universe, Tim Davison - DiscognitoPete K - Between Trees (Extended mix)Aikon - Dark Horse (Original Breaks edition)Mac & Ward - Resist ItMiss Monique & AVIRA feat. LUNA (D'arc) - Subterranean (Extended mix) Allies for Everyone, Rafael Cerato - Hunger (Original mix)Marc DePulse, Allies for Everyone - AutomationAllies for Everyone - Wraith (Original mix)Beat Inside, Arsanit, AYU (UA), Samadhy - Freedom Of Pain (Cherry (UA) remix)Natascha Polké - Loose Lips (Jody Wisternoff & James Grant remix)Evelynka, Anatolian Sessions - Why's Your LoveFinal Request - By Your SideAllies for Everyone - Atonement (Sivesgaard remix)Yordee - The ShineM.O.S. & Krasa Rosa - We Are KidsAnalog Jungs - SurrenderAQUO, Vancoo - Old schoolCompiled & mixed by Paul SidorovOnlyMusic™ & OM Library™

Chapter 1 What is the Book Einstein about"Einstein" by Walter Isaacson is a biographical account of one of the most influential scientists in history, Albert Einstein. It delves into the life and achievements of Einstein, exploring his scientific discoveries, personal struggles, and broader impact on society. The book examines Einstein's journey from his early years and formative experiences to his groundbreaking theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. Isaacson also explores Einstein's involvement in social and political issues, including his activism against war and his advocacy for civil rights. Overall, the book provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of Einstein's life, work, and lasting legacy.Chapter 2 Why is the Book Einstein Valued"Einstein: His Life and Universe" is valued for several reasons: 1. Comprehensive Biography: The book provides a detailed account of Albert Einstein's life, covering both his personal and professional journey. It delves into his childhood, education, scientific achievements, and the impact he had on the world. 2. Insight into Einstein's Mind: The author, Walter Isaacson, extensively researched Einstein's personal letters, papers, and interviews to provide readers with a deeper understanding of his thoughts, motivations, and philosophies. This allows readers to gain insight into the mind of one of the greatest scientific minds in history. 3. Scientific Discoveries: The book explains Einstein's groundbreaking scientific theories, including the theory of relativity, which revolutionized our understanding of space, time, and gravity. By presenting these complex concepts in an accessible manner, it enables readers to grasp the significance and implications of Einstein's work. 4. Historical Context: "Einstein: His Life and Universe" places Einstein's life and work within the broader historical context. It explores the political, social, and cultural climate of the time, highlighting how these factors shaped Einstein's thinking and influenced his actions. 5. Engaging Writing Style: Isaacson's writing style is engaging and captivating, making it easier for readers to stay engrossed in the book. He combines scientific explanations with personal anecdotes, creating a narrative that appeals to both scientists and general readers alike. 6. Authoritative Source: Walter Isaacson is a renowned biographer and has written extensively about notable figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, and Benjamin Franklin. His reputation as a meticulous researcher and storyteller adds to the value and credibility of the book. Overall, "Einstein: His Life and Universe" is valued because it provides a comprehensive, insightful, and engaging account of one of the most influential scientists in history, allowing readers to appreciate the man behind the genius and the impact of his work.Chapter 3 Summary for Einstein In this article, we delve into the captivating world of Albert Einstein, exploring the profound ideas and revolutionary discoveries that defined his legacy. Drawing inspiration from the book "Einstein's Revolution," we present a concise yet comprehensive summary, shedding light on the remarkable journey of one of history's greatest scientific minds. Join us as we uncover the secrets behind Einstein's groundbreaking theories and explore the man behind the iconic image.Chapter 4 Author of the Einstein

Spring is in the air, and that means the THR gang finally gets to go on the road and do some international traveling! Joined by Cindy Sanabria, we visit Iran this week. Cindy is best known for The Horror Tour Guide and Women of Color in Horror. Cindy also talks about all kinds of new projects she has coming up, including a true crime film and also a slasher! Cool of the Week includes Cocaine Bear, the Funko Pop Convention, Robin Hood Men in Tights, The Elegant Universe, and Spoonful of Sugar. Trailers this week are The Tank and The Resurrection of Charles Manson. The podcast spotlight shines on The Let's Talk Horror Channel. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 ESP Anchor Feed: https://anchor.fm/mac-nez E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz    

How did we get here? Where might we be going? Michael welcomes Dr. Brian Greene, world-renowned physicist, to answer these questions and many more - his book is "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe." Original air date 6 March 2020. The book was published on 18 February 2020.

Brian Greene discusses his book 'The Elegant Universe: Superstrings and the Search for the Ultimate Theory', in which he explores the ideas of mathematical supersymmetry and its profound impact on our understanding of the universe.

He's been called “a successor to Einstein.” Here you'll see why, as physicist Brian Greene offers profound insights into our place in the universe, how the world ends, the possibility of a parallel universe, and the cosmic pursuits of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Don't miss this brilliant and deeply stimulating conversation.

In this episode of R, D and the Inbetweens I am talking to Dr. Simon Clark - University of Exeter PhD graduate, Youtuber and author of Firmament: The Hidden Science of Weather, Climate Change and the Air That Surrounds Us. Music credit: Happy Boy Theme Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/   Transcript 1 00:00:09,220 --> 00:00:13,600 Hello and welcome to R, D and the in-betweens. 2 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:26,200 I'm your host, Kelly Preece, and every fortnight I talk to a different guest about researchers development and everything in between. 3 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:36,190 , and welcome to the latest episode of R&D in the In-betweens. 4 00:00:36,190 --> 00:00:42,460 I'm your host, Kelly Preece, and in this episode, I'm going to be talking to one of the University of Exeter's doctoral graduates, 5 00:00:42,460 --> 00:00:50,560 Dr Simon Clarke, about his experience setting up a wildly successful YouTube channel during his PhD. 6 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:58,900 And all of the science communication work he's gone on to do afterwards, and in particular, the publication of his first book Firmament. 7 00:00:58,900 --> 00:01:06,610 So my name is Simon Clarke. I am a full time professional nerd, and I mostly express that through making YouTube videos. 8 00:01:06,610 --> 00:01:11,690 So I have been running a YouTube channel about various topics in science, mostly Earth science, 9 00:01:11,690 --> 00:01:17,500 particular focus on climate change since I graduated with my Ph.D. in 2018. 10 00:01:17,500 --> 00:01:24,310 I had to think that because it's been actually quite a few years and I also do a variety of other things, I do a bit of livestreaming on Twitch. 11 00:01:24,310 --> 00:01:31,630 I have a podcast and recently I wrote a book called Firmament, which is an introduction to and history of atmospheric science. 12 00:01:31,630 --> 00:01:37,450 I guess the starting point for me is about how you became interested in what led you to 13 00:01:37,450 --> 00:01:43,660 become a professional nerd and particularly in times of kind of science communication. 14 00:01:43,660 --> 00:01:49,940 What was the route that takes you from kind of being a researcher and doing a Ph.D. to what you're doing now? 15 00:01:49,940 --> 00:01:52,180 How did that? How did that evolve? 16 00:01:52,180 --> 00:02:01,900 Well, it's something that sort of spon kind of spontaneously happened over a long period of time in that I so when I was a kid, 17 00:02:01,900 --> 00:02:07,180 I used to want to be a film director like I was obsessed with cinema and the moving image and stuff like that. 18 00:02:07,180 --> 00:02:12,280 And so I ended up doing science because that was sort of what I felt like was a 19 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:18,670 responsible thing to do societally and financially and ended up doing my undergrad. 20 00:02:18,670 --> 00:02:22,630 And did my PhD? But when I was in my undergrad, I had this opportunity. 21 00:02:22,630 --> 00:02:29,740 I thought to make video content that would be worthwhile because I was a state school kid. 22 00:02:29,740 --> 00:02:35,800 I went to a comprehensive school just outside Bristol, and when I applied to study physics at Oxford, 23 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:41,410 I was the only no one from my school had ever done that before. No one had ever gone to Oxford to study physics. 24 00:02:41,410 --> 00:02:45,610 And so I had loads of questions about how the process works. 25 00:02:45,610 --> 00:02:52,120 You know, what were the interviews like? Did you have to speak Latin to get in? Did you have to have a parent who'd been to Oxford to go there? 26 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:57,910 And I just didn't know, you know, these are for someone who's been there. These are silly questions, but I didn't know any better. 27 00:02:57,910 --> 00:03:08,680 So when I when I got in, I realised that I had something of a valuable perspective as somebody who could help the student I was a year ago. 28 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,090 So when I spent a term at Oxford and I'd seen what life was like, 29 00:03:13,090 --> 00:03:20,140 and I'd also seen the admissions process from the other side of the coin, I just made one video about what that was like. 30 00:03:20,140 --> 00:03:25,930 You know, what life is like in Oxford and advice to people who were applying. And that was I thought I'd be done. 31 00:03:25,930 --> 00:03:32,260 And then it hit the big time and it got like a hundred views, and I thought that maybe I could do another one because I've lots of people in the comments. 32 00:03:32,260 --> 00:03:38,950 You could, you know who had other questions. So I did another video a couple of months later and then another one and another one, 33 00:03:38,950 --> 00:03:44,410 and I gradually fell into this thing about just these sorts of becoming the internet version of a of a 34 00:03:44,410 --> 00:03:51,730 movie director in in that I was making my own short films and it was something that I carried on in the. 35 00:03:51,730 --> 00:03:57,760 And I eventually ended up doing a series where I was vlogging my life as a Ph.D. student, 36 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:05,710 and that was something that was very deliberately as a an exercise in science communication and in outreach. 37 00:04:05,710 --> 00:04:08,110 It was trying to show what the process of doing a PhD was like, 38 00:04:08,110 --> 00:04:13,270 but also what I was doing in my research and sort of telling people about the field that I was really interested in. 39 00:04:13,270 --> 00:04:18,850 And that got to the point where towards the basically in the final year of the Ph.D., 40 00:04:18,850 --> 00:04:26,980 I sort of weighed up my options and thought to myself, You know, I think I could do this as a full time thing. 41 00:04:26,980 --> 00:04:32,740 It wasn't at the point where financially that was anywhere near possible. Like, I was not earning very much at all then. 42 00:04:32,740 --> 00:04:37,990 But I thought that with a with a sort of a year of concerted effort and a little bit of luck, 43 00:04:37,990 --> 00:04:43,900 I could maybe do this as a job and it wasn't so much a deliberate choice that I've made 44 00:04:43,900 --> 00:04:49,390 thinking it would be successful as an opportunity that I thought I would regret not taking. 45 00:04:49,390 --> 00:04:55,960 So I ended up doing it, you know, giving it a go after the Ph.D. and ended up, you know, where I am now. 46 00:04:55,960 --> 00:05:00,590 But in terms of why I didn't want to stay in academia and I wanted to do that. 47 00:05:00,590 --> 00:05:08,780 Sci comm media production, basically, I thought I didn't have necessarily the best time in my Ph.D., 48 00:05:08,780 --> 00:05:14,060 I didn't have the best working relationship with my supervisor because it's the first time 49 00:05:14,060 --> 00:05:18,200 I did a Ph.D. I didn't really know what that relationship was supposed to look like. 50 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:25,430 And so we didn't, you know, get publications out. We basically had to scrape together a thesis at the end of the process. 51 00:05:25,430 --> 00:05:26,630 There was enough science that had been done, 52 00:05:26,630 --> 00:05:33,650 but it was just so disjointed and all over the place and stop start that we sort of had to compile it all together into a thesis at the end. 53 00:05:33,650 --> 00:05:36,410 But that meant that I felt whether this was accurate or not. 54 00:05:36,410 --> 00:05:41,660 But I felt at the time that I didn't have the option to go into academia because I didn't have those publications. 55 00:05:41,660 --> 00:05:45,170 But more than that, I just wasn't really having a good time. 56 00:05:45,170 --> 00:05:51,470 And it wasn't wasn't something that I was passionate about doing anymore, whereas the video stuff I was, 57 00:05:51,470 --> 00:05:57,470 I was very happily staying up until one or two in the morning editing videos, and it was something that I could really see myself doing. 58 00:05:57,470 --> 00:06:05,300 And I loved that process of coming up with an idea and crafting it and making it your own video And in that video, 59 00:06:05,300 --> 00:06:09,290 doing some teaching, because that's that's fundamentally sort of how I think about my content. 60 00:06:09,290 --> 00:06:14,660 You've got a learning objective. You have some educational objective that you want to try and achieve, 61 00:06:14,660 --> 00:06:19,370 and you craft a video to try and maximise the probability of your audience reaching that objective. 62 00:06:19,370 --> 00:06:23,820 And that's a process that I really enjoyed then and I still enjoy doing now. 63 00:06:23,820 --> 00:06:27,860 So, you know, I have no plans to stop doing this. Amazing. 64 00:06:27,860 --> 00:06:32,780 And I think it's it's and I find this with a lot of people. 65 00:06:32,780 --> 00:06:41,020 I talk to about what they've gone on to do after PhDs or research degrees is there's this kind of. 66 00:06:41,020 --> 00:06:47,690 Accidental, or is this kind of serendipity, I guess, of following various interests, 67 00:06:47,690 --> 00:06:52,420 various parts of their lives and then that kind of coalescing into a career, 68 00:06:52,420 --> 00:06:58,750 which it's done really beautifully for you. it's something that my dad calls proactive serendipity. 69 00:06:58,750 --> 00:07:03,670 Oh, I like that where you're, you know, it's very lucky that I've been in this position, 70 00:07:03,670 --> 00:07:07,000 but I was only able to be lucky because I've put sort of all of the work in before, 71 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:12,460 and I've made hundreds and hundreds of videos before I turned full time, so I had the skills built up. 72 00:07:12,460 --> 00:07:15,560 But you know, at the end of the day, it still takes. 73 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:20,050 It's the whole 99 percent perspiration 1% inspiration thing like it's it's lots and lots of work, 74 00:07:20,050 --> 00:07:24,490 but you do need that break that you do that that bit of luck in order to be successful. 75 00:07:24,490 --> 00:07:29,830 And that's the bit that you just have to try and maximise the probability of, but is out of your control. 76 00:07:29,830 --> 00:07:36,650 So thinking about kind of. You know, you you you said when you were kind of in the final year, 77 00:07:36,650 --> 00:07:41,720 you were making a little kind of a little bit of money from it and not anything kind of, you know, to live on or anything. 78 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:50,870 But how how did you go about thinking and turning that into effectively a business and a job for yourself? 79 00:07:50,870 --> 00:07:56,840 I mean, I'm not the kind of kid who who grew up wanting to be a CEO. 80 00:07:56,840 --> 00:08:02,000 I was very I was on. I very much am not still business oriented. 81 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,780 So I mean, I personally, my personal opinion is there are two kinds of YouTubers. 82 00:08:05,780 --> 00:08:12,170 There are those who run a business and it happens to be making videos and there are those who make videos and they happen upon it as a business. 83 00:08:12,170 --> 00:08:13,340 And I'm definitely the latter. 84 00:08:13,340 --> 00:08:19,370 I am somebody who just made the content that I thought was interesting and trusted that if I thought it was good enough, 85 00:08:19,370 --> 00:08:24,800 other people would think it was good. And that was something that, you know, I just sort of put all my eggs in that basket, so to speak. 86 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:29,030 And after I finished the PhD, I was like, Right, what are the topics that I find cool? 87 00:08:29,030 --> 00:08:36,980 What are these? What stories that I can tell? And I suppose just blindly trusted that that would eventually turn itself into a job. 88 00:08:36,980 --> 00:08:44,720 And we know that that I think I have been very lucky, but I think also that that is a general something that is true in life, 89 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:48,050 that if you make stuff that's good, people will come to you. 90 00:08:48,050 --> 00:08:51,110 You don't necessarily have to do all of the the legwork yourself. 91 00:08:51,110 --> 00:08:57,860 You just have to make something that's good and get it out there and eventually think, you know, it may take a while, 92 00:08:57,860 --> 00:09:03,140 but eventually it does get to that audience and that audience then becomes something that you can turn into a business. 93 00:09:03,140 --> 00:09:09,230 But the process that last step is something that has happened almost entirely bungled through. 94 00:09:09,230 --> 00:09:11,760 I'm like the Mr Bean of the business world. 95 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:20,380 It's the things that sort of happened to me, and I've been very lucky, but I have very little kind of wilful kind of agency over it. 96 00:09:20,380 --> 00:09:24,460 Yeah, Mr Bean of the business world is quite quite an image. 97 00:09:24,460 --> 00:09:33,010 So one one of the reasons why I wanted to have a chat with you is about the book that you've written Firmament. 98 00:09:33,010 --> 00:09:37,100 Can you tell me a bit about how 99 00:09:37,100 --> 00:09:44,600 I mean, what the book is about, but also how it came about the for you to write the book, how that opportunity presented itself. 100 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,220 So I in terms of what the book's about first. 101 00:09:48,220 --> 00:09:50,810 So. So the book is it's as I said earlier, 102 00:09:50,810 --> 00:09:56,270 it's an introduction to and it's a history of atmospheric science and those two sort of key components of it, 50 50. 103 00:09:56,270 --> 00:10:03,350 Because when you're learning about atmospheric science in an undergrad or in Ph.D., the emphasis is very much on. 104 00:10:03,350 --> 00:10:07,100 Here are the equations. Here's how you apply them go. 105 00:10:07,100 --> 00:10:13,370 There's there's there's very little historical context and often actually very little scientific context to, 106 00:10:13,370 --> 00:10:16,790 you know, where these things come from, where do these expressions come from? 107 00:10:16,790 --> 00:10:22,190 And when I was an undergrad, my favourite lecture series was Thermal Physics, taught by Stephen Blundell. 108 00:10:22,190 --> 00:10:26,300 And there is one of the reasons it was my favourite, apart from the fact that he was an amazing lecturer, 109 00:10:26,300 --> 00:10:30,380 was that he went on these little historical asides and he filled in that context. 110 00:10:30,380 --> 00:10:33,470 And I don't if it was just me, hopefully not. 111 00:10:33,470 --> 00:10:41,600 But I found that knowing that historical and scientific context to why an expression is the way it is and how we came to know this stuff, 112 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:45,320 how we know what we know was really useful and really interesting. 113 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:51,830 So when I was when I sort of sat down to work out, you know, if if I were to write a book, what would I want it to be about? 114 00:10:51,830 --> 00:10:53,810 That was very much at the forefront of my mind, 115 00:10:53,810 --> 00:10:59,900 and I designed it to be similar to books that I read when I was in sort of sixth form, an undergraduate. 116 00:10:59,900 --> 00:11:08,720 So books like in such a Schrodinger's Cats or the Elegant Universe, or, you know, if you want to get grandiose like a brief history of time. 117 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:16,910 So something that gets you into interested in a subject but is not necessarily very detailed in terms of the the academic detail. 118 00:11:16,910 --> 00:11:23,780 There's not very many equations, for example, in it, but it's something that sparks your interests or sparks your passion and provides that 119 00:11:23,780 --> 00:11:30,580 historical context because those books exist for physics and chemistry and for biology. 120 00:11:30,580 --> 00:11:36,890 But as far as I could tell, nothing existed for the atmosphere, meaning specifically the atmosphere, 121 00:11:36,890 --> 00:11:42,740 not just weather or not this climate, because there were a couple of books, have been written as sort of a historical introduction to climate change, 122 00:11:42,740 --> 00:11:48,020 like the discovery of global warming by Spencer Weart was quite a big sort of influence on me. 123 00:11:48,020 --> 00:11:51,890 But the atmosphere, specifically the physical system, how we, how we discovered it, 124 00:11:51,890 --> 00:11:55,700 how we understand it, and sort of how that understanding has evolved over time. 125 00:11:55,700 --> 00:11:58,670 Just nobody seemed to have written about for that audience before. 126 00:11:58,670 --> 00:12:04,250 So that was my my goal was to write a personal statement book that kids will say they've read on their personal statement. 127 00:12:04,250 --> 00:12:11,600 Hopefully they have actually read it. And then in terms of how it came to be, I like I said, I sat down and sort of worked out. 128 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,030 If I were to write a book, what would it be about? 129 00:12:14,030 --> 00:12:22,720 And I, I sort of kind of wrote, I suppose, a rough book proposal in it mentally, and I think I must have written it down somewhere that I haven't. 130 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:27,200 I wish I could find that original note, and I set it as a goal of mine. 131 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:32,180 I wanted to write this book and I again the whole proactive serendipitity thing. 132 00:12:32,180 --> 00:12:39,290 I started a book series on my YouTube. I started a series of videos where I talked about books and reviewed what I was reading and suggested 133 00:12:39,290 --> 00:12:46,910 books for people with the explicit intent intention of that being something that a publisher would find. 134 00:12:46,910 --> 00:12:52,760 See me, see my social media profile and think, Oh, this guy's a science person who knows about books and seems to know what they're talking about. 135 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:59,810 Maybe they should write a book and that that was a very explicit goal in my head of having a book playlist on my channel. 136 00:12:59,810 --> 00:13:05,750 And eventually, that was somewhat unbelievably one of my plans actually works, 137 00:13:05,750 --> 00:13:09,980 and I had an email from a publisher, Hodder and Stoughton, and they asked me to come in 138 00:13:09,980 --> 00:13:11,030 And basically, you know, 139 00:13:11,030 --> 00:13:21,830 if I had any ideas for book and I had that proposal basically ready and almost completely unchanged is what we ended up publishing. 140 00:13:21,830 --> 00:13:32,000 That's phenomenal, and I think you know that. You know, that proactive serendipity of going this, this is something that I would like to do this, 141 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:37,550 this is how I can use the work that I'm doing and the platform that I have to perhaps. 142 00:13:37,550 --> 00:13:45,650 Work towards that. Yeah. Maximise the chance of having luck happened to you in a very wishy washy way. 143 00:13:45,650 --> 00:13:50,840 Yeah, but it's it's actually true. I was quite interested in what you were saying about the history and the science, 144 00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:56,870 but also kind of thinking about some of the the public speaking training and work that i've done, 145 00:13:56,870 --> 00:14:01,520 particularly with scientists where we're talking about kind of public engagement or science communication. 146 00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:10,070 And this there's always this real kind of like really intense fear of dumbing the science down for a lay audience. 147 00:14:10,070 --> 00:14:18,020 And I wondered if you could say a little bit about kind of what it was like writing or, you know, just generally, obviously the science communication, 148 00:14:18,020 --> 00:14:22,550 what you've done about your experience as a as a researcher who's someone who's got that kind of 149 00:14:22,550 --> 00:14:29,990 scientific background doing the more quote unquote popular science or popular communication? 150 00:14:29,990 --> 00:14:37,340 It's tough at the fundamental problem of science. Communication is that balance between content, 151 00:14:37,340 --> 00:14:42,590 meaning having something that is scientifically accurate to the best of our knowledge and is 152 00:14:42,590 --> 00:14:49,370 truthful and weaving a story that people actually wants to listen to or read about or watch. 153 00:14:49,370 --> 00:14:55,970 Because, you know, a perfectly just just reading the IPCC report for the context of climate change, for example, 154 00:14:55,970 --> 00:15:00,860 would probably be a video that I could make that would be the most accurate thing I could possibly produce. 155 00:15:00,860 --> 00:15:05,240 But the problem with that would be nobody would watch it, but maybe some people would. 156 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:12,260 I don't know. Maybe I could do an ASMR reading of the IPCC report just to have the maximum number of acronyms in the title 157 00:15:12,260 --> 00:15:18,320 But it's that's the fundamental challenge, really, and it's something that I've oscillated on over the years, 158 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:24,320 I think, and what I've eventually hit on is you have to pick your battles. 159 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:28,280 And by that, I mean, you have to pick a level of science capital. 160 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:35,660 So you know, this concept of how into science a person is whether that's through their interest, you know, 161 00:15:35,660 --> 00:15:40,970 in terms of podcasts or videos or whatever it is, but also, you know, degrees that they have and things like that. 162 00:15:40,970 --> 00:15:45,200 And I delight in making stuff for a high science capital audience. 163 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:49,190 So when I give talks at universities, I can go into, here's this equation I derive. 164 00:15:49,190 --> 00:15:52,430 Let's talk about all the different components and what they mean, and this is applying it to this data. 165 00:15:52,430 --> 00:15:56,630 And this is why this data comes from and these are the problems with it and the assumptions we make and all this kind of stuff. 166 00:15:56,630 --> 00:16:00,440 That's great. I love doing that. But at the same time, 167 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:10,910 I recognise that aiming for that high science capital audience is aiming for a minuscule component of the people that you could be reaching with. 168 00:16:10,910 --> 00:16:17,450 Second. And furthermore, that the goal of talking to them is to raise their science capital. 169 00:16:17,450 --> 00:16:22,790 But you're only going to raise it by a tiny proportion. It's going to be the thinnest sliver on the top of that. 170 00:16:22,790 --> 00:16:25,040 That science capital on the bar graph. 171 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:34,460 Whereas if you aim for a lower science capital audience, you can do more societal good and raise their science capital by far larger proportional. 172 00:16:34,460 --> 00:16:44,810 And honestly, I think absolute value. And so when I am writing stuff, whether that's the book or whether it's videos, I have this audience in mind. 173 00:16:44,810 --> 00:16:50,000 I sort of have this, this learning objective in mind of who needs to know this? 174 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:55,490 And, you know, what do they need to learn? And therefore, what level do I need to pitch this at? 175 00:16:55,490 --> 00:16:59,870 And once I've done that, in a way, the script kind of writes itself. 176 00:16:59,870 --> 00:17:02,090 I don't know if this is because of my training as a physicist, 177 00:17:02,090 --> 00:17:08,270 but that the whole fundamental thing with physics is you neglect information in order to make a system solvable, 178 00:17:08,270 --> 00:17:12,290 like you make assumptions about there being no resistance or friction or whatever it is. 179 00:17:12,290 --> 00:17:16,580 Radial symmetry in order to be able to write an equation that describes what's going on, 180 00:17:16,580 --> 00:17:22,130 and I feel like that happens with me when I'm writing scripts for for for relatively low science 181 00:17:22,130 --> 00:17:29,030 capital audience in that it forces you to strip down to what is the core essential of this topic. 182 00:17:29,030 --> 00:17:35,190 And once you've got that? Making sure that you're not saying anything that actually contradicts the broader picture, 183 00:17:35,190 --> 00:17:42,150 are you saying anything that if you fill in all those other extraneous details and you put air friction resistance and friction back in? 184 00:17:42,150 --> 00:17:47,280 Are you still correct? And that is really the fundamental problem. 185 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:54,900 It's trying to render something down as simply as possible without making sure that you're not contradicting anything in the broader picture. 186 00:17:54,900 --> 00:17:59,880 And the videos, I felt like I've got that down to a reasonable extent. 187 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:06,870 Now I think I'm OK at that with with the book, the benefit was that I had much, much more time to work on it, 188 00:18:06,870 --> 00:18:14,160 like in the writing process for a YouTube video is typically about a week, whereas, you know, the book was about 18 months to two years. 189 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:21,780 And so it really allowed you to write something and stew and look at it as like, OK, now how would a hydrological researcher look at this paragraph? 190 00:18:21,780 --> 00:18:28,020 What would they say and thinking, Oh, actually, yeah, when you look at it from that angle that that particular adjective is probably not quite right, 191 00:18:28,020 --> 00:18:33,270 let's change that to be, you know, rather than significant use substantial or something like that. 192 00:18:33,270 --> 00:18:43,440 So it's something that definitely gets easier the longer you do it, but also gets easier, the more time you have to do it for a given thing. 193 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:49,130 Yeah. So on that on that note about the kind of the time and the process of writing the book, 194 00:18:49,130 --> 00:18:55,920 you said that Hodder and Stoughton got in touch with you through the YouTube series and 195 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,370 what you went for a meeting and you had you had kind of a proposal already. 196 00:18:59,370 --> 00:19:06,960 Can you can you talk a little bit about kind of the process of, I guess, agreeing and doing a formal proposal to write the book? 197 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:12,690 And then also like the big question of what is it like to write a book? 198 00:19:12,690 --> 00:19:16,260 Well, the big question, well, I mean, I'm like, OK, right, that's OK for you, those in order. 199 00:19:16,260 --> 00:19:22,260 So in terms of I went into their offices in London and I met up with my editor iIan Wong who was 200 00:19:22,260 --> 00:19:27,000 very enthusiastic and he knew me from my videos and was obviously very keen to work together. 201 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:31,620 And he basically said, Have you got any ideas? And I I I tried to low roll. 202 00:19:31,620 --> 00:19:36,660 There's this idea that I've been so stewing for years and years and sort of pitched that. 203 00:19:36,660 --> 00:19:43,920 And basically, we agreed on the day that this is something that's interesting, and I'm pretty sure the publisher would like to go through with this. 204 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,260 What? So I'll send you an email with all the details. 205 00:19:46,260 --> 00:19:52,470 And then I go back home and then got an email from Ian saying, Right, I want you to fill out a proposal and what that is. 206 00:19:52,470 --> 00:19:57,570 And he sort of walked me through and it was basically saying to the publisher, who I am, 207 00:19:57,570 --> 00:20:03,780 why I should be trusted to write a book, what my credentials, why I think people would be interested in this topic. 208 00:20:03,780 --> 00:20:07,170 You know, what's the selling points of the book? And then a writing sample. 209 00:20:07,170 --> 00:20:13,530 So basically, what ended up actually being, I think, almost entirely the introduction chapter of the book. 210 00:20:13,530 --> 00:20:20,850 So it was a couple of thousand words like not very many that allowed them to see what my authorial voice was like. 211 00:20:20,850 --> 00:20:30,660 And I remember I so clearly remember writing that in a Wetherspoons in Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire, which is where I lived at the time. 212 00:20:30,660 --> 00:20:32,350 I used to go into towns like do a bit of work, 213 00:20:32,350 --> 00:20:39,510 and there's an image of me with a pint of Diet Coke in the middle of the day and this almost empty Wetherspoons writing this book proposal, 214 00:20:39,510 --> 00:20:41,790 which I eventually finished and sent over. 215 00:20:41,790 --> 00:20:47,250 And there's a brief period of deliberation, like a couple of days and they got back together like, great, we want to green light it. 216 00:20:47,250 --> 00:20:53,190 We're noe going to talk about contracts. And at that point, I realised I probably should have should get myself a literary agent. 217 00:20:53,190 --> 00:21:03,720 And I just so happened to have a friend of mine who had just written a book and you know, it was Andrew Steele. 218 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:05,370 I should probably give him a shout out, actually. 219 00:21:05,370 --> 00:21:12,660 Andrew Steele, who wrote a book called Ageless about the Science of Ageing, and he had a literary agent that heintroduced me to. 220 00:21:12,660 --> 00:21:16,890 And basically, he liked the sound of the project as well. So he agreed to represent me. 221 00:21:16,890 --> 00:21:22,680 And then he spoke to the publishers and we got a contracts hashed out, which we then signed. 222 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:26,340 And it was basically then right? You've got a year. 223 00:21:26,340 --> 00:21:34,170 I think it was. It wasn't exactly. It was about a year to write this project and that was the start of 2020. 224 00:21:34,170 --> 00:21:38,880 And then everything went tits up and the whole plan. 225 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:46,530 What a time to start? Yeah, it really was. And especially because I got covid quite early on in the pandemic in the first couple of months. 226 00:21:46,530 --> 00:21:50,880 So I immediately I was like, right, I'm like a month behind already. 227 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:55,140 I think we're going to need to realistically change this delivery date. 228 00:21:55,140 --> 00:22:01,290 And and also, it changed how I wanted to write the book because originally my plan was to go to 229 00:22:01,290 --> 00:22:04,920 the Met Office and talk to people in the archives and feature interviews with 230 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:09,870 people and actually put myself into the book a little bit more a bit like how Naomi 231 00:22:09,870 --> 00:22:14,310 Klein does this and some of her her works and sort of be a character as it were. 232 00:22:14,310 --> 00:22:18,720 And that just was not going to happen because travel was just going to be totally impossible. 233 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:26,370 So we ended up pushing the delivery date back a bit, and I just sort of got my head down and started working on it. 234 00:22:26,370 --> 00:22:30,680 I mean, originally, the plan that I had. 235 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:35,870 Was to much like you'd write a paper, I suppose, was to write out all of your research to, 236 00:22:35,870 --> 00:22:39,710 you know, find all these these books for every chapter you're going to write buy a bunch of books, 237 00:22:39,710 --> 00:22:45,820 take notes from each of them, find articles online, find papers, take notes and then coalesce those all together into a chapter. 238 00:22:45,820 --> 00:22:52,350 And I did that for one chapter, and it took me about two or three months. So it was totally unfeasible for the rest of the book. 239 00:22:52,350 --> 00:22:57,560 And so what I ended up doing was more of a kind of rolling road approach of I had a structure. 240 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,220 I knew what was going to go into each chapter and I knew what the big points were going to be in each chapter. 241 00:23:01,220 --> 00:23:06,110 Because at the end of the day, when you writing an introductory text, you know the science that you're talking about. 242 00:23:06,110 --> 00:23:10,130 But what you don't know is all the detail that goes in between. 243 00:23:10,130 --> 00:23:14,690 It's all the historical detail and the fleshing out of characters and little bits of 244 00:23:14,690 --> 00:23:18,110 information that you can drop in here and there that really make the book what it is. 245 00:23:18,110 --> 00:23:29,090 That's the that's what hangs on the skeleton of the science. So I ended up just sort of researching and writing, not immediately writing something. 246 00:23:29,090 --> 00:23:34,550 As soon as you researched it but sort of pulling together a document, pulling together notes and then doing a bit at a time. 247 00:23:34,550 --> 00:23:38,360 And originally, my strategy was I would write for an hour a day. 248 00:23:38,360 --> 00:23:42,800 That was my my goal in my notion database for every day, write for one hour. 249 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:50,690 And I found that what happened was I would just sort of open my word document and you'd piddle around for a bit and then go, 250 00:23:50,690 --> 00:23:54,890 Oh, would you look at that? And time was up. I've done my objective and then carry on with the rest of my day. 251 00:23:54,890 --> 00:24:01,040 And it meant I wasn't writing enough, so I switched to writing a certain number of words a day. 252 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:07,970 And originally I think it was 100 words in a day, which is a pitiful writing target, but is very achievable. 253 00:24:07,970 --> 00:24:12,290 So what you and I inevitably did was I would write 100 words and go, Well, 254 00:24:12,290 --> 00:24:18,380 yeah, but I've got the laptop open now, and I felt like kind of in the flow. So I'll just keep going and you end up writing a couple of hundred words. 255 00:24:18,380 --> 00:24:25,880 And then gradually just upping the workcount I wanted to write per day, so eventually writing 500 words a day and then a thousand. 256 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:35,090 I think towards the end of the process, right at the end when I had the book in my head and I just needed to flesh out the last few bits and, 257 00:24:35,090 --> 00:24:37,160 you know, basically do the set dressing. 258 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:42,770 I think I was writing two or three thousand words a day, but that was because the words were already written in my head. 259 00:24:42,770 --> 00:24:49,790 I just had to put them down on on keyboard. And yeah, that was sort of this little bit of a little bit of a mad rush to some. 260 00:24:49,790 --> 00:24:54,650 Suppose anybody who's done a thesis or writing a dissertation will have experienced as well. Towards the end, when you have that, 261 00:24:54,650 --> 00:25:01,160 that concept and you just want to get it down and then delivered that first draft of the manuscript and foolishly, 262 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:05,420 I thought that was what I was mostly finished. But then obviously you have to do a bunch of edits. 263 00:25:05,420 --> 00:25:11,180 And originally there's there's the round of edits where you speak to your editor and you effectively ask, 264 00:25:11,180 --> 00:25:17,180 right are all the chapters in the right order and are the points in each chapter in the right chapter. 265 00:25:17,180 --> 00:25:19,730 And once you've done that, then doing a second round of edits, 266 00:25:19,730 --> 00:25:24,290 so you're saying right are all the paragraphs in each chapter in the right order, are they 267 00:25:24,290 --> 00:25:25,160 Is there a logical flow? 268 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:34,220 Is there a story that's being told here and then going through a copy editor goes through and kind of goes word by word is everything spelled correctly? 269 00:25:34,220 --> 00:25:40,550 Is the grammar correct? Well, this kind of stuff. And then you get a copy editor who will go in sorry no 270 00:25:40,550 --> 00:25:43,640 That's the copy editor. Then you get a proof reader who comes in and does the same thing. 271 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:49,190 And you'll get notes from each stage of this, where the the amount of work you do generally decreases with each step. 272 00:25:49,190 --> 00:25:52,820 But every time you'll get a big document, they'll say, right, these are the suggested changes. 273 00:25:52,820 --> 00:25:58,250 Review them. You don't have to do them, but we think you should do these things. And so there's that big block of work. 274 00:25:58,250 --> 00:26:04,700 And then a kind of spaced repetition almost of going through with a fair bit of work and then a little bit of work and then a tiny bit of work. 275 00:26:04,700 --> 00:26:13,670 And then eventually you get what you think is the finished book and you record the audiobook for it or in my case, I did. 276 00:26:13,670 --> 00:26:22,250 And you go into the booth and then you find a whole bunch of other stuff that you want to change and things that are very minor typos. 277 00:26:22,250 --> 00:26:28,280 That have just been missed up until now, and sometimes they'll be version problems where they'll be two versions of a paragraph. 278 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:35,440 That one's slightly different, but for some reason the old ones are still there. And that's like the final time you have, you know, 279 00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:39,740 it's like gradually taking your hands off the wheel of a car and originally you're gripping on really tight. 280 00:26:39,740 --> 00:26:44,990 And then eventually it's sort of like letting Jesus take the wheel. Eventually, you've just got like a finger on it. 281 00:26:44,990 --> 00:26:51,530 And then as you record the audiobook and you send off the last sort of few bullet points to change the last few atoms of your skin, 282 00:26:51,530 --> 00:26:58,900 leave the wheel, and suddenly it's completely out of your hands and it's getting printed 10000 times and it's being sent all over the world. 283 00:26:58,900 --> 00:27:06,980 So that's kind of what it's like to write a book. I was interested about what you said about the audiobook, actually, and about reading. 284 00:27:06,980 --> 00:27:20,010 I'm reading if I'm. Because I mean, partly personally, I can't imagine anything I would hate more than recording something that I had written. 285 00:27:20,010 --> 00:27:23,740 But. What, what was that like? 286 00:27:23,740 --> 00:27:26,950 What was that like? Because that's a whole other machine. 287 00:27:26,950 --> 00:27:37,030 Yeah, I mean, so I the only analogy analogy that I can make is that so the other thing that I do in my spare time, 288 00:27:37,030 --> 00:27:47,050 I paint models, so I paint Warhammer. And it's like spending what you think is a really long period of time on a model and getting it perfect. 289 00:27:47,050 --> 00:27:50,500 You're looking at for every angle and you think that's absolutely where I want it to be. 290 00:27:50,500 --> 00:27:55,450 And then you put it under somebody basically pulls you aside and says, for the next two days, 291 00:27:55,450 --> 00:28:01,090 you're going to be looking at that thing through a microscope and you're going to write down every little thing that you find wrong with it. 292 00:28:01,090 --> 00:28:05,770 And as a process, I'm sure that it has made me better as an author. 293 00:28:05,770 --> 00:28:11,470 And it's made me better as a narrator. But it was a massive hit to self-confidence. 294 00:28:11,470 --> 00:28:17,470 It was definitely a massive hits to thinking that I knew what I was doing in the first place. 295 00:28:17,470 --> 00:28:23,980 Because, yeah, it just exposes every little thing that you've done wrong because there is no room for interpretation. 296 00:28:23,980 --> 00:28:30,220 There is no at no point are you allowed to change what is actually written on the page unless there is an actual mistake. 297 00:28:30,220 --> 00:28:33,460 You have to read out every syllable as you wrote it. 298 00:28:33,460 --> 00:28:37,600 You can't use contractions. You can't switch the order of words around. 299 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:43,990 If you do, they'll be a little voice in your ear that will say, Nope, sorry, you've got to do that again. And so it locks you into to what you have done. 300 00:28:43,990 --> 00:28:50,410 And it was two days that were about eight hours each in a booth of just reading stuff 301 00:28:50,410 --> 00:28:56,060 that I'd written and going over a real journey with that because I realised that, 302 00:28:56,060 --> 00:29:03,160 as I said, I assume most authors do. I started writing the book at the start and then worked my way through. 303 00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:06,820 And that means that you find your your voice as you, as you go. 304 00:29:06,820 --> 00:29:13,690 Sure. And you will then loop back to the start after you found your voice and you know what you're doing and you'll edit what you wrote. 305 00:29:13,690 --> 00:29:17,290 But even then, I found the first couple of chapters. 306 00:29:17,290 --> 00:29:20,680 I was like, Oh, this isn't. This isn't quite what I wanted it to be. 307 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:24,640 It's fine, and everybody has been very lovely about it and we've not had any negative feedback. 308 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:31,570 It's all about the first few chapters, but to me, I didn't think they matched up to the image that I had in my head of the of the book. 309 00:29:31,570 --> 00:29:33,280 By the end of it, by the second day, 310 00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:41,080 I was really in the flow of it and I was better at narrating in that I was tripping up less and I wasn't mangling my words quite so frequently. 311 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:47,320 So you'd actually go over a couple of pages at a time without fouling up and having to start again. 312 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,810 But also, I felt like the book really got into its own. 313 00:29:49,810 --> 00:29:56,920 And so that was that was a real kind of journey of going in very naive, being really smacked down in terms of self-confidence. 314 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:04,250 And then by the end of it finding, actually, you know what? This is, OK? You've done pretty well with this book, I think. 315 00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:16,160 Yeah, and that must be really, really challenging as well for someone who's used to YouTube as a medium and speaking much more. 316 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:27,800 Fluidly and freely, I guess, or improvising? Yeah, that's the word, and having total control over and sole control over what I make, 317 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:33,140 I don't have to put things through 20 people in order for a final product to come out. 318 00:30:33,140 --> 00:30:38,060 The other end, if I wanted to, I could turn on my camera right now, film a video. 319 00:30:38,060 --> 00:30:43,100 Not even edit it at all if I didn't want to just put it on YouTube, and it goes out to my audience. 320 00:30:43,100 --> 00:30:45,950 And you know, that's not something I'd ever do, but it's not. 321 00:30:45,950 --> 00:30:51,440 But I like having that control and having having that sort of final say over the stuff that I make. 322 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:57,980 So definitely adapting to being limited in that sense, and it was limiting in terms of the audiobook. 323 00:30:57,980 --> 00:31:03,830 But also, you know, when you're writing the book, you're obviously having to work through other people and having people caution you and say, 324 00:31:03,830 --> 00:31:10,460 Actually, I don't think this works and all that kind of stuff. It was it was a definite shift, and I think it has made me better. 325 00:31:10,460 --> 00:31:14,180 And the book is undeniably better for that process. 326 00:31:14,180 --> 00:31:17,240 And I think it's also made better as as an author, because at the end of the day, 327 00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:24,200 I'm borrowing other people's expertise and hopefully using that to improve my content going forwards. 328 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:34,720 But yeah, it's a definite change to what I was used to. And so moving kind of forward to the kind of the publication of it, so I mean, 329 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:39,520 I'm interested to know what that was like to have it to finally have the book in front of you. 330 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:45,490 Yeah, I mean, that was so I. 331 00:31:45,490 --> 00:31:49,240 There had been several moments where I've been kind of like, Oh my gosh, 332 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:58,000 I'm writing a book like I have written a book and, you know, submitting the the manuscript. 333 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:04,480 The final version of the manuscript is one of them. Seeing the proofs of what the outside was going to look like was another one. 334 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:10,270 See what the you know, the typeset version of the book. A PDF of what it was actually going to look like on the page was another. 335 00:32:10,270 --> 00:32:15,860 But the ultimate one was a couple of weeks before it was released holding it in my hands. 336 00:32:15,860 --> 00:32:21,920 They sent me a box of about 12 of them to distribute to people, and I was just sort of struck dumb. 337 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:26,000 That was it was a really emotional moment to hold this thing that I've. 338 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:34,010 I spent so long on, but also it was this ambition I'd had for years and years and years to to write it was a it was a really, 339 00:32:34,010 --> 00:32:36,680 really big moment for me. 340 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:43,640 And in a way, I told myself that because of all of that, because I'd had that big resonant emotional connection holding the book. 341 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:50,960 I thought that the actual release date itself wouldn't be that significant because we'd actually had some press before then. 342 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:55,670 And I'd had sort of reviews from people who I'd sent early copies, too, which were very nice. 343 00:32:55,670 --> 00:33:01,130 And, you know, I just didn't think that was very much to do itself on the day. But it still was a whirlwind. 344 00:33:01,130 --> 00:33:06,410 It was still absolutely overwhelming because you you put the post out on social media and everybody's, 345 00:33:06,410 --> 00:33:11,210 you know, sort of overwhelming with congratulations and everything like that on on Twitter and on Instagram. 346 00:33:11,210 --> 00:33:15,470 And I did a livestream on Twitch where I was answering people's questions and I did a bit of reading. 347 00:33:15,470 --> 00:33:20,120 And the day just flew by. Like, I had very few things to do that day. 348 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:25,940 And I'm glad of that because I just I there was no way I was going to be able to do anything else. 349 00:33:25,940 --> 00:33:29,690 I was just so emotionally spent trying to keep up. 350 00:33:29,690 --> 00:33:35,180 It was almost like, hold the day was going away from me and I was just trying to keep a handle on it and keep a handle on what was going on. 351 00:33:35,180 --> 00:33:42,980 So, yeah, it was totally overwhelming and something that I think I'm just about. 352 00:33:42,980 --> 00:33:49,070 OK with the idea now that I have published a book and it's in shops all over the all over the world now, 353 00:33:49,070 --> 00:33:55,280 and people have been very nice about it and people have written nice reviews. And I previously I understood that in abstract. 354 00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:00,080 I think now I actually I believe it and actually understand that it's something that matters. 355 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:05,300 And so what? What's happened since, you know, after that kind of really intense day of publication day? 356 00:34:05,300 --> 00:34:16,850 What what's happened sense in terms of, you know, publicity for the book or, you know, what opportunities have you got as a result of doing the book? 357 00:34:16,850 --> 00:34:20,210 Yeah, I mean, I've done quite a few literary festivals. 358 00:34:20,210 --> 00:34:25,910 I was in Warwick University of Warwick last week and previously I had talks in Bath and Bristol and London. 359 00:34:25,910 --> 00:34:30,020 I'm off to Hexham later this year. I actually just got invited to the I. 360 00:34:30,020 --> 00:34:38,510 Hopefully I'm allowed to say this to the Jersey Literary Festival, which is amazing because I love Jersey as an island. 361 00:34:38,510 --> 00:34:46,910 So, yeah, you know, there have been great opportunities to travel as a result. I think it gives you a certain level of second gravitas. 362 00:34:46,910 --> 00:34:54,830 If you if you have a book and you know that that is, I think, probably going to be around for a little while. 363 00:34:54,830 --> 00:34:58,700 The other thing which has happened is that I am now constantly thinking of and my publishers, 364 00:34:58,700 --> 00:35:03,570 asked me about, you know, doing another one, and it's a process that I would like to repeat 365 00:35:03,570 --> 00:35:10,580 And so, you know, every pretty much every day now I've just mulling over ideas in my head about like, what do I think is important? 366 00:35:10,580 --> 00:35:14,210 How would I change what I did before? 367 00:35:14,210 --> 00:35:23,240 Yeah, like the stuff now that is sort of I think I have it in my head that I like writing books and I would like to write more of them. 368 00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:27,680 And that's something that I imagine is going to only intensify and grow over the years. 369 00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,470 And eventually, I do not want to stop making YouTube videos, 370 00:35:30,470 --> 00:35:36,110 but maybe eventually I'll be author and part time YouTuber rather than the other way around, 371 00:35:36,110 --> 00:35:44,960 because that was going to be my next question is the kind of the what next in terms of, you know, continuing with the YouTube channel. 372 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:53,610 Obviously, you know what? If the kind of the goal that you were trying to manifest was the right in the book, what's what's next? 373 00:35:53,610 --> 00:35:58,590 What's the next thing that you're kind of thinking about that you'd like to do? 374 00:35:58,590 --> 00:36:07,050 I mean, I would love to the project that I think is most would be the most valuable to do is a book about geoengineering, 375 00:36:07,050 --> 00:36:12,420 and that's something that I didn't quite deliberately didn't cover in firmament. 376 00:36:12,420 --> 00:36:21,030 But I think it's worth its own book and introduce people to what I unfortunately think he's going to be a big political issue 377 00:36:21,030 --> 00:36:28,470 this century is this idea of should we deliberately change the climate to undo some of the damage that we've previously done? 378 00:36:28,470 --> 00:36:34,170 And there are a couple of other things that are mulling around my head, but that's the one I keep coming back to. 379 00:36:34,170 --> 00:36:41,550 So in the short to medium term, I imagine that it would look like my future is going to involve making that. 380 00:36:41,550 --> 00:36:48,270 And if that one does well as well, because you know, Firmament has certainly done, it's far out performed my expectations in terms of sales. 381 00:36:48,270 --> 00:36:53,940 And Hodder and Stoughton have been very, very happy with it. So another one goes, Well, then who knows, 382 00:36:53,940 --> 00:37:00,510 maybe this is something this maybe this is sort of the way that things are for me for the foreseeable future is doing a book every couple of years. 383 00:37:00,510 --> 00:37:10,140 And if that involves me getting to meet interesting people and visit interesting places and just have to write about it, then that's that's fantastic. 384 00:37:10,140 --> 00:37:20,090 I'm very happy with that. It's incredibly, incredibly exciting, and I usually kind of try and finish things up by saying, you know, 385 00:37:20,090 --> 00:37:26,490 if if there's one of our kind of researchers out there who's listening to this, who's thinking? 386 00:37:26,490 --> 00:37:35,040 You know, science communication sounds like a really exciting career path and something that I might want to investigate, 387 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:41,470 what kind of advice would you give, particularly what they're still doing their research degree about what they might. 388 00:37:41,470 --> 00:37:48,810 Explore what opportunities to make the most of, to kind of put them in a really good place when they're coming out of it to. 389 00:37:48,810 --> 00:37:55,610 Yeah, perhaps think about going into. So the the toughest piece of advice I was ever given, 390 00:37:55,610 --> 00:38:03,950 and this was fortunately very early on when I was making videos was also the piece of advice that I give everyone because I think it's very true, 391 00:38:03,950 --> 00:38:09,620 which is you have to accept the fact that the first hundred videos you make will suck. 392 00:38:09,620 --> 00:38:15,830 And it's just unavoidable because you're not very good at it. But every time you make a video that sucks, 393 00:38:15,830 --> 00:38:22,070 you get a little bit better and you get to the point where you've learnt enough enough mistakes and you've 394 00:38:22,070 --> 00:38:28,130 learnt enough lessons that actually you can probably make something that's half decent on your first attempt. 395 00:38:28,130 --> 00:38:33,500 And it's the same in any other field. It's the same in drawing, you know, I think it's is it Chuck Larry? 396 00:38:33,500 --> 00:38:40,850 He was the artist for Bugs Bunny, said that every artist has a million bad drawings in their pencil, and it's your job as an artist to push them out. 397 00:38:40,850 --> 00:38:42,470 And eventually you get to the good ones. 398 00:38:42,470 --> 00:38:49,250 Or if you're writing the first piece of writing you have to do is going to be bad, but the next piece will be better because you learn from it. 399 00:38:49,250 --> 00:38:59,540 And if you are interested in making stuff, if you're interested in communicating science in a particular format, then don't worry about doing it well. 400 00:38:59,540 --> 00:39:03,140 And don't worry about doing it. When you're doing it full time, just start doing it. 401 00:39:03,140 --> 00:39:08,930 Just make stuff, because the first step to being good at something is being bad at something. 402 00:39:08,930 --> 00:39:14,930 And that is the hardest step. I think actually is to take that initial step of I just I want to do something. 403 00:39:14,930 --> 00:39:20,270 This is this. I like the idea of making a podcast. I'm just going to make it, and it will probably be bad. 404 00:39:20,270 --> 00:39:25,820 But the next time around, you'll probably learn from it quite quickly, and the second thing you make will be a lot better. 405 00:39:25,820 --> 00:39:30,080 And sure, maybe the first, you know, it might not be 100. It might be 10 or 20. 406 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,950 Things that you try are going to not be popular. 407 00:39:33,950 --> 00:39:35,060 They're not going be very good, 408 00:39:35,060 --> 00:39:41,360 but you're not going to get to the point to make something that will be good and will be popular without making those other projects. 409 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:48,350 So, so if you are interested in doing this down the line, don't think in terms like down the line, 410 00:39:48,350 --> 00:39:54,800 start doing it now and start learning those lessons whilst you're still in a structure, like doing a Ph.D. or lecturing or a postdoc. 411 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:59,240 That gives you that flexibility, and it means that you're not dependent on doing this. 412 00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:03,080 It's almost like a bird growing feathers before it tries to flee the nest. 413 00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:07,610 Like you don't hop out of the nest and then hope that you grow feathers on the way down. 414 00:40:07,610 --> 00:40:16,430 You get to the point where you're able to take off. And whilst you're still in a safe environment, so definitely just start making stuff. 415 00:40:16,430 --> 00:40:21,980 And in terms of getting the message out there, I'd also recommend people to develop social media platforms. 416 00:40:21,980 --> 00:40:26,630 So it depends. It's entirely down to personal taste and sort of the audience you're trying to reach. 417 00:40:26,630 --> 00:40:33,950 I developed my Twitter and my YouTube, obviously, as I was going through the Ph.D., but allows you to signal boost something. 418 00:40:33,950 --> 00:40:38,450 It means that you make something and you boost it to an initial audience of people who, if it's good, 419 00:40:38,450 --> 00:40:41,780 will then boost it to other people and they'll bosst it to other people and so on and so on. 420 00:40:41,780 --> 00:40:48,470 But you have that little Kickstart so that starter engine for, for attention and publicity, for the stuff that you've made. 421 00:40:48,470 --> 00:40:48,920 And of course, 422 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:56,150 the way the best way to do that is grow what your your social media presence is to start making stuff and for people to start organically finding you. 423 00:40:56,150 --> 00:41:00,950 And eventually, the content will get to the point where it stands on its own two feet. 424 00:41:00,950 --> 00:41:07,160 And the social media profile will get to the point where people want to find you based on the merits of the stuff that you're making, 425 00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:13,070 rather than necessarily just being your mates or your research group or whatever. And there's no hack to that. 426 00:41:13,070 --> 00:41:16,820 The unfortunate thing is you just got to you've got to start and grind it out. 427 00:41:16,820 --> 00:41:23,630 And the longer you put off starting that process, the longer it's going to be until you reach that end point. 428 00:41:23,630 --> 00:41:30,020 So start growing your feathers now and start making stuff. What a brilliant note to end on 429 00:41:30,020 --> 00:41:35,840 Thank you so much to Simon for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to talk to me. 430 00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:39,470 And yeah what he says. Go out there and try stuff. 431 00:41:39,470 --> 00:41:42,530 I know in my career in very different ways. 432 00:41:42,530 --> 00:41:52,860 To Simon, trying new things and being willing to fail at them have kind of led to the really the best parts of my job and my career. 433 00:41:52,860 --> 00:41:58,460 And look out for firmament in a bookshop near you, and that's it for this episode. 434 00:41:58,460 --> 00:42:01,610 Don't forget to like, rate and subscribe and join me. 435 00:42:01,610 --> 00:42:15,330 Next time we'll be talking to somebody else about researchers development and everything in between.    

The elegant universe. Hunt for alien earth. The pendle witch child. The awakening. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/unispirical-muse/support

Theoretical physicist Briane Greene joins Billy and Dom to talk about all things quantum mechanics, string theory, and the origins of our universe. They discuss the Big Bang, black holes, the multiverse theory, and more. Check it out and have your mind blown! Get your Friendship Onion merchandise at https://friendshiponionpodcast.com! Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, where he also serves as the director of Columbia's Center for Theoretical Physics. Greene is recognized for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in his field of superstring theory, including the co-discovery of mirror symmetry and the discovery of spatial topology change. He has authored The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Hidden Reality, and Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe. In 2008, Greene co-founded the World Science Festival, where he serves as Chairman of the Board.  Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes and please be sure to rate, subscribe, and leave a comment/review! Take a screenshot of your Apple review, tag the show on IG and we might feature you on our story! And be sure to follow and add your favorite funky jams to our Spotify playlist "The Friendship Onion." Feel free to leave Billy and Dom a message with your comments, questions, or just to say hello! https://www.speakpipe.com/thefriendshiponion or write us an email at thefriendshiponion@kastmedia.com TFO's IG - @thefriendshiponion Billy's IG - @boydbilly Dom's IG - @dom_monaghan_ Brian's Twitter - @bgreene Right now, Scribd is offering our listeners a FREE 60-day trial.  Go to try.scribd.com/onion Get $10 off a Smart Electric Toothbrush at getquip.com/ONION. Go to GreenChef.com/onion125 and use code onion125 to get $125 off including free shipping! Experience motivation like never before with the Peloton bike, now $400 less. Go to onepeloton.com to learn more. Get 20% off Grammarly Premium by signing up at Grammarly.com/ONION Visit pendulumlife.com to and use promo code ONION for 20% off your first bottle of membership. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the final day of the second annual Big Sky Astrology PODATHON! In this episode: April & Jen celebrate a Venus-ruled Friday and the Venus-ruled Moon in Taurus! We talk about the void-of-course Moon, what the Moon enjoys when it's in Gemini, and answer questions from non-imaginary sponsor Shellie Crow and listener Lara in Denmark, who has us asking the musical question, “What accents??” This week, April & Jen bring you five daily mini-episodes in our Podathon extravaganza! JOIN US for up-close-and-personal looks at each day's aspects! THRILL to our special Podathon theme! And best of all, HEAR ABOUT all the treats and opportunities coming your way as a donor to the podcast! Everyone who pledges $5 or more during our fundraising timeline will receive invitations to two special bonus episodes for this week's equinox and December's solstice! And everyone who pledges $25 or more will be entered in our drawing to win great prizes that can be enjoyed by listeners around the world, including readings with April, a fab astrological poster from The Elegant Universe, and an offering from the Big Sky Astrology online store! DEADLINE: To be entered in the drawing, we must receive your donation of $25 or more no later than SEPTEMBER 30, 2021, at 11:59 pm PACIFIC time. Winners will be announced by email on OCTOBER 4 and also in our OCTOBER 11 episode! Donate at https://www.bigskyastropod.com! Join us for daily PODATHON episodes through Friday, Sep. 24! Make your donation at https://www.bigskyastropod.com. Read a full transcript of this episode: https://www.bigskyastrology.com/transcript-ep-98/ 0:30 – We are brimming with enthusiasm, pep, and verve, as we finish Podathon week! Make your contribution at https://www.bigskyastropod.com. (And to learn about the astrology poster: https://www.tha-elegant-universe.com.) . 5:34 – Friday is ruled by Venus! We talked about the planets' rulership of the days in Ep. 3: https://bit.ly/39vJmSZ . 6:00 – *MOONWATCH* The Taurus Moon joins Uranus (9:56am - ALL TIMES ARE PDT) and opposes Venus at 1:15pm. Beautify your home, get some flowers, have a relaxing day. . 7:18 – Sep. 25, as we recover from the thrill of Podathon, the Moon sextiles Neptune at 12:23am, squares Jupiter at 3:48am, and goes void-of-course (VOC) at 6:09am on a trine to Pluto. . 8:11 – More on the VOC Moon in Ep. 43 (https://bit.ly/3kuEIer) and Ep. 23 (https://bit.ly/39uusMY). The Moon's last aspect before leaving a sign describes how matters of the previous 2-3 days resolve. . 9:15 – With the Moon/Pluto trine, there is the sense of having made some progress about something over the past 2-3 days, if only a change in perspective. Moon enters Gemini at 5:36pm. . 10:42 – The mood of a Gemini Moon is information-heavy. Return phone calls and emails, catch up on your reading, binge Ted Lasso! . 11:42 – On Sep. 25, Mars in Libra trines Saturn in Aquarius at 2:50pm. This is a productive aspect in social air signs; get a group together to accomplish something. . 13:16 – Delightful listener Lara from Denmark asks a good question (in an adorable accent!) about how to understand conjunctions in the birth chart. We resist the urge to burst into song as we answer. Not that she'd mind if we had! . 14:56 – The influence of conjunctions in the chart depends on the planets involved. These planets can only work in tandem – and some are more comfortable together than others! . 18:33 – April responds to a question from non-imaginary sponsor Shellie Crow about April's artwork! Examples at her website: https://www.bigskyastrology.com . 21:01 – That's a wrap on PODATHON II! Thanks for listening, celebrating with us, and of course for your contributions! We're closing in on our 100th episode AND two years of podcasting, and it wouldn't be the same without all of you!

It's Day Four of the second annual Big Sky Astrology PODATHON! In this episode: The Moon in Taurus, and Venus in Scorpio opposed Uranus in Taurus, trigger the larger theme of the ongoing square between Saturn and Uranus – which is, incidentally, the subject of a timely listener email question. Plus: planetary fellowship and cosmic camaraderie! This week, April & Jen bring you five daily mini-episodes in our Podathon extravaganza! JOIN US for up-close-and-personal looks at each day's aspects! THRILL to our special Podathon theme! And best of all, HEAR ABOUT all the treats and opportunities coming your way as a donor to the podcast! Everyone who pledges $5 or more during our fundraising timeline will receive invitations to two special bonus episodes for this week's equinox and December's solstice! And everyone who pledges $25 or more will be entered in our drawing to win great prizes that can be enjoyed by listeners around the world, including readings with April, a fab astrological poster from The Elegant Universe, and an offering from the Big Sky Astrology online store! DEADLINE: To be entered in the drawing, we must receive your donation of $25 or more no later than SEPTEMBER 30, 2021, at 11:59 pm PACIFIC time. Winners will be announced by email on OCTOBER 4 and also in our OCTOBER 11 episode! Donate at https://www.bigskyastropod.com! Join us for daily PODATHON episodes through Friday, Sep. 24! Make your donation at https://www.bigskyastropod.com. We thank you! Read a full transcript of this episode: https://www.bigskyastrology.com/transcript-ep-97/ 0:30 – Join us in fellowship and cosmic camaraderie! And if you love the podcast, please support us with your financial contribution: https://www.bigskyastropod.com. (And to learn about the astrology poster: https://www.tha-elegant-universe.com.) . 5:14 – Venus at 14.19 Scorpio opposes Uranus in Taurus in the wee hours (2:41 am PDT). Venus in Scorpio can get so focused on what it wants that it can overlook other, promising possibilities. But the opposition to Uranus awakens us to other opportunities in relationships or finances that we might otherwise have missed. Create space in your life for new things, and a little breathing room in your relationships. . 8:20 – Venus and Uranus remind us that the Lunar Nodes move into the Scorpio/Taurus axis early next year, and our opening eclipse in those signs is the Nov. 19 Lunar Eclipse in Taurus. We cover these in our donors-only special Equinox episode – donate just $5 to receive access to it, as well as the December Solstice episode! https://www.bigskyastropod.com . 8:54 – MOONWATCH! Today, the Moon enters Taurus at 5:38 am PDT, and it's time to take things slower and easier. Moods are a little more stable when the Moon is in Taurus. But the Moon's square to Saturn (7:40 pm PDT) and conjunction to Uranus (9:56 am PDT), trigger the underlying tension of the ongoing Saturn/Uranus square. Which brings us to… . 11:11 – A timely question from listener Birgitta about how long the Saturn/Uranus square will be plaguing influencing us? These titans meet each other in three exact aspects this year, on Feb. 17, June 14, and Dec. 24. But in Oct. 2022, Saturn stations direct within a hair's breadth of square with Uranus. So throughout most of 2022, we can expect more clashes between regulation/rules and the breaking rules/recreating societal structures. . 13:10 – For more thoughts on the Saturn/Uranus squares, revisit Ep. 69, Saturn and Uranus: That escalated quickly! https://www.bigskyastrology.com/episode-69/

It's Day Three of the second annual Big Sky Astrology PODATHON! In this episode: April psyches Jen out with a new Sunwatch segment to celebrate the Libra Equinox! It's harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere, spring for our antipodal podpals. We then offer a Moonwatch shoutout to today's Aries Moon, including a couple of its key aspects before it turns void-of-course. Plus: peace, positivity, and puppies! This week, April & Jen bring you five daily mini-episodes in our Podathon extravaganza! JOIN US for up-close-and-personal looks at each day's aspects! THRILL to our special Podathon theme! And best of all, HEAR ABOUT all the treats and opportunities coming your way as a donor to the podcast! Everyone who pledges $5 or more during our fundraising timeline will receive invitations to two special bonus episodes for today's equinox and December's solstice! And everyone who pledges $25 or more will be entered in our drawing to win great prizes that can be enjoyed by listeners around the world, including readings with April, a fab astrological poster from The Elegant Universe, and an offering from the Big Sky Astrology online store! DEADLINE: To be entered in the drawing, we must receive your donation of $25 or more no later than SEPTEMBER 30, 2021, at 11:59 pm PACIFIC time. Winners will be announced by email on OCTOBER 4 and also in our OCTOBER 11 episode! Donate at https://www.bigskyastropod.com! Join us for daily PODATHON episodes through Friday, Sep. 24! Make your donation at https://www.bigskyastropod.com. We thank you! Read a full transcript of this episode: https://www.bigskyastrology.com/transcript-ep-96/ 0:30 – This week, April and Jen are putting the fun in fundraising! (And to learn about the astrology poster: https://www.tha-elegant-universe.com.) . 5:43 – The Sun's ingress into the sign of Libra (Sep. 22, 12:21 pm PDT) marks the beginning of autumn and the peak of harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the Southern Hemisphere it's time to plant new seeds for spring. . 6:53 – Libra has a contrary side, sometimes playing Devil's advocate in an attempt to bring balance to a conversation, and it won't hesitate to fight for justice, equality, and fairness. We hasten to add that Libra also lives up to its reputation of loving peace, harmony, and puppies as well. Especially puppies. . 9:53 – Relationships, ruled by Libra, also benefit from the airing of disagreements. And kittens! . 10:34 – More about the Libra Equinox season in our special donor-only episode! Donate just $5 to get access to it! https://www.bigskyastropod.com . 10:49 – Now it's really Moonwatch! The Moon is still in Aries today. Be cautious of heeding an offer represented by the Sun sextile Jupiter at 4:42 pm, because the Moon square Pluto at 5:37 pm PDT suggests there might be something under the surface that could be uncomfortable. . 11:53 – The Moon is void-of-course as of 7:04 pm PDT. (Revisit Ep. 23, Talking Taurus and the Void of Course Moon https://www.bigskyastrology.com/episode-23/ for more on that subject.) . 12:32 – Summing up today, it's about the polarity of the Sun entering Libra and the Moon in Aries, and how we might have to fight for peace, and air disagreements in order to have a solid collaboration with someone.

It's Day Two of the second annual Big Sky Astrology PODATHON! In this episode: a feisty, energetic Moon in Aries; April reeks of Mars; and listener voicemails with eerily similar questions! This week, April & Jen bring you five daily mini-episodes in our Podathon extravaganza! JOIN US for up-close-and-personal looks at each day's aspects! THRILL to our special Podathon theme! And best of all, HEAR ABOUT all the treats and opportunities coming your way as a donor to the podcast! Everyone who pledges $5 or more during our fundraising timeline will receive invitations to two special bonus episodes for this week's equinox and December's solstice! And everyone who pledges $25 or more will be entered in our drawing to win great prizes that can be enjoyed by listeners around the world, including readings with April, a fab astrological poster from The Elegant Universe, and an offering from the Big Sky Astrology online store! DEADLINE: To be entered in the drawing, we must receive your donation of $25 or more no later than SEPTEMBER 30, 2021, at 11:59 pm PACIFIC time. Winners will be announced by email on OCTOBER 4 and also in our OCTOBER 11 episode! Donate at bigskyastropod.com!  Join us for daily PODATHON episodes through Friday, Sep. 24! Make your donation at https://www.bigskyastropod.com. We thank you! Read a full transcript of this episode: https://www.bigskyastrology.com/transcript-ep-95/ 0:30 – We celebrate Tuesday: Mars Day! (And to learn about the astrology poster: https://www.tha-elegant-universe.com.) . 5:38 – ** Moonwatch!** Today the Moon is in Aries. The Moon's sign and aspects symbolize the rhythm, pace, and mood of the day. In Aries, we want to do things quickly! It's a good day for doing something new, since Aries is a pioneer and likes a challenge – especially since the Moon opposes Mars (4:02 am PDT). . 7:34 – April reeks of Mars (but her progressed Sun is in Libra)! . 7:46 – Eerily similar voicemail questions from listeners Elliott (points for spelling!) and Joe, who wonder what it means when the transiting Sun is moving through the sign of one's Moon and/or Ascendant. April offers some thoughts! . 10:46 – The Sun transiting over your Ascendant (once each year) is like your second birthday! The Ascendant is the beginning of the chart, and the Sun there is like sunrise in your birth chart. When the Sun is in this sign, put the spotlight on yourself. . 11:57 – The Sun connecting with your natal Moon is a little more uncomfortable. The Moon wants quiet, comfort, and seclusion, and the Sun crossing over your Moon shines a bright light on your most private places. . 14:07 – The Sun brings recognition and joy, but when it first crosses over, a fierce spotlight is focused on some area of your chart, making you notice things so you can attend to them. . 15:15 – Leave messages at SpeakPipe for future episodes! https://www.speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast

It's Day One of the second annual Big Sky Astrology PODATHON! In this episode, April and Jen take a look at today's dreamy-but-uncomfortable Pisces Full Moon; perhaps Mercury's lovely connection with Jupiter will help! Tonight, the Moon moves into initiating Aries. Plus: secret knowledge, Neptune's effect on cogent thinking, and… does anyone recall what was happening in March of 2020? This week, we bring you five daily mini-episodes in our Podathon extravaganza! JOIN US for an up-close-and-personal look at each day's aspects! THRILL to our special Podathon theme! And best of all, HEAR ABOUT all the treats and opportunities coming your way as a donor to the podcast! Everyone who pledges $5 or more during our fundraising timeline will receive invitations to two special bonus episodes for this week's equinox and December's solstice! And everyone who pledges $25 or more will be entered in our drawing to win great prizes that can be enjoyed by listeners around the world, including readings with April, a fab astrological poster from The Elegant Universe, and an offering from the Big Sky Astrology online store! DEADLINE: To be entered in the drawing, we must receive your donation of $25 or more no later than SEPTEMBER 30, 2021, at 11:59 pm PACIFIC time. Winners will be announced by email on OCTOBER 4 and also in our OCTOBER 11 episode! Donate at https://www.bigskyastropod.com!  Join us for daily PODATHON episodes through Friday, Sep. 24! Make your donation at https://www.bigskyastropod.com. We thank you! Read a full transcript of this episode: https://www.bigskyastrology.com/transcript-ep-94/ 0:30 – It's a fundraising fun-fest! We love that you're joining us! Thank you! (And to learn about the astrology poster: https://www.tha-elegant-universe.com.) . 05:45 – **MOONWATCH ** Podathon week begins with a Full Moon at 28.13 Pisces (Sep. 20, 4:55 pm PDT) on the Sabian Symbol “A prism.” This Full Moon positions the Sun in cerebral Virgo (conjunct Mars) against the dreamy, imaginative Pisces Moon (conjunct Neptune) (spoiler: Pisces/Neptune probably wins). Lunar phase family began at 4.12 Aries on March 24, 2020, with a First Quarter Moon at 0.34 Aries on Dec. 21, 2020. . 9:40 – The Sun's Sabian symbol at the Full Moon is 29 Virgo, “A man gaining secret knowledge from a paper he is reading.” The Sun in Virgo trine Pluto might refer to the “secret knowledge.” Virgo/Mercury appreciate their knowledge in tangible form, while, Pisces/Neptune is less literal, and more intuitive. . 11:01 – Virgo and Pisces's rulers, Mercury and Jupiter, form a trine aspect today (3:53 pm PDT). Together, they can make up something more than the sum of its parts. . 11:59 – The Moon moves into Aries this evening at 8:12 pm PDT, and we'll tell you more about that in tomorrow's episode!    

As a business coach, Dennis helps leaders everyday by asking questions, sharing inspiration, and offering resources. In today's episode, Dennis draws on his years of experience as a coach, providing resources to help you as a leader. By the numbers: one key behavior, two key books, three key films, and four key words. Key behavior: rest. Life and leadership is stressful, and for many of us it can be challenging to leave work at the office. Dennis shares how he has benefited from an annual vacation (away from phones and computers), as well as a weekly rest on Sunday to mentally unwind for the week ahead. Key books. Dennis always keeps two books nearby: the Bible, and one other book. The 'second book' has carried many covers throughout his life, and so Dennis shares his Dirty Dozen that have had the most profound impact on him: 1. Victory over the Darkness by Neil Anderson (Amazon) 2. Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (Amazon) 3. Love is the Killer App by Tim Sanders (Amazon) 4. Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood (Amazon) 5. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene (Amazon) 6. All the Great Prizes by John Taliaferro (Amazon) 7. On Writing by Stephen King (Amazon) 8. Heaven by Randy Alcorn (Amazon) 9. JFK: The Smoking Gun by Colin McLaren (Amazon) 10. Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis (Amazon) 11. The Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant (Amazon) 12. Boots & Saddles by Elizabeth Bacon Custer (Amazon) Key films. 1. The Godfather (Amazon) 2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Amazon) 3. Being There (Amazon) Key words: will you forgive me? Turning a one sided statement of apology into a conversation of forgiveness has profoundly impacted Dennis life and relationships with others. Thanks for listening to Just Around the Corner! Find out more about Dennis, his coaching, and his books at DennisMansfield.com.

Aká je teologická verzia antropického princípu? Je náš vesmír nastavený pre vedomý život? Potrebuje takýto vesmír Dizajnéra?  ----more---- Prečítajte si túto dávku aj ako článok na SME.  Použitá a odporúčaná literatúra: Carroll, The Big Picture, 2017. Davies, Goldilocks Enigma, 2017. Flew, There Is a God, 2007. Greene, The Elegant Universe, 1998. Hawking, Mlodinow, The Grand Design, 2012. Lewis, Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016. Odporúčané videá: Brian Greene, https://youtu.be/xPrpurvoX0Y Brian Greene, TED https://youtu.be/bf7BXwVeyWw Does a Fine-Tuned Universe Lead to God? https://youtu.be/NVbjOkLu2gc Leonard Susskind, https://youtu.be/2cT4zZIHR3s Roger Penrose, https://youtu.be/yDqny7UzyR4 The Fine-Tuning of the Universe, https://youtu.be/EE76nwimuT0 Sean Carroll: Responding to the "Fine Tuning" Argument for God, https://youtu.be/Z9O5wXsgqrc Sean Carroll vs. Luke Barnes, https://youtu.be/nJEWg1ifUCg Is the Universe fine-tuned for life? Sir Roger Penrose vs William Lane Craig, https://youtu.be/OBAbjE-WOJo Súvisiace dávky: PD#188. Astroteológia, https://bitly.com/davka188 PD#108. Betlehemská hviezda, https://bitly.com/davka108  PD#80. Galileo a Cirkev, https://bitly.com/davka80 PD#76. Kopernikova revolúcia, https://bitly.com/davka76 *** Dobré veci potrebujú svoj čas. Staň sa patrónom Tvojho obľúbeného podcastu cez Patreon ❤️ (https://bit.ly/PatreonPD) alebo nás podpor jednorazovo či trvalým príkazom (https://bit.ly/CHCEMpodporit). Ďakujeme!

If we didn't have vast civilizational challenges upon us, we might be living in a constant state of wonder at what science in this century is learning and showing us about the cosmos and about ourselves — the new questions it's giving us to live. We are the generation of our species to map the genome, to detect black holes colliding, to hear gravitational waves. The physicist Brian Greene is one of our greatest interpreters from the human enterprise that is science. And in his most recent thinking and writing, there's a stunning evolution in his own approach to science and life and the matters of purpose and meaning. We delve into his exuberant, cosmic lens on living in the here and the now.Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, where he is also the director of Columbia's Center for Theoretical Physics. He is the co-founder and chairman of the World Science Festival. His books include The Elegant Universe, The Hidden Reality, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and most recently, Until The End Of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

If we didn't have vast civilizational challenges upon us, we might be living in a constant state of wonder at what science in this century is learning and showing us about the cosmos and about ourselves — the new questions it's giving us to live. We are the generation of our species to map the genome, to detect black holes colliding, to hear gravitational waves. The physicist Brian Greene is one of our greatest interpreters from the human enterprise that is science. And in his most recent thinking and writing, there's a stunning evolution in his own approach to science and life and the matters of purpose and meaning. We delve into his exuberant, cosmic lens on living in the here and the now.Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, where he is also the director of Columbia's Center for Theoretical Physics. He is the co-founder and chairman of the World Science Festival. His books include The Elegant Universe, The Hidden Reality, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and most recently, Until The End Of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe.This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Brian Greene — This Tiny Slice of Eternity." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org. 

Connect with Heather: OneGreenThing.org @OneGreenThing on Instagram @MyOneGreenThing on TwitterLinks From This Episode:The book Leslie's mother got for her when she was 19 years old that awakened her interest in physics was Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hyperspace-michio-kaku/1138748797). Some of her other favorite titles are The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene (http://www.briangreene.org/the-elegant-universe/), A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brief-history-of-time-stephen-hawking/1100328875), and Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/relativity-albert-einstein/1100059699). CNN - the Google satellite link, forty years of climate change time-lapse: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/04/15/google-earth-timelapse-zw-orig.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-google/www.350.org  An article on the connection between climate change and covid: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/02/covid-19-and-the-climate-crisis-are-part-of-the-same-battleAn article about people deciding not to have children because of the climate crisis: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/27/climate-apocalypse-fears-stopping-people-having-children-studyThe work of David Quammen: https://www.davidquammen.com/Project Drawdown: https://drawdown.org/The Sunrise Movement: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/?ms=SunriseMovement-WeAreTheClimateRevolutionThe Scientific American article Leslie mentions: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/therapists-are-reckoning-with-eco-anxiety/The image Heather references about the koala that has “mental health issues” https://www.instagram.com/p/CN80qhPJY2P/Some additional information about Freddie Gray: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/20/freddie-gray-death-haunts-man-filmed-video-baltimoreSome additional information about Eric Garner: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video

In conversation with Dennis Overbye, science reporter for the New York Times and author of the books Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos and Einstein in Love ''The single best explainer of abstruse science in the world today'' (Washington Post), Brian Greene is a Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University. His New York Times bestsellers include The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Hidden Reality, and The Elegant Universe, which later served as the basis of two Peabody and Emmy Award–winning NOVA series. Renowned for his watershed discoveries in superstring theory, Greene is the cofounder of the World Science Festival, the Director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics, and a popular cultural figure. Until the End of Time is not just an exploration of the cosmos but also a reflection about our place within the ever-expanding vastness of the universe. (recorded 5/6/2021)

Today's storyteller is Dakota Hilliard! He's an undergraduate at the University of North Dakota here in the US, majoring in astrophysics and minoring in space studies! I asked Dakota to be on the podcast because his enthusiasm for space is infectious (in a good way) and I enjoy following him on Twitter, so I thought it would be fun! I know next to nothing about outer space or astrophysics or anything like that, so Dakota told me all about that. He's very interested in spaceflight and from following him on Twitter I learned there's waaaaay more rocket programs going on right now than I was aware of, so I asked him to teach me all about that. We also talk about extreme weather, like hurricanes and tornadoes, and chasing the aurora borealis. Also I've had very few undergrads on the pod so far so that was an additional reason I invited Dakota on and also to prove that there's no gates round here - if you have something STEMM related you want to share no matter where you are in your education or career, let's talk! You can find how to contact me in the show notes. Anyway enjoy the episode! --- You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42. You can find Dakota Hilliard on Twitter @ItsAstroKota and his book is Poems From a Stargazer. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/home/index.html Book List: Poems From a Stargazer (Dakota's book), The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson, The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack Episodes referenced in this episode: "my friend Dave" is Dave Nussbaum (Episode 40) Recorded on 17 January 2021.

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The international bestseller that inspired a major Nova special and sparked a new understanding of the universe, now with a new preface and epilogue. Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away layers of mystery to reveal a universe that consists of eleven dimensions, where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter―from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas―is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy. The Elegant Universe makes some of the most sophisticated concepts ever contemplated accessible and thoroughly entertaining, bringing us closer than ever to understanding how the universe works.

The bestselling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos tackles perhaps the most mind-bending question in modern physics and cosmology: Is our universe the only universe? There was a time when "universe" meant all there is. Everything. Yet, a number of theories are converging on the possibility that our universe may be but one among many parallel universes populating a vast multiverse. Here, Briane Greene, one of our foremost physicists and science writers, takes us on a breathtaking journey to a multiverse comprising an endless series of big bangs, a multiverse with duplicates of every one of us, a multiverse populated by vast sheets of spacetime, a multiverse in which all we consider real are holographic illusions, and even a multiverse made purely of math--and reveals the reality hidden within each. Using his trademark wit and precision, Greene presents a thrilling survey of cutting-edge physics and confronts the inevitable question: How can fundamental science progress if great swaths of reality lie beyond our reach? The Hidden Reality is a remarkable adventure through a world more vast and strange than anything we could have imagined.

From Brian Greene, one of the world's leading physicists and author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Elegant Universe, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way. Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past? Greene has set himself a daunting task: to explain non-intuitive, mathematical concepts like String Theory, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Inflationary Cosmology with analogies drawn from common experience. From Newton's unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein's fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics' entangled arena where vastly distant objects can instantaneously coordinate their behavior, Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd.

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-selling 2000 book of the same name. In this episode, we talk about his latest popular book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe (Random House, 2020) Until the End of Time gives the reader a theory of everything, both in the sense of a “state of the academic union”, covering cosmology and evolution, consciousness and computation, and art and religion, and in the sense of showing us a way to apprehend the often existentially challenging subject matter. Greene uses evocative autobiographical vignettes in the book to personalize his famously lucid and accessible explanations, and we discuss these episodes further in the interview. Greene also reiterates his arguments for embedding a form of spiritual reverie within the multiple naturalistic descriptions of reality that different areas of human knowledge have so far produced. John Weston is a University Teacher of English in the Language Centre at Aalto University, Finland. His research focuses on academic communication. He can be reached at john.weston@aalto.fi and @johnwphd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Garrett Lisi, the so called "Surf Bum with a Theory of Everything (or T.O.E.)", is a PhD theoretical physicist who has refused to be captured by the theoretical physics community. By making shrewd investments, he has avoided holding meaningful employment for his entire adult life. Instead, he lives in Maui and travels the world chasing the perfect wave. In this episode Garrett and Eric sit down to discuss the current status of Garrett's ideas for a final theory based on a mysterious object called E8, perhaps the oddest of mathematical symmetries to be found in the universe.  Garrett and Eric have held each other in mutual “contempt” for over a decade. By vacationing together and staying in each others' homes, they had hoped to hone and deepen their mutual disgust for each other's ideas. However, as the theoretical physics community moved away from actually trying to unify our incompatible models of the physical world, it became intellectually unmoored, and drifted toward a culture of performative Cargo Cult Physics. The antagonists were thus forced by necessity to develop a begrudging admiration for each other's iconoclasm and unwillingness to give up on the original dream of Einstein to unify and understand our world.  The discussion is rough but a fairly accurate depiction of scientific relationships belonging to a type that is generally not shown to the public. This may be uncomfortable for those who have been habituated to NOVA, The Elegant Universe, or other shows produced for mass consumption. We apologize in advance. Skillshare: Get two months free when you sign up at Skillshare.com/PORTAL Wine Access: Get $100 off your first purchase of $250 or more at Wineaccess.com/PORTAL Chili: Save up to $300 on Chili sleep systems visit Chilitechnology.com/PORTAL Blinkist: Try it FREE for 7 days AND save 25% off your new subscription Blinkist.com/PORTAL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our special guest today is Brian Greene. Brian is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and, is renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory, including the co-discovery of mirror symmetry and of spatial topology change. He is known to the public through his books, The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and The Hidden Reality, which have collectively spent 65 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. The Washington Post called him “the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today.” He has also co-founded the World Science Festival and is the Director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics. I first heard an interview with him about a year ago, where he was discussing the science in science fiction films and I couldn't imagine a more perfect guest for our podcast. Follow Professor Greene on twitter @bgreene, on his website www.briangreene.org/ and www.worldsciencefestival.com/ Please send any questions or suggestions to ask@experienceperception.com

Books cited: Too Dumb to Fail by Matt K. Lewis (listen to his interview in Episode 21) The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene   Blog post reading: The Body's Guide to the Stages of Life

We tend to think of imitation as the opposite of innovation but I don't believe this is true. “Opposite” indicates opposed positions, left and right. But my observation is that innovation and imitation are usually the second and third positions in a continuing circle that has improvisation as its starting point. Here's how that circle is usually drawn: You are faced with a problem for which you have no solution, so you improvise. Or a known and trusted solution fails to perform as it has in the past, so you improvise. It is through such improvisation that innovation is most often discovered. Then, when the innovation has proven to be more efficient, it is imitated again and again to become our new state-of-the-art. It will be touted as a “best practice” for a while, then lose its luster to become merely the status quo, “the way things are done.” Yesterday's brilliant innovation then becomes traditional wisdom, and as new circumstances arise, we begin to suspect it to be more tradition than wisdom until finally it becomes “the box” in which we feel trapped. You'll say, “I need to think outside the box,” and improvisation will begin again. 1. Improvisation* 2. Innovation and 3. Imitation are three positions on a continuing circle, or more accurately, a spiral. Practical Applications of Chaos Theory is the final session on the last day of the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop at Wizard Academy, America's school for the imaginative, the courageous, and the ambitious. In that climactic session, the cognoscenti learn that a fractal image is merely the map of a chaotic system and that chaos, in science, is not randomness but rather precisely the opposite: a level of organization more complex than the human mind can follow. The cognoscenti then learn that fractal images are three-dimensional due to the repetitive nature of fractal self-similarity: a repetitive series of complex patterns that interlock to become a larger iteration of precisely that same pattern. In the simplest possible manifestation of this idea, a spiral is a series of spinning circles interlocked to become an increasingly larger series of spinning circles. That's when we begin to hear the voice of Solomon echoing through time and space as it has echoed for 3,000 years: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.” – Ecclesiastes, ch. 1 Another good Jewish boy, Brian Greene, is the theoretical physicist widely known for his ability to explain String Theory, reconciling quantum mechanics to general relativity and explaining the fundamental nature of time and space along the way. “Among the many features of String Theory, the following three are perhaps the most important ones to keep firmly in mind. First, gravity [general relativity theory – RHW] and quantum mechanics are part and parcel of how the universe works and therefore any purported unified theory must incorporate both. String theory accomplishes this. Second, studies by physicists over the past century have revealed that there are other key ideas – many of which have been experimentally confirmed – that appear central to our understanding of the universe. These include the concepts of spin…” – Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe, p.383 Wow. The spinning spiral must really be an essential law of nature if Brian Greene gives it first place on his short list of the laws of the universe. Improvisation, innovation and imitation are just repetitive phases in the ever-expanding spiral of human improvement. This leads us to the comic but profound paradox: “The only thing permanent is change.” Roy H.