Is life one big cosmic orgy? To wrap up our Pride Beyond Borders series, we’re going big… with an episode all about our universe! Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein joins Jonathan to discuss why spacetime isn’t straight, what quantum spin can teach us about gender expression, and why the key to understanding the cosmos may just be (wait for it) the world’s biggest dental dam.

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Core Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She is a researcher in particle cosmology and author of the award-winning book for general audiences, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred. She is working on her next book, The Edge of Space-Time.

You can follow Dr. Prescod-Weinstein on Twitter @IBJIYONGI, on Instagram and TikTok @chanda.prescod.weinstein, on Bluesky and Substack @chanda, and at cprescodweinstein.com.

Curious for more? Here are some resources Dr. Prescod-Weinstein recommends:

lgbt+physicists

Astronomy and Astrophysics Outlist

The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier

The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe by Clifford V. Johnson

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

Risa Wechsler: The search for dark matter -- and what we've found so far | TED Talk

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: The search for the invisible matter that shapes the universe | TED Talk

You can find more episodes about space (including one with Dr. Moiya McTier!), and the rest of our Pride Beyond Borders series, here.

Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Find books from Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn.

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Production support from Julie Carrillo and Emily Bossak.

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices