Get my My new book, Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner -- https://a.co/d/hi50U9U It's just 99¢ on Kindle for launch week ONLY.

It’s the perfect companion to this conversation—lessons in thinking clearly, staying curious, and pushing past conventional wisdom from my conversations with 22 Nobel Prize winners!

Brian Keating sits down with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb and renowned skeptic Michael Shermer to dissect the latest enigma sweeping through our solar system—3I/ATLAS.

• What makes 3I/ATLAS extraordinary?

• It’s the third confirmed interstellar object to visit our solar system—after ʻOumuamua and Borisov—racing through space at hyperbolic speeds and exhibiting an orbit intriguingly aligned with our ecliptic plane

• Observations by Hubble and James Webb reveal a coma dominated by carbon dioxide, with traces of water, carbon monoxide, nickel, and cyanide—an unusual chemical signature even among comets.

• Avi Loeb’s provocative hypothesis: He and collaborators propose that 3I/ATLAS might not be natural at all—but potentially a piece of alien technology, given its improbable trajectory, ecliptic alignment, and close approach to Mars and other planets—arguably orchestrated rather than accidental.

• Michael Shermer pushes back: A constructive skeptic’s view on whether the evidence truly supports Loeb’s scenario, grounding the discussion with a critical evaluation of observational data versus speculative inference.

Don’t miss this rare convergence of cutting-edge astrophysics and disciplined skepticism—because how we interpret 3I/ATLAS could redefine our understanding of interstellar visitors.

Key Takeaways:

•00:00 NASCAR Fascination with 3i Atlas

•07:40 Cosmic Anomalies Suggest Tech Origins

•13:02 Interstellar Comets: Ubiquitous Wanderers

•17:11 Interstellar Object Frequency Dilemma

•23:46 Challenging Mainstream Scientific Conformity

•31:09 Balancing Exoplanet Exploration Funding

•35:33 Comet Nickel Detection, No Iron

•38:39 Open-Mindedness in Scientific Consensus

•45:53 "Trusting Experts vs. Skepticism"

•50:09 "Assessing Extraterrestrial vs. Natural Objects"

•55:48 Hallucinations During Transcontinental Bike Race

•01:02:13 Eyewitness Testimony's Unreliability

•01:05:34 Government Secrecy and National Security

•01:12:54 Seeking Direct Evidence of UFO Claims

•01:16:44 Comet: A Dirty Iceberg Analogy

•01:21:27 New Astrobiology Approach: Onsite Sampling

•01:29:18 Analyzing Spacecraft Non-Gravitational Acceleration

•01:31:52 Free Moon Rocks: Myths and Offers

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In a sweeping conversation drawn from his collaboration with Stephen Hawking, Thomas Hertog explores the radical “no-boundary” theory—a vision of the cosmos with no singular beginning, evolving laws of physics, and a past that isn’t fixed until observed. Rejecting the untestable multiverse, Hertog and Hawking built a fully quantum cosmology that embeds the observer within the equations, predicting inflation and replacing anthropic guesswork with a falsifiable framework.

Hertog explains how time could emerge from something deeper than the Big Bang, why constants of nature may be dynamic, and how holography hints the laws of physics themselves might fade away at the origin. He then turns to the experiments—from next-generation CMB polarization to gravitational wave backgrounds—that could confirm or refute this bold vision, challenging us to see the universe as a living, evolving system whose history we help to shape.

—

Key Takeaways: 

00:00 Intro 

01:03 Thomas’s first reaction to Hawking’s theory 

03:38 Hawking’s model of the Big Bang

07:20 The no-boundary proposal 

22:18 The role of conscious observers in cosmology

24:34 The wick rotation and its implications

29:29 The future of physics and experimental tests

37:57 The experimental minimum

40:04 The holographic principle 

43:57 Work Thomas would like to share with Hawking 

49:11 Outro

—

Additional resources: 

—

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—

Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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We talk with Ben Shapiro about his new book “Lions and Scavengers” and how we each have a lion and a scavenger inside of us. Today’s society is shaped by lions who build great things, while the scavengers try to tear them down.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional resources:

Ben Shapiro’s NEW Book Lions and Scavengers: https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Scavengers-Story-America-Critics/dp/1668097885

Ben Shapiro’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BenShapiro

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺

Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI

Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1

Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1

Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo

Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs

Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw

Follow me to ask questions of my guests:

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Brian Keating sits in the guest chair on Julian Dorey's podcast. This fascinating conversation dives deep into the heart of science, skepticism, and the culture wars swirling around them. Together, Brian and Julian tackle everything from wild theories about NASA, the South Pole, and the moon landing, to the challenges of scientific gatekeeping, the allure of conspiracy thinking, and the importance—and limitations—of critical thinking.

You'll hear candid reflections on podcast rivalries, the pitfalls of confirmation bias, and the struggles scientists face in the public eye. Brian offers a behind-the-scenes look into debates with figures like Terrence Howard, the claims of Bart Sibrel, and the real impact of science denial. Plus, you'll get personal stories from Brian’s own adventures at the South Pole and insights into why science sometimes gets it gloriously, or painfully, wrong.

-

Key Takeaways:

-

Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:

📚 Get a copy of my books:

Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu

My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺

Follow me to ask questions of my guests:

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Could an AI physicist soon out-innovate Einstein? 

In this exciting interdisciplinary exploration, UC San Diego’s Rose Yu dismantles the romantic myth of genius-driven science and instead offers a thrilling look at how AI could become not just a computational tool, but a genuine partner in discovery. Rose draws from her pioneering work in traffic forecasting, pandemic modeling, and high-energy physics to show how machine learning is evolving and what it can offer to the scientific community.

She walks us through the fascinating ways AI is already helping us rethink what’s possible in science: from generating novel hypotheses to rediscovering fundamental symmetries, and even beating traditional simulations in both speed and precision. With her characteristic clarity, Rose explains how she’s built data-driven surrogates for complex phenomena like the spread of epidemics and the turbulence of fluids. We also tackle some of the more existential questions: Can an AI ever experience “happy thoughts”? How close are we to AGI? And should we be worried about AI replacing us? 

If science is humanity’s greatest invention, this episode is a fascinating look at its future.

—

Key Takeaways: 

00:00 Intro 

01:04 Can an AI physicist out-innovate Einstein? 

02:07 Why are GPUs so good for AI?

12:24 Traffic modeling and AI

16:08 Is AI just imitating physics?

24:53 Epidemiology modeling and AI 

30:49 Should we be worried about AGI?

34:32 The benefits and dangers of AI

39:53 AI scientists and scientific productivity 

42:19 The impact of AI on academia and education 

52:34 Outro 

—

Additional resources: 

💻 Rose Yu’s website: https://roseyu.com/ 

—

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—

Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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David Deutsch just exposed something shocking about modern science. Most quantum theories aren't actually science at all. They're just miracles disguised as explanations. When you ask how quantum entanglement works, most interpretations by popular scientists basically reduce to "magic happens." That's not science, that's giving up on our understanding of reality.

David Deutsch is a quantum physicist at Oxford, a pioneer in quantum computing, and one of the most important theoretical physicists alive. He argues that only the many-worlds theory actually explains what's happening in quantum experiments instead of just accepting it as a mystery never to be explained. This conversation reveals why modern physics has abandoned its core mission.

Key Takeaways:

00:02:15 – David Deutsch introduces the idea that infinity is not just a mathematical abstraction but a physical reality.

00:06:42 – He emphasizes that understanding infinity is central to progress in both science and philosophy.

00:11:03 – Discussion on how infinity challenges human intuition and traditional explanations.

00:18:29 – Deutsch argues that good explanations must account for infinity, not avoid it.

00:23:51 – He contrasts finite vs. infinite models of the universe.

00:30:14 – Infinity as an unavoidable aspect of quantum mechanics and the multiverse.

00:37:40 – Practical implications: infinity changes how we view knowledge, discovery, and human progress.

00:45:22 – He warns against simplistic or “bad” explanations that ignore infinite possibilities.

00:53:09 – Closing: infinity should be embraced as part of reality, not feared or reduced.

-

Additional resources:

-

Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:

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📚 Get a copy of my books:

Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu

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The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺

Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI

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Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1

Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo

Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs

Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw

Follow me to ask questions of my guests:

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#universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #daviddeutsch

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—

Arthur Brooks has just done the unthinkable. He’s shattered one of the most enduring myths in both science and society with the precision of a physicist and the insight of a seasoned psychologist. 

We’re talking about the belief that our minds peak in our thirties and only decline from there. Well, it turns out this belief isn’t rooted in physics but in flawed psychology. Worse, this myth is holding us back as a species. In this insightful and personal episode, Arthur explains that cognitive decline is not inevitable and that our best, most meaningful work might still be ahead—if we adjust accordingly.

Arthur himself is no stranger to reinvention. From performing with the Barcelona Symphony to leading one of Washington's most influential think tanks, and now teaching at Harvard, he’s experienced multiple intellectual lifetimes. Today, he studies happiness—not as a vague ideal, but as a measurable, achievable, and deeply human pursuit.

Together, we explore why high achievers often feel more depressed after reaching their biggest goals and why lasting fulfillment requires something different altogether. Arthur shares research on emotional temperaments, the science of fluid vs. crystallized intelligence, and the dangers of fame, power, and success. He also gives us a behind-the-scenes look at his collaboration with the Dalai Lama, and why AI might be a surprising ally in extending our cognitive abilities as we age.

—

Key Takeaways: 

00:00:00 Intro 

00:02:31 Arthur’s pivotal career change(s)

00:05:22 Failure CV and resistance to disillusionment 

00:08:36 The entropy of happiness 

00:11:57 Judging a book by its cover

00:18:04 Crystallized vs. fluid intelligence 

00:28:48 Will AI replace or amplify aging minds? 

00:31:41 Modernizing academia

00:42:40 Balancing professional and personal life

00:47:05 The hierarchy of idolatry 

00:58:33 Rapid fire questions

—

Additional resources: 

📚 The Happiness Files by Arthur Brooks: https://a.co/d/7548rbL 

—

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—

Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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What if the most successful theory in science… doesn't actually explain anything?

In this episode of Into the Impossible, I talk with physicist and author Adam Becker, who wrote What Is Real?, a stunning exploration of quantum mechanics, its messy philosophical roots, and the long-ignored questions about what the theory really says about reality.

We dig deep into a paradox at the heart of modern physics: quantum mechanics works better than any theory we’ve ever invented, yet no one agrees on what it means. Becker walks us through the forgotten history of physicists like Einstein and David Bohm, who dared to question the mainstream “shut up and calculate” mindset, and explains why that mindset might be holding science back.

We explore the eerie predictions of the Many Worlds Interpretation, the mind-bending implications of Bell’s Theorem, and how modern experiments—some Nobel Prize-winning—are forcing physicists to confront uncomfortable truths about locality, realism, and the nature of observation.

If you’ve ever wondered whether quantum physics is just math, or if it really describes the world we live in, this conversation will challenge everything you thought you knew.

—

Key Takeaways: 

00:00 Intro

02:01 Interpretations of quantum mechanics 

05:04 Einstein’s discontent with quantum mechanics

08:01 EPR paradox

10:16 Many-worlds interpretation and Everettian mechanics 

17:37 John Bell and Bell’s theorem 

23:43 Experimental tests of quantum mechanics  

27:21 Quantum computing and its promises

29:17 What is real? 

31:56 Outro

—

Additional resources: 

➡️ Learn more about Adam:

💻 Website: https://freelanceastrophysicist.com/ 

📚 What Is Real? By Adam Becker: https://a.co/d/5xxMYTj

—

➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms:

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📝 Join my mailing list:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/list⁠⁠⁠ 

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—

Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

Make sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode!

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Does free will exist? It's a question that's haunted philosophers for centuries. But physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has a provocative answer that might just disturb you. She says free will doesn't

Everything is determined by the laws of physics. But here's the paradox that's fascinated me. I've talked to Sam Harris, Dan Dennett, Robert Sapolsky, all brilliant minds who agree that free will is an illusion. Yet, when I asked them if they've ever encountered someone who acts like they don't have free will, they all said no. So how can this be?

How can we all be determined by physics, yet live as if we're making genuine choices? This isn't some abstract philosophical exercise, no. Sabine's insight has real implications for artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and the future of consciousness itself.

She explains why AI may already have the same kind of agency that we do, and why quantum computers could reveal that we fundamentally misunderstand the nature of reality.

Key Takeaways:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional resources:

Check out Sabine’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SabineHossenfelder

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:

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📚 Get a copy of my books:

Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu

My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺

Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI

Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1

Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1

Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo

Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs

Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw

Follow me to ask questions of my guests:

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Why aren't whales building rockets? They have bigger brains than we do after all. In this episode with Stephen Wolfram, we talk about why more brainpower doesn't always mean more understanding, and how neural architecture faces physical constraints.

Stephen Wolfram says even super intelligent AIs may hit hard computational limits. In our conversation today, we explore why intelligence has a ceiling, and how ideas like Wolfram's Ruliad, computational irreducibility and brain size scaling reveal the boundaries of thought itself.

Wolfram created Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, it's probably in your pocket right now, in your cell phone, and he's now building a radical new theory of everything grounded in computational reality.

If he's right, smarter doesn't always mean deeper. It might just mean we get stuck.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 – 01:34 Are we discovering or simulating the universe?

01:34 – 06:50 Ruliad defines reality

06:50 – 10:02 Brains compress data into decisions, experience.

10:02 – 17:00 Math models nature, not necessarily its foundation.

17:00 – 25:07 AI may trap us like algebra did.

25:07 – 29:42 LLMs mimic minds, but lack depth.

29:42 – 35:57 Shared minds define reality; Boltzmann brains questioned.

35:57 – 42:28 Free will arises from irreducibility.

42:28 – 47:04 AIs may inherit computational free will.

47:04 – 52:45 Exploring Ruliad = expanding intellectual paradigms.

52:45 – 59:06 Massless particles = timeless, universal concepts?

59:06 – 01:07:32 Immortality blocked by biological irreducibility.

01:07:32 – End Biggest question: extend life or decode reality?

-------------------------------------------

Additional resources:

The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics: https://www.amazon.com/Second-Law-Resolving-Mystery-Thermodynamics/dp/1579550835

https://www.wolframalpha.com/

-------------------------------------------

Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:

📚 Get a copy of my books:

My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺

Follow me to ask questions of my guests:

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