In memory of Stephen Hawking's life, I've decided to share the physics behind his greatest discovery: Hawking radiation. For a long time, in the context of relativity, we thought that black holes were static, unchanging objects defined only by their mass, charge, and angular momentum. A number of developments led us to understand that black holes needed to have entropy, temperature, and therefore, they needed to radiate. But Hawking was the one to put that puzzle together, and describe the physics of the radiation and its consequences for black holes.

It goes much further than that, with the famed (and still unresolved) black hole information paradox arising from his work. Who will be the ones who take the next great leap? Come learn what we know and where the frontiers are on this special edition of the Starts With A Bang podcast!