It’s a question big enough to make your head spin! Eight-year-old Ellie from Atlanta, Georgia, wants to know what came before the Big Bang?

Ellie joins our host Eloise to delve into the origins of our universe with astronomer Michael Lam from Rochester Institute of Technology.

If you'd like to join in with the experiment in this episode, make sure you have a balloon and a pen on hand while you listen.

A podcast from The Conversation, the independent not-for-profit news organisation that brings you news and analysis straight from academic experts. Full credits available here.

This season is supported by the University of Southampton in the UK, a world-leading research-intensive university with a global network of international students and campuses in Malaysia and Delhi.

Are you a curious kid with a question? Pop it in an email, or record it and send us the audio to [email protected].

• Curious Kids: how likely is it that there are parallel universes and other Earths?
• Curious Kids: how are galaxies formed?
• How could an explosive Big Bang be the birth of our universe?
• What if the Big Bang wasn’t the beginning? Our research suggests it may have taken place inside a black hole