Patchen Barss "The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius"

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Patchen Barss chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius, the biography of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose.  

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  

• Patchen Barss’s painstaking research strategy  


• How Patchen grasped complicated information about quantum physics and mathematics  


• How he crafted erudite, poetic and propulsive narrative from seemingly incomprehensible scientific information and mathematical equations  


• How he balanced Roger Penrose’s scientific, public, personal and inner lives to craft a kaleidoscopic portrait of an extraordinary human being  


• How he represented Roger’s relationship difficulties truthfully and with sensitivity and dignity  


• How Patchen navigated the perils of writing about a 93-year-old living subject who has a strong autobiographical voice  


• Patchen’s response to the question: ‘Who gets to be a genius, and who makes the sacrifices that allow an individual to be one?’