Why This Universe?

We hear two physicists describe their lives collecting data in remote locations, from deep underground in an active mine and from the South Pole.

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Learn how the geometry of space defies our intuition, and why it gave Einstein so much anxiety.

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Today we visit a turning point in the history of science: the discovery that the Earth is not at the center of the cosmos.

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Dan moderates a lively discussion on extraterrestrial life at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

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Where does the musical octave come from? What makes a C note a C? Why do different instruments sound different? Special guest Tim Cohen comes on to answer these questions and more.
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We tell the story of how the Universe developed large scale structure, starting from the Big Bang to today. It could have all turned out very differently, if not for some key players.

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Why This Universe hosts it's first ever live episode taping featuring guests Daniel Holz and Diana Powell. We discuss the possibility of intelligent life out in the Universe, the existential risks fa…

CORRECTION: We misspeak about the time of the event in the episode, we are really on at 3-4 pm CST! Apologies!

Why This Universe is going live on October 3rd in Chicago, IL!

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While physicists overwhelmingly agree about the existence of dark matter, a select group of people aren't convinced. Instead, they believe we must be wrong about gravity, and claim we need a theory o…

Today we are debunking the recent paper that claims our universe is much older than previously thought.

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We are celebrating our 3 year anniversary with a throwback to one of our earliest episodes! Entanglement, wave-particle duality, and uncertainty - here's a breakdown of the weirdest and wildest thing…

Special guest Alan Lightman takes us through a fascinating discussion of consciousness, and tells us how he reconciles spirituality with his materialist views.
Todays episode is sponsored by the Inter…

Shortly after the Big Bang, space was densely packed with enough stuff for sound to travel through it. What was producing sound in this era, and how can we hear it today?

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Special guest Cari Cesarotti tells us why so many particle physicists are itching to build a whole new type of particle collider.

The Big Bang is well accepted today as the leading theory of how our universe evolved over time - but in today's episode, we talk through all the very wrong theories that came before it.
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Can consciousness be explained by physics, or does it appeal to something beyond materialism? Philosopher guest star David Chalmers talks to us about how we can think about consciousness from a philo…

A whirlwind of questions brings us to an odd conclusion: could reality be an illusion created by a quantum fluctuation of a brain? This is a rebroadcast of a past favorite.

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Astronomers' newest telescope, JWST, just discovered galaxies that formed earlier than previously thought possible. What does this discovery mean for our understanding of the early universe?

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Before the LHC turned on in 2008, many feared that it would create a dangerous black hole that would destroy the world. Were any of those fears well-founded, and how seriously did scientists take the…

Learn how extra dimensions of space might appear to us, and what physicists have done to try to find them.

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