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Lawrence M. Krauss

The Origins Podcast features in-depth conversations with some of the most interesting people in the world about the issues that impact all of us in the 21st century. Host, theoretical physicist, lecturer, and author, Lawrence M. Krauss, will be joined by guests from a wide range of fields, including science, the arts, and journalism. The topics discussed on The Origins Podcast reflect the full range of the human experience - exploring science and culture in a way that seeks to entertain, educate, and inspire. lawrencekrauss.substack.com 

lawrencekrauss.substack.com

The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss

As we move into the end of the year, I’m excited to return to our recurring series “What’s New in Science” with my co-host Sabine Hossenfelder. In this month’s episode, we started by tackling a favorite subject: scientific hype. Sabine kicked things off by dissecting a recent, highly suspect press release claiming a million-qubit quantum computer is on the horizon. I then brought up a National Geographic article claiming that “warp drive is speeding closer to reality” , and we discussed the reasons why it actually isn’t, including the need for “negative energy,” that keep it firmly in the realm of science fiction.

From there, Sabine steered us into the world of academic accolades, discussing the controversy around last year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for work on neural networks and the collaborative nature of science. I then introduced this year’s prize, which was awarded for the beautiful and precise experimental work on seemingly macroscopic manifestations of quantum mechanics—specifically, showing a superconducting quantum state can “tunnel” through a barrier.

Finally, we turned to cosmic mysteries. Sabine presented a report on search for “Dark Stars,” a theory that the first stars might have been powered by dark matter annihilation , which require some wishful thinking and what I think are not particularly well motivated physics. For full disclosure this is an issue I thought about in a slightly different context almost 40 years ago and have some a priori skepticism about. I closed with a much more plausible bit of exotic physics that may have been observed: new observations of long-lived gamma-ray bursts. A new model suggests these are caused by a black hole that has merged with a star and is consuming it from the inside out. 

From wild hype to implausible and plausible models to Nobel-winning physics, I hope you enjoy the conversation.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.
 

Get full access to Critical Mass at lawrencekrauss.substack.com/subscribe

What's New in Science With Sabine and Lawrence

In a special Halloween episode of the Origins Podcast, which I’ve have decided to call “Spooky Physics!”, I explore why you shouldn’t be afraid of the unknown, and in particular of supernatural gobbledygook. We look at the fundamental physics that debunks popular supernatural ideas.

Take ghosts, for example. Physics is a two way street. If you can see a ghost, it must interact with light. But that very interaction, electromagnetism, is what stops you from walking through a wall. A ghost simply can’t have its cake and eat it too; it either goes through walls or you can see it. Not both.

I also confront one of the biggest misuses of physics today: the co-opting of quantum mechanics. People seize on Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” to argue that consciousness can change the universe just by thinking. This is complete nonsense. I explain what entanglement really is and why it does not allow you to affect things remotely, no matter how much you might want to.

The moral of today’s topic is simple: don’t be afraid. And more importantly:

The real universe, with its actual quantum wonders and black holes, is far more interesting than any supernatural fantasy. 

Enjoy Halloween…especially the candy.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.
 

Get full access to Critical Mass at lawrencekrauss.substack.com/subscribe

Spooky Physics!

As The War on Science continues to circulate and reach readers around the world, I had the privilege of closing our Origins mini series, The War on Science Interviews, with my colleague and book contributor Gad Saad. It felt fitting to end the series with a candid and provocative conversation that reflects the spirit of the project itself.

The essays and interviews collected around this book address a wide range of concerns: the ideological corruption of science, the erosion of free speech in academia, the replacement of scholarship with activism in many disciplines, and the disruptions now spreading from mathematics to medicine. We explore how cancel culture and DEI bureaucracies weaken excellence, how biology is distorted for political ends, and how false premises about gender and sex compromise both science and medicine. The conversations are blunt and challenging, but they also aim to outline principles that can help universities recover integrity, trust, and the courage to return to embracing free inquiry.

Gad and I discussed many of these themes directly. He confronts the absurdities of modern campus culture, and his voice joins those the other contributors who have argued that ignoring these trends will not make them disappear. Many academics have hoped the problems would fade on their own. They have not. The internal culture war in academia must be confronted openly if scholarship and science are to thrive in the West.

I am hopeful the book will spark debate in universities and among the wider public. If you would like the full context for this episode, you can watch the complete War on Science Interviews mini series at this link here. In the meantime enjoy this episode now.

With this finale, Origins now returns to its regular biweekly release schedule. We have some fascinating new conversations, educational content, and science news in store that I am excited to share.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.
 

Get full access to Critical Mass at lawrencekrauss.substack.com/subscribe

Gad Saad: Final Episode of The War on Science Interviews

To celebrate the release on July 29th of The War on Science, we have recorded 20 podcast interviews with authors from the book. Starting on July 22nd, with Richard Dawkins, we will be releasing one interview per day. Interviewees in order, will be:

Richard Dawkins July 23rd

Niall Ferguson July 24th

Nicholas Christakis July 25th

Maarten Boudry July 26th

Abigail Thompson July 27th

John Armstrong July 28th

Sally Satel – July 30

Elizabeth Weiss – July 31

Solveig Gold and Joshua Katz – August 1

Frances Widdowson – August 2

Carole Hooven – August 3

Janice Fiamengo – August 4

Geoff Horsman – August 5

Alessandro Strumia – August 6

Roger Cohen and Amy Wax – August 7

Peter Boghossian – August 8

Lauren Schwartz and Arthur Rousseau – August 9

Alex Byrne and Moti Gorin – August 10

Judith Suissa and Alice Sullivan – August 11

Dorian Abbot – August 12

Karleen Gribble – August 13

The topics these authors discuss range over ideas including the ideological corruption of science, historical examples of the demise of academia, free speech in academia, social justice activism replacing scholarship in many disciplines, disruptions of science from mathematics to medicine, cancel culture, the harm caused by DEI bureaucracies at universities, distortions of biology, disingenous and dangerous distortions of the distinctions between gender and sex in medicine, and false premises impacting on gender affirming care for minors, to, finally, a set of principles universities should adopt to recover from the current internal culture war. 

The dialogues are blunt, and provocative, and point out the negative effects that the current war on science going on within universities is having on the progress of science and scholarship in the west. We are hoping that the essays penned by this remarkable group of scholars will help provoke discussion both within universities and the public at large about how to restore trust, excellence, merit, and most important sound science, free speech and free inquiry on university campuses. Many academics have buried their heads in the sand hoping this nonsense will go away. It hasn’t and we now need to become more vocal, and unified in combatting this modern attack on science and scholarship. 

The book was completed before the new external war on science being waged by the Trump administration began. Fighting this new effort to dismantle the scientific infrastructure of the country is important, and we don’t want to minimized that threat. But even if the new attacks can be successfully combatted in Congress, the Courts, and the ballot box, the longstanding internal issues we describe in the new book, and in the interviews we are releasing, will still need to be addressed to restore the rightful place of science and scholarship in the west. 

I am hoping that you will find the interviews enlightening and encourage you to look at the new book when it is released, and help become part of the effort to restore sound science and scholarship in academia. With no further ado, The War on Science interviews…

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.
 

Get full access to Critical Mass at lawrencekrauss.substack.com/subscribe

Karleen Gribble | The War on Science Interviews | Day 20

To celebrate the release on July 29th of The War on Science, we have recorded 20 podcast interviews with authors from the book. Starting on July 22nd, with Richard Dawkins, we will be releasing one interview per day. Interviewees in order, will be:

Richard Dawkins July 23rd

Niall Ferguson July 24th

Nicholas Christakis July 25th

Maarten Boudry July 26th

Abigail Thompson July 27th

John Armstrong July 28th

Sally Satel – July 30

Elizabeth Weiss – July 31

Solveig Gold and Joshua Katz – August 1

Frances Widdowson – August 2

Carole Hooven – August 3

Janice Fiamengo – August 4

Geoff Horsman – August 5

Alessandro Strumia – August 6

Roger Cohen and Amy Wax – August 7

Peter Boghossian – August 8

Lauren Schwartz and Arthur Rousseau – August 9

Alex Byrne and Moti Gorin – August 10

Judith Suissa and Alice Sullivan – August 11

Karleen Gribble – August 12

Dorian Abbot – August 13

The topics these authors discuss range over ideas including the ideological corruption of science, historical examples of the demise of academia, free speech in academia, social justice activism replacing scholarship in many disciplines, disruptions of science from mathematics to medicine, cancel culture, the harm caused by DEI bureaucracies at universities, distortions of biology, disingenous and dangerous distortions of the distinctions between gender and sex in medicine, and false premises impacting on gender affirming care for minors, to, finally, a set of principles universities should adopt to recover from the current internal culture war. 

The dialogues are blunt, and provocative, and point out the negative effects that the current war on science going on within universities is having on the progress of science and scholarship in the west. We are hoping that the essays penned by this remarkable group of scholars will help provoke discussion both within universities and the public at large about how to restore trust, excellence, merit, and most important sound science, free speech and free inquiry on university campuses. Many academics have buried their heads in the sand hoping this nonsense will go away. It hasn’t and we now need to become more vocal, and unified in combatting this modern attack on science and scholarship. 

The book was completed before the new external war on science being waged by the Trump administration began. Fighting this new effort to dismantle the scientific infrastructure of the country is important, and we don’t want to minimized that threat. But even if the new attacks can be successfully combatted in Congress, the Courts, and the ballot box, the longstanding internal issues we describe in the new book, and in the interviews we are releasing, will still need to be addressed to restore the rightful place of science and scholarship in the west. 

I am hoping that you will find the interviews enlightening and encourage you to look at the new book when it is released, and help become part of the effort to restore sound science and scholarship in academia. With no further ado, The War on Science interviews…

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.
 

Get full access to Critical Mass at lawrencekrauss.substack.com/subscribe

Dorian Abbot | The War on Science Interviews | Day 21

Judith Suissa and Alice Sullivan | The War on Science Interviews | Day 19

Alex Byrne and Moti Gorin | The War on Science Interviews | Day 18

Lauren Schwartz and Arthur Rousseau | The War on Science Interviews | Day 17

Peter Boghossian | The War on Science Interviews | Day 16

Roger Cohen and Amy Wax | The War on Science Interviews | Day 15

This episode is best watched on Youtube, as there are slides and images that accompany Lawrence's talk. This week marks a very special moment in which the Origins Podcast passed 100,000 subscribers! In celebration of this, we've brought back Science Matters for a special episode to discuss the science of the James Webb Space Telescope. Thank you to everyone who has supported the Origins Project, both the podcast and the foundation as a whole. We have an excellent line-up of guests planned for 2022 and can't wait to share our newest episodes with you!
 

Get full access to Critical Mass at lawrencekrauss.substack.com/subscribe

Science Matters: Understanding The James Webb Space Telescope

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