Dr. Sten Odenwald discusses The Essential Book of Black Holes. See my review of the new book below. But first, watch this video in which I interview Dr. Odenwald about his book! Timeline 00:00 Intro 2:15 Math & Black Holes 5:00 Holographic universe 5:50 Hypernova 9:05 White holes 14:45 Is our universe in a black hole? 17:50 Gravity is NOT a force 25:45 Galactic Power Plant Book Review of The Essential Book of Black Holes At 159 pages and 12 chapters, The Essential Book of Black Holes is a literary black hole: deceptively small, absurdly dense, and liable to warp your sense of time until “I’ll just read a few pages” becomes “where did my evening go?” If you’ve ever wanted a NASA astronomer to sit you down and explain black holes without making your brain perform quantum tunneling, this is it. Sten Odenwald walks you through gravity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and even the holographic principle in bite-sized chunks that hit harder than a collapsing star. The language is accessible, which is impressive given the subject matter and slightly suspicious given how much you suddenly think you understand. The format helps with the illusion of safety: 12 short chapters, full color, pretty illustrations, and a neat foil-stamped hardback in the print edition—like a friendly brochure for the end of spacetime. Each chapter is compact enough to read on a commute, but information-dense enough that your neurons may demand hazard pay. It’s marketed as a “pocket volume,” which is appropriate, because it will happily consume every spare pocket of free time you have. As an introduction, it’s almost suspiciously good: clear explanations, focused scope, and just enough cosmological mind-bending to make you question reality without needing a support group. If you’re black-hole-curious and want a fun, manageable plunge into the abyss, this is a stellar gateway drug to modern astrophysics—compact, colourful, and with a gravitational pull that far exceeds its modest 159 pages. VERDICT: 9 out of 10 stars! About Sten Odenwald Sten Odenwald is an American astronomer, author, NASA scientist-educator, and science communicator. He earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1982, focusing on accretion disks around supermassive black holes and the far-infrared properties of the Milky Way’s Galactic Center. Career Odenwald worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Naval Research Laboratory’s Space Sciences Division from 1982 to 1990, contributing to the NASA Cosmic Background Explorer and Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment. Later roles included positions at Sachs Freeman Associates, BDM International, Applied Research Corporation, and Raytheon, with a focus on education outreach for missions like IMAGE and COBE. Since 2005, his research has centered on space weather impacts, such as solar storms on satellites, and he retired from NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center while serving as Director of STEM Resource Development and part of the Heliophysics Education Consortium until 2025. Publications He has authored books like The Astronomy Cafe, The 23rd Cycle, Patterns in the Void, and Back to the Astronomy Cafe, and published over 100 papers, including recent ones on geomagnetic storms, time, and DIY magnetometers. Odenwald runs The Astronomy Cafe, an online resource, and has appeared on media outlets such as Naked Science to promote citizen science and heliophysics education. What do you think? Put your thoughts in the comments. Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * YouTube * Facebook * Instagram * X * TikTok * LinkedIn Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear * Get nomadic travel insurance from SafetyWing! Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe
