Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Big Bang Productions Inc.

Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all. If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity. Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast

  1. Did We Find Alien Technology? Avi Loeb Explains

    3 H FA

    Did We Find Alien Technology? Avi Loeb Explains

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 Brian Keating sits down with the ever-curious Avi Loeb for a mind-bending exploration into some of science's greatest mysteries and controversies. The conversation spans everything from the evolving understanding of comets and meteors—highlighting the false starts and surprising twists in scientific history—to the tantalizing possibilities of extraterrestrial life and the intrigue surrounding potential government disclosure. Key Takeaways: 00:00 "Aliens.gov: Speculation and Mystery" 06:02 "Satellite Imaging Unveils Unusual Objects" 15:37 "Alien Claims or Smokescreen?" 26:16 "Interstellar Object Anomalies Explained" 31:46 "Life Clues on Icy Object?" 39:08 "Academic Harassment by Editors" 47:05 "Finding More Interstellar Objects" 54:05 "Life on Mars: Earth Origin?" 59:15 "Life Transfer: Natural or Directed?" 01:08:32 "Dwarf Stars and Habitability" 01:16:06 "AI: Alien Intelligence's Impact" 01:23:37 "Technosignatures and Extraterrestrial Communication" 01:29:22 "Are We Ready for Answers?" 01:41:38 "CMB Analysis: No AI Allowed" 01:44:46 "Open Science via Simons Observatory" - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #AviLoeb #AlienTechnology #UFO #ExtraterrestrialLife #SETI #Astrophysics #SpaceDiscovery #UAP #Interstellar #ScienceExplained Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 h 54 min
  2. Andy Weir Explains the Real Science of Project Hail Mary

    1 G FA

    Andy Weir Explains the Real Science of Project Hail Mary

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 In this episode of The INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast, Brian Keating sits down with Andy Weir, the bestselling author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary, to explore the real science behind one of the most ambitious science fiction stories ever written. With the upcoming film adaptation of Project Hail Mary generating excitement among fans, we dig into the physics, astrophysics, and speculative biology that make the story so compelling. Could the mysterious energy source known as astrophage actually exist? What does real astrophysics say about interstellar travel, relativistic journeys, and humanity’s chances of reaching nearby star systems? Andy Weir explains how he builds scientifically grounded worlds while still telling gripping stories, and Brian breaks down which elements of the novel are plausible according to modern physics. The conversation also explores the process of writing hard science fiction, how scientific accuracy shapes storytelling, and why readers and scientists alike have embraced Project Hail Mary as one of the most scientifically informed sci-fi novels of the last decade. Along the way, Brian and Andy discuss the challenges of adapting such a technically rich story into a major Hollywood film and what audiences might expect when the movie arrives. If you enjoy deep conversations about physics, astronomy, science fiction, and the boundary between imagination and reality, this episode will give you a fascinating look at how real science inspires great storytelling. - Key Takeaways: 00:00 Andy Weir Discusses 'Project Hail Mary' 10:44 "Balancing Science and Creativity" 16:03 "Global Unity Against Common Threats" 18:56 Amateurs Driving Innovation 25:35 Fermi Paradox: Light Speed Limit 29:30 "Building a Shared Language" 35:32 "5,000 Words Weekly Writing System" 46:58 UCSD Physics Experience Reflection 51:23 "Colleges Should Be Trade Schools" 57:08 Billion-Year Human Legacy Capsule - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #andyweir #projecthailmary #themartian #sciencefiction #hardsciencefiction #scifibooks #spacescience Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 h 11 min
  3. Meta NeuroScientist SHOCKED Me: Scale Alone Won’t Create Consciousness!

    5 GG FA

    Meta NeuroScientist SHOCKED Me: Scale Alone Won’t Create Consciousness!

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list  to win a meteorite 💥 David Sussillo spent years training neural networks at Google Brain and now leads research at Meta Reality Labs. His verdict on the path to artificial consciousness might surprise you. In this conversation, we discuss why scaling transformers alone won't produce conscious AI, how recurrent neural networks differ from the transformer architectures powering today's LLMs, the FORCE algorithm he developed to train RNNs, what his work on Meta's EMG wristband reveals about AI and biological signals, Rich Sutton's Bitter Lesson and whether we're locked into a GPU-transformer paradigm, and why studying the brain may be the only way out of AI's current limitations. David is also the author of Emergence, a braided memoir that tells the story of his path from foster care to the frontier of neuroscience and AI research. David Sussillo is a research scientist at Meta Reality Labs and an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He completed his PhD at Columbia University under Larry Abbott and previously worked at Google Brain. Key Takeaways: 00:00 Scale alone won't produce consciousness — here's why  00:25 The "bitter lesson": big data crushes every algorithmic invention  01:15 How hallucinations were discovered early at Google  05:00 The lock-in problem: why LLM + GPU may cap AI's ceiling  08:25 What Meta's neural wristband is actually trying to solve  11:20 Rich Sutton's bitter lesson explained  14:15 "More is Different" — why you can't reduce complexity upward  28:30 The book Emergence — two stories braided into one  36:00 Why mentorship matters more than intelligence for at-risk kids  47:00 Stability over intensity: what kids in foster care actually need  ➡️ Follow David Sussillo  🌐 Website / Research: Meta Reality Labs  📚 Emergence (memoir): https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Memoir-Boyhood-Computation-Mysteries/dp/1538768577  🎓 Stanford / Columbia / Carnegie Mellon Alumni ✍️ Email: davidsussillo@gmail.com  🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://x.com/SussilloDavid Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    58 min
  4. What's The Real Value of Your Degree?  Aswath Damodaran

    9 MAR

    What's The Real Value of Your Degree? Aswath Damodaran

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 Aswath Damodaran joins Brian Keating to argue that markets, universities, and financial models are all suffering the same disease — mistaking mechanical processes for genuine thinking — and explains why Nobel economists aren't billionaires, why academia is the most deserving target for disruption, and why every major asset class is now overpriced with nowhere left to hide. 00:00 Intro 00:01:37 Why Nobel Economists Aren't Billionaires 00:06:08 Universities Have Completely Lost the Plot 00:07:43 95% of Academic Research Is Worthless 00:13:05 The University Is a Sticky Business — But Cracks Are Forming 00:40:00 ChatGPT Already Does What Bankers Charge Millions For 00:46:43 The Most Dangerous Number in Finance 00:52:35 There Is No Safe Place Left to Put Your Money 00:55:48 When Every Asset Is Overpriced, Buy What You Love 01:00:22 We Are Losing Our Ability to Think 01:01:30 Markets Are Smarter Than Experts — Every Single Time  ➡️ Follow Aswath Damodaran  🌐 Website: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/  📚 The Little Book of Valuation: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/  📝 Musings on Markets (Substack): https://aswathdamodaran.substack.com Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 h 12 min
  5. Will AI Replace Scientists?

    6 MAR

    Will AI Replace Scientists?

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 In this video, we discuss the rapidly evolving intersection of artificial intelligence and fundamental science and how AI is transforming the way physicists handle massive streams of data from modern observatories—while also explaining where its power ends and human creativity begins. Tune in for insights, surprising stories, and a behind-the-scenes look at how scientists are navigating the AI revolution. 🚀 - Key Takeaways: 00:00 - Cosmologist Exploring Universe and AI 05:30 - AI Success and Physics Limits 09:48 - How Did the Universe Begin? 14:00 - Limits of AI in Scientific Insight 16:04 - Cosmology's Data Revolution 19:29 - AI Insights: Science and Writing 23:04 - Limits of Predictive Models 25:32 - AI's Academic Impact: Pros & Cons 33:24 - LLM Chips and AI Accuracy 34:41 - Accountability, Writing, and Discovery - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #artificialintelligence #aiinscience #physics #machinelearning #futureofscience #aiandscience #scienceexplained #aiuniverse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    41 min
  6. Nick Lane: The Engine That Built Life

    3 MAR

    Nick Lane: The Engine That Built Life

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 Nick Lane joins Brian Keating to argue that life is not information running on chemistry but energy in motion—showing how a single ancient metabolic “transformer” predates genes, powers mitochondria, shapes aging and cancer, constrains alien life, and reveals why today’s AI excitement echoes a solution biology discovered billions of years ago. 00:00 — Defining life vs. death; membrane potential as the boundary between living and dead 00:50 — The title “Transformer” and parallels between AI transformers and biochemical transformation 03:22 — Schrödinger’s What Is Life? and why defining life is intrinsically slippery 06:25 — Why the Krebs cycle sits at the center of metabolism 08:45 — The reverse Krebs cycle, CO₂ fixation, and links to cancer metabolism 11:35 — Mitochondrial membrane potential and the electrical field that powers life 15:00 — Reverse Krebs cycle vs. Calvin cycle and the evolution of carbon fixation 18:00 — Endosymbiosis: origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts 30:02 — Metabolism before genes; CO₂ + hydrogen and prebiotic chemistry 59:49 — Rapid-fire Q&A: RNA world critique and big open questions in origin-of-life research ------------------------------------------------------ ➡️ Follow Nick Lane 🌐 Website: https://www.nick-lane.net   📚 Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death: https://nick-lane.net/books/transformer-the-deep-chemistry-of-life-and-death/  Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 h 15 min
  7. John C. Lennox: Has AI Become God? The Ultimate THREAT of Artificial Intelligence

    24 FEB

    John C. Lennox: Has AI Become God? The Ultimate THREAT of Artificial Intelligence

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 In this episode, I sit down with renowned Oxford mathematician, philosopher of science, and public intellectual John C. Lennox to explore the urgent questions surrounding artificial intelligence and humanity’s future. We dive into the biggest questions about AI, consciousness, truth, faith, and what it means to be human in an age of accelerating technology. If you’re curious about whether AI is humanity’s greatest achievement, its greatest temptation, or something even more profound, watch the full conversation and join us as we explore the future of intelligence—and our place within it. Key Takeaways: 01:05 - Who Decides What’s True in the Age of AI? 03:14 - Can AI Ever Be Truly Creative? The ‘Einstein Test’ 04:10 - Consciousness: The Uncrossable Barrier 07:20 - The QWERTY Keyboard Problem: Are We Stuck with LLMs? 19:10 - The AI Hall of Mirrors: Training on Itself 27:02 - Information Isn’t Just Bits and Atoms 32:05 - Are We Trying to Build God? 36:48 - The Deepest Question—What Does It Mean to Be Human? 47:50 - The Temptation to Play God: From Babel to the Singularity 50:14 - AI’s Relationship to Power and Surveillance - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #artificialintelligence #aiandethics #2084 #religionandscience #surveillancesociety #superintelligence #philosophyofscience #humanconsciousness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 h 27 min
  8. Can You Find God in the Laws of Physics? This is World!

    23 FEB

    Can You Find God in the Laws of Physics? This is World!

    Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 In this conversation, I break down a provocative idea: science doesn’t “prove” ultimate truths — it eliminates what’s false. And if that’s how physics works, then the search for God (or the disproof of God) has to play by the same rules: hypotheses, predictions, and falsifiability. ------------------------------------------------------ Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    40 min

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Descrizione

Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all. If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity. Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast

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