The Jack Lawrence Podcast Jack Lawrence

"I always wanted to have this big impact, and to work on something that's changing the world"

My guest today is Adam Boro. Adam is a magnificent filmmaker, who currently has over half a million followers on TikTok. You may have seen some of his mega viral videos, which include taking a girl to the north pole for a first date, randomly travelling to a desert oasis or his adventures in Machu Picchu. 

Prior to his recent infamy, Adam studied aerospace engineering, interned at NASA, and was even involved with YES Theory. Adam is a fascinating character, who for me seems to embody a kind of carpe diem philosophy - hell bent on living life to the fullest, and improving the lives of others in the process. 

But he wasn't always this way, and in this interview he is remarkably open about his struggles with anxiety, the challenges of being an online creator, and the various road bumps he's encountered on the journey to getting to where he is today. And all of this is done knowing full well that he's in the very early stages of his creative life. We get into all of this and more in this wonderful conversation. 

If you're someone who is curious about getting started in filmmaking, creating videos online, or can even relate to the feeling of not quite  having found your crowd yet, I think you'll take something away from this conversation. Adam is awesome, I think he's someone to keep an eye on in the years to come.

Follow Adam on Instagram/TikTok: @adamboro
Follow me on Instagram/TikTok: @jack.lawro
Patreon: patreon.com/jacklawrence

"Time is the dimension by which consciousness experiences change"

My guest today is Ben Johnston Handy, 

You probably know Ben as the prolific TikTok creator @Benjhandy, who has over 1.1 million followers. He makes videos on futurism, science, and most recently, what to do in a dangerous/embarrassing situation. 

But Ben has done and does many other things, including writing, screenwriting, theatre, all of which we get into in this conversation. I've been a huge fan of Ben's videos for a while so it was super great to speak with him. 

We talk about a wide array of subjects in this podcast, including Movies, Writing, Theatre, DnD, AI, and the nature of time.  Ben is a humble, funny, spectacular explainer of ideas and I think you'll walk away with a lot from this conversation just as I did.  

Ben's tiktok: @benjhandy

My tiktok/insta: @jack.lawro
Patreon: patreon.com/jacklawrence

"I was always motivated by the idea of - what if there was a way to break the system? If you know the system you can break the system. And if you can break the system, then you can do cool stuff"

Today's guest is Kilian Lohmann - he's an Oxford Physicist, who has recently submitted his PhD Researching Solar Cells. He's also an improvised comedian, and, I'm lucky enough to say, he's a very dear friend of mine.

Kilian studied Natural Sciences, specialising in Physics at Cambridge University for his undergrad which is where we met, as I was doing exactly the same course, at the same college. After completing his undergrad and masters, Kilian went to Oxford to do his PhD, where I also went at the same time to do my masters, and we lived together for a year.

Kilian is one of the most brilliant, kind and unique people I know. So often intellect is associated with harsh metaphors - razor sharp, cutting, piercing, but Kilian is an example of where we need different metaphors. He's warm, humble and quietly confident, while at the same time possessing great insight both within science and life generally. I've learned a great deal from him.

To my delight, this episode shows both those sides of Kilian really well. We talk about his research on solar cells, but then move on more broadly to his strong sense of morality, discussions of god and science, improv comedy and how it helps with the scientific process, and his advice to anyone aspiring to get into Physics.

During this episode, as an fyi, there's a couple of bits where Kilian's girlfriend Chelsea chimes in - this episode was recorded in their house, and it just so happens that she is also a physicist who also works on solar cells. I chose to leave those bits in as they show how a bit more about how Kilian thinks and it made me laugh.

More on Kilian's research: https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/our-people/lohmann
Insta: @jack.lawro
TikTok: @jack.lawro
patreon.com/jacklawrence 

"The fact that Science can call itself out when there are gaps in its knowledge - and it can update and make revisions overtime - people see that as being inconsistent, but it's actually more about being  being more and more confident over time as we update our understanding. People think that Science contradicts itself, but that's the best part."

My guest today is Alice O'Keefe. 

Alice is a PhD student at the University of Wollongong in Australia, where she is studying the usage of Nanoparticles for treating brain tumours - which turns out to be just as cool as it sounds. Alice also makes videos on TikTok about physics, most recently around the interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. 

The conversation you're about to hear was incredibly fun to record. When Alice and I first spoke on a call before the podcast, she said to me that she suspected that she and I were basically the same person, which was remarkably prophetic given how similar some of our ideas turned out to be. We start off talking a bit about her research, and then shift into talking about science and philosophy more broadly. We ask questions such as:
What qualities make for a good scientist and teacher? 
What are the interpretations of Quantum Mechanics and why are they needed? 
And we even touch on ideas in Buddhism and Daoism and how they relate to science. 

You can find more from Alice O'Keefe on her socials below:
Instagram: @aliceo.keefe
Tiktok: @labratbag

My socials:
Instagram/Tiktok: @jack.lawro
jacklawrence.net
Patreon.com/jacklawrence

In this highly requested solo episode I present an introduction to the Philosophy of Science.
I’ve explored some of these ideas in some tiktok videos, and have mentioned them in other episodes tangentially, giving brief explanations. In this episode, I offer a short crash-course into some of those key ideas. 
We will ask ourselves what Science fundamentally is? What separates it from other kinds of knowledge? How do we justify scientific knowledge - that is, how does science fundamentally work, what makes it so successful? 

I'll be primarily looking at the work of two philosophers who give two radically different, but both quite persuasive, accounts of science - Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn.

If you'd like to read further on this, some books mentioned:
The Knowledge Machine - Michael Strevens
What Is This Thing Called Science? - Alan Chalmers
The Logic of Scientific Discovery - Karl Popper
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn

Also note - I'll likely be switching to a fortnightly schedule for the forseeable future, just to make sure I can keep the quality of these episodes high while keeping up with everything else. It'll also allow me to edit together clips for YouTube and more tightly edit interviews.

My socials:
@jack.lawro for both Instagram and TikTok
patreon.com/jacklawrence 

"Find something you like doing, and go for it" - Dr Charlotte Waterfall

Dr Charlotte Waterfall is an astrophysicist specialising in Heliophysics and Space Weather. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher following the completion of her PhD work on flaring young stars. She is better known as Space_Waterfall on TikTok where she makes educational content around her career, the latest activity from the Sun, and wider Astrophysics topics.

In this conversation we do a deep dive into all the topics Dr Waterfall makes TikToks about. We start off with all things heliophysics including solar flares, magnetic storms, and their associated risks for our planet. Our conversation then shifts into talking about Dr Waterfall's academic path in physics, the culture of academia and women in STEM. This was a super fun episode that everyone can get something out of, particularly those between GCSE all the way up to first year undergrad who are curios about a career in physics. Without further ado, here is Dr Waterfall.