Marianne Williamson and Alyssa Milano. Photo: Vulture and Getty Images

In a stunning display of a true galaxy brain at work, actress and outspoken activist Alyssa Milano likened Democratic primary candidate Marianne Williamson to Galileo (a literal galaxy brain) on Monday’s episode of her podcast, Sorry Not Sorry.

The episode features a clip of the spiritual author and ex–Laura Dern roomie backpedaling on some of her anti-vax statements. Then, after Milano interviews Williamson on her political beliefs and policy proposals, she ends the episode with a monologue addressing critics who consider fringe candidates like Williamson too “wacky”:

Every single wrong belief we ever collectively held was changed from someone looking at it from the outside. In 1610, Galileo published a book that promoted the radical idea that the earth and planets revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. It detailed his observations using a telescoping that showed the phases of Venus. He later went on to theorize that the tides were evidence for the motion of the earth. And in 1632 he was tried and convicted for heresy, excommunicated, and kept under house arrest until he died. But those writings were foundational for what we now understand as the physical sciences. Today we undoubtedly have beliefs that are so wrong that future generations will find them as laughable as we find the idea of a flat earth.

(Clearly Milano has no time for flat-earthers.)

What we do know is that it will be someone from beyond the current way of the world who drives those changes. Many of those outsiders will appear a little wacky to us. They will challenge our firmly held beliefs and more so, they will challenge what we know to be true. The question is this: Will we treat them like the Catholic Church treated Galileo? Or will we learn from the failures of our past as new evidence reshapes our world?

This episode comes weeks after Milano faced backlash for tweeting her support for Williamson, whose critics consider her New Age beliefs to be as dangerously far from “the physical sciences” as they come.

I’m going to my first fundraiser of the election cycle and it’s for-@marwilliamson.



I know. I know. But she’s the only candidate talking about the collective, soulful ache of the nation & I think that’s an important discussion to have.



Look for her soon on @sorrynotsorry. — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) July 17, 2019

You can listen to the entire episode here.