About This Episode

The last thing you might expect two of the most popular science podcasters in the world to talk about is the uncertainty of science, but that’s exactly what you’ll get when astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews British physicist Professor Brian Cox. The two explore the concepts of wormholes, time travel, free will, and time itself, which Prof. Cox and his friend Stephen Hawking see as an unsolved problem. Cosmologist Dr. Janna Levin calls in to discuss whether the past exists as anything but a memory, and how the “future” is different than “north” in the context of mapping spacetime. In studio, Neil is joined by co-host Maeve Higgins and futurist Jason Silva, who champions science’s willingness to “update, correct and upgrade” in the face of new data, and explains why it’s important to “smash people’s reality tunnel every once in a while.” You’ll actually get to hear Brian change Neil’s mind about the feasibility of Star Wars’ lightsabers – and about the bar fight that changed Brian Cox from budding rock star into physicist. All that plus British superheroes, exploring Mars as a reality TV show, and Bill Nye extolling the value of “Looking Up.

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: The Value of Science, with Brian Cox.