Home Podcasts Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Big Bang Productions Inc. 608 episodes Latest Jun 1, 2026

Into the Impossible is a podcast hosted by Brian Keating, a Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego. The show features conversations with Nobel Prize winners, authors, and technologists exploring deep questions about the universe, from AI to aliens, biophysics to the multiverse. It aims to unite curiosity with clarity, covering topics that range from cosmology to the brain. Full episodes and notes are available at briankeating.com/podcast.

Episodes

Physicist: Why I Believe in Near-Death Experiences Jun 9, 2026 1359 A practicing astrophysicist who doesn't believe in the tunnel of light, the hovering soul, or the wailing relatives — but believes in one near-death experience that changed science forever. By the end you'll believe in it too. Today on Into the Impossible: the strangest, darkest, most personal origin story behind the world's most famous prize — and what it should make you do with the time you h
Godlike AI Is Here! Peter Diamandis Debates Brian Keating Jun 1, 2026 3827 Peter Diamandis has built more of the future than almost anyone alive. He founded XPRIZE. He co-founded Singularity University with Ray Kurzweil. He started Human Longevity with Craig Venter. And in his new book with Steven Kotler, We Are as Gods, he argues that artificial intelligence isn't just changing what we can do. It's changing what it means to be human. I'm not so sure. This is Peter's f
Two Scientists, One Question: Does Alien Life Need a Soul? May 30, 2026 5646 An astrophysicist and founder of Reasons to Believe argues the universe looks increasingly designed for life — while a cosmologist challenges whether fine-tuning proves anything at all. If we're alone in the cosmos, the implications are staggering. If we're not, it could change science, religion, and humanity's future forever. Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist, founder of Reasons to Believe, and
FLAT Universe: Why Scientists Keep Getting This Wrong May 27, 2026 1459 An experimental cosmologist with 35 years of CMB research breaks down the curvature tension — and why the viral claim that "everything we know about cosmology is wrong" doesn't survive contact with the actual data. Subscribe if you want science with evidence, not speculation. Dr. Brian Keating is Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego and one of the leading experimental c
Joscha Bach: The Self Is a Story Your Brain Tells Itself May 15, 2026 5475 The AI theorist who thinks consciousness is a software agent — and that God, AGI, and the apocalypse are all pointing at the same thing. What you think is "the world" isn't outside you. It's a simulation your brain produces, and the self that experiences it may not exist in the way you think it does.J oscha Bach is an AI researcher and cognitive scientist whose work sits at the intersection of co
The Equation That Changed How Physicists Think About Reality | Juan Maldacena May 7, 2026 2439 Juan Maldacena is a theoretical physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study whose 1997 paper remains the most cited in the history of theoretical physics. We cover: -why wormholes and quantum entanglement may be the same thing -what actually happens to information when you throw something into a black hole -the reason Hawking radiation accidentally gave cosmologists the equation that explains
Princeton Scientist: We Don't Understand AI - Tom Griffiths - #553 Apr 29, 2026 3138 A Princeton cognitive scientist says AI can't think like a child — and giving it more data won't fix that. If the field keeps scaling without solving what's actually missing, the gap between human and machine intelligence won't close. It'll just get more expensive. Tom Griffiths is a professor of psychology and computer science at Princeton, and one of the leading researchers working at the inte
The Universe Is Trying to Destroy All Matter. Hakeem Oluseyi - #552 Apr 21, 2026 2989 An astrophysicist says the universe doesn't pull things down — it accelerates upward toward them. And that's one of the tamer claims in this conversation. Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi joins Brian to dismantle assumptions most physicists won't touch in public. Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi is a NASA researcher, Nova host, and author of Why Do We Exist, a unified framework spanning quantum fields to cosmology — and mak
Quantum Computers Aren't Useless. You Just Don't Know How to Use Them. Apr 20, 2026 787 Sabine Hossenfelder says quantum computers are only useful for breaking codes. She's wrong — and my undergraduates are building the proof. What's happening in my lab right now has nothing to do with cryptography, and everything to do with the future of AI. I'm a cosmologist at UC San Diego teaching undergraduates to build, program, and eventually launch quantum computers — possibly to the Moon v
This AI Broke Every Benchmark — Then It Did Something Worse. Vivienne Ming - #551 Apr 16, 2026 4368 A neuroscientist built an AI that refuses to give answers — and it outperformed every model on the market, including the ones trained on billions of users’ data. The implication: every AI that hands you the answer may be quietly making you less capable of thinking without it. Dr. Vivienne Ming is a neuroscientist, AI researcher, and author of Robot Proof, who has spent nearly 30 years building ma
AI Insider CEO: The Models Too Dangerous for You to See. Emad Mostaque - #550 Apr 13, 2026 5627 Emad Mostaque built Stable Diffusion. Now he says the most powerful AI models will never be released — and we have roughly 800 days before everything changes. What the trillion-dollar labs won't tell you about the models they're keeping locked away 👇 Emad Mostaque is the founder of Stability AI and creator of Stable Diffusion. In this conversation, he explains why the gap between public AI and
Genius Philosopher: The Law of Physics That Explains Why Your Life Falls Apart. Rebecca Goldstein - #549 Apr 7, 2026 2500 Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list  to win a meteorite 💥 Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a MacArthur Genius Award recipient, philosopher, novelist, and author of The Mattering Instinct. Her verdict on why human beings are driven to matter — and what threatens that drive — might change how you think about your own life. Check out her recent appearance on Mindscape here

Recommended

Playing