March 8, 2020 7:20 pm

Monday, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Greene Answer Questions on String Theory and More

If there’s one frequent guest in the StarTalk line-up that we can always depend on to blow our minds it’s Brian Greene. And with his new book, Until the End of Time, hitting the shelves, it’s time for him to come back to StarTalk and, you guessed it, blow our minds.

On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice welcome Brian to answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries on anything and everything from interstellar travel to string theory to the meaning of life. If you haven’t heard any of Brian’s previous appearances on StarTalk you can find one of my favorite episodes right here – where Neil and Brian investigate if our universe is a simulation.

We start with interstellar travel. How far will we journey within the lifetime of humanity? This question opens a hot debate on how long we think humanity will last. What happens if you send a group of explorers on an interstellar journey and when they come back our species is extinct? Find out how long it would take us to get out of just the Milky Way galaxy.

We examine free choice and free will and why Brian thinks we don’t have either. We ponder what time is made of, if anything at all. Brian drops a knowledge bomb on us when he tells us why spacetime itself might be stitched together by the threads of quantum entanglement. You’ll also hear why ripping apart the fabric of spacetime might not be as catastrophic as you think.

Investigate whether or not the laws of physics are finite. We discuss the meaning of life…if there is one. Brian and Neil explore the role of religion and how it could change if we got contacted by extraterrestrial life. Find out more about entropy. Lastly, we dive into the simulation universe hypothesis. All that, plus, we debate if the human brain will ever figure out human consciousness.

Please join us tomorrow for Cosmic Queries – Until the End of Time, with Brian Greene at 3pm ET right here on our website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re a StarTalk+ Patron or an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 3pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
-Ian Mullen