Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Latest Episodes:

Eric Weinstein & Richard Borcherds: Fields Medalist & Eric Weinstein on the Future of Mathematics Nov 09, 2026

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This episode is about mathematics in the age of AI. Richard Borcherds, a Fields Medalist and professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley, and Eric Weinstein, who earned his PhD in mathematics at Harvard, join to take up three questions. What is mathematics about, what is the future for math students, and what is at stake? We discuss whether AI can build theories or only solve problems, why pure mathematics is worth funding, and what is left for human mathematicians. The conversation also covers the sporadic groups, whether math will go the way of chess, and who deserves credit if a stranger with an AI proves the Riemann hypothesis.
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - Has AI Conquered Math?
- 07:14 - Six-Sphere and Exotic Spheres
- 12:49 - Secrecy, Credit, and Purity
- 19:46 - Why Fund Pure Math?
- 31:45 - Octonions and Exceptional Lie Groups
- 42:00 - Calculation Without Understanding?
- 48:24 - "AI Is Better Than Me"
- 54:03 - The Chess Precedent
- 1:02:08 - "You Do Not Know Your Value"
- 1:09:39 - Math as a Public Good
- 1:15:15 - What Is Math About?
- 1:23:33 - The Human Moat
- 1:30:01 - Feynman's Hidden Calculations
- 1:39:19 - What's Truly at Stake?
- 1:50:07 - Who Gets Credit Now?
- 1:54:15 - What Is a Spinor?
LINKS:
- Richard Borcherds' Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k8VB8MYAAAAJ
- Geometric Unity: A First Look [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/Z7rd04KzLcg
- Extension of Self-Dual Yang-Mills Equations Across the Eighth Dimension [Thesis]: https://www.proquest.com/docview/303973536
- Monstrous Moonshine and Monstrous Lie Superalgebras [Paper]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01232032
- Generalized Kac-Moody Algebras [Paper]: https://math.berkeley.edu/~reb/papers/gkma/gkma.pdf
- What Is the Monster? [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0209328
- Renormalization and Quantum Field Theory [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.0129
- Eric Weinstein [X]: https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
- The Edge of Everything [Book]: https://substack.com/@curtjaimungal/note/c-206576916
- Sharing AI Progress in Mathematics [Article]: https://openai.com/index/sharing-ai-progress-in-mathematics/
- AI Solves 79-Year-Old Six-Dimensional Sphere Mystery [Article]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-solves-79-year-old-math-mystery-of-six-dimensional-spheres/
- Scott Aaronson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3yXtXTwz4J4
- Mikhail Gromov [TOE]: coming soon
- Dan Freed [TOE]: coming soon
Full reading list for this episode (all 88 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Mark Solms: Consciousness Isn't in the Cortex Nov 02, 2026

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This episode is about where consciousness begins. Mark Solms, neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst at the University of Cape Town, joins to explain why he thinks it begins not in the cortex but in raw feeling from the upper brainstem. We discuss patients who lost REM sleep but kept dreaming, what that means for Freud’s wish theory, and children born without a cortex who still giggle and startle. He argues the hard problem was tackled from the wrong end, starting with visual perception instead of feeling. The conversation also covers dual-aspect monism, Markov blankets and the free energy principle, his attempt to engineer an artificial agent that feels, and why he thinks that at death the second law wins.
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - What Is Consciousness?
- 07:00 - Why Would We Self-Sacrifice?
- 15:37 - The Beggar: Care vs Rage
- 22:33 - What Is Neuropsychoanalysis?
- 31:15 - Why Do We Dream?
- 45:42 - Affect, Sentience, Consciousness
- 51:57 - Can You Betray Your Feelings?
- 56:58 - Hidden Motives and Willpower
- 01:04:28 - Hard Problem: Wrong Starting Point
- 01:14:44 - Children Born Without Cortex
- 01:21:21 - Dual-Aspect Monism
- 01:34:22 - Against Corticocentrism
- 01:39:58 - Death and the Second Law
LINKS:
- Mark's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vD4p8rQAAAAJ
- Mark's Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001K8A6FA/allbooks?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=ci3uq&content-id=amzn1.sym.7e190e19-9f6f-4df8-807a-5a7608594741&pf_rd_p=7e190e19-9f6f-4df8-807a-5a7608594741&pf_rd_r=134-0336993-4380237&pd_rd_wg=QOJv5&pd_rd_r=9aa4ed5b-7598-43aa-ab31-3a27213a55fe
- Mark's Twitter: https://x.com/Mark_Solms
- The Hidden Spring [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1324021918?tag=toe08-20
- The Only Cure [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B0FWZXMHF1?tag=toe08-20
- The Brain and the Inner World [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1855759829?tag=toe08-20
- The Neuropsychology of Dreams [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1138989584?tag=toe08-20
- The Hard Problem of Consciousness and the Free Energy Principle [Paper]: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02714/full
- Inferring Affective Consciousness in an Artificial Agent [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03883
- How and Why Consciousness Arises [Paper]: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10057681/
- Dreaming and REM Sleep Are Controlled by Different Brain Mechanisms [Paper]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11515144/
- Mark Solms [Bio]: https://neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu/people/mark-solms
- Mark Solms, University of Cape Town [Website]: https://humanities.uct.ac.za/department-psychology/contacts/mark-solms
- A Neuropsychoanalytic Perspective on the Hard Problem [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/r6J8pFHY2Fc
- Why and How Consciousness Arises [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/F7WF5gzPG1k
Full reading list for this episode (all 72 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Scott Aaronson: The Most Significant Moment in Math History Oct 26, 2026

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This episode is about math after AI started solving its open problems. Scott Aaronson, director of the Quantum Information Center at UT Austin, joins to explain why there is no making this go away. We discuss who gets credit for AI proofs, what is left for PhD students, and OpenAI’s apparent proof of the unique games conjecture. His wife, the complexity theorist Dana Moshkovitz, has worked on that conjecture since they met. The conversation also covers whether a lab that proved P equals NP should release it, and how AI overturned a conjecture he and Greg Kuperberg posed, with consequences for black hole firewalls. We end with Maxwell’s demon and why he thinks integrated information theory is wrong.
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - AI Solved the Unique Games Conjecture
- 06:01 - Is Math About Understanding?
- 14:26 - OpenAI vs. Anthropic Disclosure
- 21:21 - Who Gets Credit for AI Proofs?
- 26:46 - Mourning the Mathematician
- 35:39 - The AI Denialism Problem
- 41:31 - Association for Human Mathematics
- 47:24 - If AI Proves P = NP
- 52:53 - Is Physics Next?
- 58:51 - Unitary Synthesis Problem Solved
- 01:04:30 - Black Hole Firewalls & P vs PSPACE
- 01:15:41 - Maxwell's Demon & Pseudo-Entropy
- 01:22:32 - Why IIT Is Wrong
LINKS:
- The Mathocalypse [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10169
- The Mathocalypse, Comment #115 [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10169#comment-2041220
- P =? NP [Paper]: https://www.scottaaronson.com/papers/pnp.pdf
- Quantum Versus Classical Proofs and Advice [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0604056
- Quantum Computation vs. Firewalls [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.4504
- Limits on Efficient Computation in the Physical World [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0412143
- Talk at Columbia University [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9243
- Computational Complexity and Explanations in Physics [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/GcbLL4C3VwY
- Why I Am Not an Integrated Information Theorist [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=1799
- Giulio Tononi and Me: A Phi-nal Exchange [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=1823
- Dispatches From the Possibly Last Days of Human Relevance [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9782
- The Age of Wonders and Terrors [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10062
- Ten Signs a Claimed Mathematical Breakthrough Is Wrong [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=304
- AI Alignment Theory Course at UT Austin [Article]: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10125
- Dana Moshkovitz [Website]: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/people/faculty-researchers/dana-moshkovitz
- The Unique Games Theorem [Paper]: https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/preprints/The-Unique-Games-Theorem-September-23-2026/paper.pdf
Full reading list for this episode (all 58 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Hirosi Ooguri: Could AI Find Physics We Can’t Understand? Oct 19, 2026

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This is a podcast about whether AI could discover the laws of physics before we do. Hirosi Ooguri, chair of Caltech’s Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, joins for his first English podcast to explain why AI has moved faster in mathematics than in physics. He fears it could solve physics in a way we cannot understand. We discuss why quantum field theory lacks a firm mathematical foundation, quantum gravity as the “final boss,” the swampland distance conjecture he proposed with Cumrun Vafa, and his estimate that, left to humans, verifying string theory could take 2,250 years. The conversation also covers the PhD thesis numbers that turned up in a Mathieu group table twenty years later. What an honor.
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - Measuring Earth in Fifth Grade
- 06:58 - Why Physics, Not Platonic Math?
- 12:34 - Nothing Below the Planck Length?
- 23:15 - Why AI Can't Verify Physics
- 30:47 - Yang-Mills: Hardest Millennium Problem
- 36:31 - Why QFT Resists Rigor
- 46:19 - What If Yang-Mills Fails?
- 52:35 - Are LLMs Just Grad Students?
- 01:01:09 - Swampland and AdS/CFT
- 01:12:57 - Gravity Breaks Wilson's Paradigm
- 01:21:45 - Will AI Surpass Physicists?
- 01:26:58 - 2,250 Years to Verify Strings?
- 01:34:03 - Is String Theory Disappointing?
- 01:40:27 - Distance Conjecture and Inflation
- 01:46:24 - Mathieu Moonshine Discovery
- 01:52:59 - What Would Make Him Quit Strings?
- 02:02:28 - Days of Blank Paper
LINKS:
- Hirosi Ooguri [Caltech PMA]: https://www.pma.caltech.edu/people/hiroshi-hirosi-ooguri-oguri
- On the Geometry of the String Landscape and the Swampland, Ooguri & Vafa [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0605264
- Non-Supersymmetric AdS and the Swampland, Ooguri & Vafa [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.01533
- Constraints on Symmetry From Holography, Harlow & Ooguri [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.05337
- Continuous Family of CFTs and Exactly Marginal Operators, Komatsu et al. [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.11045
- Universal Bounds on CFT Distance Conjecture, Ooguri & Wang [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.00674
- Notes on the K3 Surface and the Mathieu Group M24, Eguchi, Ooguri & Tachikawa [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.0956
- Exploring the Holographic Entropy Cone via Reinforcement Learning, He, Lee & Ooguri [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.19979
- The Holographic Entropy Cone, Bao et al. [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.07839
- De Sitter Space and the Swampland, Obied et al. [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.08362
- Knot Invariants and Topological Strings, Ooguri & Vafa [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9912123
- Topological Lattice Models in Four Dimensions, Ooguri [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9205090
- Kodaira-Spencer Theory of Gravity and Exact Results for Quantum String Amplitudes [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9309140
Full reading list for this episode (all 103 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Philip Mannheim: Dark Matter and General Relativity Explained FROM SCRATCH Oct 12, 2026

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This is Part One of a lecture where, as with Tim Maudlin, the professor was given unlimited time, so you can pause and check the derivations yourself. Philip Mannheim, professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, joins to explain why he traces dark matter, dark energy and quantum gravity to one cause: stretching Newton and Einstein beyond the solar system. We discuss the planet Vulcan that was never there, why dwarf galaxies are a bigger clue than spirals, the Tully-Fisher relation, and his fits to 138 galaxies with no dark matter. The conversation also covers general relativity from scratch, from metrics to the Riemann tensor, and whether Einstein’s equations are unique. Part Two is still to come.
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - Three Dark Problems, One Cause?
- 08:31 - The 120-Order Cosmological Catastrophe
- 13:17 - Newton, Kepler, and Ptolemy
- 21:29 - Mercury's Anomalous Precession
- 27:20 - Neptune Found, Vulcan Vanished
- 34:12 - Galactic Rotation Curves
- 40:00 - Dwarf Galaxies Break Universality
- 45:48 - Where Are the WIMPs?
- 52:00 - Tully-Fisher: Galaxies Know
- 58:06 - Four Parameters, 138 Galaxies
- 01:06:00 - Milgrom's Law and the RAR
- 01:12:10 - Fourth-Order Poisson Equation
- 01:20:28 - Missing Mass in Plain Sight
- 01:26:13 - Confirmed Low-Acceleration Prediction
- 01:33:00 - Metrics From Scratch
- 01:39:00 - Why Einstein Changed Newton
- 01:44:31 - Riemann Tensor: Real Gravity
- 01:49:50 - Equivalence Principle Derived
- 01:55:00 - Building Einstein's Equations
- 02:00:54 - Light Bending and Ricci Flatness
- 02:07:45 - Are Einstein's Equations Unique?
LINKS:
- Dark Matter and Dark Energy Alternatives [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0505266
- The Case for Conformal Gravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1101.2186
- Conformal Gravity at Low Acceleration [Paper]: https://inspirehep.net/literature/3155698
- Conformal Gravity's Newtonian Limit [Paper]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02105226
- Quadratic Potential and Galactic Rotation [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0970
- Universal Rotation Curves and Tully-Fisher [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.03921
- Local and Global Gravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9611038
- Fitting Galactic Rotation Curves [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3495
- Dwarf-Galaxy Radial Acceleration [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.06905
- MOND Theory [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1404.7661
- MOG, Cosmology and Black Holes [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.12550
- High-Resolution Rotation Curves of LSB Galaxies [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0107326
- Dark Matter: Fact or Fantasy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11217
Full reading list for this episode (all 31 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Jonathan Gorard: The Physicist Revolutionizing Physics With AI Oct 05, 2026

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Math has a proof checker. Can physics get one? Jonathan Gorard, an applied mathematician and the cofounder and CEO of Lanyon AI, joins to explain why AI took off in math and coding but not yet in physics. We discuss an AI finishing the formal check of a Fields Medal proof and why it scared him, why he thinks “I detected a particle” rests on 20 to 50 levels of theory, and what Alan Turing’s PhD student Robin Gandy tried to build for physics. The conversation also covers his push to make physics executable, why he thinks mysteries are artifacts of description languages, and whether there is still a place for the physicist.
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - The Sphere Packing Shock
- 05:53 - Science as Product vs Process
- 11:20 - Is Science Just Hedonism?
- 20:56 - Why Academics Ignored AI
- 31:54 - Why Leave Princeton?
- 39:56 - Turing's Student and Physics Formalization
- 44:56 - Theory-Ladenness of Observation
- 50:22 - Why Math Isn't Enough
- 58:19 - Sapir-Whorf for AI
- 01:05:49 - Filtering the Paper Deluge
- 01:12:07 - Can AI Transmit Understanding?
- 01:19:38 - Human-Readable AI Reasoning
- 01:25:59 - Must AI Be Embodied?
- 01:31:50 - Mysteries Are Description Language Artifacts
- 01:41:54 - Grieving Physics
- 01:49:59 - What's Left for Physicists?
- 01:55:18 - The Next Description Language
- 02:02:26 - Spacetime Discreteness and Beacons
LINKS:
- Jonathan Gorard [Wolfram Physics Project]: https://www.wolframphysics.org/pages/people/jonathan-gorard/
- Lanyon AI: https://www.lanyon.ai/
- Lanyon AI Founding Team: https://www.lanyon.ai/company/
- Shock with Confidence: Formal Proofs of Correctness for Hyperbolic PDE Solvers [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13877
- BEACONS: Bounded-Error, Algebraically-Composable Neural Solvers for PDEs [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.14853
- General Relativistic Hydrodynamics in Discrete Spacetime [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.02331
- The Empirical Metamathematics of Euclid and Beyond [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.07337v1
- Math Inc. Sphere Packing Announcement: https://www.math.inc/sphere-packing
- The Sphere Packing Problem in Dimension 8 [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.04246
- Progress in Formalizing Sphere Packing in Dimension 8 [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.23468
- On Axiomatic Systems in Mathematics and Theories in Physics [Paper]: https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/ohad.kammar/scans/gandy-thesis-ocr.pdf
- Hilbert's Sixth Problem: Axioms of Physics [Paper]: https://people.reed.edu/~davidp/341/resources/hilbert.pdf
- Hilbert's Program [SEP]: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hilbert-program/
- On Computable Numbers [Paper]: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Turing_Paper_1936.pdf
- Lean Proof Assistant [Wikipedia]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_(proof_assistant)
- The Lean Mathematical Library [Paper]: https://leanprover-community.github.io/papers/mathlib-paper.pdf
Full reading list for this episode (all 114 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Olaf Dreyer: A New Explanation for Gravity Sep 28, 2026

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This is a podcast on gravity, from the ringing of black holes to the number 0.04. Olaf Dreyer, a theoretical physicist who did his PhD with Abhay Ashtekar and now works in finance, joins to explain how he thinks spacetime and matter emerged together. We discuss black hole spectroscopy, the test he and his collaborators proposed and LIGO later ran. Olaf found that 0.04 in a condensed matter textbook, the same value as the tilt of the cosmic microwave background. He argues this means our world began in a phase transition, and he sketches a new way to implement the equivalence principle. The conversation also covers Robert Laughlin’s bucket of water, what banking taught Olaf about funding physics, and consciousness.
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - Ashtekar's Failure Slide
- 12:12 - String Theory's Carbon Copies
- 19:47 - Don't Kill Ideas Early
- 24:51 - Black Hole Spectroscopy Origins
- 33:55 - Coherent States Critique
- 42:51 - What Counts as Quantum Gravity?
- 52:10 - Can AI Truly Create?
- 1:02:17 - Consciousness Beyond the Hamiltonian
- 1:07:44 - Emergence and the "Little I"
- 1:14:16 - Strange Loops and Experience
- 1:20:17 - Laughlin's Bucket of Water
- 1:27:29 - Cosmological Constant Problem
- 1:36:56 - The 0.04 Coincidence
- 1:42:26 - Just Numerology?
- 1:48:53 - Rethinking the Equivalence Principle
- 1:55:38 - Gravity as Gauge Symmetry
- 2:05:35 - Don't Be Arrogant About Tools
- 2:11:41 - Narrowing Before Collapse
- 2:17:34 - How Perimeter Became Normal
- 2:23:34 - Next Generation's Burden
LINKS:
- The World Is Discrete [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1307.6169
- Black Hole Spectroscopy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0309007
- Quasinormal Modes, the Area Spectrum, and Black Hole Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0211076
- Olaf's Papers: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1021936
- Principles of Condensed Matter Physics [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0521794501?tag=toe08-20
- A Different Universe [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/046503828X?tag=toe08-20
- AQFT: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quantum-field-theory/
- LIGO Black Hole Collision Sound: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/video/ligo20160211v2
- LISA: https://lisa.nasa.gov/
- Lee Samuel Finn: https://web.archive.org/web/20141020034610/http://gwastro.org/us/lee-samuel-finn
- Rob Laughlin: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/laughlin/facts/
- DESY: https://desy.de/index_eng.html
Full reading list for this episode (all 61 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Jim Al-Khalili: The (Unsettling) Reason Time Only Runs One Way Sep 21, 2026

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This episode is about what physics says is there when nobody is looking, including time itself. Jim Al-Khalili, theoretical physicist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Surrey, joins to argue that the arrow of time is fundamental. Entropy increases because the arrow already points that way, and not the other way around. We discuss why he thinks the measurement problem is taught badly. He wants Bohmian mechanics to be right without claiming that it is, since the price is Einstein’s special relativity. He calls the past hypothesis a cheat. The conversation also covers the block universe, where he parts ways with Carlo Rovelli, and why he wants thermodynamics in the search for quantum gravity. I hope you enjoy.
FOLLOW:
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
- Substack: https://curtjaimungal.com
- Twitter: https://x.com/TOEwithCurt
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Quantum Measurement Problem
- 08:44 - Realist Quantum Interpretations
- 18:19 - Scientific Empathy and Explanation
- 30:19 - Electron's Ontological State
- 41:05 - Minkowski's Block Universe
- 51:59 - Flow vs. Arrow of Time
- 1:01:01 - Entropy and Past Hypothesis
- 1:14:56 - Rovelli and Emergent Time
- 1:25:40 - Incomplete vs. Approximate Physics
- 1:31:57 - Causal Set Theory
LINKS:
- Jim Al-Khalili's Website: https://www.jimal-khalili.com/
- On Time [Book]: https://amzn.to/46PNLxK
- Jim Al-Khalili's Channel [Video]: https://www.youtube.com/@UnbaffledScience
- Quantum Reality Series [Video]: https://youtu.be/sivQ-jbZ2oM
- The Decoherent Arrow of Time and the Entanglement Past Hypothesis [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03418
- Block Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/
- Copenhagen Interpretation: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen/
- Many Worlds: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/
- Bohmian Mechanics: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-bohm/
- Bell's Theorem: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bell-theorem/
- Collapse Theories: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-collapse/
- Schrödinger's Cat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
- Loschmidt's Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox
- Thermodynamic Asymmetry in Time: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-thermo/
- Space and Time [Paper]: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Space_and_Time
- The Strangest Man [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B002LDM8QS?tag=toe08-20
- Beyond the Quantum [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0198853742?tag=toe08-20
- The Selfish Gene [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B01GI5F2FS?tag=toe08-20
- Universe Today Article: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/quantum-physicist-takes-aim-at-the-universes-mysterious-arrow-of-time
Full reading list for this episode (all 37 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com
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Lucrezia Ravera: Take Away the Fields and Spacetime Disappears Sep 14, 2026

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This episode is about relationality — the idea that spacetime isn't a stage but something built out of fields defining each other. Lucrezia Ravera, physicist at the Polytechnic University of Turin, joins to explain the dressing field method she's developing with Jordan François, and why she thinks the manifold itself disappears from the physical picture. We discuss Einstein's hole argument and the point coincidence argument, why gauge symmetry is a feature of physics rather than mere redundancy, and how a system as simple as two particles can act as quantum reference frames for one another. The conversation also covers relational quantum mechanics versus classical relationalism, why time and space variables vanish once you write physics in terms of fields on fields, and what it means to be a "first principle thinker" navigating a hyper-competitive, metrics-driven physics career. I hope you enjoy.
FOLLOW:
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
- Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt
- Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs
- Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
- PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE
TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Bundle Differential Geometry
- 00:05:31 - Dressing Field Method
- 00:10:40 - Einstein’s Point Coincidence Argument
- 00:15:45 - Relativity vs. Relationalism
- 00:21:00 - Gauge Redundancy vs. Symmetry
- 00:26:30 - Relational Quantum Mechanics
- 00:33:52 - Gribov-Singer Obstructions
- 00:39:00 - Invariant Path Integral Quantization
- 00:45:00 - Lorentz Dressing and Locality
- 00:52:11 - Ontic Structural Realism
- 00:58:00 - LQG vs. String Theory
- 01:03:10 - Relational Quantum Field Theory
- 01:09:00 - Foundations of QFT
- 01:14:40 - AI and Truth-Seeking
- 01:20:00 - First Principle Thinking
- 01:25:30 - Creativity in Physics
LINKS MENTIONED:
- Lucrezia's Website: https://lucreziaravera.com/
- Lucrezia's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@R3Fram3D
- A Hundred Years Since Quantum Mechanics [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/UE0RKcnNdR0
- On The Geometric Approach To The Boundary Problem In Supergravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.01462
- Relational Bundle Geometric Formulation Of Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02046
- Geometric Relational Framework For General-Relativistic Gauge Field Theories [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.04043
- Lecture Notes On Symmetry Reduction Via The Dressing Field Method [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.29505
- Stueckelberg Action: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stueckelberg_action
- The Hole Argument: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/
- Mechanics As A General-Relativistic Gauge Field Theory, And Relational Quantization [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19845
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Tanya Luhrmann: The Experience Is Real. But Is God? Sep 07, 2026

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This episode is about how an invisible God comes to feel present to someone who prays. It is not about whether God exists. Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology at Stanford, joins to explain how people come to experience God as real, and why she thinks there are an awful lot of atheists sitting in church pews. We discuss Augustine hearing God speak, why the "spiritual but not religious" category has grown to nearly a third of Americans, why a more lovable, therapeutic God is paradoxically harder to believe in than a demanding one, and how practices like prayer and the Ignatian spiritual exercises make an invisible God feel present. The conversation also covers why religious studies classes (not biology classes) most often unsettle a young believer's faith, and the "liminal" psychological space — the same one that makes a childhood teddy bear feel alive — where Luhrmann argues God actually lives.
FOLLOW:
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
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- Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs
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- PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE
TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Experiencing God as Real
- 00:05:32 - William James and "The More"
- 00:10:45 - The "Teddy Bear" God
- 00:16:00 - Neoplatonic Vibrational Theology
- 00:21:40 - Placebo and Hypnotic Focus
- 00:27:22 - Charles Taylor’s Secular Age
- 00:33:46 - Feynman’s Two Heritages
- 00:41:44 - Productive Doubt in Faith
- 00:46:50 - Tarski and Belief Hierarchies
- 00:55:40 - Apophatic vs. Cataphatic Prayer
- 01:00:42 - Paracosms and Ignatian Exercises
LINKS MENTIONED:
- Tanya Luhrmann's Website: https://www.tanyaluhrmann.com/
- How God Becomes Real [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691234442?tag=toe08-20
- When God Talks Back [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0307264793?tag=toe08-20
- The Faith Frame [Paper]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327517833_The_Faith_Frame_Or_Belief_is_Easy_Faith_is_Hard
- The Varieties Of Religious Experience [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1439297274?tag=toe08-20
- Many Religious 'Nones' Around The World Hold Spiritual Beliefs [Article]: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/09/04/many-religious-nones-around-the-world-hold-spiritual-beliefs/
- The Cultural Kindling Of Spiritual Experiences [Paper]: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/677881
- Sacred Books Of The East: https://archive.org/details/SacredBooksEastVariousOrientalScholarsWithIndex.50VolsMaxMuller/01.SacredBooksEast.VarOrSch.v1v2v3comb.Muller.Buhler.Legge.Oxf.1879.1897./page/n43/mode/2up
- A Secular Age [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0674986911?tag=toe08-20
- Two Great Heritages: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman
- The Book Of Job: https://www.sefaria.org/Job.1.2
- The Highs And Lows Of Sufi Whirling [Article]: https://www.gqmiddleeast.com/article/the-highs-and-lows-of-sufi-whirling
- Say What Your Longing Heart Desires [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1503614247?tag=toe08-20
- Sechit Madra [Trainer]: https://www.instagram.com/sechit_madra/
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