Welcome to the After-On podcast. I'm your host, Rob Reed.

And this is a series of conversations with thinkers, founders, and scientists.

Take a little time and stretch out because these talks are unhurry and meant to bring you

to a top percentile understanding of something important.

Also, whether you're ready to start up score ideas, a techie or a lit major, take your

time, engage your mind, and you'll be glad you did it.

Especially this week when we'll be talking to...

Yale astrophysicist Priya Nata Ranjan, one of the world's leading experts in black holes

and dark matter.

Priya and I hadn't yet met when I first reached out to discuss the possibility of her appearing

on this show.

But before we recorded our interview, we cross paths this summer at Timoriley's weekend

long SIFU gathering at the headquarters of Google X.

Not only that, but Priya and I were assigned to the same small SIFU subgroup.

Now there's an alliteration, which operated a bit like a home room class back in middle

school.

Meanwhile, Priya was spending the summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I passed through

there a couple of times, one time to attend a board meeting, another time to interview

David Reich, also to research a piece I'm writing for the New York Times, and in the midst

of all that, Priya and I ended up at a couple of the same dinner parties.

We caught up a couple of times to discuss this interview, and so by the time we sat down

to actually record it, we were pretty good buddies.

...