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Dark Matter, Public Enemy and the Future of Physics

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2022

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Physicist Stephon Alexander was born in Trinidad and grew up in a working class household in the Bronx. Now he’s a professor at Brown University and president of the National Society of Black Physicists. Speaking with host Janet Babin, Alexander discusses how his latest book, "Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider's Guide to the Future of Physics" was inspired by cultural icons like the hip hop group Public Enemy and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and why being an "outsider" could help the world answer some of the most pressing questions for the future of physics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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Shopping store and online.

0:30.0

We all come to our work from different beginnings

0:40.0

and have to incorporate our backgrounds who we are

0:43.0

into what we do.

0:46.0

For Dr. Stefan Alexander, a professor of physics

0:49.0

at Brown University who specializes in cosmology,

0:52.0

particle physics, and quantum gravity,

0:55.0

his origins, where he was born, where he grew up,

0:59.0

are an integral part of the scientist he's become.

1:03.0

It's a part of me that celebrates my outside-ness,

1:07.0

the things that I bring to the table as a jazz musician,

1:09.0

as well as somebody that grew up in the Bronx

1:12.0

from a working class background, as well as a black man,

1:17.0

a black person.

1:21.0

Alexander's latest book is called Fear of a Black Universe,

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