I do think that this is all part of the cosmological story and I also think dreams deferred are part of the cosmological story.

But I hope that there will be a generation for whom dreams deferred to something that they study, not something that they live.

So when you think of physics, do you think about something that will change your world, that draws you in, that you're just

juicily excited to dive into? Well, that was the experience of Dr. Chanda Preska Glanstein at the age of 10 when she was introduced to this world in a way that she never expected.

In fact, she kind of fought when her mom said we need to go do this thing and yet it lit a fire of curiosity and discovery that has never left her.

Dr. Chanda Preska Glanstein is a professor of physics and core faculty member in women's and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire.

She's also won a fewer than a hundred black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics.

Born in East LA, a devout Dodgers van, she's a citizen of both the United States and Barbados and a descendant of Afro Caribbean and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants.

And she decided to become a theoretical physicist at such a young age. We dive into this story, her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in black feminist traditions.

Emerging as a powerful voice in her field, Chanda really urges us to recognize how science like most fields is far from an equal playing field with racism, sexism, and other dehumanizing systems playing a role, not only in who participates in the field.

But in the essential nature of the work and the potential discoveries and insights that it yields, she lays out a bold new approach to science and society that begins with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky.

In her groundbreaking new book, The Disordered Cosmos, Chanda shares her love for physics from the standard model of particle physics and what lies beyond to the physics of melanin in the skin.

To the latest theories of dark matter all with a new spin informed by history, politics, and even the wisdom of Star Trek.

We explore her personal journey and many of these ideas in today's conversation, so excited to share it with you.

And a quick note before we dive in, so at the end of every episode, I don't know if you've ever heard this, but we actually recommend a similar episode, so if you love this episode, at the end, we're going to share another one that we're pretty sure you're going to love to.

So be sure to listen for that.

Okay, all into today's conversation time Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project.

I think kind of a fun starting point is you were raised in what you described as raised largely by a single mom, both parents also really devote to causes.

Activism was really it sounds like a part of the ethos of your family. I'm curious what your experience was of that at a really young age.

It's interesting there was a tweet that was circulating. I guess like CBS asked the question how early is too early to teach kids about race or how old should kids be when they learn about race and a lot of black people were responding and saying, well, I had to learn in preschool because such and such incident happened and and that kind of thing.

And I was reading through people's responses and I was trying to figure out if I could remember a time when I wasn't aware of race.

And I don't remember a time when I wasn't aware of race and I wasn't aware of gender.

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