Is there life after death? What happens when we die, with Brian Cox
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.6 • 15.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2025
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We can learn a lot from scientists about getting comfortable with being wrong, says physicist Professor Brian Cox.
In this chat with Fearne, Brian explains the difference between ‘having an argument’ and ‘making an argument’. The latter gives us confidence to ask curious questions, come to our own conclusions, and remain open to being wrong, without letting ego get in the way of connection or progress.
Brian talks through what the physics behind the universe says about the meaning of being human, including finding personal motivation and purpose, and whether there’s life after death.
Fearne and Brian also wonder how we can make sure young girls aren’t discouraged from pursuing science, and Brian tells the story of being on the set of a famous alien movie...
Tickets for Brian’s 2026 world tour – Emergence – are available now.
Brian’s reading list:
Richard Feynman – The Value of Science
Carl Sagan – The Demon Haunted World
Johannes Kepler – Harmonice Mundi
Arthur C. Clark – 2001
Erwin Schrödinger – What is Life?
Sir Paul Nurse – What is Life?
If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, a massive welcome to Happy Place with me, Fern Cotton. |
| 0:04.8 | This is the show that tries to make sense of what it means to be human. |
| 0:09.1 | Today, I'm chatting to Professor Brian Cox. |
| 0:12.2 | I went to a film set. |
| 0:13.6 | I was talking to the actor, he was a very famous actor, |
| 0:16.1 | and it was a scene that he was playing when he saw some aliens for the first time. |
| 0:19.6 | And he said to me, what would you think if you saw the aliens? |
| 0:23.1 | They landed like outside here. |
| 0:24.7 | Now what do you think? |
| 0:25.8 | And I said, I'd just be relieved. |
| 0:27.8 | And he was like really confused. |
| 0:30.1 | But you're scared off. |
| 0:31.5 | No, because the responsibility, I'd feel the weight of being the only repository of meaning in a galaxy of 400 billion suns lifted off my shoulders. |
| 0:41.6 | And then he looked so confused, I thought, only if I've ruined the scene. |
| 0:44.8 | So I learned some good lessons this week. |
| 0:48.4 | One of them was to remember to have fun. |
| 0:51.9 | Now, like you, I'm sure, we adults get very bogged down with the serious, the nitty-gritty |
| 0:57.7 | and also just the mundane of life because we're busy. We've got no time to do anything for |
| 1:03.1 | ourselves. It's just relentless. But I took my kids to a theme park at the weekend and part of me was |
| 1:10.6 | like, oh God, it's going to be so |
| 1:12.6 | hectic, it's going to be people everywhere, the kids are going to be all hyped up. It wasn't as if |
| 1:17.0 | I was looking forward to it, put it that way, but I had the best day out I have had in so long. |
... |
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