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Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Leonard Mlodinow – My Friend, Stephen Hawking (#112)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Physics, Natural Sciences, Science

4.71.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2021

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics Leonard Mlodinow was Stephen’s closest colleague in his final years. Who better to put us in the room as Hawking indulges his passion for wine and curry; shares his feelings on love, death, and disability; and grapples with deep questions of philosophy and physics. Whether depicting Hawking’s devotion to his work or demonstrating how he would make spur of the moment choices, such as punting on the River Cam (despite the risk the jaunt posed), or spinning tales of Hawking defiantly urinating in the hedges outside a restaurant that doesn’t have a wheelchair-accessible toilet, Mlodinow captures his indomitable spirit. This deeply affecting account of a friendship teaches us not just about the nature and practice of physics but also about life and the human capacity to overcome daunting obstacles. my previous conversation with Len, Deepak Chopra and Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/E-8mF4HWDnE?sub_confirmation=1 Get the book here https://amzn.to/3gWgS7U Len received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of California, Berkeley, was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute and was on the faculty of the California Institute of Technology. His previous books include the bestsellers The Grand Design and A Briefer History of Time (coauthored with Stephen Hawking), Subliminal (winner of the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award), and War of the Worldviews (with Deepak Chopra), as well as Elastic, Euclid’s Window, Feynman’s Rainbow, and The Upright Thinkers. 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:39 The story of the book cover 00:08:05 Stephen Hawking Inc. 00:12:51 Living with ALS 00:15:55 Hawking Radiation 00:16:28 The origin of the book 00:18:51 How do you rebuke Stephen Hawking!? 00:20:45 Even Stephen Hawking got writer’s block 00:28:27 Our book is NOT an argument against God. 00:29:49 More thoughts on God how Hawking was “Israeli”! 00:30:54 Do singularities exist? Can we ever know? 00:33:50 What was Stephen Hawking’s philosophy of science? 00:38:45 Have you ever “seen” a triangle? An example of realism. 00:42:42 What could the role of God be in the universe? 00:56:04 Which was the more jarring event: completing your last collaboration with Professor Hawking or his death? 00:59:28 How did Leonard balance his life while collaborating with Prof. Hawking? 01:00:37 What would you tell Stephen now if you could? 01:01:27 Thrilling 3 Final Questions 01:01:56 What is in your “Ethical Will”? 01:04:27 What would you put on your monolith? 01:09:25 What advice would you give to your younger self? Watch my most popular videos: Jim Simons, the World’s Smartest Billionaire  Bill Perkins: DIE WITH ZERO:  Patrick Bet-David YOUR NEXT FIVE MOVES  Sheldon Glashow Sir Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize winner  Frank Wilczek Jill Tarter  Eric Weinst Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Any sufficient advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

0:07.0

But I want to welcome today Dr. Leonard Miladnau, who, whose books have been entertaining me and educating me for many decades now.

0:22.0

I first read your book on Feynman. I think that was one of the first

0:26.0

books I read by you at least. And today we're talking about the book that's behind me and

0:30.5

behind Leonard and that is Stephen Hawking a memoir of a friendship in physics and I

0:36.8

want to welcome you to the Into the Impossible Podcast.

0:40.0

Thanks for joining us.

0:41.0

Oh happy to be here.

0:42.6

So you are known for many things.

0:46.6

You're a theoretical physicist in your own right.

0:49.1

You're an author.

0:50.5

You've written many books, too, least, with Stephen Hawking, and now this new book, so the Grand Design, of course, Runaway, bestseller.

0:58.5

A briefer history of time, which maybe we'll have some chance to talk to I talk about you wrote subliminal

1:04.7

which won the Penn Award and also war of the world views with a friend of mine

1:09.8

Depak Chopra and one of the questions I'm going to talk to you about is these interesting

1:15.3

collaborations that you've managed to put together for yourself and advice for

1:19.6

people like me when asked if why I go on you know and do interviews with the

1:24.5

epoch Chopra or somebody else not to mention the fact that you know he was he's

1:29.2

one of the endorsers of Frank Wilkes books who I've had at my show, but they'll make fun of him for not being a scientist and why should I give credibility to that?

1:37.6

I want to talk about that later, but first I want to just read a quick blurb about the essence of this new book of your book about Stephen Hawking and your friendship and your collaboration together primarily on the grand design.

1:52.0

And the statement that I have here

1:54.0

is that you are able to put the reader,

...

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