The Scientists Ep. 2: Pure Genius - The Feynman Method: How a Physicist Rewired the Way We Learn

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 This conversation explores the life and legacy of Richard Feynman, exploring his pivotal role in the Manhattan Project, his unique personality, and his innovative teaching methods. Feynman's contributions to physics and his playful approach to science are highlighted, alongside the complexities of his character and the lasting impact he has had on future generations of scientists. - Key Takeaways: 00:00 The Call to Arms: Feynman's Early Involvement in WWII 03:08 Los Alamos: The Birthplace of the Atomic Bomb 06:01 Feynman's Playful Genius: Safe-Cracking and Curiosity 08:52 The Personal and Professional: Feynman's Complex Life 12:13 Feynman's Iconoclastic Nature and Humor 15:07 The Legacy of Richard Feynman: A Lasting Impact 18:01 Feynman's Approach to Learning and Teaching 20:49 The Man Behind the Genius: Feynman's Flaws and Foibles - Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here: http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #richardfeynman #manhattanproject #atomicbomb #losalamos #physics #teaching #curiosity #legacy #science #nobelprize Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's 1941. War is raging in Europe. The United States not yet officially involved in the war is nonetheless stirring.
0:22.9	Richard Feynman, freshly minted PhD from Princeton, spends a summer working on ballistics problems.
0:28.8	But after Pearl Harbor, the call comes. And when a call like this comes, you can't ignore it.
0:33.7	Robert Wilson. A physicist working on uranium enrichment for a potential atomic bomb is his recruiter.
0:39.2	Initially, at Princeton, they toiled on an isolation device to separate uranium isotopes 235.
0:46.6	It was complex, ultimately impractical, and it was a different alternative to what Ed Lawrence was
0:53.2	attempting to make way across the country at
0:56.0	UC Berkeley. But the urgency of the war effort became a powerful magnet one Feynman couldn't ignore.
1:02.2	And so when in early 1943 came the summons from Rampard-Oppin-Larner, Feynman couldn't turn
1:08.3	down the call. He was whisked away to a secret laboratory, Los Alamos, which had been established on a remote mesa in New Mexico.
1:16.2	Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bomb and do so before the Germans got there first.
1:21.5	If you've seen the movie Oppenheimer, you certainly know a lot about Oppenheimer himself.
1:27.0	Oppenheimer is a figure of immense charisma and great talent in management, which I don't
1:33.8	think he realized as a theoretical physicist.
1:35.8	But you may have missed, and you'd be forgiven if you did miss, Feynman's role in the
1:40.9	movie.
1:41.2	It's quite small.
1:41.9	So when Oppenheimer calls Feynman and arranges a sanatorium for
1:46.9	his wife Arlene, who had tuberculosis in Albuquerque, not far away from Los Alamos,
1:53.5	I mean, like many young physicists, was drawn into the project's orbit. On March 28, 1943,
1:59.2	just a year and a quarter after World War II was brought to U.S. shores at Pearl Harbor, the young married couple headed west.
2:06.4	At Los Alamos, Feynman was assigned to Fitton's prestigious theoretical physics of it.
	...

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