Tim Maudlin: Quantum Mechanics Explained FROM SCRATCH

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Curt Jaimungal

Society & Culture, Physics, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 616 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2026

⏱️ 180 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE This is a careful lecture that can be followed with zero background knowledge. Einstein thought he'd caught quantum mechanics in an act of spookiness — this podcast asks whether he was even worried about the right thing. Tim Maudlin, professor of philosophy at NYU and a leading philosopher of physics, delivers a rare full lecture tracing Einstein, EPR, and the road to Bell's theorem. The central claim: Einstein's real objection was never determinism — "God does not play dice" is a red herring — but non-locality, which he inferred rather than assumed. Maudlin traces the argument from Einstein's overlooked 1927 Solvay objection through the EPR paper's criterion of reality, showing why Bohr's famous reply never actually answered it. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Einstein's Quantization Hypothesis - 00:07:20 - Photoelectric Effect Implications - 00:12:30 - Wave-Particle Duality Myths - 00:20:40 - De Broglie's Matter Waves - 00:26:40 - Copenhagen's Completeness Doctrine - 00:34:10 - Solvay 1927: Two Conceptions - 00:41:20 - Pinhole Diffraction Problem - 00:48:00 - Collapse and Relativity Violations - 00:56:00 - Epistemic vs. Ontic Collapse - 01:05:00 - Ontological vs. Dynamical Locality - 01:14:00 - Configuration Space Objections - 01:25:00 - EPR's Criterion of Reality - 01:32:40 - Analyzing the Reality Criterion - 01:40:50 - Causal Isolation and Locality - 01:48:45 - Entangled Momentum Eigenstates - 01:56:45 - Logical Core of EPR - 02:04:40 - Position-Momentum Simultaneous Reality - 02:14:00 - Inferring Determinism from Locality - 02:26:30 - Conservation Laws and Information - 02:37:40 - Counterfactual Definiteness Debunked - 02:44:00 - Bohr's Incoherent Response - 02:52:00 - Schrödinger's Entanglement Confession LINKS MENTIONED: - Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1444331272?tag=toe08-20 - On a Heuristic Point of View About the Creation and Conversion of Light [Paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/lectures/Rotman_Summer_School_2013/Einstein_1905_docs/Einstein_Light_Quantum_WikiSource.pdf - The Ghost in the Atom [Paper]: https://vdoc.pub/download/the-ghost-in-the-atom-a-discussion-of-the-mysteries-of-quantum-physics-1guq071e2ukg - Collected Papers on Wave Mechanics [Paper]: https://mwolf.pracownicy.uksw.edu.pl/MK/Schrodinger_Collected_Papers_on_Wave_Mechanics.pdf - Quantum Theory at the Crossroads [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0521814219?tag=toe08-20 - Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777 - Bohr's EPR Critique [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.48.696 - The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics [Paper]: https://personal.lse.ac.uk/robert49/teaching/partiii/pdf/SchroedingerPresentSituation1935(1980trans).pdf - Bertlmann's Socks and the Nature of Reality [Paper]: https://cds.cern.ch/record/142461/files/198009299.pdf - On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/ppf/pdf/10.1103/PhysicsPhysiqueFizika.1.195 - Quantum Theory and Measurement [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691613168?tag=toe08-20 - Tim Maudlin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss - Sean Carroll [TOE]: https://youtu.be/9AoRxtYZrZo - Robert Sapolsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/z0IqA1hYKY8 - Jenann Ismael [TOE]: https://youtu.be/7kvXihDAOi0 - John Norton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.9	But notice the deep problems were about spooky action at a distance,
0:35.0	not particularly about determinism.
0:37.2	I'm really going to try to do this
0:38.6	once properly from beginning to end what's going on with EPR, what's going on with Bell.
0:46.2	This is Tim Modlin, Professor of Philosophy at New York University and one of the world's leading
0:51.6	philosophers of physics. Today, I'm thrilled to bring you a lecture with the breathing room it requires.
0:57.3	To explain quantum physics and what Bell did with zero background knowledge.
1:01.7	I've been told I have an unlimited amount of time.
1:05.2	On this channel, I, Kurchai Mungle, interview researchers regarding their theories of reality with rigor and technical depth.
1:11.6	Unfortunately, most people haven't understood the EPR paper.
1:15.6	This is to set the record straight once on what?
1:18.6	The great ironic reversal at the end is that Bell undermines Einstein's fundamental thesis,
1:26.6	that there's no action at a distance. But he undermines it
1:30.8	using Einstein's own tools. Professor, welcome. I'm super excited. Thank you for coming.
1:38.0	I'm very glad to be here. So this title, okay, as far as I can see, EPR, Bell,
1:44.2	the completeness of the wave function, spooky action, at a distance, and all that.
1:47.8	That's the title of this.
	...

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