Why Do We Exist? Hakeem Oluseyi

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Science, Natural Sciences

4.3 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi has lived a life that sounds almost impossible: a childhood marked by poverty, violence, and constant upheaval; a teenage obsession with Einstein; a stint in the Navy; addiction and recovery; work as a janitor; and eventually a PhD in physics from Stanford.

In this conversation, Michael Shermer and Oluseyi talk about his new book, Why Do We Exist?, and the biggest questions science can ask: what came before the Big Bang, whether the multiverse is real, why the universe seems fine-tuned for life, what dark matter and dark energy really mean, and why alien civilizations may be far rarer than we hope.

Hakeem Oluseyi is a multidisciplinary astrophysicist, multi-patented inventor, award-winning author and journalist, and internationally recognized educator. His new book is Why Do We Exist?: The Nine Realms of Universe That Make You Possible.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here's the thing that is shocking when you first hear it.
0:03.1	And that is that everything in the universe at all times is moving through space time at the speed of light.
0:09.3	The thing is, your speed through space is orthogonal to your speed through light, right?
0:13.9	They're at 90 degrees to each other.
0:15.7	So movement through one is affected by movement through the other.
0:20.1	So your speed through space squared plus your speed through time squared is equal to the speed of light squared. Just like A squared plus B squared equal C squared. And so what does that mean? How do you define time? What is time? When did it begin? Did it begin with the Big Bang? Is it even meaningful to ask that question? Well, one of the things I talk about, and you you know, here I diverge from orthodoxy, I say, yes, there clearly is a time before time. And why do I say that? I'm going to ask you the Fermi paradox question. Where is everybody? Yeah, it depends on who you're looking for. So if you're looking for life, period, not advanced technological civilization, right? So the Drake equation
0:56.1	that he came up with, he was looking for a detectable advanced civilization.
1:00.2	Communicating.
1:01.2	Communicating, right? That are creating electromagnetic radiation. I'm not sure that's
1:04.9	the right question. I think the first question is, how many worlds are there with life generally?
1:09.4	And I think the answer is in any galaxy, hundreds
1:11.7	of billions to trillions. So I think life is everywhere. There's probably hundreds of billions
1:16.7	of trillions of worlds in our galaxy with simple life, but multicellular life, maybe only around
1:22.2	100,000. Advanced technological civilizations, I would not be surprised if there were 10 or fewer in our
1:29.4	entire galaxies of hundreds of billions of stars.
1:36.3	All right, everybody, it's Michael Shermer. It's time for another episode of the Michael
1:39.5	Shermer show. My guest today is Dr. Hakeem Ulu Shehi, is how he pronounces it.
1:46.6	We can just call him Dr. O. I think that's what your fans call you, Dr. O.
1:50.6	But let me give you a proper introduction here.
1:52.6	He's the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, A Quantum Life, My Unlikely Journey from the Streets to the Stars.
2:00.1	He's a multidisciplinary astrophysicist, multi-patented inventor, award-winning author and
2:06.0	journalist, internationally recognized educator, and a highly sought-after TV presenter.
	...

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