Podcast Episodes

Yakir Aharonov: The Future Propagates Backward in Quantum Theory

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Physicist Yakir Aharonov argues that the standard story of qu…

Published on 13 hours ago

David Deutsch: Einstein Would Fail Modern Grant Applications

David Deutsch argues that Einstein would struggle to secure modern research grants, exposing how funding systems favor incremental work over bold, fundamental ideas. He connects this bias to quantum …

Published on 1 week ago

Wayne Myrvold: A 2 Hour Deep Dive Into Entropy

Wayne Myrvold reinterprets thermodynamics as a resource theory, arguing that the slogan “entropy always increases” follows from the second law rather than defining it. The conversation contrasts Gibb…

Published on 2 weeks ago

Michael Levin Λ Anil Seth: Your Brain Isn’t a Computer and That Changes Everything

Anil Seth and Michael Levin debate whether brains are computers, how consciousness relates to substrate, and if algorithms can ever capture life and mind. Levin argues machines can access a platonic …

Published on 3 weeks ago

Lilian Dindo on Mindfulness, Acceptance, Coping with Obsessive Thoughts, and ACT Therapy

Episode 95

In this episode Curt Jaimungal talks with Professor Lilian Dindo about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and its use for anxiety, panic attacks, and broader mental‑health challenges. They discu…

Published on 3 weeks, 5 days ago

Andrés Gómez-Emilsson: The Mathematics That Predicts Your DMT Trip

In this episode, Curt talks with Andrés Gómez‑Emilsson of the Qualia Research Institute about mathematically modeling consciousness and visualizing psychedelic experiences. They explore how color geo…

Published on 3 weeks, 5 days ago

Curt Jaimungal (Me): Philosophers vs. Physicists

Curt discusses how philosophy has directly contributed to physics through Bell's theorem, decoherence theory, the hole argument, and more. He also explores hidden philosophical assumptions in physics…

Published on 3 weeks, 5 days ago

Stephen Wolfram: Computation, Physics, Going Beyond "Evolution"

In this episode Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and the Wolfram Language, discusses his view of the universe as a computational system. We examine computational irreducibility, discrete space…

Published on 3 weeks, 6 days ago

Max Tegmark: Physics Absorbed Artificial Intelligence & (Maybe) Consciousness

MIT physicist Max Tegmark argues that artificial intelligence belongs inside physics and that consciousness will be the next frontier. He distinguishes intelligence from subjective experience, outlin…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Matthieu Pageau: Christian Symbolism, Heaven, Earth, Femininity, & Satan

In this episode Curt Jaimungal interviews Matthieu Pageau, author of The Language of Creation, exploring a symbolic grammar that casts heaven as a plan and earth as material. Pageau argues that Satan…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago