#468 – Janna Levin: Black Holes, Wormholes, Aliens, Paradoxes & Extra Dimensions
Janna Levin is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist specializing in black holes, cosmology of extra dimensions, topology of the universe, and gravitational waves.
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Janna's X: https://x.com/JannaLevin
Janna's Website: https://jannalevin.com
Janna's Instagram: https://instagram.com/jannalevin
Janna's Substack: https://substack.com/@jannalevin
Black Hole Survival Guide (book): https://amzn.to/3YkJzT5
Black Hole Blues (book): https://amzn.to/42Nw7IE
How the Universe Got Its Spots (book): https://amzn.to/4m5De8k
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines (book): https://amzn.to/3GGakvd
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(00:51) - Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(09:21) - Black holes
(16:55) - Formation of black holes
(27:45) - Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb
(34:08) - Inside the black hole
(47:10) - Supermassive black holes
(50:39) - Physics of spacetime
(53:42) - General relativity
(59:13) - Gravity
(1:15:47) - Information paradox
(1:24:17) - Fuzzballs & soft hair
(1:27:28) - ER = EPR
(1:34:07) - Firewall
(1:42:59) - Extra dimensions
(1:45:24) - Aliens
(2:01:00) - Wormholes
(2:11:57) - Dark matter and dark energy
(2:22:00) - Gravitational waves
(2:34:08) - Alan Turing and Kurt Godel
(2:46:23) - Grigori Perelman, Andrew Wiles, and Terence Tao
(2:52:58) - Art and science
(3:02:37) - The biggest mystery
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3:07:16
#467 – Tim Sweeney: Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and the Future of Gaming
Tim Sweeney is a legendary video game programmer, founder and CEO of Epic Games that created the Unreal Engine, Fortnite, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, and many other groundbreaking and influential video games.
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Transcript:
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Epic Games: https://epicgames.com/
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(08:25) - 10,000 hours programming
(11:42) - Advice for young programmers
(19:54) - Video games in the 80s and 90s
(22:02) - Epic Games origin story
(34:40) - Indie game development
(40:34) - Unreal Engine
(1:06:30) - Technical details of Unreal Engine
(1:11:23) - Constructive solid geometry
(1:17:21) - Dynamic lighting
(1:21:51) - Volumetric fog
(1:25:19) - John Carmack
(1:27:05) - Evolution of Unreal Engine
(1:33:21) - Unreal Engine 5
(1:44:32) - Creating realistic humans
(1:53:41) - Lumen global illumination
(1:58:11) - Movies
(2:12:53) - Simulating reality
(2:25:08) - Metaverse
(2:27:44) - Fortnite
(2:31:40) - Scaling
(2:47:04) - Game economies
(2:48:33) - Standardizing the Metaverse
(2:56:46) - Verse programming language
(3:18:19) - Concurrency
(3:25:56) - Unreal Engine 6
(3:30:34) - Indie game developers
(3:33:32) - Apple
(3:48:12) - Epic Games Store
(4:11:03) - Future of gaming
(4:17:03) - Greatest games ever made
(4:22:39) - GTA 6 and Rockstar Games
(4:25:58) - Hope for the future
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#466 – Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China, Xi Jinping, Trade War, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mao
Jeffrey Wasserstrom is a historian of modern China.
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Transcript:
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Jeffrey Wasserstrom's Books:
China in the 21st Century: https://amzn.to/3GnayXT
Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink: https://amzn.to/4jmxWmT
Oxford History of Modern China: https://amzn.to/3RAJ9nI
The Milk Tea Alliance: https://amzn.to/42DLapH
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(00:06) - Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(10:29) - Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong
(13:57) - Confucius
(21:27) - Education
(29:33) - Tiananmen Square
(40:49) - Tank Man
(50:49) - Censorship
(1:26:45) - Xi Jinping
(1:44:53) - Donald Trump
(1:48:47) - Trade war
(2:01:35) - Taiwan
(2:11:48) - Protests in Hong Kong
(2:44:07) - Mao Zedong
(3:05:48) - Future of China
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3:14:21
#465 – Robert Rodriguez: Sin City, Desperado, El Mariachi, Alita, and Filmmaking
Robert Rodriguez is a legendary filmmaker and creator of Sin City, El Mariachi, Desperado, Spy Kids, Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn, Alita: Battle Angel, The Faculty, and his newest venture Brass Knuckle Films.
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Transcript:
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Robert's Instagram: https://instagram.com/rodriguez/
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Rebel without a Crew (audiobook): https://amzn.to/3Ri5wyc
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(10:04) - Explosions and having only one take
(17:39) - Success and failure
(26:28) - Filmmaking on a low budget
(38:41) - El Mariachi
(50:10) - Creativity
(1:12:06) - Limitations
(1:18:22) - Handling criticism
(1:34:32) - Action films
(1:45:53) - Quentin Tarantino
(1:55:52) - Desperado
(1:56:54) - Salma Hayek
(2:01:40) - Danny Trejo
(2:06:55) - Filming in Austin
(2:13:05) - Editing
(2:22:35) - Sound design
(2:27:43) - Deadlines
(2:31:14) - Alita: Battle Angel
(2:39:36) - James Cameron
(2:52:39) - Sin City
(3:06:48) - Manifesting
(3:18:12) - Memories and journaling
(3:27:56) - Mortality
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Dave Smith is a comedian, libertarian, political commentator, and the host of Part of the Problem podcast.
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Transcript:
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Dave's YouTube: https://youtube.com/DSmithcomic
Dave's Instagram: https://instagram.com/theproblemdavesmith
Dave's Website: https://comicdavesmith.com/
Part of the Problem Podcast: https://partoftheproblem.com/
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(00:10) - Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(09:32) - Libertarianism
(10:47) - Ron Paul
(13:59) - Military–industrial complex
(20:53) - War on Terror
(33:12) - China and Taiwan
(41:00) - Just war theory
(48:09) - Israel and Gaza
(1:05:35) - Douglas Murray
(1:13:29) - Hamas
(1:29:48) - Hitler and Stalin
(1:32:01) - Darryl Cooper
(1:41:13) - Antisemitism
(1:54:46) - World leaders
(2:07:21) - Jeffrey Epstein
(2:15:24) - Sam Harris
(2:28:07) - Ukraine and Russia
(2:47:32) - Joe Rogan
(3:00:01) - Conspiracy theories
(3:17:52) - Hope
PODCAST LINKS:
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Conversations about science, technology, history, philosophy and the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power. Lex is an AI researcher at MIT and beyond.
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