The DemystifySci Podcast

In this unedited, on-site conversation with cosmologist Dr. Brian Keating, we examine what counts as evidence in modern physics by pressing on one of cosmology’s most trusted observations: the cosmic microwave background. The discussion centers on a core tension between measurement and interpretation—specifically whether a near-perfect black body spectrum can reasonably be attributed to an early-universe plasma. As assumptions about the Big Bang, black body radiation, and material physics are questioned, the exchange becomes increasingly uncomfortable, revealing how deeply theoretical commitments shape scientific judgment. What emerges is not a verdict, but a rare, unfiltered look at how evidence, authority, and first principles collide in contemporary physics.PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysciPARADIGM DRIFThttps://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-showHOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-hereStreaming:https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here00:00 Go! An emotionally charged take on physics00:06:00 Reexamining the Story We Tell About the Universe00:11:00 The Three Pillars of the Big Bang00:13:00 How the CMB Is Actually Measured00:16:00 The Surface of Last Scattering Explained00:18:00 Why the CMB Is Considered a Relic of a Hot Universe00:20:22 Measuring Expansion Without Direct Distance00:21:27 Atomic Simplicity and Early-Universe Conditions00:23:04 Is Science a Narrative or an Empirical Model?00:25:19 Historical Cosmology and Paradigm Shifts00:28:22 Why the CMB Is the Most Perfect Black Body Ever Measured00:33:30 What Produces Black Body Radiation in the Laboratory00:35:09 Can Gaseous Plasma Produce a Perfect Thermal Spectrum?00:36:58 When the Universe Became Transparent00:38:51 Expansion Assumptions and Acoustic Evidence00:39:34 Material Structure and Black Body Precision00:43:02 Measurement vs Interpretation in Cosmology00:44:11 Does the CMB Really Prove the Big Bang?00:47:00 Would Emissivity Errors Change Cosmology?00:50:02 Lab Black Bodies vs Cosmic Sources00:53:09 Are We Applying Earth Physics Correctly?00:56:26 Measuring Temperature vs Explaining Origins00:58:12 Emotional Attachment to Cosmological Models01:01:01 Gases Can't Radiate Planckian Spectra01:04:19 What Actually Makes a Black Body?01:05:56 How Cosmologists Use the CMB as a Thermometer01:08:32 Authority, Gatekeeping, and Scientific Credibility01:10:38 Would Alternative Models Change the Numbers?01:12:55 Could the CMB Be Local Rather Than Cosmic?01:16:11 Do Lattices Matter for Black Body Radiation?01:18:45 Precision, Agreement, and Cross-Checks01:20:22 A Philosophical Divide Over Evidence01:22:16 Peer Review, Outsiders, and First Principles01:24:07 Filtering Ideas and the Cost of Evaluation01:26:13 Expertise, Frustration, and Misalignment01:28:36 Who Bears the Burden of Proof?01:30:02 Expertise vs Novel Ideas in Physics01:31:25 Can Gases Ever Behave Like Black Bodies?01:33:42 The Sun is on Trial Too?#physics, #cosmology, #astrophysics, #quantummechanics , #bigbang, #cosmicmicrowavebackground, #philosophyofscience, #physicsfun , #theoreticalphysics, #spacetime , #fundamentalphysics , #longformpodcast, #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaDSUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rssMAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySciMUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

The future of human evolution will not be decided by genes alone, but by meaning, choice, and culture itself. In this Part 2 of our conversation, Dr. Liane Gabora (University of British Columbia) explores how ideas evolve through creativity, cooperation, and intentional change rather than blind copying. We examine why cultures fracture, recombine, and sometimes collapse. And how concepts behave more like dynamic systems than fixed beliefs. What emerges is a vision of human evolution driven by minds in relationship, where the next phase depends less on survival and more on how we choose to think.Part 1: https://youtu.be/8mnHM7lyfOEPATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysciPARADIGM DRIFThttps://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-showHOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-hereStreaming:https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here00:00 Go! Culture as an Evolutionary System00:04:07 Did Culture Create Bigger Brains?00:08:58 Cumulative vs Static Culture00:11:30 Memory, Mind, and Autocatalytic Worldviews00:14:16 Creativity and the Collective Unconscious00:18:38 Why Societies Need Creators and Imitators00:22:03 Creativity Requires Social Networks00:24:07 The Personal Balance of Creation and Absorption00:27:52 When to Preserve vs When to Innovate00:31:53 Why Meme Theory Falls Short00:34:00 What Evolution Actually Requires00:41:18 Cultural Inheritance Is Chosen00:43:12 Culture Evolves Through Acquired Traits00:44:05 Two Selves: Biological and Conceptual00:47:33 Cultural Collapse and Value Wars00:48:40 Culture Can Die Without Death00:50:55 Creativity Is Not Random Mutation00:54:08 The Danger of Ranking Cultures00:55:29 Cultural Identity Hardens Into Law00:57:37 Nothing in Culture Is Permanent01:00:50 Naming, Meaning, and Cultural Fracture01:03:32 Cooperation vs Competition in Human Evolution01:06:14 Creativity Begins When Biology Is Quiet01:08:03 The Co-Evolution of Biology and Culture01:11:25 Cultural Speciation and Cross-Pollination01:15:04 Cultural Time Runs Like Geology01:18:06 Sudden vs Gradual Cultural Shifts01:19:15 Concepts Behave Like Quantum Objects01:24:33 Concepts as Tools, Not Representations01:26:21 The Guppy Effect Explained01:27:40 Concept Entanglement and Meaning01:29:42 Modeling Thought With Quantum Math01:31:03 Shared Structure of Mind and Matter01:34:16 Why Mathematics Feels Spiritual01:35:14 Reflections and Future Work#humanorigins, #complexity, #emergence, #systemsThinking, #evolutionarytheory, #humanbehavior, #language, #culture, #futureofhumanity, #thought #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaDSUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rssMAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySciMUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

Biology explains how life evolves ... but culture follows different rules. Today we're looking at why human culture requires a separate evolutionary framework. Dr. Liane Gabora (University of British Columbia) traces how culture emerges through self-organizing minds, not genes, unfolding like a long riff that finds its meaning only while being played. Language, memory, and creativity arise through a sudden inner shift, where symbols begin talking to each other and thought turns inward on itself. What follows is an account of human origins that feels less like machinery and more like confession: culture as a conscious system, restless, cumulative, and unfinished.Part 2: https://youtu.be/nVpXwd9ke1APATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysciPARADIGM DRIFThttps://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-showHOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-hereStreaming:https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here00:00 Go! Evolution Beyond Darwin00:02:17 Humans as Uniquely Cultural Beings00:05:05 Evolution as a Creative, Systemic Process00:08:08 Modeling Cultural Evolution in Artificial Life00:11:13 Autocatalytic Networks and the Origin of Life00:14:00 From Pre-Darwinian to Darwinian Evolution00:17:08 Epigenetics and the Limits of Darwin’s Model00:20:17 Autocatalysis vs Autopoiesis00:23:20 Molecular Cooperation and Phase Transitions00:26:20 Culture as a Cognitive Autocatalytic Network00:27:55 From Chemical Chaos to Genetic Fidelity00:30:09 Memory, Accuracy, and Cumulative Complexity00:32:43 What Culture Is (and Is Not)00:37:00 Cumulative Culture and Human Uniqueness00:38:56 Language as a Cultural Catalyst00:42:12 Pre-Language Symbols and Shared Meaning00:43:07 The Cultural Big Bang00:44:57 Minds as Autocatalytic Webs00:49:04 Time, Memory, and Abstract Thought00:53:26 Cognitive Integration and Creative Thinking00:56:28 Triggers for the Cultural Phase Shift01:00:00 Culture as a Phase Transition in the Mind01:02:18 Why Phase Transitions Feel So Strange #culturalevolution, #humanorigins, #creativity, #consciousness, #evolutionarytheory, #origins, #philosophyofmind, #humanbehavior, #language, #emergence, #complexity, #futureofhumanity, #deepconversations #philosophypodcast MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaDSUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rssMAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySciMUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

Today we sit with the old questions and let them breathe again, tracing the places where life begins to feel like a presence rather than a computer. Turner walks through the fault lines of modern biology, pointing to the quiet mind-like shimmer in organisms shaping their worlds. The conversation moves slowly, deliberately, as if the universe itself were leaning in to listen. By the end, the idea of agency feels less like a taboo and more like something we’ve sensed all along.Part 1: https://youtu.be/MOr-FZ_ogTIPATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysciPARADIGM DRIFThttps://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-showHOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-hereStreaming:https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here00:00 Go! 00:08:43 – Gene-Centered Evolution Takes Over00:11:10 – McClintock’s Discovery Breaks the Mold00:14:19 – Genes as Interpreted Signals, Not Dictators00:18:11 – From Mutationism to Epigenetics00:20:41 – Dawkins and the Selfish Gene Frame00:24:30 – Life Strives for More Than Survival00:27:47 – Culture as a Force in Evolution00:30:28 – Termites and Environmental Inheritance00:32:22 – When Literalism Distorts Science and Religion00:35:22 – Beyond Gould’s Magisteria00:39:02 – The Aiming of Organisms00:41:58 – Desire, Agency, and Evolutionary Trajectories00:44:14 – Human Exceptionalism and the Myth of Evolution’s End00:47:46 – Cultural Barriers to Integrative Biology00:49:39 – The Transcendence of Materials00:52:10 – Purposeful Behavior in Termite Societies00:55:35 – Preference and Purpose in Termite Architecture00:59:14 – Human Metaphysics and Cognitive Niches01:04:19 – Cracks in the Evolutionary Consensus01:06:39 – Biology as the Bridge Between Facts and Meaning01:08:58 – The Missing Definition of Life01:10:59 – Biology’s Identity Crisis01:12:36 – Rethinking Life and the Universe01:15:08 – The Origin of Life Problem01:16:28 – From Chemistry to Cognitive Emergence01:20:27 – Life as a Gradual Flame01:23:13 – Agency as the Heart of Biology01:25:42 – The Scientific Struggle With Agency01:27:04 – Turner’s Work on Organisms, Design, and Purpose #consciousness, #agency , #evolution, #originoflife, #emergence, #complexity , #cognition , #purpose , #epigenetics , #philosophy, #meaning, #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaDSUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rssMAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySciMUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

Economists Bob Murphy & Steve Keen come from very different camps. Today they sit together and pull back the curtain on how money really comes into being, piece by piece. Their exchange moves with a quiet intensity, uncovering the places where theory drifts from the world we live in. They trace the fault lines between stability and collapse, each from his own hard-won perspective. By the end, the familiar landscape of banking feels slightly altered, as if something hidden has stepped into view.Part 1: https://youtu.be/fKgiKFfnPqEPATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysciPARADIGM DRIFThttps://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-showHOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-hereStreaming:https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here00:00 Go! 00:02:01 – How Banks Really Create Money00:03:39 – Support & Merch Break00:07:34 – What Is Fractional Reserve Banking?00:10:06 – The 100% Reserve Ideal00:12:27 – Why the Textbook Model Fails00:15:00 – Base Money vs Bank-Created Money00:18:46 – The Textbook Story Falls Apart00:21:07 – Loans Create Deposits: The Core Mechanism00:22:44 – Why Economists Get This Wrong00:25:56 – Public Confidence as the Real Constraint00:29:07 – Reserves Are Lubricant, Not Fuel00:35:09 – Policy & Logic Undermine the Multiplier00:36:46 – Who’s Actually to Blame for Crises?00:39:18 – The Real Issue: Loan Quality & Targets00:41:00 – Diverging Philosophies on Ideal Systems00:44:12 – Modeling Real-World Lending Mechanics00:48:53 – The Austrian Full-Reserve Vision00:53:03 – Commodity-Backed Private Currency00:54:37 – Ending Centralized Monetary Control00:56:58 – A Regulated Credit Framework01:01:12 – Elastic vs Fixed Money Supply01:02:22 – Political Obstacles to Reform01:03:16 – Market Discipline vs Regulation01:05:08 – Limited Liability as a Core Distortion01:08:23 – Asset Purchases, Bailouts, and Moral Hazard01:11:26 – Policy Mistakes from Bad Models01:13:16 – Productive Credit vs Asset Inflation01:15:05 – Is Elastic Credit Even Necessary?01:17:35 – Fixed Money Supply Lending Mechanics01:19:15 – Closing Reflections#economics, #banking , #moneycreation , #macroeconomics , #financepodcast , #credit , #monetarypolicy , #austrianeconomics , #complexity , #capitalism , #inflation , #recession , #centralbanking , #goldstandard #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaDSUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rssMAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySciMUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671