Why This Universe?: Shining The Light On Black Holes

 The University of Chicago was incorporated as a coeducational institution in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society, using $400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller, and including land donated by Marshall Field.

Today, The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, with its main campus in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. University of Chicago scholars have played a major role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, and political science, establishing the Chicago schools in various fields.

Unlike some universities that have a podcast or two, The University Of Chicago has a robust podcast network, and its podcasts are informative -- which you'd expect -- entertaining -- which might surprise you -- and insightful, which you'd demand.

What's refreshing is that, despite MAGA media blathering about academic elites who promote a Marxist, dissolute, and predatory lifestyle, the academics on these podcasts offer opinions, declarations, solutions, analysis, insights, and prescriptive thought that transcends strict political ideology. In effect, the data they mine and then interpret can fall on both sides of the political landscape. Today, we'll review The University Of Chicago's Why This Universe podcast. 

The show's premise is as simple as physics is complex. "The biggest ideas in physics, broken down. Join theoretical physicist Dan Hooper and co-host Shalma Wegsman as they answer your questions about dark matter, black holes, quantum mechanics, and more."
 

Shalma Wegsman is a science writer and multimedia science communicator. Her articles covering advances in science research have been published in Quanta Magazine and WIRED. ​She has a Master's degree in physics from New York University, and has taught the undergraduate-level course Physics for Architects as a visiting instructor at the Pratt Institute, as well as Weird Science: The World of Quantum Mechanics at Columbia University's Pre-College program.

Dan Hooper is an American cosmologist and particle physicist specializing in the areas of dark matter, cosmic rays, and neutrino astrophysics. He is a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the director of the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC).

Hooper is the author of several books, including Dark Cosmos: In Search of our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy (2006), Nature’s Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force (2008), and At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds (2019).

The podcast began in July 2020, with the co-hosts dedicating the show to "answering the weirdest, biggest and newest ideas in physics."

Let me say upfront that this show, while wonderfully nerdy and largely obtuse to me, does not avoid controversy and plunges ahead into uncharted territory. 

For example, in the November 4, 2024, episode, the show asks if it's possible that dark energy is not a constant, but rather is changing over time. To try to get at an answer, the co-hosts talk to American theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, who discusses how our understanding of dark energy evolved in recent history, and what is still left unknown.

In the April 1, 2024, episode, listeners are treated to hearing how a recent discovery of the motions of galaxies is changing how cosmologists are thinking about our universe.  

The show isn't averse to debunking new theories it believes are pseudoscience. Therefore, we get an August 14, 2023, episode in which the co-hosts debunked the recent paper that claims our universe is much older than previously thought. 

 The March 14, 2022, episode explored a theory that fascinates science and science fiction nerds alike.  How many dimensions of space are there? Could there be extra dimensions that are hidden from view?

Why This Universe is professionally produced with excellent sound quality, and co-hosts who entertain as much as they inform. The co-hosts strive to explain arcane concepts of physics (isn't that every concept of Physics?) and they aren't afraid to admit that our current level of science still has a lot to learn about dark matter and dark energy. 

The episodes average about 25 minutes, and I think that's by design. Any more than that, trying to understand Physics could drain our cognitive batteries.  

Co-hosts Dan Hooper and Shalma Wegsman have a strong bond -- ionic, metallic, or covalent? I'm not sure -- and they appear committed to assisting listeners with undemanding the intricate, impenetrable, and often convoluted theories in Physics.

Why This Universe is an ideal podcast for those lay people who are interested in Physics and want to learn more. I recommend a specific episode -- Is Space Flat or Curved? because we learn how the geometry of space defies our intuition, and why it gave Einstein so much anxiety.