E216 - Janna Levin: An Astrophysicist's Guide to Black Holes, Higher Dimensions & the Nature of Reality

<p>In this episode, I sit down with Janna Levin, a theoretical astrophysicist at Barnard College of Columbia University, Guggenheim fellow, and author of Black Hole Survival Guide, Black Hole Blues, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, and How the Universe Got Its Spots. Janna started out as a philosophy major drawn to the biggest questions, then found in physics a way of answering them that felt true for everyone, everywhere. Preparing for this conversation blew my mind more than almost any other, and sitting with her only deepened that.</p><p><br /></p><p>What We Dive Into:</p><p>1. When a massive star collapses into a black hole, the star itself keeps falling and leaves behind only curved, empty space. With no material features left to observe, every black hole looks alike, which is why physicists treat them like giant fundamental particles holding clues to quantum gravity.</p><p>2. Einstein realized the purest experience of gravity is weightlessness, the feeling of falling freely with no chair, floor, or bed in the way. What we call heaviness is really something resisting our fall, while objects simply follow the natural curves of spacetime.</p><p>3. Janna suggests technological species may face a bottleneck where the ingenuity that builds rockets also builds bombs. Surviving it could mean reaching a balance with nature so complete that a civilization becomes hard to detect, which may help explain why the cosmos looks so quiet.</p><p><br /></p><p>Know Thyself, but not by yourself. A guided space to return home to yourself.</p><p>https://www.knowthyselfcollective.com</p><p><br /></p><p>✨THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:</p><p>https://www.mudwtr.com/knowthyself</p><p>Use code KNOWTHYSELF for up to 43% off sitewide</p><p><br /></p><p>https://www.oneskin.co/KNOWTHYSELF </p><p>Use code KNOWTHYSELF for 15% off OneSkin</p><p><br /></p><p>Larineco: 50% off on remineralizing gum </p><p>https://www.buylarine.com/knowthyself</p><p><br /></p><p>___________</p><p>00:00 Intro</p><p>02:24 From Philosophy to Physics</p><p>06:39 Made of Star Stuff</p><p>12:13 The Ever Expanding Cosmos</p><p>17:14 Before the Big Bang</p><p>21:31 How Complexity Emerges</p><p>24:42 The Nature of Black Holes</p><p>32:08 Supermassive Black Holes</p><p>39:02 Photographing a Black Hole</p><p>45:33 How Stellar Black Holes Form</p><p>47:46 Falling Into a Black Hole</p><p>56:38 The Information Loss Paradox</p><p>1:00:00 Einstein’s Happiest Thought</p><p>1:11:00 Nothingness in Physics and Meditation</p><