What do you think is the most commonly accepted theory that has the highest chance of being overturned in the near ish future? Wow. I mean, in physics alone, the point is that we really have almost no understanding. Welcome to a special 500 episode edition of the into the Impossible podcast featuring my favorite guest, me, Professor Brian Keating, UC San Diego. Delighted you could be here. I'm even more delighted that this project I started during COVID 19, finally five years ago, has amassed 500 episodes. That makes it about 100 per year, which is quite incredible. Doesn't seem like that would even be possible, but somehow I did it. I think early on in the pandemic I had nothing else to do except listen to my kids try to drive each other crazy and teach over zoom.

So I think I front loaded a lot of episodes, but I'm still doing one or two a week, which is quite incredible. I never thought this would amount to anything like this, but so delighted that you're here. And I'd be even more delighted. And you might be delighted because you might win one of these chunks of our history, not of the podcast, but of the universe, of our solar system. This is a real meteorite and you can win one if you go to brian keating.com yt and if you have a. Edu email address and you live in the United States, you're guaranteed to win one of these beauties. Brianketing.comedu so make sure you check those out right away. Let's get on to the questions.

Okay, starts off with an awesome name. Rockstar Music Company. One thing you want to be asked about that nobody has ever touched upon yet, for whatever reason. Well, that's a pretty awesome question that's basically asking me to ask myself anything. I would say the most kind of pertinent question that I have not yet been asked is what drives me to do what I do? I mean, I don't have to do the podcast. I don't even have to teach anymore. I could. I could sort of quit and just do the podcast, or I could do the podcast and.

Or teach and not do the podcast. But why do I do both of them? I think it's something that I assumed was normal in scientists, that they would be thrilled to discuss the greatest subjects of the human mind and the curiosity of the human spirit. And I actually found out it's not the case. Scientists are in general, like anybody else. They have their quotidian demands in their lives and they really can't get back to the essence of what got them to be scientists. Maybe in the first place, which was this childlike curiosity. And part of that is because I think scientists aren't like children. I always say children are wonderful.

They're curious, they're imaginative, they're inventive, they're creative, they're whimsical, they are touchy, they are selfish, they don't play well with others, they are jealous, they are petty, they are unscrupulous. And so, yeah, scientists are like children. And sometimes it gets to a scientist and makes them less of the scientists that they originally wanted to be or thought that they might be. And because of that, I think we lose out on some of the passion that we could have had or should have had maintained since we were kids. I never thought I could be a scientist. As I wrote in my first book, Losing the Nobel Prize, I thought being an astronomer as a professional was like being an ice cream taster, a professional roller coaster amusement park patron who would pay me to do what I love. And don't tell Gavin Newsom. He might take you up on that and dock my salary.

But screw you, Gavin. I've got tenure and I've got the side hustle that people have dreamed about for me. I've not lost it. I thought it was normal not to lose it. And I've loved teaching. I've loved even dealing with faculty committee. Okay, I don't love faculty meetings and so on. I skipped most of them, unfortunately, just due to demands of family, friends, and other tasks.

As the leader of a huge experiment right now, it's quite, quite incredible time for me personally, professionally, and even as this my side hustle, and I am trying to step things up. You may notice this beautiful new studio lighting setup I made in my office and another one on campus in a different location. My wardrobe, I'm wearing red, white and blue. Today is fourth of July. I'm recording this before I take the kids down to the beach in San Diego. So why do I do what I do? And I think it's because I can, because I love it. I love the microphone and I love having the mouthpiece and being able to talk to pretty much anybody. And 20 minutes after this ends, I'll be talking to a Nobel laureate who asked me to come on my show because he has a book.