The DemystifySci Podcast

When Cosmology Refuses to Do Physics – Dr. Brian Keating, DemystifySci #392

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/demystifysci PARADIGM DRIFT https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show HOMEBREW 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-here Streaming: https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here 00:00 Go! An emotionally charged take on physics 00:06:00 Reexamining the Story We Tell About the Universe 00:11:00 The Three Pillars of the Big Bang 00:13:00 How the CMB Is Actually Measured 00:16:00 The Surface of Last Scattering Explained 00:18:00 Why the CMB Is Considered a Relic of a Hot Universe 00:20:22 Measuring Expansion Without Direct Distance 00:21:27 Atomic Simplicity and Early-Universe Conditions 00:23:04 Is Science a Narrative or an Empirical Model? 00:25:19 Historical Cosmology and Paradigm Shifts 00:28:22 Why the CMB Is the Most Perfect Black Body Ever Measured 00:33:30 What Produces Black Body Radiation in the Laboratory 00:35:09 Can Gaseous Plasma Produce a Perfect Thermal Spectrum? 00:36:58 When the Universe Became Transparent 00:38:51 Expansion Assumptions and Acoustic Evidence 00:39:34 Material Structure and Black Body Precision 00:43:02 Measurement vs Interpretation in Cosmology 00:44:11 Does the CMB Really Prove the Big Bang? 00:47:00 Would Emissivity Errors Change Cosmology? 00:50:02 Lab Black Bodies vs Cosmic Sources 00:53:09 Are We Applying Earth Physics Correctly? 00:56:26 Measuring Temperature vs Explaining Origins 00:58:12 Emotional Attachment to Cosmological Models 01:01:01 Gases Can't Radiate Planckian Spectra 01:04:19 What Actually Makes a Black Body? 01:05:56 How Cosmologists Use the CMB as a Thermometer 01:08:32 Authority, Gatekeeping, and Scientific Credibility 01:10:38 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-Checks 01:20:22 A Philosophical Divide Over Evidence 01:22:16 Peer Review, Outsiders, and First Principles 01:24:07 Filtering Ideas and the Cost of Evaluation 01:26:13 Expertise, Frustration, and Misalignment 01:28:36 Who Bears the Burden of Proof? 01:30:02 Expertise vs Novel Ideas in Physics 01:31:25 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/3YyoT98 DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss MAILING 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/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

What's Changing Human Evolution? - Dr. Liane Gabora (Part 2) , DemystifySci #391

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

Evolution Without Genes - Dr. Liane Gabora (Part 1), DemystifySci #390

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/nVpXwd9ke1A PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci PARADIGM DRIFT https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show HOMEBREW 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-here Streaming: https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here 00:00 Go! Evolution Beyond Darwin 00:02:17 Humans as Uniquely Cultural Beings 00:05:05 Evolution as a Creative, Systemic Process 00:08:08 Modeling Cultural Evolution in Artificial Life 00:11:13 Autocatalytic Networks and the Origin of Life 00:14:00 From Pre-Darwinian to Darwinian Evolution 00:17:08 Epigenetics and the Limits of Darwin’s Model 00:20:17 Autocatalysis vs Autopoiesis 00:23:20 Molecular Cooperation and Phase Transitions 00:26:20 Culture as a Cognitive Autocatalytic Network 00:27:55 From Chemical Chaos to Genetic Fidelity 00:30:09 Memory, Accuracy, and Cumulative Complexity 00:32:43 What Culture Is (and Is Not) 00:37:00 Cumulative Culture and Human Uniqueness 00:38:56 Language as a Cultural Catalyst 00:42:12 Pre-Language Symbols and Shared Meaning 00:43:07 The Cultural Big Bang 00:44:57 Minds as Autocatalytic Webs 00:49:04 Time, Memory, and Abstract Thought 00:53:26 Cognitive Integration and Creative Thinking 00:56:28 Triggers for the Cultural Phase Shift 01:00:00 Culture as a Phase Transition in the Mind 01:02:18 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/3YyoT98 DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss MAILING 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/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

This is the purpose of "Life" (Part 2) - Dr. J. Scott Turner, DemystifySci #389

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_ogTI PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci PARADIGM DRIFT https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show HOMEBREW 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-here Streaming: https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here 00:00 Go! 00:08:43 – Gene-Centered Evolution Takes Over 00:11:10 – McClintock’s Discovery Breaks the Mold 00:14:19 – Genes as Interpreted Signals, Not Dictators 00:18:11 – From Mutationism to Epigenetics 00:20:41 – Dawkins and the Selfish Gene Frame 00:24:30 – Life Strives for More Than Survival 00:27:47 – Culture as a Force in Evolution 00:30:28 – Termites and Environmental Inheritance 00:32:22 – When Literalism Distorts Science and Religion 00:35:22 – Beyond Gould’s Magisteria 00:39:02 – The Aiming of Organisms 00:41:58 – Desire, Agency, and Evolutionary Trajectories 00:44:14 – Human Exceptionalism and the Myth of Evolution’s End 00:47:46 – Cultural Barriers to Integrative Biology 00:49:39 – The Transcendence of Materials 00:52:10 – Purposeful Behavior in Termite Societies 00:55:35 – Preference and Purpose in Termite Architecture 00:59:14 – Human Metaphysics and Cognitive Niches 01:04:19 – Cracks in the Evolutionary Consensus 01:06:39 – Biology as the Bridge Between Facts and Meaning 01:08:58 – The Missing Definition of Life 01:10:59 – Biology’s Identity Crisis 01:12:36 – Rethinking Life and the Universe 01:15:08 – The Origin of Life Problem 01:16:28 – From Chemistry to Cognitive Emergence 01:20:27 – Life as a Gradual Flame 01:23:13 – Agency as the Heart of Biology 01:25:42 – The Scientific Struggle With Agency 01:27:04 – 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/3YyoT98 DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss MAILING 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/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

Banking Is The Dark Matter of Economics (Part 2) - Bob Murphy & Steve Keen, DemystifySci #388

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/fKgiKFfnPqE PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci PARADIGM DRIFT https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show HOMEBREW 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-here Streaming: https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here 00:00 Go! 00:02:01 – How Banks Really Create Money 00:03:39 – Support & Merch Break 00:07:34 – What Is Fractional Reserve Banking? 00:10:06 – The 100% Reserve Ideal 00:12:27 – Why the Textbook Model Fails 00:15:00 – Base Money vs Bank-Created Money 00:18:46 – The Textbook Story Falls Apart 00:21:07 – Loans Create Deposits: The Core Mechanism 00:22:44 – Why Economists Get This Wrong 00:25:56 – Public Confidence as the Real Constraint 00:29:07 – Reserves Are Lubricant, Not Fuel 00:35:09 – Policy & Logic Undermine the Multiplier 00:36:46 – Who’s Actually to Blame for Crises? 00:39:18 – The Real Issue: Loan Quality & Targets 00:41:00 – Diverging Philosophies on Ideal Systems 00:44:12 – Modeling Real-World Lending Mechanics 00:48:53 – The Austrian Full-Reserve Vision 00:53:03 – Commodity-Backed Private Currency 00:54:37 – Ending Centralized Monetary Control 00:56:58 – A Regulated Credit Framework 01:01:12 – Elastic vs Fixed Money Supply 01:02:22 – Political Obstacles to Reform 01:03:16 – Market Discipline vs Regulation 01:05:08 – Limited Liability as a Core Distortion 01:08:23 – Asset Purchases, Bailouts, and Moral Hazard 01:11:26 – Policy Mistakes from Bad Models 01:13:16 – Productive Credit vs Asset Inflation 01:15:05 – Is Elastic Credit Even Necessary? 01:17:35 – Fixed Money Supply Lending Mechanics 01:19:15 – 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/3YyoT98 DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss MAILING 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/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671