Lee Smolin on a lifetime of big questions

Lee Smolin is a founding faculty member at Perimeter Institute and one of the world’s best-known voices in theoretical physics. He is a co-founder of loop quantum gravity, together with Abhay Ashtekar and Carlo Rovelli. Smolin is also the author of numerous popular science books, including The Trouble with Physics, The Life of the Cosmos, and Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum. In this conversation with Lauren and Colin, Smolin shares his philosophical outlook on quantum mechanics and argues that it is not a final theory, but rather points us in the direction of a new understanding of nature. He also discusses what motivates his popular writing, his challenges with Parkinson’s disease, and how that struggle has shaped his perspectives in recent years. View the episode transcript here.

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Conversations at the Perimeter is co-hosted by Perimeter Teaching Faculty member Lauren Hayward and journalist-turned-science communicator Colin Hunter. In each episode, they chat with a guest scientist about their research, the challenges they encounter, and the drive that keeps them searching for answers.

The podcast is produced by the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, a not-for-profit, charitable organization supported by a unique public-private model, including the Governments of Ontario and Canada. Perimeter Institute acknowledges that it is situated on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Neutral peoples. Perimeter’s educational outreach initiatives, including Conversations at the Perimeter, are made possible in part by the support of donors like you. Be part of the equation: perimeterinstitute.ca/donate