Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Get 50% off Claude Pro, including access to Claude Code, at http://claude.ai/theoriesofeverything As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Stephen Wolfram—creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Language—about a “new kind of science” that treats the universe as computation. We explore computational irreducibility, discrete space, multi-way systems, and how the observer shapes the laws we perceive—from the second law of thermodynamics to quantum mechanics. Wolfram reframes Feynman diagrams as causal structures...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe MIT physicist Max Tegmark argues AI now belongs inside physics—and that consciousness will be next. He separates intelligence (goal-achieving behavior) from consciousness (subjective experience), sketches falsifiable experiments using brain-reading tech and rigorous theories (e.g., IIT/φ), and shows how ideas like Hopfield energy landscapes make memory “feel” like physics. We get into mechanistic interpretability (sparse autoencoders), number representations that snap into clean geometry, why RLHF mostly aligns behavior (not goals), and the sta...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Matthieu Pageau, author of The Language of Creation. This is a rare (and almost unbelievable) interview. With a high degree of likelihood, I can say that this interview, if watched all the way until the end, will change your life. Pageau argues that Satan is first a function—the tester and accuser—before a villain. Think Job’s auditor or a hired penetration tester. When will-to-power takes...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Frederic Schuller, an award-winning theoretical physicist and professor, who insists the undergrad tale of energy sloshing between kinetic and potential is just talk unless the math says so. Borrowing Port-Hamiltonian thinking, he’s building probability ports to pull measurement talk into actual quantum formalism—no change to QM, just sharper math. He also flips gravity: start from the matter action and construct the compatible gravitational dynamics—Maxwel...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, a theoretical physicist known for his work on the electroweak interaction and his radical ideas about quantum mechanics. To him, the universe is a cosmic pinball machine. Every ball follows a fixed path. No randomness. No mystery. We only invented quantum mechanics to cope with our ignorance. In his picture, there are no real numbers. No wave functions. No superposition. Just di...

Curt discusses how philosophy has directly contributed to physics through Bell's theorem, decoherence theory, the hole argument, and more. Meanwhile, via John Norton, we uncover the hidden philosophical assumptions in physics that most scientists don’t even realize they’re making. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Vide...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Professor Felix Finster, a radical thinker reimagining the foundations of physics. We explore his theory of causal fermion systems, where reality emerges from quantum correlations—without assuming spacetime or geometry. From the Dirac sea to quantum gravity, this conversation challenges familiar concepts and offers a glimpse into where the next physics revolution might begin. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Sp...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe What if your thoughts aren’t your own? Professors Elan Barenholtz and William Hahn propose that language is not a tool we use but a self-generating organism that uses us. In this mind-bending live discussion at the University of Toronto, they argue that language installs itself in our minds like software, runs autonomously, and shapes behavior at a deeper level than we realize. Drawing on LLMs, autoregression, and cognitive science, they suggest yo...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Professor Nikita Nekrasov, one of the most original minds in theoretical physics. We dive into why quantum field theory still isn’t fully understood, despite its experimental success and why a complete axiomatic foundation might not even be possible. Nikita walks us through his solution to the Cyberg-Witten puzzle, the birth of the Nekrasov partition function, and how exotic structures in four dimensions could underlie the ch...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Physicist and philosopher Jenann Ismael joins to unveil a radical idea: free will isn’t an illusion, it’s a physical reality grounded in thermodynamics and relativity. In this conversation, Jenann explains why no system, not even a perfect computer, can predict its own future, and how this inherent unpredictability opens the door to real agency. We explore the paradox of identity, the limits of determinism, the role of memory in selfhood, and...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Mathematician Eva Miranda returns with a groundbreaking new result: a real physical system (fluid motion) has been proven to be Turing-complete. This means some fluid paths are logically undecidable. In this mind-bending episode, she walks us through the implications for chaos theory, the Navier-Stokes equations, and uncomputability in nature, confirming long-held suspicions of thinkers like Roger Penrose and Terence Tao. Featuring rubber ducks, Alan Turing, and the limits of knowledge itself. Join...

Special offer! Get 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Harvard physicist Jacob Barandes returns with a groundbreaking insight that could reshape quantum theory. By questioning a single hidden assumption, Jacob bridges the gap between classical probability and quantum mechanics. This ‘mathematical accident’ challenges the foundations of Bell’s Theorem, dissolves the measurement problem, and opens a path to a realist interpretation of quantum physics. This episode is a rigorous journey through stochastic processes, non-locality, and the future of theoretical physics. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substa...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Professor John Norton has spent decades dismantling the hidden assumptions in physics from Newton’s determinism to the myth of Landauer’s Principle. In this episode, he explains why causation may not be real, how classical physics breaks down, and why even Einstein got some things wrong. If you’re ready to rethink the foundations of science, this one’s essential. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spoti...

Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://DrinkLMNT.com/THEORIES Top physicists Emily Adlam and Jacob Barandes deliver a powerful takedown of the Many Worlds Interpretation. In this episode, they expose why it’s more philosophical fantasy than scientific theory, revealing its lack of testability, predictive power, and real-world grounding. If you’ve ever questioned whether parallel universes are legitimate physics or just sci-fi masquerading as science, this conversation will challenge everything. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and al...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Are the laws of physics governing forces or elegant summaries? In this deep and often humorous debate, Barry Loewer of Rutgers and Eddy Chen of UC San Diego clash over the very nature of physical reality. Are the laws of nature real, mind independent constraints that shape what’s possible or are they human made descriptions of observed patterns? Together they explore metaphysics, causation, probability, and whether the universe is truly ruled by...

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Professor Elan Barenholtz, cognitive scientist at Florida Atlantic University, joins TOE to discuss one of the most unsettling ideas in cognitive science: that language is a self-contained, autoregressive system with no inherent connection to the external world. In this mind-altering episode, he explains why AI’s mastery of language without meaning forces us to rethink the nature of mind, perception, and reality itself... Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.co...

Veritasium pointed out that energy isn't conserved, but here I argue something further: energy is not even well-defined! Get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com...

This is the first conversation (with Eric Weinstein) in 40 years on Geometric Unity. In this rare, unscripted conversation, Eric Weinstein reveals the core of Geometric Unity, his decades-in-the-making theory. For the first time, Weinstein opens up fully about dark matter, the missing generations, peer review, and the potential flake of GU that quietly changed the world. This is the theory he believes is the answer. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https...

Philosopher of physics David Wallace breaks down the Everett (Many-Worlds) interpretation of quantum mechanics in today's episode. We discuss the big misconceptions in physics and explore probability, emergence, and personal identity across multiple worlds. Wallace also touches on the Born Rule, the direction of time, and why consciousness may not be as mysterious as it seems. This is a mind-bending tour through the foundations of reality. Enjoy. Thank you. Huel: Try Huel with 15% OFF + Free Gift for New Customers today using my code theoriesofeverything at https://huel.com/theoriesofeverything . Fuel your best performance with Huel today! As a listener...

Head on over to https://cell.ver.so/TOE and use coupon code TOE at checkout to save 15% on your first order. Get ready to witness a turning point in mathematical history: in this episode, we dive into the AI breakthroughs that stunned number theorists worldwide. Join us as Professor Yang-Hue Hi discusses the murmuration conjecture, shows how DeepMind, OpenAI, and EpochAI are rewriting the rules of pure math, and reveals what happens when machines start making research-level discoveries faster than any human could. AI is taking us beyond proof straight into the future of discovery. As a listener...

You’ve heard the phrase: “If you can’t explain it to a 5-year-old, you don’t understand it.” But what if that idea is not only false but harmful? In this video, we dismantle one of the most repeated myths in science communication, explore why some truths resist simplification, and reveal what real understanding actually looks like. If you care about learning deeply, or teaching well, this is a must-watch. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Sub...

In this episode of Theories of Everything, MIT physicist and historian David Kaiser explores primordial black holes which are hypothetical entities that may have formed before stars or atoms. David discusses their potential role in explaining dark matter, their connections to cosmic inflation, and how they might reshape our understanding of the early universe. This conversation connects the realms of quantum theory, cosmology, and the history of physics. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack...

Gödel’s incompleteness theorem is one of the most misunderstood ideas in science and philosophy. This video cuts through the hype, correcting major misconceptions from pop-science icons and revealing what Gödel actually proved and what he didn’t. If you think his theorem limits human knowledge, think again. The people referenced are Neil deGrasse Tyson, Veritasium, Michio Kaku, and Deepak Chopra. Correction: Veritasium says "everything" not "anything." My foolish verbal flub is corrected in the captions, and the argumentation remains the same. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and al...

What if gravity is not fundamental but emerges from quantum entanglement? In this episode, physicist Ted Jacobson reveals how Einstein’s equations can be derived from thermodynamic principles of the quantum vacuum, reshaping our understanding of space, time, and gravity itself. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOE Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uh...

What if quantum mechanics is not fundamental? What if time itself is an illusion? In this new episode, physicist Julian Barbour returns to share his most radical ideas yet. He proposes that the universe is built purely from ratios, that time is not fundamental, and that quantum mechanics might be replaced entirely without the need for wave functions or Planck’s constant. This may be the simplest vision of reality ever proposed. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Jo...

I've been working on this project assiduously and secretly since last year. It's been several months in the making, with several rewrites and several re-edits. It's finally ready to be released, thus shadow dropping it now. It's a 3-hour iceberg on Eric Weinstein's Geometric Unity. I work on understanding and explaining different Theories of Everything for a living, and this one is unlike any other you've seen. This iceberg covers the graduate-level math, but it also constantly provides explainers aimed at different levels for those who are uninitiated with physics and differential geometry. Enjoy.

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What really happens when you fall into a black hole? Physicist Neil Turok unveils a radical theory: there is no inside—only a mirror. You meet your antimatter twin, and annihilation follows. No multiverse. No extra dimensions. No information loss. Just elegant math and CPT symmetry. This is the simplest—and most profound—explanation of black holes to date. It rewrites what we thought we knew about the un...

Today we are joined by philosopher Jennifer Nagel for a take-no-prisoners look at universal skepticism—philosophy’s greatest deception. We unpack why doubt itself is the ultimate illusion, how knowledge is primitive instant recognition, and what this means for self, free will & consciousness.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

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Links Mentioned:

- Original Substack article: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/particles-dont-take-all-possible

- Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics (article): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/the-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics?utm_source=publication-search

- Jacob Barandes on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrUvtqr4wOs

- Tim Maudlin on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1bs5o3nss

- Sean Carroll on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AoRxtYZrZo

- Eva Miranda on TOE...

Today we are joined by physicist and philosopher Emily Adlam for her first appearance on Theories of Everything to challenge one of the deepest assumptions in science: that time flows. In this thought-provoking conversation, Adlam presents her “all-at-once” view of physics, where the universe is more like a completed Sudoku puzzle than a film playing forward. We explore the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, the role of the observer, the illusion of causality, and why these foundational questions demand both philosophical clarity and scientific precision.

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Head on over to https://ver.so and use coupon code TOE at checkout to save 15% on your first order.

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Today we are joined by theoretical physicist Claudia de Rham for her return appearance on Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal to discuss the possibility that gravity itself has mass. In this mind-bending conversation, she explores how this idea challenges long-held assumptions...

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What if you had a thousand doctors working for you 24/7, at virtually no cost? In this episode of Theories of Everything, a panel of leading AI and medical experts explores how “medical swarms” of intelligent agents could revolutionize healthcare, making personalized, concierge-level treatment accessible to all. This isn’t science fiction, it’s the near future and it will change everyone’s life.

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Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/TOE #rulapod

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Is Earth being monitored by an advanced civilization one million years ahead of us? And does this alien civilization actually share an ancient past with humanity? Economist Robin Hanson explores a provocative theory suggesting that...

Dr. Michael Levin is on the verge of revolutionizing medicine by unlocking the bioelectric code that governs how cells communicate, heal, and build complex structures. His work reveals that intelligence exists at every level of biology—allowing us to reprogram tissues, regenerate limbs, and even suppress cancer by restoring cellular memory and connection.

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I'm back, baby. I've been away traveling for podcasts and am excited to bring you new ones with Michael Levin, William Hahn, Robin Hanson, and Emily Riehl, coming up shortly. They're already recorded. I've been recovering from a terrible flu but pushed through it to bring you today's episode with Urs Schreiber. This one is quite mind-blowing. It's quite hairy mathematics, something called higher category theory, and how using this math (which examines the structure of structure) allows one manner of finding "something" from "nothing." Here, "nothing" means the empty set, and "something" is defined as fermions and even 11...

Join Curt Jaimungal as he welcomes Harvard physicist Jacob Barandes, who claims quantum mechanics can be reformulated without wave functions, alongside computer scientist Scott Aaronson. Barandes’ “indivisible” approach challenges the standard Schrödinger model, and Aaronson offers a healthy dose of skepticism in today's theolocution. Are we on the cusp of a radical rewrite of reality—or just rebranding the same quantum puzzles?

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Andrés Gómez Emilsson, director of the Qualia Research Institute and a pioneering researcher in the mathematical study of consciousness, explores the nature of awareness from both philosophical and scientific angles. He recounts his journey that led to founding the Qualia Research Institute—aimed at reducing suffering and enhancing experience. He discusses the transformative potential of psychedelics, the view of the self as a series of experiences, and how sensory resonance ("impedance matching") shapes our awareness.

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In today's episode of Theories of Everything, Tyler Cowen proposes that tariffs erode economic efficiency, ultimately passing much of the burden onto smaller countries such as Canada. Moreover, he suggests that the rise of AI and evolving institutional structures demand both intellectual humility and stronger mentorship for a more resilient academic landscape.

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Welcome to the complete Iceberg of Consciousness.

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In this episode, Curt Jaimungal speaks with Jacob Barandes, a theoretical physicist from Harvard, about the complexities of quantum mechanics. They explore wave-particle duality, Jacob's reformulation of quantum theory through indivisible stochastic processes, and the historical perspectives of figures like Schrödinger and Einstein.

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Listen on Spotify: h...