#359 – Andrew Strominger: Black Holes, Quantum Gravity, and Theoretical Physics

Andrew Strominger is a theoretical physicist at Harvard. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Eight Sleep : https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings – Rocket Money : https://rocketmoney.com/lex – Indeed : https://indeed.com/lex to get $75 credit – ExpressVPN : https://expressvpn.com/lexpod to get 3 months free EPISODE LINKS: Andrew’s website: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/strominger Andrew’s papers: Soft Hair on Black Holes: https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.00921 Photon Rings Around Warped Black Holes: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.01674 PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (06:34) – Black holes (11:37) – Albert Einstein (31:05) – Quantum gravity (35:17) – String theory (46:05) – Holographic principle (54:02) – De Sitter space (59:14) – Speed of light (1:06:02) – Black hole information paradox (1:13:41) – Soft particles (1:22:48) – Physics vs mathematics (1:31:58) – Theory of everything (1:47:20) – Time (1:49:45) – Photon rings (2:05:26) – Thought experiments (2:13:47) – Aliens (2:19:25) – Nuclear weapons