Talks

Talks with links to video are indicated by a (v). For some reason, several of these files aren't showing up correctly. Our crack team of round-the-clock web experts is all over this problem.

Teaching Company Course

(v) I've recorded a set of introductory lectures for The Teaching Company, entitled Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe. There are 24 lectures, half an hour each, that come on attractive and convenient DVD's. The lectures are aimed at anyone, no physics background whatsoever is required. We get into dark matter and dark energy pretty thoroughly, but also cover the basics of cosmology, general relativity, and particle physics. At the end we have some fun speculating about the future (and the really far past).

Popular Talks

In principle, these talks should be accessible to anyone.

• (v)The Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time, an introduction to the arrow of time and its cosmological origin, at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival in October 2009.
• (v) Edge interview, talking about why the universe looks the way it does.
• (v) Time Since Einstein, a panel discussion at the World Science Festival.
• (v) Beyond Belief 2006, a short (17 minutes) rumination on laws, reductionism, and causality.
• (v) Dark Matter and Dark Energy, a short talk at the Yearly Kos convention in 2007. Also in pdf. The slides by themselves won't tell you much, but video for the talk (from C-SPAN) is available on YouTube: Part One, Part Two.
• Dark Matter and Dark Energy: from the Universe to the Laboratory, a public lecture at the Aspen 2005 Winter Conference on Particle Physics. (Also in pdf, about 3MB.)
• What We Know, and Don't, and Why, some musings on how science works. Presented at Villanova University, 2006.
• (v) The Warpings of Spacetime, a public lecture at the World Year of Physics symposium at Fermilab in 2005. Video + slides.
• Our Preposterous Universe, a public lecture at the 2002 APS meeting in Albuquerque.
• Einstein's Legacy: Gravity and the Forces of Nature, a popular-level talk on gravity given at Snowmass 2001.
• Extra Dimensions, Quantum Gravity, and Superstrings, a general-level talk for The New Cosmology Chautauqua course in 2001.

Colloquia

These are talks that are meant for general physics audiences, not necessarily specialists.

• (v) The Origin of The Universe and the Arrow of Time, a colloquium at Fermilab in 2009.
• The Arrow of Time again, more updated slides compared to the previous link, but no video.
• (v) The Universe Is Not Ergodic, a talk in Santa Barbara that tries to justify the title.
• (v) Dark Energy, or Worse?, a Distinguished Lecture at the National Science Foundation about whether we can replace dark matter and dark energy by modified gravity. (Probably not, but it's not completely clear.) Here is the pdf.
• Dark Matter, Dark Energy, or Worse?, a general colloquium on the dark sector and modified gravity.
• The Future of Theoretical Cosmology, a brief speculatory talk at the 2006 April APS meeting. Also in pdf.
• (v) Can Dark Matter Replace Modified Gravity? A 2006 talk at the KITP in Santa Barbara; audio, video, html, and pdf all available.
• General Relativity Primer. Three-hour intro to GR for physicists. Video available.
• Dark Energy and the Preposterous Universe, a 2002 review of the basical theoretical underpinnings of the dark energy issue. There is a short version of the same talk.
• (v) Cosmology and String Theory Outside the Box, a blackboard lunch talk at KITP; no slides, but audio and/or video available.
• Cosmology and the Linear Collider, a talk given at the 2003 American Linear Collider Workshop in Cornell. Also available in pdf.
• What Does General Relativity Really Mean?, a 2003 talk at the Center for Cosmological Physics, Chicago.
• (v) Cosmological Constants and Variables, a 2002 Fermilab colloquium on possible time-variation of the "constants" of nature. (With video.)
• Mid-Snowmass Plenary, a brief (4 transparencies) harangue on the end of particle physics.

Bloggingheads

(v) Bloggingheads.tv is a site that features one-on-one discussions between various flavors of pundits, ostensibly drawn from the blogosphere but often from elsewhere. I've done a few episodes with different partners.

• With George Johnson, July 2007, on the cosmological constant, string theory, blogging, God.
• With Jennifer Ouellette, February 2008, about science, the media, and the public sphere.
• With John Horgan, March 2008, about inflation, string theory, and the science of unobservable things.
• With David Albert, June 2008, about dishonest movies, falsifiability, and the arrow of time.
• With David Albert again, August 2008, about quantum mechanics and interpretations thereof.
• With Jennifer Ouellette, September 2008, about the Large Hadron Collider, calculus, and a bit about poker.
• With Mark Trodden, June 2009, about dark matter, dark energy, and the late universe.
• With Mark Trodden again, August 2009, about inflation and the early universe.

On The Air

A few appearances on the good old-fashioned wireless radio.

• I was interviewed in 2005 by David Kestenbaum for a story on NPR's Morning Edition about the John Templeton Foundation.
• Adam Riess, Richard Ellis and I were guests on Science Friday in 2004 to talk about dark energy.
• And a brief solo appearance on Science Friday in 2006, this time to talk about dark matter and the Bullet Cluster.
• Eszter Hargittai, Dan Drezner and I were interviewed by Milt Rosenberg about the troubling phenomenon of blogging professors. Pictures were taken.
• On Odyssey, a (late, lamented) program from WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station (requires Real Audio):
  • Pondering science and the unknowable.
  • Speculating about black holes, big and small.
  • Contemplating what kinds of discoveries would overthrow the very foundations of science.
  • Explaining why the night sky is dark.
  • Chatting about galaxies, dark matter, etc.
  • Waxing profound about extra dimensions of spacetime.