The final book club installment is still percolating, don’t worry. I’ve been traveling like a crazy person, which has pushed blogging into the background. In the meantime, here are a couple of interviews elsewhere in the infosphere.
First is a New York Times interview with me. It’s very short, but we cover a lot of ground — science education, time travel, entropy, the movies, and my love life. Such plenitude of topics in a tiny piece will necessarily lead to compression, and Jerry Coyne is already complaining that I give short shrift to the complicated reality of aging — and he’s right!
Second and more fun, in Wired I am on the other side of the interviewer’s table, talking to Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. How cool is that? That was a great time, as we chatted excitedly about time, narrative, wormholes, fate and determinism, the role of science in television, and so on. These guys have given an incredible amount of thought into their show at every level — the characters, the mythology, and what it all means. And they wanted to ask me questions about cosmology and how scientists think, which I’m always happy to talk about. I got hooked on the show only after participating in Lost University, but now Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. is the high point of my week. Only a few more episodes to go — which means that people who haven’t seen it can finally order the complete DVD selection, which is really the way to see it. (Just note that Season Three drags a bit, especially near the beginning.)
Best of luck with the book; I’m buying a copy. And my comment is not really a “complaint”; I think of it more as a mild corrective + discussion about evolution!
As long as you buy the book, complain all you want! Complainer.
Sean, there is an error in that interview that you really should correct. It states that you are a “physics professor” at Caltech, whereas according to your CV you are a “senior research associate”. Unless you have recently been promoted, in which case I apologize, you should not allow yourself to be misrepresented as a professor, out of respect to your colleagues who are in fact real professors. To be clear, I’m sure it was an innocent oversight on the part of the New York Times and not a deliberate misrepresentation.
Watch out for the CV police!
SERIOUSLY?
Also Sean, you are represented as devastatingly handsome in the accompanying photo. I find this to be a misreprentation, as you are merely, “cover of GQ” handsome. Out of respect for scientists like Brian Cox who are in fact on People Magazine’s Sexiest List, please do not allow photographers to use that fantastic lighting.
@Allyson. that’s truly funny, thanks!
Sean, you talk like a politician! Lost sucked and that’s that. I managed to watch two seasons or something like that – and nothing happened! In all that wasted time I could have had a proper life instead!! argh.
@Hackenkaus: Get a life!