Alvin Roth is a Nobel Prizewinning Economist whose work on designing markets has had real world impacts that may have saved thousands of lives around the world, while arousing strong emotions both for and against the programs he has helped put in place. Clearly not one to shy away from controversy, he represents the best of what The Origins Project is trying to promote: applying science and reason to public policy. In short, connecting science and culture!

Roth’s new book, which is fantastic, and comes out the same day this podcast is released deals with issues that often raise the public’s ire, from legalizing prostitution, to assisted suicide, and finally to a rational market for kidney transplants. For example, everywhere there is good date, legalizing prostitution reduces not only incidents of sexually transmitted disease, but also violent sexual assaults. It may also combat illegal human trafficking. As far as kidney transplants are concerned, in the US alone, over 130,000 kidney failures occur each year, and only 20,000-30,000 transplants are performed, because of a lack of suitable kidney donors. Roth has already helped resolve one bottleneck, connecting donors with those in need, through a kidney exchange, which is actually more complicated than it may seem due to medical incompatibilities even within closely related individuals. More generally, not only could lives be saved, but as he shows, it would save considerable money if a rational system of reimbursing prospective donors could be devised.

Beyond his remarkable work tying empirical testing to theoretical ideas, as a human being, Roth is a saint. I have direct knowledge of this. On the day this podcast was recorded, we had an amazing 3 hour dialogue… one of the best I have had. Only problem was, I forgot to press record! We lost it all. With patience and grace that I never expected, Roth agreed to re-record another podcast on the same day. A friend of mine told me was a mensch. But I never expected that. I am eternally grateful, and I hope you will thoroughly enjoy, and have your perspective of the world altered by my conversation with this remarkable gentleman and scholar. Enjoy!

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.

I’m back with my friend and colleague Sabine Hossenfelder for another episode of “What’s New in Science”. Spending time with Sabine was a nice chance to step away from my physics lecture series for a bit. I know many of you have been enjoying the lectures, so don’t worry, they’ll be back soon.

In this episode, we covered an incredibly wide range of science topics. Sabine opened with reported claim that the CIA used quantum magnetometry to find the downed pilot in Iran. The report, in the NY Post, looked fishy. We explain why it is. Then I described a new discovery in the physics of material that may solve perhaps the biggest problem in AI now: heat generation in computers. Sabine talked about a new claimed Big Bang Theory that might have some relevance to quantum gravity. Then I countered with a discussion of yet a new result that suggests the standard model of cosmology may have troubles, or that observers are wrong.

After that, Sabine introduced a paper describing a possible new way to measure gravitational waves. I think it is a fine piece of work, though it is not clear if it is practical. If it were, then the huge interferometers that are now being used could be replaced by ‘tabletop’ detectors. We will see.

Finally, I described an amazingly interesting news story that might have implications for the future of medicine. It also demonstrates what one person, with determination and wealth, can do to possibly cure their own maladies. Sid Sijbrandij, a billionaire tech CEO of Gitlab, was diagnosed with inoperable spine cancer, and launched an amazing program of diagnostics, AI data mining, and a group of scientists who developed vaccines specific to his genetic makeup. After implementing all the procedures, he has been cancer free for a year. While this is beyond the reach of people without these resources now, Sid’s story demonstrates the potential power of combining AI and genetic medicine in the future.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.

We usually begin the study of physics with a discussion of motion, not because it is easy, or because the modern understanding of motion began with Galileo hundreds of years ago. Rather, Galileo’s groundbreaking work provides a paradigm to understand how physics is done today. Extracting out the fundamental essence of motion from all the distractions associated with what turn out to be irrelevant complexities was a monumental intellectual leap for humankind—a leap we often take for granted.

Without the leap, for example, Newton could never have made his profound discoveries about the relationship between force and movement, nor his discovery of the Universal Law of Gravitation.

But too often we treat these remarkable achievements as something belonging in antiquity.. as if we have moved far beyond them in every way. Nothing could be further from the truth. Applying the very same ideas that Galileo and Newton developed leads us to the cusp of modern physics: the discovery of the dominant mass in the Universe, a vast invisible sea of dark matter. In this episode, we travel over 450 years of physics, from Galileo, to the threshold of our understanding of the cosmos today. Hang onto your hats.

I’m also pleased to share a quick PSA. A reminder of our 2026 Origins expedition through the Greek archipelago (July 24 to 31), with a Cyprus add-on (July 17 to 22). If you’re interested, it’s worth raising your hand early. These trips tend to fill quickly. Express interest at

https://originsproject.org/greek-adventure-2026-application/

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.

Alcoholism is a scourge on modern society. Every year, 178,000 American die from alcohol abuse, and it has been estimated that over 200 billion dollars is lost from the US economy due to alcoholism, includingcosts of health care, lost productivity, and costs of crime enforcement. Given this immense social cost, it is equally amazing that there is no widely accepted cure. Rather, alcoholics are told they need to abstain from taking a single drink for the rest of their lives, or they are likely to revert to their earlier states of alcohol abuse.

Katie Herzog is a journalist whose work I have enjoyed and I was happy to have a conversation with her in general. But even more so after the publication of her recent book, Drink your Way Sober. She discusses there a fascinating science-based approach that appears to provide a ‘cure’ for many alcoholics that actually allows them to drink, if they wish, in moderation, for the rest of their lives. The idea is to use an opioid blocker, in this case something called naltrexone, that basically removes the pleasure response from drinking. A naltrexone pill can be taken a few hours before drinking, and over time, with the correct behavioral management, it has been shown to be effective for many drinking in removing the craving for alcohol.

What makes Katie’s book, and our discussion, so poignant is that Katie is not just a journalist writing about alcoholism, she was an alcoholic for most of her life, and her discovery of the work of of the so-called Sinclair Method, after the scientist David Sinclair, whose original work on naltrexone in Finland changed the field, changed her life.

Her book intersperses her own experiences with the science underlying this new treatment for alcoholism, and it is thus perfect for our podcast, which connects science and culture. It also makes for a fascinating and informative conversation that I hope will help have a positive impact on treating this international blight. I hope you find it engrossing and as enjoyable to listen to as it was to produce.

And there are still berths available on our Greece and Cyprus adventure. Go to originsproject.org and explore the possibilities!

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.

I’m back with my friend and colleague Sabine Hossenfelder for another episode of “What’s New in Science”. I think this is one of my favorite dialogues that we have had. Spending time with Sabine was a nice chance to step away from my physics lecture series for a bit. I know many of you have been enjoying the lectures, so don’t worry, they’ll be back soon.

In this episode, we covered the kind of science news I like best: ideas you can argue about and results that make you recalibrate. Sabine opened with describing a clever proposal that future fusion reactors might double as axion dark matter factories, producing a flux of very light, weakly interacting particles through neutron-lithium reactions in the shielding. That led to a discussion about what people mean by “axions,” why particle physicists tend to be more particular about the term, and why I’m always more interested in dark matter candidates that were invented to solve an actual problem, not just to fill a cosmological gap. From there we jumped to quantum mechanics at the edge of common sense, with a Vienna experiment showing interference from a cluster of thousands of atoms, and a friendly disagreement about whether “collapse” is a real physical process or just the wrong way to talk about what quantum mechanics is doing.

We also talked about AI and math, including the recent swirl of claims about machines proving famous open problems, what was hype, what was rediscovery, and what might genuinely be changing in how mathematicians search the landscape. Then we went from equations to extinction, with a fascinating new approach using space dust and helium isotopes to argue that life may have started rebounding after the Chicxulub impact far faster than people had assumed. Sabine brought a surprising example of string theory mathematics finding a practical use in modeling biological networks, and we ended with biology proper in two very different moods: a sobering study in mice suggesting lung tumors can hijack vagus nerve signaling to suppress local immune responses, and then a lighter result about dogs learning words from overheard human conversation at roughly toddler level. My dog Levi, who many of you have seen on the podcast, was asleep next to me while we talked about it, which felt like the right way to end.

As always, thank you for your continued support, and I hope the changing of seasons brings you good time with friends and family.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, as Arthur C. Clarke put it. In that spirit, the way we get closest to “magic” in physics is not by memorizing more facts or equations, but by learning a few mental tools that help us see through the illusion of complexity by extracting the wheat from the chaff. They are all simple at heart, but nevertheless quite powerful, and they form the core of what I call the Gestalt of Physics—the worldview that governs how physicists approach nature. And some of them can actually seem like magic to the uninitiated!

I’m also pleased to share a quick PSA. We’re organizing our next Origins travel adventure: a sailing expedition through the Greek archipelago (July 24 to 31) with a possible Cyprus add-on (July 18 to 23). If you’re interested, it’s worth raising your hand early. These trips tend to fill quickly. Express interest at http://originsproject.org/greece-2026

In Lecture 1, I used powers of ten as an intellectual zoom lens, a way to escape the trap of human scale. Lecture 2 steps back and asks a more fundamental question: how do physicists consistently make progress when the world looks hopelessly complicated?

This lecture focuses on the fundamental toolkit for seeing. We will use these tools throughout the series, because they are the difference between being dazzled by nature and being able to interrogate it, and ultimately understand it.

First, order of magnitude thinking, the art of using powers of ten and rough estimates. It is how you keep your intuition tethered to reality, and how you avoid being bullied by big numbers dressed up with false precision.

Second, approximation, which is where I introduce my super cow. It is not only a spherical cow. It’s better. My super cow has exactly the features we need for the question at hand, no more, no less, and it politely agrees to ignore everything irrelevant. I introduce it with a joke, but it is also the core of how we turn messy reality into something we can actually calculate without lying to ourselves.

Third, dimensional analysis, one of the great bargains in science. The fact that there are essentially only 3 fundamental ‘dimensional’ quantities describing nature—Length, Time, and Mass—means that all physical quantities can be related to other physical quantities through a small set of relations. Keeping track of dimensions allows us to often guess what the relations are, without knowing any details of specific physical situations. It seems like magic. By keeping track of the dimensions underlying quantities, you can often infer the form of an answer and you can catch nonsense instantly. Sometimes the most important result is realizing something cannot be right, because that is where new physics likes to hide.

Along the way I adopt some Fermi style challenges—named after the remarkable physicist Enrico Fermi—to show how these ideas work in real time, and why they are not parlor tricks. They provide a training in scientific judgment. I also end with a preview of what comes next, symmetry, a concept that quietly runs far more of the universe than most people realize.

Enjoy, and feel free to share.

Lawrence

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.

New Year’s Eve always comes with that familiar urge to clean the slate, toss out what didn’t hold up, and keep what actually earned its place. That’s basically the spirit of our latest “What’s New in Science” episode with Sabine Hossenfelder.

We began with the season’s favorite shiny object: wormholes. The headlines have been everywhere, but we talked through why most of these stories quietly slide from “a speculative tool in a model” to “a virtual phenomenon that might be useful in calculations.” Traversable wormholes of course still run straight into hard constraints like negative energy and the time machine problem.

From there we moved to something much more grounded: CERN. ATLAS has now observed the Higgs decaying into muon pairs, which is exactly the kind of precise confirmation you want for the Standard Model, and while it is yet another remarkable confirmation of how well the fundamental feature of the Standard Model works, it once again sharpens the contrast with the inexplicable nature of the only feature that doesn’t seem to fit: neutrino masses. And it leaves us hanging about where to look next.

We next spent time on what the future might look like for big particle collider projects and what it says about the field’s priorities, including the signal sent by China’s latest five-year plan, which no longer features a massive circular collider proposal. We touched on a smaller CERN result as well, and used it to reflect on a broader point: some of the most stubborn, interesting physics lives in regimes that are messy rather than glamorous.

Then we took a quick detour into a quantum gravity-adjacent proposal about whether the way we average quantities in general relativity could matter for quantum corrections, and finally landed on a genuinely satisfying closer: OSIRIS-REx’s Bennu samples. Finding ribose alongside other prebiotic building blocks makes it harder to dismiss the idea that the chemistry of life might be widespread, and not a once-only cosmic fluke.

I hope you enjoy the episode, and I hope you’re welcoming the new year surrounded by friends and family. Thank you, as always, for listening and for your continued support.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.

On this week’s episode of The Origins Podcast, I ended up in a place I genuinely never expected to go: the humble “like” button. When the idea first landed in my inbox, my reaction was basically, why on Earth would anyone write a whole book about that? Then I spoke with Martin Reeves, and I discovered that the history of this tiny icon is a surprisingly rich window into innovation, entrepreneurship, human psychology, and the modern attention economy.

Martin is a senior figure at BCG’s Henderson Institute, but what made the conversation especially fun for me is that he is not a consultant who wandered into science. He has a background in science, and then wandered into the world of strategy, technology, and ideas, and he approaches the “like” button the way I wish more people approached our digital world: with curiosity, skepticism, and a willingness to follow evidence across disciplines.

The central irony, of course, is that the “like” button began as an almost laughably small, practical solution. In the story Martin and his coauthor reconstructs, it is often less about a single inventor than about a messy ecosystem of micro innovations, technical constraints, and cultural accidents. Yet those small choices compound. The result is that something as simple as a handful of code became a universal signal that helped shape social media, transformed advertising, and created feedback loops that are now baked into the infrastructure of daily life.

We also dig into why it works so well on us. The mechanisms are not mysterious in the abstract, they are biological and social, but the scale is unprecedented. Approval and recognition are ancient. Industrialized approval is new. And once you start thinking that way, you notice how these same feedback dynamics are spreading into new domains, including the tools we now use to interact with AI.

This conversation surprised me, and I suspect it will surprise you too. Indeed, if you are like me, and wondered why the like-button is worth discussing, you will be surprised to learn how much of the modern world is quietly organized around it.

You can listen on any podcast platform, watch on YouTube, or view ad free on Substack. And if you are tempted at the end, well, you may even find yourself clicking the very thing we spend the episode dissecting.

You can listen on any podcast platform, watch on YouTube, or view ad free on Substack. And if you are tempted at the end, well, you may even find yourself clicking the very thing we spend the episode dissecting.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project YouTube.