Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Jacob Tsimerman: He Won Math's Highest Prize. Then Announced the End

I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE Ten days after winning the Fields Medal — math's highest honor — Jacob Tsimerman joins to explain why he's leaving academia temporarily for OpenAI's AI safety team, and why he's grieving even as he does it. The conversation covers why math is one of the first fields being radically reshaped by AI, whether a proof still counts if no one can understand it, what mathematical "understanding" really means, the ethics of elite access to frontier models, his disagreements with the Leiden Declaration, and his advice for young people weighing a career in pure math in an age of rapidly advancing AI. This is an exclusive first podcast with Jacob Tsimerman. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Fields Medal and Grieving - 00:05:38 - Canonical Human Cognition Patterns - 00:10:40 - Prompting the Mathematical Future - 00:15:40 - Pure Math and Physics Loops - 00:21:00 - Epistemic Black Boxes - 00:26:00 - Rigor Outgrowing Intuition - 00:31:20 - Cognitive Mechanics of Understanding - 00:37:00 - Gödel and Working Memory - 00:42:10 - Mathematics as Improvised Art - 00:47:30 - AI Power and Meritocracy - 00:52:50 - Math on the Chopping Block - 00:58:20 - Unrestricted Optimization Risks - 01:03:40 - AI Safety Manhattan Project - 01:08:50 - Training for Post-AI Careers - 01:14:10 - The Managerial Shift - 01:19:40 - Cognitive Offloading and Adaptation LINKS MENTIONED: - Jacob's Website: https://www.math.utoronto.ca/~jacobt/ - Jacob's Publications: https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Jacob-Tsimerman/3130599 - Quanta's Story On Jacob [Article]: https://www.quantamagazine.org/jacob-tsimerman-wins-2026-fields-medal-for-andre-oort-conjecture-proof-20260723/ - André-Oort Conjecture: https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202410/rnoti-p1307.pdf - Canonical Heights On Shimura Varieties And The André-Oort Conjecture [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.08788 - O-Minimal GAGA And A Conjecture Of Griffiths [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.12230 - Ten Advances In Mathematics And Theoretical Computer Science: https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/ - Thoughts About The Leiden Declaration: https://gowers.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/thoughts-about-the-leiden-declaration/ - Tobias Osborne LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tobias-osborne-601830a5_farewell-to-the-conjecture-prover-several-share-7487777959299276800-mxsa/ - Math For AI Safety: https://mathforaisafety.org/ - Charles Fefferman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fefferman - G-Functions, Motives, And Unlikely Intersections [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.09867 - Tobias Osborne's QFT Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfPUNusx1EpRs-wku83aqYSKfR5fFmfS - AISI Website: https://www.aisi.gov.uk/ - Sebastian Jaimungal: https://sebastian.statistics.utoronto.ca/ - Edward Frenkel [TOE]: https://youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y - Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/iO03t21xhdk More links at https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Becca Tarnas: Did Jung and Tolkien Enter the Same World?

SPONSORS: - Nobody likes a call center — ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs fixes that with voice AI that sounds human and works 24/7 in 30+ languages. Try it: elevenlabs.io/TOE - I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE This podcast explores the uncanny link between two of the twentieth century's great visionary works. Becca Tarnas, assistant professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, joins to discuss her doctoral research into the parallels between Carl Jung's Red Book and J.R.R. Tolkien's lesser-known visionary writings. The central claim: working independently, both men produced strikingly similar imagery, timing, and figures — Jung's Philemon and Tolkien's Gandalf, the Eye of the Evil One and the Eye of Sauron — while each insisted their material felt discovered rather than invented. From there the conversation moves through active imagination, the reality of archetypes, psyche versus mind, and the line between mystical insight and psychosis — a wide-ranging look at where imagination ends and reality begins. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Jung and Tolkien's Red Books - 00:05:42 - Archetypal Rhymes and Parallels - 00:11:26 - Defining the Imaginal Realm - 00:16:38 - Active Imagination vs. Dreaming - 00:22:00 - Active Imagination Protocol - 00:27:00 - Psyche’s Spontaneous Expression - 00:33:57 - Ontology of Imaginal Figures - 00:39:03 - Psychologizing vs. Mythologizing - 00:45:57 - Planetary Archetypes Experience - 00:51:34 - Perceiving Universal Beauty - 00:58:23 - Universal vs. Objective Reality - 01:04:00 - Psychosis vs. Gnosis - 01:09:00 - Grounding the Visionary - 01:15:00 - Symbolic Language of Madness - 01:21:00 - Unearned Wisdom and Psychedelics - 01:26:30 - Motherhood as Expanded State - 01:33:57 - Meaning in Disconnection - 01:40:56 - Intuition in Science - 01:46:55 - Leonardo’s Light and Shade LINKS MENTIONED: - Journey To The Imaginal Realm [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1947544217?tag=toe08-20 - Participatory Imagination [Lecture]: https://beccatarnas.com/2020/08/28/jungs-participatory-imagination/ - Becca's PhD Defense: https://youtu.be/3soOYajHUBM - The Red Book [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0393089088?tag=toe08-20 - The Holy Grail Of The Unconscious [Article]: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html - Active Imagination: https://jungiancenter.org/jung-on-active-imagination-features-methods-and-warnings/ - Jung On Active Imagination [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691015767?tag=toe08-20 - Richard Tarnas's Website: https://cosmosandpsyche.com/ - The Passion Of The Western Mind [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0345368096?tag=toe08-20 - Psychological Types [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1614279705?tag=toe08-20 - The Fellowship Of The Ring [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0547928211?tag=toe08-20 - Kant's 'Categories': https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/ - The Imaginary And The Imaginal [Paper]: http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/mundus_imaginalis.pdf - Toni Wolff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Wolff - The Call Of Cthulhu [Book]: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx - The Shadow: https://iaap.org/jung-analytical-psychology/short-articles-on-analytical-psychology/the-shadow/ - BBC Interviews Curt: https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/m002s4hd - Andres Emilsson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/gi08eVU_-f8 - Leo Gura [TOE]: https://youtu.be/R-w8k4smC74 - Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Q9sBKCd2HD0 - Greg Kondrak [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FFW14zSYiFY - John Vervaeke [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3p8o3-7mvQc - Bernardo Kastrup & Susan Blackmore [TOE]: https://youtu.be/jrVnAWP2XEs - Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tim Maudlin: Quantum Mechanics Explained FROM SCRATCH

I personally subscribe to The Economist. SUMMER SALE to Aug 17, 2026: 50% off the annual subscription! No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE This is a careful lecture that can be followed with zero background knowledge. Einstein thought he'd caught quantum mechanics in an act of spookiness — this podcast asks whether he was even worried about the right thing. Tim Maudlin, professor of philosophy at NYU and a leading philosopher of physics, delivers a rare full lecture tracing Einstein, EPR, and the road to Bell's theorem. The central claim: Einstein's real objection was never determinism — "God does not play dice" is a red herring — but non-locality, which he inferred rather than assumed. Maudlin traces the argument from Einstein's overlooked 1927 Solvay objection through the EPR paper's criterion of reality, showing why Bohr's famous reply never actually answered it. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Einstein's Quantization Hypothesis - 00:07:20 - Photoelectric Effect Implications - 00:12:30 - Wave-Particle Duality Myths - 00:20:40 - De Broglie's Matter Waves - 00:26:40 - Copenhagen's Completeness Doctrine - 00:34:10 - Solvay 1927: Two Conceptions - 00:41:20 - Pinhole Diffraction Problem - 00:48:00 - Collapse and Relativity Violations - 00:56:00 - Epistemic vs. Ontic Collapse - 01:05:00 - Ontological vs. Dynamical Locality - 01:14:00 - Configuration Space Objections - 01:25:00 - EPR's Criterion of Reality - 01:32:40 - Analyzing the Reality Criterion - 01:40:50 - Causal Isolation and Locality - 01:48:45 - Entangled Momentum Eigenstates - 01:56:45 - Logical Core of EPR - 02:04:40 - Position-Momentum Simultaneous Reality - 02:14:00 - Inferring Determinism from Locality - 02:26:30 - Conservation Laws and Information - 02:37:40 - Counterfactual Definiteness Debunked - 02:44:00 - Bohr's Incoherent Response - 02:52:00 - Schrödinger's Entanglement Confession LINKS MENTIONED: - Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1444331272?tag=toe08-20 - On a Heuristic Point of View About the Creation and Conversion of Light [Paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/lectures/Rotman_Summer_School_2013/Einstein_1905_docs/Einstein_Light_Quantum_WikiSource.pdf - The Ghost in the Atom [Paper]: https://vdoc.pub/download/the-ghost-in-the-atom-a-discussion-of-the-mysteries-of-quantum-physics-1guq071e2ukg - Collected Papers on Wave Mechanics [Paper]: https://mwolf.pracownicy.uksw.edu.pl/MK/Schrodinger_Collected_Papers_on_Wave_Mechanics.pdf - Quantum Theory at the Crossroads [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0521814219?tag=toe08-20 - Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777 - Bohr's EPR Critique [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.48.696 - The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics [Paper]: https://personal.lse.ac.uk/robert49/teaching/partiii/pdf/SchroedingerPresentSituation1935(1980trans).pdf - Bertlmann's Socks and the Nature of Reality [Paper]: https://cds.cern.ch/record/142461/files/198009299.pdf - On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/ppf/pdf/10.1103/PhysicsPhysiqueFizika.1.195 - Quantum Theory and Measurement [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691613168?tag=toe08-20 - Tim Maudlin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss - Sean Carroll [TOE]: https://youtu.be/9AoRxtYZrZo - Robert Sapolsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/z0IqA1hYKY8 - Jenann Ismael [TOE]: https://youtu.be/7kvXihDAOi0 Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Adlam & David Wallace: The Quantum Interpretation That Divides Physicists

SPONSORS: - Go to https://www.plaud.ai/curt and use the promo code "CURT" to get a Plaud device today - I personally subscribe to The Economist. SUMMER SALE to Aug 17, 2026: 50% off the annual subscription! No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE This is a podcast all about parallel universes, and whether we have any right to believe in them. David Wallace, professor of philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh and a leading defender of the Many Worlds Interpretation, joins Professor Emily Adlam, his former student, for a rare joint conversation. The central fault line: Adlam argues no one living inside a many-worlds universe could ever rationally confirm the theory describing it, since Everettian probability may undermine the evidence used to support quantum mechanics itself. Wallace disagrees, but takes the challenge seriously. From there they range across the nature of the wave function, relational quantum mechanics, QBism, and scientific intersubjectivity — two sharp, collegial minds disagreeing productively about what kind of universe we actually live in. TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Wave Function Ontology - 00:05:35 - Everettian Probability Problem - 00:11:45 - Relational Quantum Mechanics Limits - 00:19:15 - Quantum Gravity Frameworks - 00:24:50 - Subsystem Decomposition Approximations - 00:31:10 - Testing Wavefunction Collapse - 00:38:35 - Scientific Intersubjectivity Crisis - 00:47:55 - Many Worlds Rationality Constraints - 00:58:50 - QBism and Physical Reality - 01:05:05 - Conservative Philosophy of Physics LINKS MENTIONED: - Emily Adlam's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RlTqjZMAAAAJ - David Wallace's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Z35CeHAAAAAJ - Pointer Basis Of Quantum Apparatus [Paper]: https://libertadacademica.com/Cuantica/ModernaHist/Zurek%20b.pdf - Information Is Physical [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.13342 - Relative Information, Relative Facts [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11349 - What Kind Of Relationality Does Quantum Mechanics Exhibit? [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06991 - Models Of Wave-Function Collapse, Underlying Theories, And Experimental Tests [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.4325 - On Gravity's Role In Quantum State Reduction [Paper]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02105068 - Real Patterns In Physics And Beyond [Paper]: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/23888/ - Learning To Represent [Paper]: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/23224/1/learning_to_represent.pdf - Operational Theories As Structural Realism [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.09316 - Relational Quantum Mechanics [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9609002 - Measurement Outcomes And Probability In Everettian Quantum Mechanics [Paper]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1355219806000694 - Quantum Probability From Subjective Likelihood [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0312157 More links (past guest episodes) at https://curtjaimungal.substack.com FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ginestra Bianconi: The Physicist Who (Unexpectedly) Derived Gravity From Entropy

I personally subscribe to The Economist. SUMMER SALE to Aug 17, 2026: 50% off the annual subscription! No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE Ginestra Bianconi thinks gravity can be derived from entropy — and that gravity itself is fundamentally anti-reductionistic, since it's about geometry rather than isolated particle interactions. In this episode, the network-topologist-turned-gravity-theorist explains her "Gravity from Entropy" action, which treats matter and geometry symmetrically through a geometric quantum relative entropy (not the horizon entropy of Verlinde or Jacobson). She details why it reduces to Einstein's equations at low energy while predicting a dynamical, always-positive dark energy term (the "G field"), how it may avoid black hole singularities and reproduce the area law without invoking holography, and why she believes understanding the brain may be harder than understanding quantum gravity. We close with her advice for young researchers. I hope you enjoy. TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00 - Information Content of Geometry - 07:38 - Geometric Quantum Relative Entropy - 15:58 - Geometrizing the Matter Field - 23:45 - Emergent Dark Energy - 30:12 - Statistical Mechanics vs Thermodynamics - 37:59 - Structure and Dynamics Interplay - 45:20 - Holography and Area Law - 51:23 - Interdisciplinary Research Vision LINKS MENTIONED: Ginestra's Webpage: https://webspace.maths.qmul.ac.uk/g.bianconi/ Ginestra's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ycQXwWgAAAAJ Gravity from Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.14391 Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0393319911?tag=toe08-20 The Thermodynamics of the Gravity from Entropy Theory [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.22545 Notes on Some Entanglement Properties of Quantum Field Theory [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.04993 Inflation from Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23987 Thermodynamics of Spacetime: The Einstein Equation of State [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9504004 More Is Different [Paper]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.177.4047.393 Information, Physics, Quantum [Paper]: https://philpapers.org/archive/WHEIPQ.pdf Network Geometry with Flavor [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.04539 Black Holes and Entropy [Paper]: https://physicsgg.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/black-holes-and-entropy_bekenstein.pdf Ginestra's Lecture on Higher-Order Networks: https://youtu.be/o4TWDTgqQKY Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY Frederic Schuller [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Bnh-UNrxYZg Erik Verlinde [TOE]: https://youtu.be/ilVImMHcr_g Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2v7LBABwZKA Subir Sarkar [TOE]: https://youtu.be/epkuoytFJWA Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FkYer0xP37E Roman Yampolskiy [TOE]: https://youtu.be/TgFmA-Qwsek Eva Miranda [TOE]: https://youtu.be/6XyMepn-AZo Cumrun Vafa [TOE]: https://youtu.be/kUHOoMX4Bqw Neil Turok [TOE]: https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20 David Kaiser [TOE]: https://youtu.be/_yebLXsIdwo Ivette Fuentes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/YWbjI-QsH2E Philip Mannheim [TOE]: https://youtu.be/rNXNHYvS7zU FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices