Leonard Mlodinow – My Friend, Stephen Hawking (#112)

Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics

Leonard Mlodinow was Stephen’s closest colleague in his final years. Who better to put us in the room as Hawking indulges his passion for wine and curry; shares his feelings on love, death, and disability; and grapples with deep questions of philosophy and physics. Whether depicting Hawking’s devotion to his work or demonstrating how he would make spur of the moment choices, such as punting on the River Cam (despite the risk the jaunt posed), or spinning tales of Hawking defiantly urinating in the hedges outside a restaurant that doesn’t have a wheelchair-accessible toilet, Mlodinow captures his indomitable spirit. This deeply affecting account of a friendship teaches us not just about the nature and practice of physics but also about life and the human capacity to overcome daunting obstacles.

my previous conversation with Len, Deepak Chopra and Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/E-8mF4HWDnE?sub_confirmation=1

Get the book here https://amzn.to/3gWgS7U

Len received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of California, Berkeley, was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute and was on the faculty of the California Institute of Technology. His previous books include the bestsellers The Grand Design and A Briefer History of Time (coauthored with Stephen Hawking), Subliminal (winner of the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award), and War of the Worldviews (with Deepak Chopra), as well as Elastic, Euclid’s Window, Feynman’s Rainbow, and The Upright Thinkers.

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:02:39 The story of the book cover
• 00:08:05 Stephen Hawking Inc.
• 00:12:51 Living with ALS
• 00:15:55 Hawking Radiation
• 00:16:28 The origin of the book
• 00:18:51 How do you rebuke Stephen Hawking!?
• 00:20:45 Even Stephen Hawking got writer’s block
• 00:28:27 Our book is NOT an argument against God.
• 00:29:49 More thoughts on God how Hawking was “Israeli”!
• 00:30:54 Do singularities exist? Can we ever know?
• 00:33:50 What was Stephen Hawking’s philosophy of science?
• 00:38:45 Have you ever “seen” a triangle? An example of realism.
• 00:42:42 What could the role of God be in the universe?
• 00:56:04 Which was the more jarring event: completing your last collaboration with Professor Hawking or his death?
• 00:59:28 How did Leonard balance his life while collaborating with Prof. Hawking?
• 01:00:37 What would you tell Stephen now if you could?
• 01:01:27 Thrilling 3 Final Questions
• 01:01:56 What is in your “Ethical Will”?
• 01:04:27 What would you put on your monolith? 01:09:25 What advice would you give to your younger self?

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