16 September 2025
Are We Wrong About the Big Bang? Niayesh Afshordi
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
About
Get Dr. Brian Keating’s NEW Book for Only 0.99! This week only: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100
For over a century, cosmologists have believed that the universe began a single fiery moment. The Big Bang. But what if that story is incomplete?
Or what if it's even wrong?
My guest today, Professor Niayesh Afshordi, is a professor of astrophysics at the Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo.
He and his colleague Bill Halpern argue that the real battle in science is over the mysteries of singularities, those points where our equations collapse and space, time and physics itself seem to break down.
In a new book, Battle of the Big Bang, they take us inside the fight to understand whether the Big Bang was truly the beginning of it all, or whether it was just one chapter in a far stranger cosmic saga.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
00:00:00 – Cosmologists no longer see the Big Bang as the beginning of time
00:11:01 – Singularity vs the later hot Big Bang phases like nucleosynthesis
00:12:13 – Survey of physicists shows “Big Bang” is understood differently
00:15:37 – Hawking and singularities
00:23:12 – Black hole information paradox remains unresolved after 50 years
00:30:26 – Religion remains a social tool
00:35:56 – The Simons Observatory was created to probe primordial gravitational waves in the CMB
00:39:50 – Scientific careers are constrained by funding and “hot topics” in research
00:41:17 – Science advances by tying ideas to observation, not just social structures
00:42:07 – Disagreement with Carlo Rovelli
00:44:54 – Competing quantum gravity models are ideas, not fully testable theories yet
00:46:14 – String theory, loop quantum gravity, and holography lack experimental evidence
00:47:55 – Cancellation of CMB Stage-4 highlights limits of experimental cosmology
00:49:14 – Afshordi views himself closer to an observer than a pure theorist
00:54:51 – Scientific progress benefits from bridging between communities
00:57:47 – Repulsive gravity in inflation avoids singularities but leaves open loopholes
01:01:00 – Singularity theorems can break down with quantum gravity or altered dimensions
01:03:05 – Our universe was born inside a black hole
01:06:16 – Future probes might let us see further back than the CMB
01:10:56 – Einstein unknowingly started the quest for quantum gravity
-
Additional resources:
Get Niayesh Afshordi’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Big-Bang-Cosmic-Origins/dp/0226830470
Get Dr. Brian Keating’s NEW Book for Only 0.99! This week only: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100
Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥
-
Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:
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📚 Get a copy of my books:
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺
Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI
Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1
Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1
Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs
Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw
Follow me to ask questions of my guests:
♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list
✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog
🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For over a century, cosmologists have believed that the universe began a single fiery moment. The Big Bang. But what if that story is incomplete?
Or what if it's even wrong?
My guest today, Professor Niayesh Afshordi, is a professor of astrophysics at the Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo.
He and his colleague Bill Halpern argue that the real battle in science is over the mysteries of singularities, those points where our equations collapse and space, time and physics itself seem to break down.
In a new book, Battle of the Big Bang, they take us inside the fight to understand whether the Big Bang was truly the beginning of it all, or whether it was just one chapter in a far stranger cosmic saga.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
00:00:00 – Cosmologists no longer see the Big Bang as the beginning of time
00:11:01 – Singularity vs the later hot Big Bang phases like nucleosynthesis
00:12:13 – Survey of physicists shows “Big Bang” is understood differently
00:15:37 – Hawking and singularities
00:23:12 – Black hole information paradox remains unresolved after 50 years
00:30:26 – Religion remains a social tool
00:35:56 – The Simons Observatory was created to probe primordial gravitational waves in the CMB
00:39:50 – Scientific careers are constrained by funding and “hot topics” in research
00:41:17 – Science advances by tying ideas to observation, not just social structures
00:42:07 – Disagreement with Carlo Rovelli
00:44:54 – Competing quantum gravity models are ideas, not fully testable theories yet
00:46:14 – String theory, loop quantum gravity, and holography lack experimental evidence
00:47:55 – Cancellation of CMB Stage-4 highlights limits of experimental cosmology
00:49:14 – Afshordi views himself closer to an observer than a pure theorist
00:54:51 – Scientific progress benefits from bridging between communities
00:57:47 – Repulsive gravity in inflation avoids singularities but leaves open loopholes
01:01:00 – Singularity theorems can break down with quantum gravity or altered dimensions
01:03:05 – Our universe was born inside a black hole
01:06:16 – Future probes might let us see further back than the CMB
01:10:56 – Einstein unknowingly started the quest for quantum gravity
-
Additional resources:
Get Niayesh Afshordi’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Big-Bang-Cosmic-Origins/dp/0226830470
Get Dr. Brian Keating’s NEW Book for Only 0.99! This week only: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100
Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥
-
Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join
📚 Get a copy of my books:
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺
Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI
Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1
Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1
Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs
Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw
Follow me to ask questions of my guests:
♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list
✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog
🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices