Dr. Brian Keating
speaker
1,291 appearances
4 recordings
4 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Sep 2025
Dr. Brian Keating’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
The function of education seems to beat that out of kids, but really to have that in the domain and the expertise that you have is a real inspiration. And I think it's a huge service to society. So I want to thank you too.
Thanks, Andrew.
Thank you.
Yeah, you came in January 23 to the house, and we had kosher rib-eyes. Yeah, that's right. Exactly two years, yeah. Yeah, your tour for the last time in San Diego. Yeah, that was the last time we were together. And then we did...
Yeah, I've recorded two. One's out currently, which is called Cosmology. Very simple. And then I've recorded a second one, Introduction to Astronomy, which you might think would come before cosmology, but actually cosmology encompasses most of astronomy anyway. In some sense, cosmology is one of the oldest sciences, if not the oldest science.
It's the science that you can do with the two telescopes that you're born with in your skull. And for that reason, it's accessible to everybody. You know, I was thinking on my way over here, you talk so much about freedom and how important that is. There are very few things that are literally free, right? Right.
I could only think of two, and you'll probably correct me, but freedom of thought is not necessarily a guarantee around the world, right? Every human being doesn't have access to freedom of speech. Certainly not. Right, definitely not. Especially not your home country, especially nowadays. But air? so far as I know, is free. And the only other thing I could think about, Jordan, was the night sky.
We all can look at the night sky. We can all enjoy it. And we're in both those ways. You know this, I'm sure. We breathe in every breath has millions of molecules that Jesus himself breathed in. That's the nature of our atmosphere and the mixing of molecules, etc. It's guaranteed that that is the case. But the only other thing that we may share with Jesus is that we see the same night sky.
We see the same cosmos as he did. There haven't been any new planets coming in.
That's true. They're free. That's free toothaches, I suppose. So I find it also quite a respite. You know, I'm a pretty tough person, but I do believe the human spirit needs safe spaces in a sense, not the kind of places we had on campus on November 6th with, you know, Play-Doh and finger painting kits for the students who were traumatized. That's Play-Doh, not Play-Doh. That's right.
But instead, we need safe spaces that the human mind can expand within. You know, if you just go to the gym and work out and you never recover, you can't fully grow to your potential. To me, cosmology, uniquely in science, you know, but less so generally science, certainly not virology, right? But science in its purest sense, the pure sciences, not political science, but pure science, not applied.
like I get to do, I have the privilege of doing, which is studying the universe offers a space for the human mind, the intellect, to relax, to enjoy, to appreciate. And there's no secret. You've heard cosmetology. I make this joke in my Peterson Academy course. I say, you know, this course is not about hair and makeup, you know, despite my wonderful appearance.
But it's actually related, cosmology and cosmetology, by the prefix cosmos, which in Greek means beautiful or appearance. So it's literally telling us that the night sky is beautiful and it's something to behold and it's a sensual pleasure. People don't think of that with cosmology.
Yeah, and the dirty secret, the shameful secret of what I do with my colleagues is that most of us, myself maybe an exception, are completely inured to it. We're so used to seeing, we're so used to thinking of incomprehensible, literally astronomical numbers that we... Sometimes don't even bother to look up at the sky. There's an eclipse happening of the moon? Oh, so what?
I'll see it some other time. Big deal. We know what that is. I know what that is. I know what causes it. It's not mystery. It doesn't portend evil, doom, disaster, catastrophe. Those words have the word star, astro, within them, right? Evocative of the power that was once thought to be held within the night sky's domain.
Now the scientists know we've extirpated the sort of, you know, mysterious gods and demons and so forth. But at the same time, we've also, as I say, inert ourselves to the wonder that a normal person feels when they encounter the mysterious. And I think it's quite amazing when you see, you know, in my religion, you know, I'm Jewish and I'm practicing, I take it very seriously.
You know, we are commanded, one of the many things we're commanded to do, in addition to the Sabbath and honoring our parents and so forth, is when you come upon a miracle, you bless it. So we actually have blessings for seeing a meteorite, for seeing a meteor shower, for seeing a rainbow, for these phenomena, for seeing the ocean when you haven't seen it. It's good.
No.
And everything is new.
Are you familiar with the poem by Walt Whitman? Yes. It's called When I Heard the Learned Astronomer. Oh, no. Yes, this is a different one. Oh, okay. And it's really, they believe it was sort of written around the mid to late 1800s, and he had heard a lecture about the recently discovered planet Neptune. So Neptune was discovered in a most remarkable way.
Showing 1101–1120 of 1,291 · page 56 of 65
← Previous
Next →