Lex Fridman Podcast
#468 – Janna Levin: Black Holes, Wormholes, Aliens, Paradoxes & Extra Dimensions
05 May 2025
Janna Levin is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist specializing in black holes, cosmology of extra dimensions, topology of the universe, and gravitational waves. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep468-sc See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/janna-levin-transcript CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: Janna's X: https://x.com/JannaLevin Janna's Website: https://jannalevin.com Janna's Instagram: https://instagram.com/jannalevin Janna's Substack: https://substack.com/@jannalevin Black Hole Survival Guide (book): https://amzn.to/3YkJzT5 Black Hole Blues (book): https://amzn.to/42Nw7IE How the Universe Got Its Spots (book): https://amzn.to/4m5De8k A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines (book): https://amzn.to/3GGakvd SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Brain.fm: Music for focus. Go to https://brain.fm/lex BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://betterhelp.com/lex NetSuite: Business management software. Go to http://netsuite.com/lex Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drink. Go to https://drinkag1.com/lex OUTLINE: (00:00) - Introduction (00:51) - Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (09:21) - Black holes (16:55) - Formation of black holes (27:45) - Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb (34:08) - Inside the black hole (47:10) - Supermassive black holes (50:39) - Physics of spacetime (53:42) - General relativity (59:13) - Gravity (1:15:47) - Information paradox (1:24:17) - Fuzzballs & soft hair (1:27:28) - ER = EPR (1:34:07) - Firewall (1:42:59) - Extra dimensions (1:45:24) - Aliens (2:01:00) - Wormholes (2:11:57) - Dark matter and dark energy (2:22:00) - Gravitational waves (2:34:08) - Alan Turing and Kurt Godel (2:46:23) - Grigori Perelman, Andrew Wiles, and Terence Tao (2:52:58) - Art and science (3:02:37) - The biggest mystery PODCAST LINKS: - Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast - Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 - RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ - Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 - Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips
Full Episode
The following is a conversation with Jana Levin, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist specializing in black holes, cosmology of extra dimensions, topology of the universe, and gravitational waves in space-time.
She has also written some incredible books, including How the Universe Got Its Spots, on the topic of the shape and the size of the universe, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, on the topic of genius, madness, and the limits of knowledge.
Black Hole Blues, and other songs from outer space on the topic of LIGO and the detection of gravitational waves, and Black Hole Survival Guide, all about black holes. This was a fun and fascinating conversation. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast.
We've got Brain.fm for focus, Better Health for mental health, NetSuite for your business, Shopify for selling stuff, and AG1 for your health. Choose wisely, my friends. I do these longer ad reads up in the beginning. I try to make them interesting, but I do also make it super easy to skip with timestamps on screen and in the description.
I do, however, try to make them personal, often related to stuff I'm reading or thinking about. Also, if you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason, go to lexfridman.com contact. And now, on to the full ad reads. Let's go. This episode is brought to you by Brain.fm, a platform that offers music specially made for focus. And when I say music, I mean audio experience.
If you ever see me out in the wild, like a Starbucks, I'm usually either writing or programming deeply in focus with headphones. In those headphones are layers of audio, a mixture of some noise, beats, rain, layers, many layers that help me deeply, deeply, deeply focus. Speaking of audio, did you know that the Roman Empire used synchronized war drums to coordinate legions?
Just imagine the sound of those drums. I need to do a lot more episodes on ancient Rome, on ancient Greece, on ancient China. Anyway, I'm now listening to war drums. I'm listening to Brain.fm when I'm focusing. You too can increase your focus and try Brain.fm free for 30 days by going to Brain.fm slash Lex. That's Brain.fm slash Lex for 30 days free.
This episode is also brought to you by BetterHelp, spelled H-E-L-P, help. It's raining outside, thunderstorms, like somebody's knocking on the window. If that's not a metaphor for prodding the subconscious mind, I don't know what is. Alan Turing comes up in this episode. He was crucial in the whole code-breaking effort in World War II. I should probably do an episode on that.
His work, his person, his mind has been a presence in my life. What an incredible human being. But anyway, I think of the human mind, the conscious and the subconscious, as a kind of code. And therapy is a kind of code-breaking process. I wonder if AI will be able to help with that. Not just basic therapy, but ultra-deep personalized therapy. Boy, that's a dangerous world.
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