Why We Can Exist | Crash Course Pods: The Universe #2

In Episode 2 of their journey through the history of the universe, Dr. Katie Mack and John Green discuss the fundamental forces of nature, the tiny ovens we know as particle colliders, and how we all can exist.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
3:17 - Particle colliders
5:45 - Protons
14:00 - The Fundamental Forces
20:33 - The Theory of Everything
27:12 - The Higgs Field
34:46 - It's Incredible That We Know This Stuff

***

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[Vertebray]

“We’re just a bunch of atoms temporarily organized into consciousness”
You are the best life insurance salesperson 💀

[Vertebray]

Love how well Dr. Mack explains the crazy complexities of the universe! So much we still don’t know (and don’t know that we don’t know!) and it’s awesome that we have really smart people working on answering those fundamental and existential questions

[brittanyh]

My 11 year old aspiring astrophysicist with an anxiety disorder is laughing and marveling along with you both through this series. It's been a refreshing reminder for us both that anxiety can be a stepping stone on our journey to discovery! Your candidness about those feelings has been eye-opening for him, John. Thank you.

[DudeWhoSaysDeez]

We need more conversations like this. If two experts in a field are talking, it leaves out the audience, so thank you John for asking questions that we are wondering about.

[chandragreenberg]

I absolutely love the graphics for this show. John and Katie as talking stars, them sitting in camping chairs in the corner looking at the night sky.... and then I backed the video up several seconds to hear something I'd missed, which revealed that the sky graphic is rotating imperceptibly slowly and that made me love it even more.

[tobywilson]

I did my PhD in cosmology and particle theory, so I'm familiar with the material being covered here... But Dr Mack has an incredible way of truly making me feel the weight of that knowledge in a way that I haven't really considered before. I guess you grow to take things for granted, and forget just how amazingly fruitful the collaboration of science has been.

[The_Serpent_of_Eden]

Oh, and also a lovely quote from Alan Watts: "Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence." We're literally Big Bang protons experiencing ourselves!

[Juniper-]

I love how John's anxiety acts as a barometer for the inherent complexity physics. It both suggests that it's ok to struggle with physics and that its ok for the picture to complex. Not everything has a perfectly elegant theory and we still must try to understand the world in all its complexity.

[jennifersaar]

I find our smallness within the grand scale of the universe very comforting. Our problems loom so large, but when you think about the fact that earth is just a tiny, tiny part of a much greater whole, it really puts things into perspective.

[misslayer]

I'm studying for my neuroscience degree and I have to take a few physics classes next semester. I know it's mostly math, but listening to stuff like this is really helping relieve some anxiety I have about it. Ive started to change my attitude from the dreaded "having to take physics" to the semi excited "getting to learn physics".

[gibberishname]

I've listened to all of The Anthropocene Reviewed, and Dear Hank & John, and now this. podcast, The Universe. No matter WHAT podcast, no matter WHAT episode, John's transitions to life insurance ads are PERFECT!

[GregMcNeish]

There's something so powerful about John's meek, monotone "wow" in response to some new piece of knowledge. We get other, bigger reactions, that perfectly mirror what I'm feeling, but in that soft, simple "wow" you can really feel the gravity (pun intended) of John's revelation. It's like it lands in a place that's too deep to even register emotionally. There's a profound reverence in that moment, where human emotion and expression is insufficient to capture what's happening.

Absolutely loving this podcast. Can't wait for more.

[juliegolick]

I love how every time John is like, "Okay, so I think I understand it. It's like THIS, right?" and Dr. Mack takes this deep breath and you know she's about to complicate things again.

[wingnut]

This is the best 'talk', not to diminish at all the generalized science, I have heard. No graphs, no space ships, no curves, just words and generalized simplicity. It makes it so much fun!!! I am hooked!!!!

[toxicbagel]

4:40
Okay, but...what if particle colliders were called "cosmological origin generators" instead?

We could even call them "COGs" for short and talk about them as our way to explore the initial machinery of the Universe. 👀

[LawTaranis]

You can tell how well someone understands a subject by how well they can explain it to someone who doesn't understand it.

Dr Mack understands this stuff very well.

[pinkcupcake]

John played the Quark Song and I instantly responded. It's been since I last intentionally listened to it but I know that chorus by heart.

[ethereum]

This has been so useful for me as someone who was never taught the big bang theory as a child and never really got to learn about what we know of our observable universe. I'm literally in absolute AWE rn and enjoying every second.

[abbysweat]

These first two episodes have been just great at helping me get my head around all these things i kind of know. Reminds me of the Carl Sagan quote "WE are a way for the universe to know ITSELF". MY HYDROGEN UNDERSTANDS BIG BANG THEORY. HOW COOL.

[bkffr]

Let's enjoy this episode before Hank issues a copyright strike for his song.