StarTalk Radio

There's a new database I've just been reading about in this book called The Internationalist. 500 war statements by nations.

There's a new database I've just been reading about in this book called The Internationalist. 500 war statements by nations.

I recorded a video series with a great courses company. Called The Inexplicable Universe?

And I didn't even give you that copy.

In the inexplicable universe, one of the topics is this great asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe.

So I tell you how we come to learn that that's the case, but I don't tell you why that's the case because it's inexplicable.

I hate to sound cheap about this, but I recorded a video series with a great courses company. Called The Inexplicable Universe?

In the inexplicable universe, one of the topics is this great asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe.

So I tell you how we come to learn that that's the case, but I don't tell you why that's the case because it's inexplicable.

We don't know, hence the title. The Inexplicable Universe.

In the margin of one of his greatest work, The Almagest, he writes, When I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch Earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.

In the margin of one of his greatest work, The Almagest, he writes, When I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch Earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.

You wrote a book, Cycling Science.

This is badass, just so you know.

Well anything involving a bicycle has got to be the best by my book anyway.

You wrote a book, Cycling Science.

I did.

This is badass, just so you know.

Well anything involving a bicycle has got to be the best by my book anyway.

What's that other book? It's a parody on Goodnight Moon. It's Go the Fuck to Sleep.

I was in the kids section and I stumbled on that book. Yeah. And I said, wow, where was that book when I had kids real young?

Who lost their job because Go the F to Sleep was in the children's section of the bookstore? Who lost their job?

That is so funny. Because somebody should have lost their job. That's the real book, people, just so you know.

He's written some books, most recently A Numerate Life.

It's a mixture of math and memoir.

He's written some books, most recently A Numerate Life. Sounds very autobiographical. Is that correct?

It's a mixture of math and memoir.

Mythbuster Adam Savage with a book coming out next year. What's it called? Don't Give Guns to Robots.

Good title. I love that title of that book.

Mythbuster Adam Savage with a book coming out next year. What's it called? Don't Give Guns to Robots.

Good title. I love that title of that book.

Kareem was always reading a book, some type of book, used in autobiography of African-Americans, some kind of book he was always reading.

And he actually wrote a book called The Biggest Hoax Ever or something like that.

He says it's a hoax.

And he actually wrote a book called The Biggest Hoax Ever or something like that.

And you're a co-author of Tomorrow's Table, Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. Did I get that right?

And you're a co-author of Tomorrow's Table, Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. Did I get that right?

Yeah, that's right. So I wrote a book. I wrote with my husband, who's an organic farmer.

You wrote a book called The Science of Game of Thrones.

And I'm surprised it's even this thick. Lots of pictures.

So do you go there in your book here?

A little bit, yeah. I talk about how there are some quite new experiments that have been done with virtual reality which can sort of convince the wearer who's got a headset on that you can basically change someone's identity with virtual reality and they will experience that new body as their own body.

You wrote a book called The Science of Game of Thrones.

And I'm surprised it's even this thick. Lots of pictures.

I talk about how there are some quite new experiments that have been done with virtual reality which can sort of convince the wearer who's got a headset on that you can basically change someone's identity with virtual reality and they will experience that new body as their own body.

Your book just came out right? And what's it called? The NBA But it's not only stopping there Isn't a certain Mark Wahlberg rolling to your life You gonna make a film? Yeah we're gonna go into production in September, October Nice There you go Yeah Give me a little inside track on tough juice

I just talk about my adversity coming up On the south side of racing Wisconsin just north of Chicago I grew up Ever since I jumped off the porch You know, you saw the street game And I was attracted to it I started selling drugs at a young age I was arrested 14, 15 times Ended up getting incarcerated Did a little bit under two years in corrections And once I got out I was exposed to basketball And that was my ticket And my way out

Look for the book Tough Juice My Journey From The Streets To The NBA You got to go find that book

By the way my book coming out Is called Naturally Occuring Low Sugar Juice My Journey From The Suburbs To The Upper Suburbs

My book just came out right, and what's it called? The NBA. But it's not only stopping there. Isn't a certain Mark Wahlberg rolling to your life? You gonna make a film? Yeah, we're gonna go into production in September, October.

My Journey From The Streets To The NBA.

I just talk about my adversity coming up on the south side of racing Wisconsin just north of Chicago.

I started selling drugs at a young age. I was arrested 14, 15 times. Ended up getting incarcerated. Did a little bit under two years in corrections.

And basketball just took me on a journey all around the world.

I think the use of data and the use of analytics to really understand athletic performance in a more granular way.

We see it in basketball, we see the game actually changing because we have a better understanding of sort of the relative value of a shot from different places on the court, for instance.

A lot about sleep and recovery and how that feeds into athletes' performance. Sleep is an incredible performance-enhancing drug. It might actually be the most effective one.

I think the use of data and the use of analytics to really understand athletic performance in a more granular way.

Sleep is an incredible performance enhancing drug. It might actually be the most effective one.

And it's funny when you say like that no New Yorker has a relationship with the universe. It just reminded me of anybody who has your experience, whether it's in a planetarium or on a hilltop looking through a telescope. That's where you find the cosmic perspective.

So in your book Chapter 12 of your book, The Last Chapter, Chapter 12.

The Last Chapter is reflections of, or reflections on the cosmic perspective.

Yeah, there's another book, Newton's Philosophy of Nature, where they cherry pick his best stuff and they talk about it.

Like he has a whole book called Chronologies of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, all right?

Your latest book, coming out in April 2021, The New Breed, What Our History with Animals Reveals About Our Future with Robots.

And one of the things that I try to do with the book is move away from this constant comparison we have of robots to humans and artificial intelligence to human intelligence and these narratives we have about them taking over and replacing us.

And I tried to push a different analogy which is animals and I look at the ways that we've harnessed animals for work, for weaponry, for companionship, for millennia and how we've partnered with animals not because they do what we do but because their skill sets are so different from ours.

So you say that we haven't used animal intelligence. I don't think that's true. That's only true if you view intelligence as human intelligence.

But I'm just trying to open up our minds to more opportunities and more possibilities than just recreating what we already have.

So, you have a book that may be coming out in 2021. Yeah, I should be writing. I have a title here. Is this the right one? The New Breed, What Our History With Animals Reveals About Our Future With Machines.

Richard Dawkins has a new book called Books Do Furnish a Life, which we'll spend a lot of time talking about because it goes everywhere and that's where we want to go.

if anyone read only one book of yours, it should be this because this to me reads like a cross section of everything you have cared about and expressed professionally and in the public with regard to what your life has been about.

it's a good slice of my increasingly alarmingly long career.

it forms a crown of some kind, some kind of bejeweled crown that is a gift to civilization of how you think and how you would welcome others to think to make a better world.

I started it soon after The God Delusion was published. I started it both in Britain and America, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard Dawkins has a new book called Books Do Furnish a Life, which we'll spend a lot of time talking about because it goes everywhere and that's where we want to go.

It does span much of my career ever since I started reviewing books, I suppose, and writing forwards to books.

I've got two books, two other books coming out.

I started it soon after The God Delusion was published. I started it both in Britain and America, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

It's really reflecting on how lucky we are to be alive.

Moving Mars was one of the seminal sci-fi novels of my youth where you talking about what happens if indeed people go colonize Mars and and then they decide they go don't want Mars in the solar system anymore.

Moving Mars was one of the seminal sci-fi novels of my youth where you talking about what happens if indeed People go colonize Mars and and then they decide they go don't want Mars in the solar system anymore Now and and what does that happen to society and so on

It was a book. It was Robert Cannagall wrote the most incredible biography, The Man Who Knew Infinity.

I've read this book probably more than any other book I've ever read.

Robert Cannagall wrote the most incredible biography, The Man Who Knew Infinity.

It was a book based on a book?

It was a book.