Stephon Alexander: The Jazz of Physics! (#051)

   Physicist, jazz musician, & President of the
National Society of Black Physicists, Stephon Alexander is this
week’s guest on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE podcast. He discussed the
foundations of the cosmos, his advice for balancing academic and
creative pursuits, and his book “The Jazz of Physics.” Support the
National Society of Black Physicists:
https://nsbp.org/support-nsbp/support-us Show notes and resources
for this episode are available: simply join my mailing list:
http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php and you’ll also get
information to enter giveaways to win my guest’s books! Our next
giveaway will be Stephon’s phenomenal THE JAZZ OF PHYSICS! 00:14:20
Balancing the creative pursuits of research, jazz, and writing.
00:28:46 Which came first – theoretical or experimental physics?
00:40:30 Creativity and intuition have a role in science. 00:46:48
How legacy and John Coltrane inspired Alexander to write his book.
00:57:18 The power (and limits) of analogies to explain science.
01:07:34 Journal articles and musical films – what’s next from
Stephon Alexander. 01:17:08 Questions INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE asks all
authors. Stephon Alexander is a physics professor at Brown
University, which is where he earned his Ph.D. He is President of
the National Society of Black Physicists and a National Geographic
Explorer. He served as a scientific consultant on the 2018 movie A
Wrinkle in Time. Buy Stephon Alexander’s book “The Jazz of Physics”
here: https://amzn.to/3cZekmU Watch Alexander’s Tedx Talk here:
https://youtu.be/v9_ZzY99-6U Watch Alexander on NOVA’s documentary
series The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/stephon-alexander/ Find
Stephon Alexander on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephstem Please
subscribe, rate, and review the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast on
iTunes for a chance to win a copy of Alexander’s book:  ‍️
Find Brian Keating on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
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