Brian Keating
Brian Keating is a cosmologist, UC San Diego physics professor and author who hosts Into the Impossible, bringing scientists and other thinkers into conversations about the universe and how we understand it.
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Latest
Brian’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus his backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Podcast
BookOverview
- Work
- Cosmologist, author and podcast host
- Based at
- University of California, San Diego
- Education
- B.S., Case Western Reserve University; Ph.D., Brown University, 2000
- Podcast
- Into the Impossible, launched in 2016
- Research
- The cosmic microwave background and the early universe
Mini bio
Building a way to look back.
Brian trained as an experimental cosmologist, earning his physics doctorate at Brown in 2000. After research at Stanford and Caltech, he joined UC San Diego in 2004. He conceived and led the first BICEP telescope at the South Pole, using the universe’s oldest light to investigate its beginnings.
Turning a setback into a book.
His 2018 book Losing the Nobel Prize brought his scientific work to general readers. It tells the story of BICEP2’s apparent signal from the early universe and the scientific drama that followed, while questioning how prize culture shapes collaboration and ambition.
A university in your pajamas.
Into the Impossible began in 2016. Brian later described building its interview work during lockdown to help scientists and authors who could no longer go on book tours. By April 2024, he was celebrating a quarter-million subscribers. The conversations extend from cosmology to consciousness and AI, with room for guests to disagree and explain their thinking.
Lessons from the guests.
His book Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner draws on interviews with nine laureates, looking at curiosity, communication and collaboration. Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner continues that project with lessons about concentration and prioritization. Alongside the books and podcast, he serves as principal investigator and co-founder of the Simons Observatory.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books
- 2021Into the Impossible: Think Like a Nobel Prize WinnerAuthor
- 2018Losing the Nobel PrizeAuthor
Podcast
- 2016–presentInto the ImpossibleHost
Research
- 2016Simons ObservatoryCo-founder and principal investigator
Awards
Quotes
I wanted to share the world’s most brilliant thinkers to create a free university you could attend in your pajamas.Brian Keating, “QUARTER MILLION subscribers”
Writing in April 2024, Brian explained the purpose behind his long conversations and thanked the audience that helped the podcast grow.
Trivia
- He credits Edwin Abbott’s Flatland as the book that made him a scientist.
- He is a private pilot with single-engine and multi-engine instrument ratings.
- His Keating Experiments channel features solo explanations and a debunking series called Keating’s Razors.
Find Brian
Follow Brian for cosmic conversations, new episodes and his Monday M.A.G.I.C. newsletter.
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