Local Podcasts
The Joy of Why: Can Quantum Gravity Be Created in the Lab?
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April 26, 2025
Quanta Magazine’s The Joy of Why is a special addition to WCNY Community FM. It’s hosted by Cornell mathematician Steven Strogatz and senior produced by Genevieve Sponsler (also a producer here at WCNY Community FM). Steve and the show’s co-host — cosmologist and author Janna Levin — take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time.
In this episode: Quantum gravity is one of the biggest unresolved and challenging problems in physics, as it seeks to reconcile quantum mechanics, which governs the microscopic world, and general relativity, which describes the macroscopic world of gravity and space-time. Cornell’s Steve Strogatz and Columbia’s Janna Levin introduce a conversation with Monika Schleier-Smith, who has been exploring a novel experimental approach — trying to create quantum gravity from scratch.
