Podcasts by Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars

Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars

What if the cataclysmic Tunguska explosion of 1908 was caused, not by a meteor or a comet, but by a microscopic black hole?
… Well, like as not, you already know that story — the one told by Bill DeSmedt in his award-winning novel/podcast Singularity. What you may not know, though, is the story behind the story: the science behind Singularity.
Surprisingly (or maybe not), you can learn a lot about primordial black holes and the Tunguska Event and black hole radiation and the Big Bang on the pages of Singularity. And you don’t have to take our word for it: some world-class physicists think so too:
“Bill got the vast majority of the physics right, which is highly unusual — especially in a book that is such a good read.”
— Kip Thorne, Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology and author of Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy
“Singularity is an uncommonly good science thriller, quite free of the poetic license some writers take with the laws of nature in order to put together the yarn.”
— Jacob D. Bekenstein, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem and discoverer of black-hole entropy
“As a specialist in black hole astrophysics, I would have to say that this is one of the most creative uses of primordial black-hole theory in science fiction.”
— Scott A. Hughes, Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Now, for the first time, the real-life counterpart of Singularity’s resident cosmologist, Doctor Jack Adler, steps up to explain what it is all these scientists are raving about, in his “Soapbox Seminars” — an informal look at the hard-core science behind the novel.
PS: Doctor Jack’s got about fifteen or so of these seminars planned out so far, but that’s subject to change — and you could change it. If you’ve got a question about the science behind Singularity, send it to Jack at doctorjack@soapboxseminars.com. Jack will incorporate some of your questions into upcoming Seminars, and the all-time best question will win a hardcover copy of Singularity, signed by the author, Bill DeSmedt.

Further podcasts by John C. Adler, Ph.D., as told to Bill DeSmedt

Podcast on the topic Naturwissenschaften

All episodes

Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 18 -- The Vurdalak Conjecture from 2008-12-14T19:49:36

The Tunguska Mystery -- it's a wrap!

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 17 -- What're the Odds of That?!? from 2008-11-26T04:22:05

The Tunguska impactor as magnetically-charged primordial black hole -- million-to-one longshot, or ... even money?

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 16 -- Black Monopoles?!? from 2008-11-17T23:37:03

Magnetically-charged black holes as the final missing piece of the Tunguska mystery?

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 15 -- Hot Enough for You? from 2008-11-10T19:41:04

Black holes exploding with the force of a thousand all-out nuclear wars??? Jack’s kidding, right?

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 14 -- From Russia With Love from 2008-10-27T13:40:14

How a Mission to Moscow and a tip from Kip (Thorne, that is) finally turned Stephen Hawking's head around as regards black hole thermodynamics.

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 13 -- Hot Potato from 2008-10-21T00:57:52

What Stephen Hawking didn't want you to know about black-hole entropy. (With special thanks to Jacob Bekenstein, for sharing his reminiscences.)

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 12 -- Can't Win, Can't Break Even ... from 2008-10-13T20:26:06

Can't Get Out of the Game. Black holes meet the Heat Death of the Universe!

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 11 -- Where Do Baby Black Holes Come From? from 2008-10-06T22:54:31

Not from under a cabbage leaf, that's for sure!

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 10 -- Before the Beginning from 2008-09-30T23:36:56

What does it really take to make a universe, anyway?

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 09 -- Just Say "No" to Naked Singularities from 2008-09-22T19:13:38

Why one Global Causality Violation can ruin your whole day.

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 08 -- Beyond the Black Horizon from 2008-09-15T22:15:59

What’s really inside a black hole? Take the Cook's Tour with Doctor Jack.

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 07 -- A Black Hole Primer from 2008-09-07T21:42:24

A star dies; a black hole is born.

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 06 -- Jackson and Ryan Bite the Dust from 2008-08-03T19:21:47

In which the Jackson-Ryan hypothesis crashes, burns, gets shoveled over with dirt -- all for want of an "exit event."

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 05 -- Two Good Ol' Boys name of Jackson and Ryan from 2008-07-28T18:29:07

The inside story of how the the Jackson-Ryan black-hole collision theory of the Tunguska Event came to be. Special thanks to Albert A. Jackson, IV and Michael P. Ryan, Jr. for sharing their reminis...

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 04 -- The Lake Cheko "Crater" -- Hoax or Fraud? from 2008-07-22T01:31:42

Swim along with Doctor Jack as he plumbs the murky depths of the latest "solution" to the Tunguska mystery.

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 03 -- Ockham's Razor vs. the Great Faerie Conspiracy from 2008-07-13T21:52:52

A listener's casual remark shunts Doctor Jack onto a major meditation about the meaning of "not multiplying causes beyond necessity." (Want to derail Jack's carefully laid-out curriculum even more?...

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 02 -- Star Wars from 2008-07-06T23:01:58

Was it a comet, or a meteorite ... or something else entirely? A hundred years' worth of Tunguska speculation, and Tunguska controversy, at a glance.

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Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars
Seminar 01 -- Honey, I Lost the Crater! from 2008-06-29T22:46:14

The mystery of the 1908 Tunguska Event -- a hundred years old today, and still no solution in sight?

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