Person
Every book Sean Carroll recommended on podcasts
Sean Carroll engages in deep discussions regarding theoretical physics, cosmology, and the philosophy of science across his appearances on the Lex Fridman Podcast and The Joe Rogan Experience. Throughout these conversations, he incorporates various texts to explain physical laws, human behavior, and intellectual blind spots. While analyzing black holes through the lens of Einstein's theory of general relativity on the Lex Fridman Podcast, he specifically cites Albert Einstein's work Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie as the foundational first book of his series Spacetime and Geometry. During his discussion on The Joe Rogan Experience, Carroll references Aesop's Fables—specifically the parable of the fox and the grapes—to draw a comparison between physicists who struggle to comprehend quantum mechanics and the fox who dismisses unreachable sour grapes. Joe Rogan also brings up Rhonda Byrne's book The Secret during the same conversation, discussing a personal acquaintance whose life was heavily impacted by the concepts within the text.
Books recommended by Sean Carroll
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Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables is a classic collection of moral tales attributed to the ancient Greek storyteller, designed to impart enduring lessons through allegorical animal characters.
Discussed“they flip it they it's like Aesop's Fox and the grapes you know the parable where the Fox is trying to get the grapes”
Where to get it
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The Secret
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is a well-known self-help book that explores the law of attraction and the idea that positive thinking can manifest desired outcomes into a person's life.
Discussed“I have a friend it was a really sad sort of story I have a friend who was really into the secret and she was actually a friend of a friend more than a friend and I ran into her at the comedy store and we were talking and she was explaining to me how she has sort of used”
Where to get it
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Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie
Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie by Albert Einstein is a foundational scientific text in which the physicist explains his theories of relativity in a manner intended to be accessible to readers with a general scientific education.
Discussed“So that's why I keep needing to distinguish between black holes according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, which is book one of 'Spacetime and Geometry,' which is perfectly classical.”
Where to get it
Books Sean Carroll wrote
- Spacetime and geometry
- Something Deeply Hidden
- The Big Picture
- The Particle at the End of the Universe
- Biggest Ideas in the Universe
- From Eternity to Here
- Quanta and Fields
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| #428 – Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast | 2024-04-22 | 1 |
| #1003 - Sean Carroll | The Joe Rogan Experience | 2017-08-24 | 2 |
Other mentions (21: passing, ad reads, own books)
“So that's why I keep needing to distinguish between black holes according to Einstein's theory general relativity, which is book one of "Spacetime and Geometry," which is perfectly classical.”
“So that's why I keep needing to distinguish between black holes according to Einstein's theory general relativity, which is book one of "Spacetime and Geometry," which is perfectly classical.”
“yeah I tell the story in the book like he wrote a bunch of influential papers as a graduate student”
“so Einstein is one of the secret heroes of the book because he has this reputation as someone who just couldn't quite accept quantum mechanics the title something deeply hidden is a quote from Einstein”
“so Einstein is one of the secret heroes of the book because he has this reputation as someone who just couldn't quite accept quantum mechanics the title something deeply hidden is a quote from Einstein when he was talking about when he was a kid and he had a compass”
“you know I have a chapter in the book which my editor resisted at first but then he let me get away with it which is a dialogue between a young philosopher and her father who was a physicist”
“I talked about this in the last book in the big picture think about this when we when we talk about the earth going around the Sun”
“there's also what I try to squelch in the book one of the misunderstandings about quantum mechanics is the idea of quantum fluctuations”
“you know the structure of scientific revolutions is the famous book that everyone reads people like Thomas Kuhn and Paula abend and so forth”
“and that was in fact I think that you got a copy of my book that didn't have any figures in it right didn't you get the”
“the I'll tell you that the motivation was when I wrote my previous book the big picture it was a sprawling book”
“the I'll tell you that the motivation was when I wrote my previous book the big picture it was a sprawling book so it's not only physics but also philosophy and neuroscience”
“the I'll tell you that the motivation was when I wrote my previous book the big picture it was a sprawling book so it's not only physics but also philosophy and neuroscience”
“and it would be like from our point of view be like 2001 or there's an you know an monolith monolith”
“that's good it's not well so the title of the book is something deeply hidden this is a phrase from Einstein and the ideas that there is something real that we can get a handle on”
“Well so the title of the book is something deeply hidden This is a phrase from Einstein and the ideas that there is something real that we can get a handle on It's just different than what we see”
“and I think that it's so in my last book the big picture I actually devoted even though it's mostly about physics and philosophy and cosmology and biology I devoted a little bit to the fundamental principles of reasoning and especially Bayesian reasoning”
“so in my last book the big picture I actually devoted even though it's mostly about physics and philosophy and cosmology and biology I devoted a little bit to the fundamental principles of reasoning”
“so in my last book the big picture I actually devoted even though it's mostly about physics and philosophy and cosmology and biology I devoted a little bit to the fundamental principles of reasoning”
“what we should do about it is there an audiobook available as well is I recorded it not far from here”
“what we should do about it is there an audiobook available as well is I recorded it not far from here”