Katie Mack and John Green Discuss the Universe

May 12, 2024

A while back, Jason Kottke linked to the first episode in this YouTube series where Dr. Katie Mack and John Green chat about the universe. I’d read Dr. Mack’s book, The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) and really enjoyed it. She’s an excellent writer, and made some heady concepts easy to follow using plain language and humour. I didn’t get around to checking out the YouTube series until today, but I loved both episodes.

So far, the series hits on many of the same points in the book, but there are some additional anecdotes. Even if it was exactly the same content, I’d still be listening for the interplay between the hosts. I’m a big fan of John Green’s work, and he does an excellent job as an interviewer here. There’s a place the hosts are going, but the show is at its most fun when they veer onto tangents.

I really hope this series goes for a long while. Usually I don’t like podcasts as YouTube videos, but this one is quite well produced. Hat tip to Alex S who commented on the kottke.org post with the podcast feed link. I’ll be adding it to my podcast app so I don’t miss an episode.