Unexplainable: What happened before the big bang?

In this special crossover episode, Science Quickly shares an appearance by host Rachel Feltman on Vox’s Unexplainable. Together with host Noam Hassenfeld, she explores Scientific American’s special issue on impossible questions, diving into some of science’s biggest mysteries, from how common medications can work without scientists fully understanding them to whether there’s a limit to what humans can ever know. The conversation also ventures to the edge of cosmology, examining competing theories about what may have come before the big bang and why some questions might remain forever unanswered.

Recommended Reading:

Finding meaning in the impossible

The questions science may never answer

Listen to Unexplainable

Unexplainable on Spotify

E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

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Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Allison Rodgers and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Marielle Issa and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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