{"podcast":{"title":"PBS Space Time","slug":"pbs-space-time-7778773","podcast_index_feed_id":7778773,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/VG4094887262","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/f982ec76-1991-11f1-8531-1763dcadb313/image/9a88c1c5ae91e65f64e0c1324090ebb9.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"PBS","episode_count":188,"summary":"Space Time explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth with our astrophysicist host: Matthew O’Dowd. For all business inquiries and sponsorship opportunities please reach out to: pbsspacetime@lighthouseagents.com Matt O'Dowd spends his time studying the universe, especially really far-away things like quasars, super-massive black holes, and evolving galaxies. He uses telescopes in space to do it. Matt completed his Ph.D. at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute, followed by work at the University of Melbourne and Columbia University. He's now a professor at the City University of New York's Lehman College and an Associate at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium. Previous host Gabe Perez-Giz is an astrophysicist who studies black hole physics. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and also hosted PBS Infinite Series. patreon.com/pbsspacetime","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T02:17:15.545680+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773"},"episode":{"title":"What If The Universe DID NOT Emerge From The Big Bang?","slug":"what-if-the-universe-did-not-start-with-the-big-bang","published_at":"2026-07-03T11:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/what-if-the-universe-did-not-start-with-the-big-bang","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG2886173094.mp3?updated=1778671281","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG2886173094.mp3?updated=1778671281","summary":"👉 Head to https://brilliant.org/spacetime/ for a 30-day free trial + 20% off your annual subscription Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Here’s the story we like to tell about the beginning of the universe. Space is expanding evenly everywhere, but if you rewind that expansion you find that all of space was once compacted in an infinitesimal point of infinite density—the singularity at the beginning of time. The expansion of the universe from this point is called the Big Bang. We like to tell this story because it's the correct conclusion from the description of an expanding universe that followed Einstein's general theory of relativity back in the 19-teens. But since then we've learned so much more since then. Does our modern understanding of the universe still insist on a point-like Big Bang? Recent work actually gives us a way to avoid the beginning of time. Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Richard Dyer & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2024 PBS. All rights reser…","meta_description":"👉 Head to https://brilliant.org/spacetime/ for a 30-day free trial + 20% off your annual subscription Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbs…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1508,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pbs-space-time-7778773/episodes/what-if-the-universe-did-not-start-with-the-big-bang/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/what-if-the-universe-did-not-start-with-the-big-bang.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}