Physical Attraction

New? Head to the episode guide or drop us a line with the contact form.

We are a physics podcast. But not just that - interviews with scientists, scholars, authors and reflections on the history and future of science and technology are all in the wheelhouse. Over the years, for over 200 episodes, we've had shows on the astrophysics of stars, a comprehensive history of nuclear fusion, thermodynamics, particle physics, climate change, economics, philosophy, the psychology of conspiracy theories, and even the lives of Louisiana Senator Huey Long, or scientists under Stalin in the Soviet Union.

We are an independent show: everything you hear is created by one person out of passion and love. My aim in producing this show is never to talk down to people, but instead to discuss fascinating and vital subjects with scientific rigour, compassion, and an eye for narrative: to educate, inform, and entertain. I hope that you, the listener, will find something you like here.

You can read about us here, which includes a comprehensive episode guide for new listeners covering all of the shows that we've done, as well as links to transcripts of many of the episodes.

You can contact us here - everything goes through to my email and I try to answer each one. Your comments and questions help me to improve the show and also motivate me to carry on, so I highly appreciate reading anything you feel like sending.

If you like what we do and want to help us keep doing it, you can donate here. I am extremely grateful for those of you who have done so.

You can also subscribe to the Physical Attraction: Extra! Feed over at Patreon: www.patreon.com/PhysicalAttraction - where for a small fee per bonus episode, you can help to support the show, and get some juicy bonus content too. The Patreon includes unique bonus episodes that stand alone, or alongside our existing series. But you will also get episodes as soon as I finish producing them, which is often months in advance: so, if you can't wait for your fix, that's where to go.

We had a sister podcast, Autocracy Now, which deals with the lives of famous historical dictators. You can find some of their episodes on our feed, or the show itself at www.autocracynow.libsyn.com

We Can Always Shoot Them Later - Stalin, Soviet Science, and the Bomb (II)

Mar 29, 2018

"Leave the physicists be," said Stalin to his chief of police, Beria. "We can always shoot them later."

In this series of episodes, we'll take you inside the world of science in the USSR - with a particular focus on how they developed the atomic bomb. The gulags were not the only prisons in the Soviet Union; in fact,...

We Can Always Shoot Them Later - Stalin, Soviet Science, and the Bomb (I)

Mar 22, 2018

Stephen Hawking: The Voice of Physics

Mar 18, 2018

Physics lost a bright star last week when Stephen Hawking, world-renowned cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and science communicator, died at the age of 76. Although he was only given a few years to live when first diagnosed with motor-neurone disease in 1963, aged just 21 and at the beginning of his graduate...

TEOTWAWKI 1, Nuclear Weapons II: In The Shadow of the Bomb

Mar 15, 2018

Vasili Arkhipov. Stanislav Petrov. Are the names familiar? They should be: these people saved the world by refusing to use nuclear weapons under incredible circumstances of extraordinary pressure.

Even if you trust every head of state in every country that has nuclear weapons - and even if you feel confident that all...

Martin Pfeiffer (@NuclearAnthro) Interview

Mar 8, 2018

We have a special guest on the show today! This one was very fun to record. Martin Pfeiffer, perhaps more notorious by his Twitter handle @NuclearAnthro, is a must-follow expert and Anthropology PhD student who studies the history of nuclear weapons, and how human societies interact with them.

We discuss folk beliefs...