Name: Next Conversations: What the Expanding Universe Demands of the Human Imagination
Start: 2026-02-18T17:30:00-05:00
End: 2026-02-18T19:30:00-05:00
Location: George Peabody Library

Next Conversations: What the Expanding Universe Demands of the Human Imagination

Our picture of the universe is changing fast. It is expanding faster than we thought, its laws are stranger than we imagined, and its unraveling mysteries are constantly defying our current explanations.
These discoveries don’t just change science—they change us.
What happens when science challenges the stories we’ve long told about our place in the cosmos—and how can the sciences and humanities learn from each other as our understanding evolves?
Our moderator, nationally recognized physicist and host of the popular podcast Mindscape, Sean Carroll brings insights from modern cosmology and the nature of time, helping us make sense of a universe that is stranger and more surprising than we ever expected with three distinguished panelists:
- Adam Riess, Nobel Prize–winning astronomer whose work revealed the accelerating expansion of the universe, shares what it’s like to discover something that fundamentally alters our cosmic story.
- Philosopher Jenann Ismael explores how ideas like choice, perspective, and responsibility fit into a universe governed by deep physical laws.
- Classicist Karen ní Mheallaigh looks to the ancient world, showing how earlier cultures wrestled with the cosmos—and what their questions can still teach us today.
Join us for an evening of big questions, surprising connections, and a shared sense of what might come next as we continue to explore the universe—and ourselves.