Show Notes
A practicing astrophysicist who doesn't believe in the tunnel of light, the hovering soul, or the wailing relatives — but believes in one near-death experience that changed science forever. By the end you'll believe in it too.
Today on Into the Impossible: the strangest, darkest, most personal origin story behind the world's most famous prize — and what it should make you do with the time you have left.
🔴 Just released — my conversation with Mayim Bialik on her pod that goes even deeper on near-death experiences: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwFTWTbC5lk
If you came here from Mayim's channel — welcome. Subscribe and stay for science with evidence, not speculation: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
Dr. Brian Keating is a cosmologist at UC San Diego and author of Losing the Nobel Prize. He has a personal stake in this story — and he's nominated Nobel winners twice.
We cover: why a physicist takes near-death experiences seriously, the four deaths that built a fortune on nitroglycerin, the newspaper that confused two brothers and printed the wrong man's obituary, the one-page handwritten will that gave away 94% of an estate — and the wishes the Nobel Committee has quietly ignored ever since.
Rosalind Franklin never won. Vera Rubin never won. That's not a footnote.
CHAPTERS
00:00 A physicist who believes in near-death experiences. Why?
00:54 Four sons, one dangerous liquid
02:00 Emil dies at 20 — Alfred isn't at the factory
03:40 The inventor who died with nothing
05:16 The company that pumped half the world's oil
06:00 The newspaper prints the wrong obituary
07:04 Why the real notice is worse than the myth
09:06 Scrooge, George Bailey, and a literary near-death experience
10:40 94% of his estate, five prizes, one rule
13:00 Why Nobel cut out his own family
15:22 My BICEP announcement — and my stake in the prize
16:44 Where the Nobel Committee strayed from the will
Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt
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My books: Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U
Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
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Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog
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