Can tell we probably have, i know leonard has readers from all over the world. In fact he has readers from the United States and canada and mexico, hades, jamaica guatemala bolivia and brazil. And probably even pasadena. [laughter] thank you rob. My pleasure. Select thank you everyone for joining us for this evenings event. My name is kim sutton. Im the host at tonights event. Before we begin i want to encourage you all to encourage you to check out our lineup of upcoming virtual events. One of our many Upcoming Events very looking forward to is tiffani d croft in conversation about cross us to book, say it louder. Black voters, white narratives and saving our democracy. Thats next friday the 18th. As well, please determine to follow us on twitter, facebook an instagram. Tonight, we are honored to welcome leonard saari, and rob paulson. Leonard received his phd and theoretical civics of the university of california at berkeley. Was an alexander fellow at the max planck institute. It was on the faculty of California Institute of technology. His previous books include the bestsellers the grand design, and a brief history of time. Both with steven hawking. Subliminal which was the winner of the literary science award. And war of the world. As well as elastic, same and serena on the upright thinkers. He joins us this evening for conversation about his new book, steven hawking, and memoir of friends in physics. Steven hawking touched the lives of millions. Recalling his nearly two decades of hawkings collaborator and son brings us complex men into focus in a unique and deeply personal portrayal. He puts us in the room as hocking indulges his passion, shares his feeling on love, death and disability in grapples with the deep questions of fill philosophy of billick and have physics. Its deeply affecting accounts of friendship teaches us not just about the nature and practice of physics but also about life in the Human Capacity to overcome daunting obstacles. He is joined in conversation today by voice actor rob paulson. Paulsons many voice actor for nearly three decades and is the voice of pinky from pinky and the ring, raffaella and donatella from teenage mutant Ninja Turtles and karl please joe weser from jimmy neutron. His one and i may peabody award and three emmys first activities memoir voice ironically a man who uses his voice for work found himself with throat cance cancer. But he has thankfully recovered and is now the spokesperson for the h and ca Head Neck Cancer Program this evenings event will have a q a, please use the q a button at the bottom of your screen if you like to ask a question. If someone has typed a question youd like to know the answer to, please click the thumbs up but most importantly, is considered supporting leonard by purchasing his bookplate and link will be shared in the chat in a couple of minutes. Leonard, rob, such a pleasure to welcome you both, thank you for joining us. Great pleasure. Thank you. Well said. And as an arm chair physicist who somehow makes his living doing essentially what got me in trouble in high school, i can tell you that this is a marvelous book. And so, thank you very much leonard for lowering your standards in respect to speakers, thank you for having me on board. Thank you for doing this rob. Not all my pleasure. Is not the usual dry physics. [laughter] ufo disclosure, your fabulous comment really handsome genius child, nikolai helps me with my own social media marketing. In the apple did not fall far from the tree my friend, he is a delightful, smart, bright young man. Im very grateful to have my life thank you. Well done. And just in case there are folks watching are transfixed by all of the stuff surrounding us, but may not be aware of steven hawking as others could you quickly explain to us what Steven Hawkings place is in physics in the history of physics . Steven went to school in the 60s he went to oxford first and went back to school at cambridge. At the beginning of his graduate school. He had a revelation after that. Before that it was kind, due to his illness he said if you want to dedicate his last years which was basically how did we get here, head of the universe get here . Why is life the way does . Those are not questions to borowski in the 1960s. In the systems,. [inaudible] the areas he chose to study, to address those questions the first one is very obvious. Its the beginning of the universe. And the other was black hull, less obvious. But not very people interested in those areas either. People thought you could not ever observe them. Cant look back to the beginning of the universe are never going to find the black hole. So i study them theoretically . Turned out as a footnote as Technology Advanced we can study those things. Theyre very famous picture some a few years ago of a black hole. But back then it seemed like we better get there. Theres some people who were working on it. In the iconic is assists description he said. [laughter] made his blood boil because he was so frustrated with the quality of the research. Goes into that area that steven walked in. Steven with his yearnings started studying in the 1960s made great progress but the Early Universe through einsteins general relativity and knowing here he did not apply quantum theory to that. So he made great progress in understanding Early Universe and black hull. Then later in the 1970s he started to apply wanton physics it was very exciting. He realized that you cant ignore quantum theory in those areas that people have been doing. Annie found good results. The sum total of all of this and his work after that as he took this field of cosmology, the study of the Early Universe and blackhole as its related to that. He took a hermit backwater nothing field to the one of the hottest fields in physics. And his combining of general quantum theory as a pioneer was really probably looking for what is the holy grail of physics which is united the theory made great steps and how we could think about that and he lifted the study of black hull in cosmetology to make it not only respectful but popular. No, no effect or right. Obvious and we now know that steven had a terrific movie made about him and which i think eddie redman run an oscar for that performance. My suspicion, having grown up the physicists, when i grew up was like most albert einstein. You have a feeling that steven essentially thought of as the next rock is assists rockstar . Was he another einstein . He was another einstein. Hed roll his eyes and smiled people said that. He knew who was to have that bar to live up to. Its a pretty highpower bar. Had most of his major discoveries the first ten, 15 years of his career. He was a leader, one of the best in his generation. One of the leaders of his generation. I dont think we should try to quantify that. They got a good solid description of him and when you would agree with. If im not mistaken einstein came up with his energy equals mass times the speed of light squared theory at 25. Back yes 1905. People misunderstand how physics work. You get a brilliant idea and it squared. And tells the people in its aoe apparatus or the theory of relative, it was based on certain principles that is particular the speed of light is constant. That is something that was implied by maxwells work in the 1860s. In investigating that and building a theory on adjusting newtons laws to take that into account to develop a theory of relativity. And where the consequences of one of the things he discovered after writing out that theory. Speck and it became its own, sort of a metaphor for all the cool stuff. I still remember we are the same age. And the opening of the Twilight Zone has that. It became. People dont know this. I was entertainment at the last supper. [laughter] and jesus wouldve parted. [laughter] he knew a thing or two. Thats right. We have to get off the spacetime continuum lady and gentlemen. I know this because i read the book. Has you first meet steven . Guest read my first two books. And one is called you and trent and what it really means and how over the centuries the ideas developed, how its used. That was a very important topic. And then he read my second book which was simons rainbow, search for beauty of physics and that was a memoir about my relationship. Was it caltech in my 20s. He liked to those books. And he was looking for someone to write with. I think he wanted someone with a sense of humor. And someone who is writing he likes. I think most of all he wanted somebody that understood physic physics. So one day i get a call from my agents and, its a bizarre question but would you like to write a book about them . And i was like yes. Speck are you kidding me . I can say again folks, having read the book, i make my living in the funny business. You do have an excellent sense of humor. It comes across beautifully it truly does. You mentioned the dryness of physics. You have found a way, clearly mr. Hawking had a wicked sense of humor too. And you were able to translate that for the reader. In fact i know you began working with steven when he was sort of in his fullblown lou gehrigs disease. What surprised you witnessing firsthand as steven worked . Was anything that made you go wow this is pretty remarkable . In addition to the fact he was doing what he was doing in his physical state. Guest its really fascinating. Again its too long to discuss at this answer. Sue edit your book man. Most physics can be looked at in two different ways. One is algebraically with equations or analysis. And the others geometrically. You have to ask understand both. Most of the work most people do is using equations. Steven obviously cant do that , could not write equations, could not move. He would have an amazing memory where he could do some equations just like a grand master replay 20 people blindfolded. He remember each game and what to do. I was always in all of that. I cannot play one good game of chess. He did have that ability. It is too difficult for him and put them at a disadvantage really surprise men did not learn for a while. He worked on his own language and geometry to treat the problems hes treating. They get ideas and analyze the situations of interest to him. Theres light beams and particle beams and hes analyzing how they look and how they are interacting using pictures, using geometric relationships in his head. Yes this friend and said that was a superpower. Speck wow. By doing that is not only avoiding the handicap ready equations but he actually had a new angle that others did not have that allowed them to make the discovery that had insights others didnt. Because they did not have that approach. So they took a disability and turned into an advantage. Sue and thats interesting. In the book you cite how people are sightless who find a way to really enhance their sense of hearing or smell or taste or whatever. Do you feel ultimately, or maybe steven may have suggested this. Do you feel openly that his debilitating illness ended up being something that actually helped him in his discipline . Sue mackey told me it did. He told me that first as i mentioned that gave them a purpose. I was driving him for anybody. It was a very hard subject. You have to put them very long hours all alone, structural with a pad and paper. Bernie, californias burning right now. See your family and friends but now youre working 12 hours a day or months every day just to finish her work. Onto the first thing it did for him as it gave him that drive to answer these questions. Gives him the focus et cetera was a big advantage to him. And apart from his geometric makeup. It would not of done as well if he had not had that this abilit ability. Host thats interesting especially having a celebrated prolific author part ive written one book and had a gentleman help me. Do physicists go through what a layperson mccall a Writers Block . That is to say when you are working, on a theory or you are working on something youre postulating, you have your own premises you are working on, do you find your connection go through Writers Block to . As you mentioned you are alone. Are there points at you say i am stuck. Thats wire at the book not just for physics but stephens personal life. I dont like the mythology around steven. He is a person. I want the book to really expose how we do physics, but also what his life was like every day. And yes, just like in the movies you mentioned. I look into the fireplace and the answer comes to me. [laughter] we would all be physicists. Back would all come up with great theories. It is very difficult. And yes, richard had very long periods of non productivity. He had no ideas in here get pressed. In those times he was still teaching his courses. You concentrate on teaching. That would fulfill them and take up his time because he is waiting for some idea to come. So it happens all you do a problem and between problems. So between problems are going okay, i just wrote a paper or maybe ten papers. Maybe i want topic are three topics. I had a lot of ideas. But i run out of ideas. At that all the papers on that topic, which i work on now . Sometimes you something in the back of your head that you are curious about. You just move on and sometimes you dont. You could be sitting there like a writer who does not know what to write about. And while your jager problems, he also minor crises like that too. Because youre going okay, i need to get from here to there to answer the questions that im trying to answer this research. And you go i think this is how you figured out. No, this is i figured out, no. You keep bumping your head against walls. For a day or a month in promising direction. And that does not work. And then you finally get to a point sometimes for you have no more ideas. Youve got to a certain point in your research the help with what you want to show or you have an idea we want to go with it because the math is not working out. So yeah, its very full of frustrating and difficult times. Steven spent coming drove his wife crazy. When he hit that wall, he would turned up super super loud and annoyed everyone in the house. Could block out the rest of the world for him. He would spend day, after day, after day, after day just getting past that. So that good gracious. And by the way, the thing it sounds like that as part of your mission was to for a lack of a better term, cumin eyes steven. Or make him relatable. And you absolutely nailed that. There were certainly things no one would know having not been close to him. But you utterly d hollywood and made him somebody that became your friend. Often with the usual frustrations that people have. With other people. Was there a point at which your work with steven, the fact that he was wheelchairbound and was nonverbal, was like not a big deal. Was it basically stevens got a different shirt on today. That it really was not an issue. You got used to it. Guest thats a good question, rob. Theres so much of that development in the book. The answer is yes. When i first got there to work with him, i felt bad for him. You could see the discomfort he was in. Or should have been. Things were happening to him like a bead of sweat going down his forehead that he had to wipe away, remer that story. See what i do. And that is one of the seminole moments of the book. Because it is the sort of thing that we can all relate to immediately. And you just take your hand and you go like this. But the way in which you describe your empathy, like oh my god that would drive me nuts. Or if my nose was itching it would be it doesnt matter if you are muhammad ali, steven hawking, or rob paulson guy on the street, the things we all take for granted that all the sudden was a central focus of this world class physicist. The way you described that was really remarkable. And very empathic. Guest thank you. I could not understand how he can go thursday without being able to do that. And maybe theyd notice or maybe not. So first i felt sorry for him a lot. Again, as i got to know him better i was like no dont feel sorry for him. He actually was quite inspiring to me by the way he handled those things. He really change the way he thought so is not that he had the sweat dripping down or the itch or bedtime where hes sleeping and he wants to turn but he cant turn has to wait for others to turn him and all these other obstacles and tortures the rest of us would experience in that condition. He learned not to mind that. And he learned not to let them bother him. The greek philosophy, stoic philosophy which is that happiness, true happiness and lasting happiness comes from only within you. It is not from the things you accomplished in the material from any other person. All of that can be taken away and is subject too many things beyond your control. But we have control over selfsatisfaction and how you feel about yourself. And your whole mind. Steven really did that. Once i realized thats what was going on, i did not do sorry for him anymore. Yes he is a person with a handicap it he had reddish hair, blue eyes and had other traits. We interacted, i interacted with him without even thinking about. Host thats what i mentioned earlier. You mentioned his utter humanit humanity. You touch on something quite important in respect to steven. I have experienced in my own life with my throat cancer a few years ago. That is the ability to really focus on living in the moment. Too really understand that wow, this is a pretty tenuous little fragile line in which we walk. And it does not have to be lou gehrigs disease. But often it requires something to jumpstart your humanity. And you think wow, all the sudden i know what is important. And he come according to your description, was the embodiment of that. That he literally made lemonade every damn day. It was remarkable. Guest it really was pretty think that one of the great lessons i tried to empower. And i admire him very much for that. What in fact, in that light, how would you describe his personality in general . Guest because he could do that and because he could not be beaten down by what for most of us obey physical issues, he was an optimistic person. He had a sense of humor, he had a great energy. We were going and he said hey leonard do some tourist stuff,. [inaudible] please describe what punting on the cam means. Thats like a recipe for tipping over. Its a very last summon stanza back on a platform. Its coming up on the platform for hvac and the vote is a push of holy to the bottom of the river to propel you along. So we went to do that. So he showed his face he wanted to join us for its researcher come along. Packing them up takes ten minutes. Getting them into the van because he is especially designed van in the wiltshire has to go up a ramp, be turned in certain way which is difficult. His wiltshire hasid bolted down soft as any rough ride he would not go flying. And at the reverse on the other end he had be carried down 20, 30 uneven stone steps to the vote. And then on the vote, they had one city gets detached detached from his mac