Cosmic Questions

<p>What is a black hole? Why do we remember the past but not the future? If time had a beginning, does it have an end?</p><p>We don’t have the answers to some of the universe’s biggest questions. What we do know often feels bleak, such as the notion that in a billion years there will most likely be no life on Earth. Or the reality that someday the entire human race will probably be forgotten.</p><p>Nonetheless, people search for answers. These are some of the cosmic questions that haunt the human experience.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/dennis-overbye?smid=pc-thedaily">Dennis Overbye</a>, the cosmic affairs correspondent for The New York Times.</p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>When the largest space observatory ever built sent its images back to Earth,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/podcasts/the-daily/webb.html"> here’s what astronomers saw</a>.</li><li>In space you can’t hear a black hole scream, but apparently you can hear it sing.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/07/science/space/astronomy-black-hole-sound.html"> Hear what that sounds like</a>.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>