The scientific quest sought to describe the universe and render it explicable. Yet Stephen Hawking, alongside collaborators like George Ellis, revealed something far stranger and more unsettling. From black holes to the shape of space-time, the universe repeatedly defies explanation. Late in his life, Hawking concluded that our scientific accounts of the world – including his own – are not so much descriptions of reality but mathematical models of the universe. Hawking embraced a model-dependent view of truth: our theories sometimes work, but they don't describe objective reality. Join his collaborator George Ellis, alongside engineer and BBC broadcaster Shini Somara, to explore Hawking's remarkable life and philosophy.
"Stephen Hawking was the rare scientist who became a cultural icon." — Sean Carroll
