Hosted by astrophysicist and author Hakeem Oluseyi, the 10-episode series premieres August 26th on the NOVA YouTube channel, Apple, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms.

Boston, MA – August 26, 2025 – The producers of the award-winning science series, NOVA, a production of GBH, today announced PARTICLES OF THOUGHT, a 10-episode longform video interview podcast hosted by world-renowned astrophysicist and author Hakeem Oluseyi. Full video episodes will post to NOVA on YouTube and the NOVA website bi-weekly from August 26 through December 16. Audio versions of the episodes will be available on Apple, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms. A trailer for the podcast can be found here.

In each episode, Oluseyi sits down with leading scientists and researchers behind today’s biggest breakthroughs in science, from Artificial Intelligence and astrophysics, to neuroscience and genetic engineering. But these aren’t your typical science interviews. Oluseyi digs into the questions that ignite the passions of these visionary thinkers: What would happen if we brought back extinct species? Could we be missing a law of nature? And as AI continues to grow and mature, what should we all be doing to prepare ourselves for an uncertain future?

“I’ve spent my life with an overwhelming sense of wonder about the world around us. I love being the dumbest guy in the room,” said Oluseyi. “Hosting PARTICLES OF THOUGHT is the opportunity of a lifetime for me to explore those quirks by talking to some of the most brilliant minds in their fields about the things that excite them most and learn as much as I can along the way.”

“PARTICLES OF THOUGHT is not just a podcast, it’s a starting point for anyone, young or old, to be inspired by some of the most brilliant minds the scientific community has to offer,“ said Co-Executive Producer Julia Cort. “We’re thrilled to have Hakeem, an amazing science communicator in his own right, guide us through the captivating conversations this podcast makes possible.”

What makes PARTICLES OF THOUGHT truly unique is host Hakeem Oluseyi’s fearless curiosity. He doesn’t just ask about the research – he challenges his guests with unexpected questions that reveal how breakthrough thinkers actually think. The result? Conversations that feel like you’re along for the ride as brilliant minds come together to push past the boundaries of human knowledge. Whether you’re a science enthusiast or just curious about the world, Oluseyi ensures you’ll never feel left behind.

“Throughout history we’ve seen that when brilliant minds collide, new ideas are born. The sparks that explode off of that are what PARTICLES OF THOUGHT is all about,” explains Co-Executive Producer Chris Schmidt. “Following curiosities to new insights is how science works.”

PARTICLES OF THOUGHT kicks off on August 26, 2025 with a drop of the first two episodes:

Episode 1: “Mind of a Fossil Hunter” - What do fossilized leaves, an asteroid, and Florida sinkholes have in common? Dr. Kirk Johnson is Sant Director at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, and has the answers. Kirk oversees one of the largest natural history collections on the planet – and he’s spent his career digging into the story of life on Earth across millions (and billions) of years. In this episode, Hakeem and Kirk explore the science of “deep time,” how fossils actually form, and the surprising origins of Earth’s oceans. Plus, Kirk shares some hot tips on fossil hunting and how to count the number of leaves on a tree … because you never know when you might need these skills.

Episode 2: “Deep Fake Detective” - In a world flooded with fake images, manipulated videos, and AI-generated voices, how do we know what’s real anymore? Hany Farid has made it his mission to find out. A leading voice in AI research and digital forensics, Dr. Farid is a professor at UC Berkeley and Chief Science Officer at GetReal Labs, where he works to authenticate digital media and expose the fakes. In this episode, Hakeem and Hany dive into how we got here. How does AI really work? How are deepfakes detected? And what does the future hold for truth in the digital age? Plus, Hakeem puts Hany to the test: can he tell the difference between real and AI-generated headlines? And can Hakeem tell a deepfake version of Hany from the real thing?

The debut season of PARTICLES OF THOUGHT also features conversations with:

  • Astrophysicist Janna Levin unravels the wild truths and biggest myths about black holes: those mysterious cosmic beasts that bend space, time, and just about everything else – including your mind.
  • Neuroscientist Heather Berlin explores how our brains construct reality, why illusions fool us, what focus and flow really are, and whether we’re ever truly in control. 
  • Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll explains how tiny genetic switches shape the vast diversity of life on Earth and what that reveals about the forces driving evolution.
  • Neuroscientist Erich Jarvis on how birds – and humans – learn to speak, revealing the surprising evolutionary links between vocal learning, brain wiring, and the origins of language itself.
  • Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Adam Riess unpacks the accelerating expansion of the universe – and why new discoveries are now challenging not just the model he helped build, but our entire understanding of the cosmos and its ultimate fate.
  • Astrobiologist Michael Wong and mineralogist Robert Hazen delve into a bold new theory that scientists may have overlooked a law of nature – one that could explain how complexity emerges across the universe, from rocks to life itself.
  • Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro explains her claim of bringing once-eradicated dire wolf species back through the science of de-extinction, how humans have influenced evolution for millennia, and how new genomic technologies can be used to better understand our past and shape our future.
  • Marine biologist Peter Girguis examines what goes into making a planet habitable – from the microbial life most likely to thrive on alien worlds, to the deep ocean secrets that could unlock the blueprint for life beyond Earth.

Hakeem Oluseyi is an astrophysicist, author, STEM educator, multi-patented inventor, science journalist, TV personality, science communicator, and inspirational speaker. His research is based on “hacking stars” to understand our universe better and develop innovative new technologies. Oluseyi’s work has resulted in 11 patents and more than 100 publications covering contributions to astrophysics, cosmology, and plasma physics and the development of space missions, observatories, focal plane instruments, detectors, semiconductor manufacturing, and ion propulsion.

PARTICLES OF THOUGHT, a 10-episode video podcast series, premieres Tuesday, August 26, with new episodes releasing biweekly through December 16, 2025 in full on NOVA on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The RSS feed can be found here.

PARTICLES OF THOUGHT is a series from GBH and the producers of NOVA, and distributed by PRX. This series is produced by People’s Television. Hakeem Oluseyi is Host. Adam Simon is Producer. Ryder Haske is Creative Director. Nick Trenum is Post-Production Supervisor. Nicholas Bruckman is Executive Producer. For GBH, Caitlin Saks is Senior Producer, with research and fact checking by Angelica Coleman. Devin Maverick Robins is Managing Producer of Podcasts. Nadia Petschek Rawls is Senior Director of Digital Media. Executive Producers are Julia Cort and Chris Schmidt.

Funding for “Particles of Thought” is provided by the NOVA Science Trust.

Funding for NOVA is provided by Carlisle Companies, Viking Cruises, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the NOVA Science Trust, and PBS viewers.

For more on the NOVA Science Trust, including a full list of supporters, visit pbs.org/wgbh/nova/funders.

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