Carlo Rovelli is a physicist who asks big questions about the universe, life, love, uncertainty, time, poetry, psychedelics, black holes, and the climate crisis. In this episode cohost Suparna Choudhury and Joshua Moses have a far-ranging and sometimes personal conversation with Carlo. They even get to the root of a 7-year old’s existential terror of infinity…

Most of us find ourselves at points in our lives when we no longer know what to do. We may feel uncertain, stuck – or swamped. In Swamped, host Joshua Moses talks to disaster responders, scientists, theologians, sanitation workers, poets, teachers, and morticians who face overwhelming situations. This show is rooted in Joshua’s belief that we have a lot to learn from each other when we no longer know what to do. The more we share these stories, the more possibility we have for growing and collectively facing our seismic social and ecological challenges.

In this first episode we hear from Joseph Bruno, former commissioner of the NYC Office of Emergency Management, who headed the Hurricane Sandy response; Ed Shevlin, a sanitation worker who spent years cleaning up his neighborhood after Sandy; and poet Marie Howe who has a panic attack while driving on the Tappan Zee Bridge and discovers a group of everyday superheroes she calls The Bridge Guys.

This episode was produced in partnership with Rowhome Productions.