Why Do We Exist? Hakeem Oluseyi

Astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi has lived a life that sounds almost impossible: a childhood marked by poverty, violence, and constant upheaval; a teenage obsession with Einstein; a stint in the Navy; addiction and recovery; work as a janitor; and eventually a PhD in physics from Stanford. In this conversation, Michael Shermer and Oluseyi talk about his new book, Why Do We Exist? , and the biggest questions science can ask: what came before the Big Bang, whether the multiverse is real, why the universe seems fine-tuned for life, what dark matter and dark energy really mean, and why alien civilizations may be far rarer than we hope. Hakeem Oluseyi is a multidisciplinary astrophysicist, multi-patented inventor, award-winning author and journalist, and internationally recognized educator. His new book is Why Do We Exist?: The Nine Realms of Universe That Make You Possible .

You can listen to Why Do We Exist? Hakeem Oluseyi online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Why Do We Exist? Hakeem Oluseyi is an episode from The Michael Shermer Show by Michael Shermer.

This episode is 01:11:29 long.

This episode was published on Apr 28, 2026.

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