The Origins Project talks at Arizona State University were a grand moment in scientific lectures where up to 3,000 members of the general public would come together to listen to various luminaries discuss their fields of expertise. From Stephen Hawking to Richard Dawkins or Don Johanson, who stumbled upon Lucy, to Johnny Depp, who talked about creativity out of madness, Caroline and I attended dozens of talks between 2011 and 2017 when the program ended. During those years, we listened to scientific heroes such as Craig Venter, who first decoded the human genome, and Svante Pääbo, who sequenced the Neanderthal genome, and never once did we go to a boring talk.

One example of the nature of these Origins talks was a two-day storytelling event held in 2014, moderated by Lawrence Krauss, who was the public face of Origins at the time. On this occasion, ASU played host to theoretical physicist Brian Greene, along with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Richard Dawkins, Ira Flatow from NPR’s Science Friday, and Tracy Day, who is the co-founder of the World Science Festival. I mention them all as in the photo above that’s Brian Greene running towards Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is being subdued by Bill Nye. The place was sold out, and had you been there, you too would have thought that Neil deGrasse Tyson was a bonafide rock star.

Sadly, these events are no longer happening, which leaves a huge gap in listening to some incredible stories about scientific discovery and where these insights might be leading humanity. Finally, out of this blast from the past, I’m including this photo of Caroline and Werner Herzog with Cormac McCarthy and his son John in the background that I posted back in 2011. Fond memories should live on with us throughout our lives.