“Everyone’s Doing It,” Says Famed Genius
Albert Einstein, the Nobel laureate and world-renowned scientist who died in 1955, is back, and he has a new project—a podcast.
“I thought that the time was right,” said Einstein.
The show, called “E=MiC Squared,” debuted last week. After an opening monologue by Einstein himself — this one handled topics ranging from coronavirus to the possibility of a two-state solution in the Middle East — he moved on to an extended interview with a celebrity guest, in this case Dax Shepherd.
“I enjoyed it,” said Einstein. “Dax had some great stories about parenting.”
Future guests will include Selena Gomez, Nick Kroll, and Eli Manning. “To chat with people in the world of science, in entertainment, in sports, in politics, and to allow them to frame their ideas—that’s something I have always tried to do,” said Einstein.
Industry observers are not surprised by the move.
“When Einstein was alive, he used many different ways to disseminate his ideas, from newspapers to magazine articles to open letters to radio,” said Marla Warren, media analyst with Russo Partners. “In the post-Conan era, a podcast makes perfect sense.”
“Why me?” said Einstein. “Why not me? Everyone’s doing it.”
CHANGES AHEAD?
Even though the show is only a week old, Einstein is already considering changes to the format. “I’ve been thinking about adding segments that engage the audience more,” he said. “A trivia quiz or a scavenger hunt, for example. And I may start doing remotes. It would be nice to do a show from South Bend, Indiana, with Pete Buttigieg, or from Ashland, Oregon, with Bruce Campbell.”
Einstein is also contemplating including more hard science. “You’d be surprised by how many people still have trouble understanding the way I applied the Lorentz transformation and transformation equations for electric and magnetic fields to the equations of the plane electromagnetic wave with respect to K,” he said. “And it’s been almost a hundred and twenty years!”
But for now, he is happy to be back in the game. And he’s putting out calls for some of his dream guests. “If I had to pick one,” he said, “it would be Albert Brooks. First of all, I love his movies. All of them, I guess, though I have a soft spot for The Muse. It says such interesting things about the mystery of inspiration.”
But there’s another more personal reason. “Did you know that his real name is Albert Einstein?” said Einstein. “His father was Harry Einstein, a comedian who went by the name Parkyakarkus. He passed away a few years after I did. He named his son ‘Albert Einstein,’ maybe in tribute to me, maybe as a joke, maybe both. I’d love to find out! And also to ask him about that great joke in Lost In America: ‘Can’t say nest, can’t say egg. A bird lives in a round stick. You have things over easy for breakfast.’” The great man puffed on his pipe and chuckled. “Round stick,” he said.
