Brian Greene

I've just finished up Lee Smolin's second book Three Roads to Quantum Gravity and am about 1/3 through his latest book The Trouble with Physics. While doing a bit of side research on Smolin's thoughts, I ran across an interesting NPR discussion from 2006 where Smolin and string theorist Brian Greene discussed modern physics. You can have a listen here: Physicists Debate the Merits of String Theory.

The Science Network has an excellent and ongoing series of discussions and interviews available on its site. One of the best recent additions is a discussion on Science's role in society, featuring an all-star panel of Richard Dawkins, Brian Greene, Steven Pinker, AC Grayling, Roger Bingham, and Lawrence Krauss. Watch the entire discussion here.

This is Brian Greene explaining some of the basics of string theory, the dominant theory in physics capable of explaining spacetime under extreme conditions.