Prof. Brian Cox talks about his 2021 tour and the meaning of life

Virgin Radio

18 Nov 2020, 14:11

He's famed for making complex ideas accessible, and today was no exception when Professor Brian Cox joined The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky.

If you're looking for something to look forward to in 2021, you're in luck as he's announced a new UK arena tour, . 

Professor Brian Cox was asking the big questions as ever: "What could we become? What could the human race - small as we are - what could we become if we get it right? If we make the right decisions?"

He continues: "Could we go out into this limitless universe, explore nature, understand it? What could we become?"

Such thinking created a spark of an idea for his next performances: "That all formed the basis for this idea of an optimistic show. I think by next autumn, we're gonna need some optimism, everybody's had this awful year."

"I think just reflecting on the beauty of our position is tremendous, the unlikely nature of our existence" he muses. "I think that is something that people are going to want to want to think about."

Chris asked the question everyone wants to know, what Brian thinks is the meaning of life and death: "First of all, we're so unlikely, when you think of what we are, you and me, everybody that's listening, we are made these little atoms that were processed through at least one and perhaps two or three generations of stars, they've been around since the big bang."

"They've come to these little patterns that can think, can feel and write music and have conversations and build a civilization temporarily" he explains. "Nothing lasts forever, it won't last forever, but the finite nature of this magnificent chance that we have, this life that we have, I think makes it infinitely more valuable."

He summarises: "So that's the point. The point of death to me is it gives you a finite window in which to enjoy and explore the universe."

Tickets for the tour are on sale now.