It’s one of the biggest questions you can ask: has the universe existed forever? The Big Bang is supposedly the moment it all began. But now scientists wonder if there isn’t an earlier chapter to our origin story. And maybe chapters before that! What happened before the Big Bang? It’s the ultimate prequel. Plus – the Big Bang as scientific story: nail biter or snoozer? Guests •  Roger Penrose – Cosmologist, Oxford University •  Sean Carroll – Theoretical physicist, Caltech, author of The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World •  Simon Steele – Astronomer, Tufts University •  Andrei Linde – Physicist, Stanford University •  Jonathan Gottschall – Writer, author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human •  Marcus Chown – Science writer and cosmology consultant for New Scientist magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices