Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
From the Radiolab podcast: How a Palestinian physicist stepped inside quantum mechanics’ most notoriously tricky idea.
Qasem Waleed is a 28-year-old physicist who has lived in Gaza his whole life. In 2024, he joined a chorus of Palestinians sharing videos and pictures and writing about the chaos and violence they were living through, as Israel’s military bombardment devastated their lives. But Qasem was trying to describe his reality through the lens of the most notoriously confusing and inscrutable field of science ever—quantum mechanics. We talked to him from a café near the Al-Mawasi section of Gaza to find out why. And over the course of several conversations, he told us how this reality-breaking corner of science has helped him survive. And how such unspeakable violence actually let him understand, in a visceral way, quantum mechanics’ most counter-intuitive ideas.
Special thanks to Katya Rogers, Karim Kattan, Allan Adams, Sarah Qari, Soren Wheeler and Pat Walters
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Lulu Miller
Produced by Jessica Yung
with mixing help from Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by Emily Kreiger
and Edited by Alex Neason
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
A Brief History of Quantum Mechanics with Sean Carroll, The Royal Institution (youtube.com/watch?v=5hVmeOCJjOU)
Introduction to Superposition, with MIT’s Allan Adams (youtube.com/watch?v=lZ3bPUKo5zc)
The Quantum Wavefunction, Explained
(youtube.com/watch?v=sOI4DlWQ_1w)
Articles -
Read a selection of Qasem’s published essays about his life in Gaza and the quantum world:
I am stuck in a box like Schrodinger’s in Gaza (zpr.io/ALDVi9E5bRt8)
Israel has turned Gaza’s summer into a weapon (zpr.io/YS4WK4hVQC5T)
The Physics of Death in Gaza (zpr.io/hxsgxicVqPAd)
Episode Segments:
0:00 - Chapter 1
19:18 - Chapter 2
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🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: bit.ly/3I9KI53
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Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: radiolab.org/the-lab
Photo illustration by Mikey Burton
Video by W. Harry Fortuna
From the Radiolab podcast: How a Palestinian physicist stepped inside quantum mechanics’ most notoriously tricky idea.
Qasem Waleed is a 28-year-old physicist who has lived in Gaza his whole life. In 2024, he joined a chorus of Palestinians sharing videos and pictures and writing about the chaos and violence they were living through, as Israel’s military bombardment devastated their lives. But Qasem was trying to describe his reality through the lens of the most notoriously confusing and inscrutable field of science ever—quantum mechanics. We talked to him from a café near the Al-Mawasi section of Gaza to find out why. And over the course of several conversations, he told us how this reality-breaking corner of science has helped him survive. And how such unspeakable violence actually let him understand, in a visceral way, quantum mechanics’ most counter-intuitive ideas.
Special thanks to Katya Rogers, Karim Kattan, Allan Adams, Sarah Qari, Soren Wheeler and Pat Walters
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Lulu Miller
Produced by Jessica Yung
with mixing help from Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by Emily Kreiger
and Edited by Alex Neason
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
A Brief History of Quantum Mechanics with Sean Carroll, The Royal Institution (youtube.com/watch?v=5hVmeOCJjOU)
Introduction to Superposition, with MIT’s Allan Adams (youtube.com/watch?v=lZ3bPUKo5zc)
The Quantum Wavefunction, Explained
(youtube.com/watch?v=sOI4DlWQ_1w)
Articles -
Read a selection of Qasem’s published essays about his life in Gaza and the quantum world:
I am stuck in a box like Schrodinger’s in Gaza (zpr.io/ALDVi9E5bRt8)
Israel has turned Gaza’s summer into a weapon (zpr.io/YS4WK4hVQC5T)
The Physics of Death in Gaza (zpr.io/hxsgxicVqPAd)
Episode Segments:
0:00 - Chapter 1
19:18 - Chapter 2
🎧 Subscribe to Radiolab wherever you listen to podcasts: lnk.to/radiolab!youtube
🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: bit.ly/3I9KI53
🖋 Subscribe to Radiolab’s Newsletter: radiolab.org/newsletter
🌱 Check out Radiolab's Starter Kit Playlist: bit.ly/3sX8f4P
👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment!
Follow Radiolab:
Instagram — instagram.com/radiolab
X — https://x.com/Radiolab
Facebook — facebook.com/Radiolab
Threads — threads.net/@radiolab
TikTok — tiktok.com/@radiolab
Our newsletter includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up here: radiolab.org/newsletter
Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: radiolab.org/the-lab
Photo illustration by Mikey Burton
Video by W. Harry Fortuna
