EP 101 - BACK TO THE FUTURE
- May 22
- 1 min read
Updated: May 26
What if the greatest time travel device in movie history is just a glowing Y-shaped excuse to ask bigger questions about science, storytelling, and human imagination? In the premiere episode of Unobtainium, Hollywood veteran Adam Sigel and rocket scientist Amy Mainzer unpack the science — and glorious nonsense — behind the flux capacitor in Back to the Future.
Episode Summary
In the debut episode of Unobtainium, Hollywood writer/producer Adam Sigel and rocket scientist Amy Mainzer launch a smart, funny deep dive into the science of science fiction through one of cinema’s most iconic inventions: the flux capacitor from Back to the Future. Along the way, they explore why great sci-fi doesn’t need perfect science — it just needs enough “unobtainium” to make us believe. From Einstein’s relativity and real-world time dilation to wormholes, paradoxes, plutonium, and the narrative genius of the DeLorean, the conversation moves between real physics and Hollywood storytelling craft. The result is a lively exploration of why science fiction matters: not just because it predicts the future, but because it helps us imagine it.
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