Lunch and Learn: Hakeem Oluseyi on "Why We Exist"

Co-presented with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights

This winter, grab your favorite lunch at noon and tune in to virtual conversations with the Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System on topics from repairing the effects of racial injustice to fighting for equitable access to recovering from exile and loss. Let’s learn together!

We're excited to welcome Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi back to Lunch and Learn to discuss his new book "Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of Universe that Make You Possible." 

Registration not required. Click on the YouTube video linked below to stream the program live or watch the recording later.

About the book: 

The universe gave rise to everything: stars and cells, minds and memories, purpose and pain. But it doesn’t care about us. It follows its own rules. And now, according to Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, we finally understand enough about those rules to ask the big questions like we mean it: Why do we exist? Are we alone? How did we get here? What comes next? And—perhaps most urgently—is there reason to hope?

Heck yeah, there is!

Dr. Oluseyi is no ordinary scientist. A former street kid turned world-renowned cosmologist, he realized something bold: The story of existence can be told as a passage through nine interwoven realms—each revealing a new layer of cosmic truth.

There’s the Middle Realm, where we live; the Realm of Life, where organisms flourish across the vastness of space; the Cosmological Realm, where galaxies dance and collide; the Dark Realm, dominated by unseen energy and invisible forces; the Quantum Realm, where reality defies intuition; the Temporal Realm, where time begins, flows, and perhaps ends; the Multiverse Realm, where our universe may be one among many; the Realm Beyond Horizons, where observation breaks down; and the Realm of Imagination, where insight, curiosity, and creativity shape our understanding of it all.

In Why Do We Exist?, Dr. Oluseyi cracks open these realms with clarity, humor, and radical honesty, bridging cutting-edge physics, personal narrative, and philosophy. The result is a blueprint for understanding reality itself and a surprising case for human potential in an indifferent cosmos.

This isn’t just a science book. It’s a survival manual for the universally curious.

About the author: 

About the author: 

Hakeem Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, inventor, science communicator, and organizational leader. He currently serves as CEO of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as a public spokesperson for NASA’s IMAP mission satellite, and as host of NOVA’s Particles of Thought podcast. Dr. Oluseyi is the author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning memoir A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Streets to the Stars. His career spans scientific instrumentation, education, media, and institutional leadership, with a focus on building systems that connect discovery to people and real-world impact.