Stephen Hawking's Grand Design Season 1: Episode Guide & Ratings

"The Meaning of Life," explores what the laws of physics reveals about who and what we humans really are? Do we have free will or are we just complex biological machines working to the laws of nature? From Descartes to the latest advances in quantum physics, Hawking explores this fascinating territory with his famous fearless zeal as he questions the very nature of reality itself.

"The Key to the Cosmos," poses the ultimate-of-ultimate questions: Why does the universe exist and why does it follow rules and laws? What's the point of the enormous, endless cosmos, and why is it so perfectly tuned so as to allow life to exist? From Newton's ground breaking discovery of gravity, through hidden extra dimensions, to a muti-verse of billions more universes where anything - and everything - is possible.

Professor Stephen Hawking unfolds his personal, compelling vision of the biggest question of all: Is there a god who created and controls the universe in which we live? To answer this controversial and age old question, Hawking takes us on a journey through humanity's history of appraising our place in the Universe - from Vikings facing down eclipses to the laws of modern cosmology. Using the laws of physics, Hawking argues that the universe can pop into being from absolutely nothing, that there was no time before the creation of the universe and therefore, no room for a Grand Designer.