This week on Breaking Waves, Riley and John explore one of humanity’s biggest and most difficult ideas: eternity.

Can anything truly last forever? Is eternity an endless stretch of time, a spiritual realm beyond time or simply an idea that the human mind can never fully understand? Riley and John begin by examining definitions of eternity and infinity, before asking whether either concept has a clear example in the physical world.

Their conversation moves between religion, philosophy, mathematics and physics. John reflects on how ideas of heaven and eternal life shaped his early understanding of time. Riley considers whether belief in infinity is ultimately an act of faith, since an infinite process can never be observed reaching its end.

The episode also explores reincarnation, the afterlife, Einstein’s theories of time and the possibility that past, present and future may not be as separate as they appear. Riley and John discuss the boundaries between scientific and spiritual belief, and whether both depend on assumptions that cannot always be directly proven.

A major part of the episode is devoted to Arthur Stace, the Sydney man who became known for writing the word “Eternity” in chalk across the city for decades. His mysterious message became part of Sydney folklore and was later displayed across the Harbour Bridge during the city’s millennium celebrations.

Later, the pair examine the idea of the eternal child through Peter Pan, Carl Jung and the modern concept of Peter Pan syndrome. They also reflect on Michael Jackson’s Neverland and the desire to avoid ageing, responsibility and limitation.

The episode concludes with Henry Vaughan’s poem “The World”, which imagines eternity as an endless ring of light beyond ordinary human time.

Thoughtful, wide-ranging and deeply curious, this episode asks whether eternity is something that exists, something we believe in or something we create through stories, memory and culture.