This week Hawking, the University of Cambridge physicist Malcolm J. Perry, and the Harvard University physicist Andrew Strominger posted a paper online in which the authors claim to make real progress toward solving the black-hole information paradox. Despite the inviting title—“Soft Hair on Black Holes”—the paper is mercilessly technical, so I asked Strominger to walk me through it. An edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Read the full interview here.