Karim Ani dedicated his life to math. He studied it in school, got a degree in math education, even founded Citizen Math to teach it to kids in a whole new way. But, this whole time, his whole life, almost, he had this question nagging at him.
The question came in the form of a rule in math, NEVER divide by zero. But, why not?
Cornell mathematician, and frie ... Show More
Apr 3
Life in a Barrel
This week, in an episode we first aired in 2022, we flip the Disney story of life on its head thanks to a barrel of seawater, a 1970s era computer, and underwater geysers. It’s the chaos of life. Latif, Lulu, and our Senior Producer Matt Kielty were all sitting on their own littl ... Show More
54m 42s
May 2021
146 | Emily Riehl on Topology, Categories, and the Future of Mathematics
"A way that math can make the world a better place is by making it a more interesting place to be a conscious being." So says mathematician Emily Riehl near the start of this episode, and it's a good summary of what's to come. Emily works in realms of topology and category theory ... Show More
1h 16m
Dec 2020
Anna Weltman, "Supermath: The Power of Numbers for Good and Evil" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020)
Mathematics as a subject is distinctive in its symbolic abstraction and its potential for logical and computational rigor. But mathematicians tend to impute other qualities to our subject that set it apart, such as impartiality, universality, and elegance. Far from incidental, th ... Show More
1h 47m
Jan 2020
Grant Sanderson: 3Blue1Brown and the Beauty of Mathematics
Grant Sanderson is a math educator and creator of 3Blue1Brown, a popular YouTube channel that uses programmatically-animated visualizations to explain concepts in linear algebra, calculus, and other fields of mathematics. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence p ... Show More
1h 3m
Jun 2020
Bret Weinstein and Eric Weinstein: Fundamental Truth and How to Think About it
<p>Brothers Bret & Eric Weinstein Discuss the nature of truth, Eric's journey and objectives as a mathematician. They talk about geometric unity, and the obstacles to the discovery of fundamental truths that might transform our lives for the better, and protect humanity ... Show More
3h 9m
Aug 2022
The Colonial Lens: Analyzing Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Colonialism in Academia
Scholars want to decolonize everything, and universities say they are doing the hard work of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. But is anything really being done, or is it all for show?
In this episode, we approach these questions through three words that are common inside a ... Show More
1h 1m
Nov 2019
Gilbert Strang: Linear Algebra, Deep Learning, Teaching, and MIT OpenCourseWare
Gilbert Strang is a professor of mathematics at MIT and perhaps one of the most famous and impactful teachers of math in the world. His MIT OpenCourseWare lectures on linear algebra have been viewed millions of times. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podca ... Show More
50m 16s