Science Friction | 12 September 2021 | 0h 26m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Michael Brooks about his book The Art of More: How Mathematics Created Civilisation. Discusses the cultural history of mathematics, arguing that mathematics created civilisation.
Tag: Mathematics
Tai-Danae Bradley on Algebra, Topology, Language, and Entropy
Sean Carroll’s Mindscape | 23 November 2021 | 1h 21m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Tai-Danae Bradley discussing her work using mathematical ideas from areas like category theory, topology, and quantum probability theory to analyze real-world phenomena like the structure of natural-language speech. A masterclass in the crisp communication of complex ideas.
What’s Wrong With Shortcuts?
Freakonomics Radio | 18 November 2021 | 0h 43m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Marcus du Sautoy about his book Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut in Math and Life. Argues that shortcuts can be applied to practically anything: maths, music, psychotherapy, and even politics.
Ellen Peters on Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers
New Books in Mathematics | 31 May 2021 | 1h 08m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Ellen Peters about her book Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers. Describes the three components of numeric ability – objective numeracy, subjective numeracy, and the innate number sense – and how they vary within and across populations. Discusses the inequities caused by this variance in quantitative reasoning skills.
The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Steven Weinberg
The Universe Speaks in Numbers | 28 November 2019 | 1h 05m | Listen Later | iTunes
Steven Weinberg has died at 88 (NY Times obituary). This 2014 interview reflects on his career in physics, the ‘golden years’ in which he and others put the finishing touches to the Standard Model of particle physics, and his views about the future of theoretical physics.
The Story of Numerals
Many Minds | 14 April 2021 | 1h 16m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Stephen Chrisomalis about his book Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History. Discusses the anthropology of numbers, mathematics, and literacy. Describes various systems for representing numbers, building on tally systems that emerge in the Upper Paleolithic, their association with writing, and debunks the notion that Roman numerals fell from favour due to being difficult to calculate with.
Professor John Horton Conway
More or Less | 23 April 2020 | 0h 14m | Listen Later | iTunes
John Horton Conway has died at 82 from covid-19 related complications (NY Times obituary). An influential figure in mathematics, Conway’s ideas inspired generations of students around the world. Discusses his life and work with mathematician Matt Parker and Conway’s biographer Siobhan Roberts.