The Numberphile Podcast

Interviews with people who love numbers and mathematics. Hosted by Brady Haran, maker of the Numberphile series on YouTube.

Counting Crayons - with Po-Ling Loh

Po-Ling Loh is an American theoretical statistician based at the University of Cambridge. She discusses her childhood, choosing a university, and her path to higher dimensional statistics and differential privacy.She also compares life as an academic in the US and UK.This episode was made possible by the Leverhulme Trust, a UK-based organisation which funds ambitious blue skies research across various disciplines - https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/Professor Loh was the recipient of a Philip Leverhulme Prize. More about her prize here - https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/philip-leverhulme-prize-winners-2023Professor Loh’s website - https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~pll28/

12-14
39:23

BREAKING NEWS: The Largest Known Prime Number

There’s a new largest known prime number and we speak to all the key players, including the discoverer Luke Durant. Also featured in the podcast are George Woltman from GIMPS, James Grime, and Matt Parker.Extended interviews (as videos) can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIWS5Jd3k5QHdc0kxwfnZMgMatt Parker’s epic video on Stand-up Maths is here: https://youtu.be/zsyGRDrDfbINumberphile’s main video on the discovery is here: https://youtu.be/Yp4ilFOtoegThe GIMPS press release is here: https://www.mersenne.org/primes/?press=M136279841GIMPS: https://www.mersenne.orgMore Numberphile videos on Mersenne Primes from over the year: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWKsTwVXpLscZdfiiqAkkGCANumberphile is supported by Jane Street - https://www.numberphile.com/jane-streetYou can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphileHere are our Patrons - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons

10-24
39:37

The Secret Math Journal - with Ellen Eischen

Ellen Eischen is a professor of mathematics at the University of Oregon. Here she discusses creativity, collaboration - and a “secret” journal she has kept since childhood.Ellen Eischen website (includes some links to the teaching we discussed): http://www.elleneischen.com
Women in Numbers: https://awm-math.org/research-networks/win/Creativity Counts museum exhibit: https://jsma.uoregon.edu/CreativityCountsEllen on Numberphile discussing Faulhaber's Fabulous Formula (and Bernoulli Numbers): https://youtu.be/83NFR7JDlww
Numberphile is supported by Jane Street - https://www.numberphile.com/jane-streetWe also work with the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute - https://www.slmath.org You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphileHere are our Patrons - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons

07-30
53:45

Winnie the Math Whiz - with Danica McKellar

Catch a video version of this episode at: https://youtu.be/xMAiBBxQGZIDanica McKellar is best-known for portraying girl-next-door Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years - but she has also proven a math theorem (which bears her name) and writes books to inspire future mathematicians.Check out her math website and books at: https://mckellarmath.comAnd Danica’s general website at: https://danicamckellar.comDanica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danicamckellar/Danica’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VQdznyDanica’s co-authored paper which led to the Chayes–McKellar–Winn theorem: https://scienceblogs.de/geograffitico/wp-content/blogs.dir/70/files/2012/07/i-5bb4f4203312f2a650f3294cf4ddac13-percolation.pdfBrady’s dog Winnie: https://www.instagram.com/the_wonderful_winnie/The Wonder Years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonder_YearsJane Street opportunities (episode sponsor): https://www.janestreet.com/join-jane-street/overview/Jane Street’s Insight program as mentioned on the show: https://www.janestreet.com/join-jane-street/programs-and-events/insight/Numberphile is also supported by the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute: https://www.slmath.orgYou can support Numberphile on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/numberphileHere are our Patrons: https://www.numberphile.com/patrons

07-02
45:19

The Hyper-Curious Billionaire - Jim Simons (1938-2024)

This podcast marks the passing of James Harris Simons, better-known as Jim.The interviewees are John Ewing, David Eisenbud and Andrew Millis.The Simons Foundation - https://www.simonsfoundation.orgSimons Foundation article about Jim’s life - https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2024/05/10/remembering-the-life-and-careers-of-jim-simons/Brady’s interview with Jim for Numberphile (full hour-log version) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNznD9hMEh0Shorter 18-minute version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjVDqfUhXOYMath For America - https://www.mathforamerica.orgThe Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath, formerly MSRI) - https://www.slmath.orgThe Flatiron Institute - https://www.simonsfoundation.org/flatiron/The Chern-Simons form - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chern%E2%80%93Simons_formThe Archimedes (Jim’s yacht) - https://www.feadship.nl/fleet/archimedes1Numberphile has been supported by The Simons Foundation (via SLMath) for many years. We are yet another of Jim’s legacies.You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphileHere are our Patrons - https://www.numberphile.com/patronsNumberphile Podcast by Brady Haran

06-06
37:50

A Very Bad Estimator - with Donald Knuth

Donald Knuth is unquestionably a legend of computer science and mathematics - but he is bad at estimation and grew up with a “rhinoceros attitude”.Don Knuth’s homepage - https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/The Art of Computer Programming (books) - https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.htmlOn Amazon - https://amzn.to/4aUkkeT3:16 (book) - https://amzn.to/4aRs9lHKnuth’s questions for Chat GPT - https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/chatGPT20.txtKnuth videos on Numberphile - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWLfLjzHzmFO6T8jCZdipvQcBrady’s video on John 3:16 from his Bibledex series - https://youtu.be/ZJjFebPW5b8Ziegler’s Giant Bar - https://www.halfnuts.net/products/an-original-ziegler-giant-bar?variant=55664909259Numberphile is supported by Jane Street - https://www.numberphile.com/jane-streetWe also work with the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute - https://www.slmath.org You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphileHere are our Patrons - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons

01-16
54:26

The Math of Movies - with Walt Hickey

Data journalist Walt Hickey looks deep into the numbers behind movies, TV shows, and all types of popular culture.Walt’s new book is You Are What You Watch - https://amzn.to/3F8SwVoWalt’s Website - https://walthickey.comNumlock News - https://www.numlock.comDr Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park - https://jurassicpark.fandom.com/wiki/Ian_MalcolmDoes Hollywood ruin books? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUD8h9JpEVQ

Math and Movies (Animation at Pixar) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX0NB9IyYpUThe problem in Good Will Hunting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_LkYiuTKENumberphile is supported by Jane Street - https://www.numberphile.com/jane-streetWe also work with the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute - https://www.slmath.org You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphileHere are our Patrons - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons

10-12
51:24

Finding Your Place - with Federico Ardila

Federico Ardila is a combinatorialist at San Francisco State University. He’s Colombian and in this episode he talks candidly about the struggles and prejudice encountered by people from different backgrounds as they try to make their mark in academia. And just so you know there’s happy ending in sight - this episode of the podcast will conclude with a stirring musical finale. Federico’s site - https://fardila.com SFSU page - https://math.sfsu.edu/faculty/ardila SLMath supports Numberphile - https://www.slmath.org You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile Here are our Patrons - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons

08-23
54:57

Yes, I accept the Fields Medal - with James Maynard

Oxford mathematician James Maynard explains why he feared accidentally refusing the most famous prize in mathematics. Watch this full interview on YouTube - https://youtu.be/yz-5BY_TTNI Full 2022 Fields Medal Winners - https://www.mathunion.org/imu-awards/fields-medal/fields-medals-2022 See our Fields Medal Playlist - https://bit.ly/Fields_Playlist More James Maynard videos - https://bit.ly/JamesMaynard James Maynard - https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/professor-james-maynard/ You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile Here are our Patrons - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons

08-02
27:59

An A-Class Reject - with Ed Copeland

He dreamed of being a great cricketer - but his love for equations led Ed Copeland to a career in theoretical physics.Check out opportunities with episode sponsor Jane StreetEd Copeland at the University of NottinghamNumberphile videos with EdSome physics videos with EdA trilogy of longer videos with EdYou can support Numberphile on PatreonWith thanks to SLMath

02-21
01:04:18

A Chain of Chance - with Michael Merrifield

Episode sponsored by Jane Street - check out their latest opportunities - https://www.janestreet.com/join-jane-street/overview/ Professor Michael Merrifield - https://about.me/michael.merrifield Mike's Twitter - https://twitter.com/AstroMikeMerri Mike Merrifield Video Playlist - http://bit.ly/Merrifield_Playlist Sixty Symbols - Physics videos, many featuring Mike - https://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols Deep Sky Videos - https://www.youtube.com/user/deepskyvideos Messier Objects Playlist - http://bit.ly/MessierObjects Ralph Merrifield - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Merrifield Ralph Merrifield author page on Amazon - https://amzn.to/3Hff0Gj Galactic Astronomy by James Binney and Michael Merrifield - https://amzn.to/3Xme4Fs Hand-written version of Mike's 'Good Will Hunting' paper - https://brady-haran.squarespace.com/s/MerrifieldPaperHandWritten.pdf And here is the published version - https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1990AJ.....99.1548M You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile) like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to SLMath - https://www.msri.org

01-18
01:06:17

Finding a Path - with Tatiana Toro

Professor Toro is the new director of the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SL Math). SL Math website - https://www.msri.org/ Announcement of Professor Toro's appointment - https://www.msri.org/web/msri/communications/tatiana-toro-msri-director-2022 MSRI is renamed SL Math - https://www.msri.org/web/msri/communications/msri-press-release-may-19-2022 Professor Toro's University of Washington webpage - https://sites.math.washington.edu/~toro/ Podcast with David Eisenbud - Professor Toro's predecessor - https://www.numberphile.com/podcast/david-eisenbud

12-13
43:39

An Educated Adult - with Tadashi Tokieda

Tadashi at Stanford - https://mathematics.stanford.edu/people/tadashi-tokieda Tadashi videos on Numberphile - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWI9eDSJREzp1wvOJsjt23H_ Lev Davidovich Landau - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Landau You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile) like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org

07-11
01:13:45

The Orchid Room and Cancer - with Hannah Fry

Professor Hannah Fry discusses her cervical cancer diagnosis - and subsequent attempt to make sense of it all. Making Sense of Cancer - Showing on BBC2 on June 2 and then on BBC iPlayer - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017wzq Telegraph Article - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/prof-hannah-fry-calculating-risks-cancer-treatment-would-have/ Hannah Fry website - https://hannahfry.co.uk/ Hannah Fry books - Amazon - https://amzn.to/3PzW4nz Numberphile videos with Hannah - http://bit.ly/hannah_vids Hannah previously on the podcast - https://www.numberphile.com/podcast/hannah-fry Macmillan Cancer Support - https://www.macmillan.org.uk NHS Cancer help - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cancer/ You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile Like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org

05-29
36:51

A Passion for Big Numbers (and Liverpool FC) - with Tony Padilla

Tony Padilla is known on Numberphile for tackling the big numbers... But by day he's a cosmologist at the University of Nottingham. Tony's also a life-long fan of Liverpool FC. Brady joined him at Anfield for a game against Watford. Tony at the University of Nottingham - https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/people/antonio.padilla Order Tony's book Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity Amazon US - https://amzn.to/3JYQbws Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/3M3yvB8 MacMillan US - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374600570/fantasticnumbersandwheretofindthem Penguin UK - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/316/316964/fantastic-numbers-and-where-to-find-them/9780241445372.html Some videos with Tony on Numberphile - http://bit.ly/Padilla_Numberphile And some videos with Tony on Sixty Symbols - https://bit.ly/Padilla_SixtySymbols The Sum of the Integers being -1/12 - https://www.bradyharanblog.com/blog/2015/1/11/this-blog-probably-wont-help Liverpool v Watford on 2 April 2022 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eHdk_1mJqA You can 'watch' the podcasts, including this one, on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH2AOVeIaWFmnXrXQ_UhKVy9Zp0RtRMm5 This episode was supported by G-Research, a world-leading quantitative finance research firm, hiring the brightest minds to tackle the biggest questions in finance - learn more at gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ - https://www.gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile) like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org

04-18
50:41

The First and Last Digits of Pi

Three One Four: A Number of Notes - http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/pi/piday2022/ The project is a collaboration between Martin, Gregory Coles, and Emma Beauxis-Aussalet On Bandcamp - https://ecstaticquiet1.bandcamp.com/album/three-one-four-a-number-of-notes YouTube track playlist - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLewycy5dwN_nDZVW9fPcTRhGiGMEXqoxs YouTube album discussions and score analysis - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLewycy5dwN_k_nAU9bhbTaDAKW3YAo_WW Martin Krzywinski - http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca 62.8 trillion digit computation of Pi - https://www.fhgr.ch/en/specialist-areas/applied-future-technologies/davis-centre/pi-challenge Some of Martin's previous Pi visualisations can be found here - http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/pi/ This episode was supported by G-Research, a world-leading quantitative finance research firm, hiring the brightest minds to tackle the biggest questions in finance - learn more at gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ - https://www.gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile) like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org

03-14
42:26

An Infinite Debt - with Christopher Havens (Prisoner #349034)

Catch this episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/DPyWf4cI548 The Prison Mathematics Project - https://www.prisonmathproject.org/about/ The Paper: Linear fractional transformations and non-linear leaping convergents of some continued fractions - https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12644 Article by Marta Cerruti on The Conversation - https://theconversation.com/an-inmates-love-for-math-leads-to-new-discoveries-130123 You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile) like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org

02-13
49:50

The Little Star - with Zvezdelina Stankova

Mathematician Zvezdelina Stankova was born in Bulgaria and is now a teaching professor at UC Berkeley. Zvezda's webpage - https://math.berkeley.edu/~stankova/ Zvezda videos on Numberphile - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIbAPK1oJgRIpe0sWiPKkQ4 The Legend of Question Six - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y30VF3cSIYQ Berkeley Math Circle - https://mathcircle.berkeley.edu This episode was supported by G-Research, a world-leading quantitative finance research firm, hiring the brightest minds to tackle the biggest questions in finance - learn more at gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ - https://www.gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile Like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org

01-13
58:19

Google's 'DeepMind' does Mathematics

A breakthrough paper is published about using artificial intelligence to do mathematics - we discuss it with DeepMind's Alex Davies and Professor Marcus du Sautoy. DeepMind - https://deepmind.com DeepMind blog on this topic - https://deepmind.com/blog/article/exploring-the-beauty-of-pure-mathematics-in-novel-ways Nature article on the topic - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03593-1 Article from The Conversation by Geordie Williamson, who worked on the project - https://theconversation.com/mathematical-discoveries-take-intuition-and-creativity-and-now-a-little-help-from-ai-172900 Marcus du Sautoy - https://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk The Creativity Code - book on Amazon - https://amzn.to/3Dmxak2 Collaborator Geordie Williamson - https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/geordie/ Collaborator Marc Lackenby - http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/lackenby/ Collaborator Andras Juhasz - https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/people/andras.juhasz This episode was supported by G-Research, a world-leading quantitative finance research firm, hiring the brightest minds to tackle the biggest questions in finance - learn more at gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ - https://www.gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile - like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org

12-02
37:01

Making Sense of Infinity - with Asaf Karagila

From high school drop-out to set theorist, Asaf Karagila shares his journey towards infinity. Asaf is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of East Anglia. Asaf's blog - http://karagila.org Asaf's Twitter - https://twitter.com/AsafKaragila Some Infinity stuff on Numberphile - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWKORZ3UeTKlJiJa-89BBz3t You can support Numberphile on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/numberphile) like these people - https://www.numberphile.com/patrons With thanks to MSRI - https://www.msri.org This episode was also made possible by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship - https://www.ukri.org/our-work/developing-people-and-skills/future-leaders-fellowships/ UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship MR/T021705/1

08-28
53:37

Nonita Thomas

oh god ... boring

07-20 Reply

Shinoz Snow

I was actually surprised that England had separate people who mark papers than the teacher. In the United States, teachers and professors have to grade (mark) their own tests and assignments. It's part of why multiple choice scantrons are so popular. There are those who have assistants to help but that's the exception.

06-10 Reply

Cole Boggess

Hearing his life story was very inspiring. I'm not a genius by any means, but I had similar experiences growing up and realizing most adults don't care what a kid thinks. I also definitely make poor use of my time on a daily basis.

03-03 Reply

Leonardo Sigmund

my favourite episode so far!

01-27 Reply

my.android. Mfz

huge respect for this guest. not just in America, there are many such genius minds deprived of opportunity..

07-29 Reply

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