The Quanta Podcast
Quanta Magazine
Exploring the distant universe, the insides of cells, the abstractions of math, the complexity of information itself, and much more, The Quanta Podcast is a tour of the frontier between the known and the unknown. In each episode, Quanta Magazine Editor-in-Chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Quanta specifically covers fundamental research — driven by curiosity, discovery and the overwhelming desire to know why and how. Join us every Tuesday for a stimulating conversation about the biggest ideas and the tiniest details.
(If you've been a fan of the Quanta Science Podcast, it will continue here. You'll see those episodes marked as audio edition episodes every two weeks.)
Categories: Science & Medicine
Listen to the last episode:
In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math’s 4,000-year history. Some ideas in it were stolen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, the second of a two-parter, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the fate of Cantor, the myths surrounding math history, and one man's search for the truth. These episodes are based on a recent Quanta story. Explore our new special series, “The Evolving Foundations of Math,” on our website. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of TheAlpineSisters Alphorn Players.
Previous episodes
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360 - The Infinite Heist - Part 2 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 - 0h
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359 - Audio Edition: The Ecosystem Dynamics That Can Make or Break an Invasion Thu, 05 Mar 2026 - 0h
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358 - The Infinite Heist - Part 1 Tue, 03 Mar 2026 - 0h
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357 - Decoding the Mysteries of Quantum Mechanics Tue, 24 Feb 2026 - 0h
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356 - Audio Edition: Epic Effort to Ground Physics in Math Opens Up the Secrets of Time Thu, 19 Feb 2026 - 0h
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355 - How Animals Build a Sense of Direction Tue, 17 Feb 2026 - 0h
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354 - Mathematicians Want To Make Fluid Equations Glitch Out Tue, 10 Feb 2026 - 0h
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353 - Audio Edition: Matter vs. Force: Why There Are Exactly Two Types of Particles Thu, 05 Feb 2026 - 0h
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352 - Do AI Models Agree On How They Encode Reality? Tue, 03 Feb 2026 - 0h
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351 - Is Particle Physics Dead, Dying, or Just Hard? Tue, 27 Jan 2026 - 0h
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350 - Audio Edition: How Can AI Researchers Save Energy? By Going Backward. Thu, 22 Jan 2026 - 0h
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349 - Does Dad's Fitness Make Its Way Into Sperm? Tue, 20 Jan 2026 - 0h
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348 - The Shape That Can’t Pass Through Itself Tue, 13 Jan 2026 - 0h
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347 - Audio Edition: How Much Energy Does It Take To Think? Thu, 08 Jan 2026 - 0h
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346 - AI Filters Will Always Have Holes Tue, 06 Jan 2026 - 0h
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345 - ICYMI: Birds' Migratory Mitochondria Tue, 30 Dec 2025 - 0h
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344 - ICYMI: Is Gravity Just Rising Entropy? Tue, 23 Dec 2025 - 0h
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343 - Audio Edition: The Core of Fermat’s Last Theorem Just Got Superpowered Thu, 18 Dec 2025 - 0h
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342 - Taking the Temperature of Quantum Entanglement Tue, 16 Dec 2025 - 0h
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341 - How Hard Is It to Untie a Knot? Tue, 09 Dec 2025 - 0h
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340 - Audio Edition: How a Problem About Pigeons Powers Complexity Theory Thu, 04 Dec 2025 - 0h
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339 - What Happens When Lakes Stop Mixing Tue, 02 Dec 2025 - 0h
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338 - Game Theory, Algorithms and High Prices Tue, 25 Nov 2025 - 0h
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337 - Why Are Waves So Hard to Grasp? Tue, 18 Nov 2025 - 0h
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336 - Sleep Is Not All or Nothing Tue, 11 Nov 2025 - 0h
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335 - Audio Edition: A New Proof Smooths Out the Math of Melting Thu, 06 Nov 2025 - 0h
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334 - The Mystery of the Early Universe’s Little Red Dots Tue, 04 Nov 2025 - 0h
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333 - A Biography of Earth Across the Age of Animals Tue, 28 Oct 2025 - 0h
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332 - Audio Edition: ‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle Thu, 23 Oct 2025 - 0h
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331 - What We Learn From Running ‘Life’ in Reverse Tue, 21 Oct 2025 - 0h
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330 - The Math of Catastrophe Tue, 14 Oct 2025 - 0h
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329 - Audio Edition: Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems Thu, 09 Oct 2025 - 0h
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328 - What Can a Cell Remember? Tue, 07 Oct 2025 - 0h
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327 - Climate Modeling Is at a Crossroads Tue, 30 Sep 2025 - 0h
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326 - Audio Edition: A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems Thu, 25 Sep 2025 - 0h
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325 - AI's Dark Side Is Only a Nudge Away Tue, 23 Sep 2025 - 0h
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324 - How We Came To Know Earth Tue, 16 Sep 2025 - 0h
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323 - Audio Edition: ‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles Math’s Kakeya Conjecture Thu, 11 Sep 2025 - 0h
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322 - How a 17-Year-Old Solved a Major Math Mystery Tue, 09 Sep 2025 - 0h
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321 - Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface Tue, 02 Sep 2025 - 0h
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320 - Audio Edition: The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’ Thu, 28 Aug 2025 - 0h
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319 - A New Quantum Math of Cryptography Tue, 26 Aug 2025 - 0h
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318 - How an Outsider Optimized Sphere-Packing Tue, 19 Aug 2025 - 0h
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317 - Audio Edition: Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old Data Science Conjecture Thu, 14 Aug 2025 - 0h
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316 - ‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party Tue, 12 Aug 2025 - 0h
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315 - How Smell Guides Our Inner World Tue, 05 Aug 2025 - 0h
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314 - Audio Edition: How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories Thu, 31 Jul 2025 - 0h
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313 - When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field Tue, 29 Jul 2025 - 0h
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312 - Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order? Tue, 22 Jul 2025 - 0h
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311 - Audio Edition: After 20 Years, Math Couple Solves Major Group Theory Problem Thu, 17 Jul 2025 - 0h