x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Intellectually Curious

Intellectually Curious is a podcast by Mike Breault featuring over 1,600 AI-powered explorations across science, mathematics, philosophy, and personal growth. Each short-form episode is generated, refined, and published with the help of large language models—turning curiosity into an ongoing audio encyclopedia. Designed for anyone who loves learning, it offers quick dives into everything from combinatorics and cryptography to systems thinking and psychology.Inspiration for this podcast:"Muad"Dib

science mathematics

All Episodes

4:31

The Conical Spiral: Geometry, Calculus, and the Quest...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/25

A math-filled dive into wrapping a conical spiral around a tree. We model it with height H, base radius R, and N turns, showing how the radius shrinks as you rise and you complete N loops. The arc length requires calculus—and an inverse hyperbolic sine—to estimate how many lights you’ll need. We also explore the broader beauty of spirals in nature and how tiny tweaks could morph a tree spiral into cosmic spirals. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please...

en-us

6:19

Tiny Atoms, Big Data: The Sparse Representation...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/24

In this deep dive, we unpack sparse representation theory. Learn how a complex signal can be expressed with only a handful of dictionary atoms, why exact sparsity is NP-hard, and how convex relaxation (basis pursuit) and greedy methods (orthogonal matching pursuit) yield fast, provable solutions. We explore structured and collaborative sparsity, real-world impacts like faster MRI scans, and the growing link between sparse models and deep learning—showing how intelligent simplification drives ...

en-us

4:34

Density Unlocked: The Kohn–Sham Shortcut That...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/24

We explore density functional theory, the idea that a chemical system's behavior can be determined entirely from electron density. Learn how Kohn and Sham replaced a hopelessly tangled many-electron problem with a fictitious non-interacting system that reproduces the same density, and why the elusive exchange-correlation energy remains the single remaining approximation. From fundamental science to real-world design—how this breakthrough powers modern materials discovery, from solar cells to ...

en-us

5:11

Gumbel at the Edge: Designing for Extremes

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/24

We explore the Gumbel distribution—named after Emil Julius Gumbel—and how it models the maximum of a dataset. From 500-year floods to the Gumbel Max Trick in AI, this episode shows why engineers and data scientists rely on max-stable theory to plan for the extreme and build resilient systems, while tracing a surprising historical thread from Laplace to the coupon collector. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information. ...

en-us

5:16

Grid Lanes: Native Masonry with CSS Grid

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/23

We dive into CSS Grid Lanes—the native masonry solution that moves items into the shortest available column, eliminating the need for heavy JavaScript. Learn how it differs from standard Grid, the three-line setup (display: grid lanes; grid template columns; gap), and how tolerance affects placement for accessibility. Explore real-world use cases, performance benefits, and how to start testing in Safari Tech Preview 234. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes...

en-us

4:58

Tiny Fossils, Big Shifts: 2025 Breakthroughs in...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/23

A deep-dive into 2025 discoveries that rewrite the roots of modern fishes. With high-tech imaging and modeling, these tiny fossils are expanding our view of the grand history of vertebrate evolution. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information. Sponsored by Embersilk LLC

en-us

4:45

Rényi’s Parking Problem and the 0.7475979 Limit...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/23

We dive into Alfred Rényi's 1958 random sequential parking puzzle on a line, uncovering the jamming limit and the famous parking constant ≈ 0.7475979. We explore how this one-dimensional geometric bound mirrors how tokens fill context in transformers, via causal attention masking and the idea of metastable anchor points (Rényi centers) that boost efficiency. We also touch on the harder two-dimensional packing questions and what these insights could mean for future multimodal AI systems. Note...

en-us

4:40

Fomalhaut Unleashed: The Great Eye, Debris Disks, and...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/22

A tour of the young star Fomalhaut and its spectacular, collision-prone debris disk. We unravel why its bright ring behaves like a nonstop demolition derby, the misidentified exoplanet Dagon, and the rare feature of two stellar companions each hosting a disk. It's a dynamic, real-world lab showing how chaos fuels planet formation in a multi-star system just 25 light-years away. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical informati...

en-us

5:22

Fisher Information: The Sharp Curve Behind What Data...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/22

In this deep-dive, we explore how Fisher Information measures how much your data can tell you about an unknown parameter. Visualize it through the curvature of the log-likelihood—sharp curves mean high information and precise estimates, flat curves mean ambiguity. We’ll cover additivity across independent observations, the Cramér–Rao bound as the ultimate precision limit, and how FI guides experimental design. From machine learning and marketing data to neuroscience and color perception, FI t...

en-us

5:03

The Critical 3%: Making Software Feel Instant with...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/22

A practical dive into performance engineering—how estimation, the latency hierarchy, and smart data structures turn frustrating delays into instant responses. Guided by Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat's performance hints, we unpack moving from O(n log n) to O(n), hoisting temporaries, and fast paths for the common case. We also glimpse real-world wins—like a 7.5% CPU reduction and a 21.6% improvement in a massive build—and outline how to identify and optimize your own critical 3%. Note: ...

en-us

4:52

Gabriel's Horn: Finite Volume, Infinite Surface

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/21

A deep dive into Torricelli's trumpet, the shape formed by revolving y = 1/x about the x-axis from x = 1 to infinity. We explore why its volume is finite (π) even as its surface area diverges to infinity, unravel the painter's paradox, and see how calculus resolves the mystery. We'll also discuss why the paradox disappears in the real world due to physical thickness and limits, and touch on the related fact that finite surface area for surfaces of revolution implies finite volume. Note: This...

en-us

5:31

Geometry in Chaos: Vorticity, Vortex Stretching, and...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/21

From a creek’s tiny whirl to the robust math of fluids, we explore how vorticity and vortex stretching power turbulent flows. We trace Berger’s vortex as a stable exact solution, then reveal high‑resolution simulations showing that, in the inviscid 3D Euler equations, the anticipated blow‑up is tamed by dynamic depletion: vortex tubes flattening into thin sheets that slow stretching. We then reframe the turbulent energy cascade, arguing that while stretching drives fluctuations, the average e...

en-us

4:48

The Dead Fish Pitch: Debunking Baseball's Slow-Motion...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/21

A data-driven dive into the Eephus pitch—the infamous 'dead fish'—exploring its history, the physics behind a slow, high-spin arc, and what the data really says about contact quality, exit velocity, and on-base percentage. We separate myth from method, examine why this oddball pitch persists, and discuss how teams might use it as a legitimate tool in modern baseball. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information. Sponso...

en-us

4:33

Petra and the Desert Empire: How the Nabataeans Built...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/21

In this episode we explore how the Nabataeans turned Petra, a rose-red rock city, into the heart of a powerful trading kingdom. Learn how ingenious water engineering, control of the incense route from Yemen to Gaza, and fierce defense allowed them to dominate ancient trade, withstand big rivals, and endure as a commercial force even after Rome claimed their land. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information. Sponsored ...

en-us

4:41

The Seahorse Emoji Signal: How AI's Self-Correction...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/21

We unpack a provocative claim: a tiny, non-existent seahorse emoji as a tripwire revealing a new phase in AI training—the use of thinking-trace data that exposes the model's internal problem-solving process. We trace how labs feed rough drafts into models to produce more stable, better-aligned AI, and what this means for reliability across closed and open systems. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information. Sponsored...

en-us

5:02

Shendi Take One: Asia's Deepest Onshore Well Reaches...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/20

We distill CNPC's Shendi Take One Well in the Taklamakan Desert—a 10,910-meter onshore drilling milestone that makes Asia’s deepest vertical well and ranks second globally behind the Kola borehole. Drilled from May 2023 to February 2025, it set a world record for the fastest onshore depth to that level and yielded the first ultra-deep onshore oil-and-gas discovery. The project confronted extreme conditions (temperatures over 210°C and pressures above 145 MPa) and relied on a domestically deve...

en-us

5:21

Emil Grosswald: From Refugee Odyssey to a Pillar of...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/20

An intimate journey through the life of Emil Grosswald, a towering figure in number theory who thrived under upheaval. From dual degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering in Bucharest, through wartime flight across Europe to Cuba, and finally to a transformative U.S. career under Hans Rademacher, Grosswald bridged pure theory and practical insight. We unpack milestones like his work on Dedekind sums, the Grosswald–Schnitzer theorem linking zeta zeros, his multilingual early papers und...

en-us

5:13

Shining a Light on the AI Black Box: Chain of Thought...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/20

We explore how monitoring AI reasoning can reveal safety signals in critical decisions. Learn what monitorability means, why a perfect transcript isn’t required, and how robust metrics and three evaluation modes—intervention, process, and outcome—help catch red flags. The episode covers why bigger models aren’t necessarily less transparent, the surprising role of compute and RL, and practical tips like the monitorability tax and targeted follow-ups. Note: This podcast was AI-generated,...

en-us

5:41

RLVR, Ghosts, and Vibe Coding: Karpathy’s 2025 LLM...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/20

A deep dive into the foundational shifts Karpathy highlights for 2025: reinforcement learning from verifiable rewards (RLVR) driving massive cheap optimization, the rise of ‘thinking time’ traces and jagged, task-optimized intelligence, and the birth of vibe coding—guiding powerful AI with plain language. We explore the new LLM app layer that turns lab models into deployed professionals, on-device agents like Claude Code, and the multimodal LLM GUI that blends text, visuals, and code. Finally...

en-us

4:37

The Siberian Snowman: A 14-Mile Line of Arctic Lakes...

Intellectually Curious ·

2025/12/20

NASA’s Earth Observatory spotlights a surreal 22-kilometer chain of five pale-blue thermokarst lakes near Billings on Russia’s Chukchi Peninsula. The pattern isn’t surface snow but underground ice wedges melting in summer, causing the ground to slump into a line that winds and waves slowly align end-to-end. From orbit you can see this dramatic natural sculpture and its scale—about 14 miles long, far longer than any real snowman. We unpack how permafrost and wind shape landscapes, the history ...

en-us

622 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter