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PODCAST

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

science life sciences

All Episodes

26:59

A Biography of Earth Across the Age of Animals

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/10/28

Thanks to a delicate interplay between plate tectonics and life, Earth’s thermostat has kept animal life thriving on our planet for half a billion years. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Peter Brannen about our planetary highs and lows, and the precarious goldilocks zone our animal-filled finds itself in now. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel

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13:32

Audio Edition: ‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/10/23

A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles — a new category of quantum particle — could be created in exotic materials.The story ‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

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24:51

What We Learn From Running ‘Life’ in Reverse

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/10/21

Imagine a set of simple building blocks that can self-assemble into any shape you want. The possibilities for such a technology could be boundless. Inspired by nature, “complexity engineering” seeks to design such blocks, building on a classic computer simulation. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about recent developments in so-called cellular automata. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The

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27:35

The Math of Catastrophe

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/10/14

Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to dry out, becoming the desert that we know today. Tipping points are moments in Earth’s history where gradual change suddenly becomes rapid and forms a new equilibrium.They’re one of the most alarming threats of our planet’s near future — and one of the most uncertain.When will a tipping point occur? Mathematicians are attempting to turn vague, apocalyptic visions into something that we can

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11:37

Audio Edition: Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/10/09

It’s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks.The story Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

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23:55

What Can a Cell Remember?

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/10/07

“Memory” means many things to many people, and in many fields. We tend to understand memory to be a phenomenon that happens primarily in the brain, but in recent years, researchers have understood memory as a physical phenomenon that can occur in plenty of systems. On this episode, contributing writer Claire L. Evans tells host Samir Patel about how neuroscientists are probing the memory of individual cells.Audio coda courtesy of YACHT.

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27:00

Climate Modeling Is at a Crossroads

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/09/30

The climate is changing. So is the way we understand the climate. On this week's episode, contributing writer Zack Savitsky joins host Samir Patel to discuss his recent reporting on the rich history and uncertain future of climate modeling, the field of science that blends math, physics, and earth science to predict the behavior of our planet's complex climate system.Audio coda courtesy of Princeton University

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15:15

Audio Edition: A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/09/25

Rare and powerful compounds, known as keystone molecules, can build a web of invisible interactions among species.The story A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

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24:08

AI's Dark Side Is Only a Nudge Away

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/09/23

In order to trust machines with important jobs, we need a high level of confidence that they share our values and goals. Recent work shows that this “alignment” can be brittle, superficial, even unstable. In one study, a few training adjustments led a popular chatbot to recommend murder. On this episode, contributing writer Stephen Ornes tells host Samir Patel about what this research reveals.Audio coda from The National Archives and Records Administration.

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24:57

How We Came To Know Earth

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/09/16

For most of us, the word “climate” immediately generates thoughts of melting ice, rising seas, wildfires and gathering storms. However, in the course of working to understand this pressing challenge, scientists have revealed so much more: A fundamental understanding of how Earth’s climate works. Quanta recently published a nine-story series that investigates this basic science. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, senior editor Hannah Waters joins editor in chief Samir Patel to discuss

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11:03

Audio Edition: ‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/09/11

The deceptively simple Kakeya conjecture has bedeviled mathematicians for 50 years. A new proof of the conjecture in three dimensions illuminates a whole crop of related problems.The story ‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles Math’s Kakeya Conjecture first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

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21:05

How a 17-Year-Old Solved a Major Math Mystery

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/09/09

In the field of harmonic analysis, there’s a constellation of questions about how the energy of a wave concentrates.Earlier this year, a 17-year-old high school student named Hannah Cairo solved a 40-year-old mystery about how some of these waves behave, surprising and exciting mathematicians. Cairo has not yet obtained a high school or undergraduate degree, but she recently began a doctoral program at the University of Maryland to continue her already impressive career studying

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27:56

Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/09/02

In science textbooks, Earth looks like a round layer cake. There's a hard line between the liquid metal core and the putty-like rock mantle. But maybe that boundary is a little fuzzier than we previously thought. Strange, continent sized blobs rest on the dividing line. These blobs are leaching material from the Earth’s core, extending arms out into the mantle, and sending core material up and out through magmatic plumes. No one's completely sure how it’s happening. On this week’s episode,

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17:36

Audio Edition: The Road Map to Alien Life Passes...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/08/28

Astronomers are ready to search for the fingerprints of life in faraway planetary atmospheres. But first, they need to know where to look — and that means figuring out which planets are likely to have atmospheres in the first place.The story How Undergraduate The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

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27:14

A New Quantum Math of Cryptography

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/08/26

We’re living in the golden age of cryptography. Since the 1970s, we've had more confidence in encryption than ever before. But there's a difference between confidence and absolute certainty. And computer scientists care a lot about that difference.The search is always on for better, more secure secrets. But is it possible for digital security to be truly, provably unbreakable? Maybe, with a little help from math and physics. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel talks with 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢

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28:59

How an Outsider Optimized Sphere-Packing

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/08/19

How many oranges can you fit in a box? Mathematicians are obsessed with perfecting their answer to this question in not just our familiar three-dimensional world, but in higher and higher dimensions beyond it. For several decades, they've made only minimal progress toward finding an optimal solution. Then, this past April, an outsider to the field named Boaz Klartag posted a proof that bested these previous records by a significant margin.In this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir

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09:40

Audio Edition: Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/08/14

A young computer scientist and two colleagues show that searches within data structures called hash tables can be much faster than previously deemed possible.The story How Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old Data Science Conjecture first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

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29:28

‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/08/12

As far as we know, quantum mechanics is a universal theory that explains matter and light more or less perfectly. It shows us why atoms don't collapse and why electrons don't spiral into the nucleus of the atom. It explains why glass is clear, why grass is green, why the sky is blue. But no one fully understands how the math of quantum mechanics connects with the reality we live in. One could spend a lifetime getting into the weeds and still have unanswered questions. In honor of quantum

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22:16

How Smell Guides Our Inner World

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/08/05

When some people smell the molecule benzyl acetate, they identify a distinctly banana-y scent. But when others sniff the same compound, they get hints of nail polish remover. How can this be? Smell is a tricky sensory process to pin down. Our perception of scents is wide-ranging and often depends on lived experience. But researchers are building a deeper understanding of the processes underlying our noses’ elusive machinery. In this episode, host Samir Patel and 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 biology staff

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24:58

Audio Edition: How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our...

The Quanta Podcast ·

2025/07/31

By screening films in a brain scanner, neuroscientists discovered a rich library of neural scripts — from a trip through an airport to a marriage proposal — that form scaffolds for memories of our experiences.The story How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

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300 results

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