The Quanta Podcast
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Episodes
Do AI Models Know What They're Thinking About?
Host Samir Patel and guest Ben Brubaker explore whether AI language models possess introspection, defined as privileged access to internal states.
Audio Edition: Amid Life’s Chaos, a Meticulous Mathematician Finds Stability
This episode profiles 2026 Fields Medal winner Yu Dang, a mathematician at the University of Chicago, and his pioneering work on partial differential equations with random data.
The Math of Democracy Never Quite Works Out
Quanta Magazine editor Samir Patel and science writer Alex Stone discuss the mathematical impossibility of a perfect voting system, highlighting Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and Condorcet's Paradox.
Malaria Parasite Caught in the Act of Breaking and Entering
Quanta Magazine’s Samir Patel and science writer Joanna Thompson explore the molecular mechanisms of the malaria parasite, *Plasmodium*.
Audio Edition: The Quietest Mathematician Has Always Been Worth Listening To
This Quanta Magazine episode profiles John Pardon, a 2026 Fields Medal winner recognized for his ability to connect disparate areas of mathematics.
'Ghostly' Galaxies and the Mystery of Dark Matter
Quanta Magazine editor-in-chief Samir Patel and science writer Robin George-Andrews discuss the discovery of three nearby galaxies that appear to lack dark matter entirely.
How Math Brings Together Classical Chaos, Quantum Mechanics, and Fractals
Host Samir Patel and math writer Shalma Wegsman explore a new result in quantum chaos, demonstrating that quantum particles are too fuzzy to form the…
Audio Edition: Sometimes Being First Means Seeing the End Before Anyone Else
Jacob Zimmerman, a 2026 Fields Medal winner, reflects on his journey from competition math prodigy to leading researcher in number theory and algebraic geometry.
Sea Monkeys, Jupiter, and the Mystery of Turbulence
Quanta science writer Stephen Orns discusses a recent discovery that brine shrimp, acting as active matter, can reverse the direction of energy flow in two-dimensional turbulent systems.
‘Jumping Genes’ Are More Than Parasitic DNA
Host Hannah Waters and writer Jake Bueller explore transposons, or "jumping genes," which make up nearly half of the human genome.
Audio Edition: For Hong Wang, Living Fully in the Math World Means Threading the Needle
This episode profiles Hong Wang, the third woman to win the Fields Medal, for her 127-page proof of the 3D Kakeya set conjecture.
Are the Little Red Dots Actually Black Hole Suns?
Quanta Magazine’s Charlie Wood returns to discuss the "little red dots," mysterious early-universe objects detected by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Four-Color Theorem Is Still a Math Favorite
Host Samir Patel and guest Greg Barber explore the four-color theorem, tracing its history from Francis Guthrie’s 19th-century conjecture to the 1976 computer-assisted proof by Appel and Haken.
Audio Edition: ‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard
This episode explores how researchers are using reverse mathematics to uncover hidden logical equivalences within computational complexity theory.
Does Computer Science Need Computers?
Quanta Magazine’s editor-in-chief Samir Patel interviews computer science writer Ben Brubaker to explore the fundamental nature of theoretical computer science.
How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World
This episode explores how the brain categorizes the world through a predictive, embodied lens rather than passive sensory matching.