Intellectually Curious
Intellectually Curious is a podcast by Mike Breault featuring over 1,200 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 learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune
Note: These podcasts were made with NotebookLM. AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 12 minutes
- Episodes
- 1391
- Years Active
- 2024 - 2025
Deep Dive: Dithmarschen — The Farming Republic That Defied the Crown
A deep dive into Dithmarschen, the medieval marshland republic where farmers governed themselves, fought off kings, and traded across Europe as part of the Hanseatic League. In Part 2, we explore the…
00:16:17 |
Tue 03 Dec 2024
Apple Silicon Unpacked: From A-Series to M-Series Evolution
We trace how Apple designs its own silicon, powering iPhones, iPads, and Macs—from the A-series origins to the M-series revolution. Learn what a System-on-a-Chip really means, why shrinking nanometer…
00:12:59 |
Tue 03 Dec 2024
A-Train by the Numbers: Tracing NYC’s Hidden Timeline
We explore the A train stops sequence (4, 14, 23, 34, 42, …, up to 207) from OEIS and how a simple list of numbers encodes the city’s growth. From station additions and expansions to the Dykeman Stre…
00:05:10 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
Beyond the Method: How Science Really Works
Science isn't a rigid recipe. It's an evolving, social process shaped by falsifiability, paradigms, peer review, and open critique. Join us as we trace ideas from Popper to Kuhn to Lakatos, unpack bi…
00:21:38 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
Category Theory Unplugged: The Universal Language of Mathematics
A friendly deep-dive into category theory, starting with objects and morphisms, then exploring commutative diagrams, functors, and natural transformations. We'll uncover universal constructions like …
00:15:13 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
OEIS A00057: Primes that divide all Fibonacci sequences
We explore OEIS sequence A00057, the primes p for which the first Fibonacci number divisible by p occurs at position p+1. Using 7 as a worked example, we illustrate the rule, then delve into its link…
00:10:18 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
OEIS A000056: Order of SL2(Z/nZ)
Join us as we unpack SL2(Z/nZ), the group of 2×2 integer matrices modulo n with determinant 1, and its order—the number of distinct elements. We explore the surprising strong divisibility pattern of …
00:17:32 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
Nicholas Sanderson: The Fourth Lucasian and the Power of Perseverance
Episode 5 of our Lucasian Professors series dives into the life of Nicholas Sanderson, a blind mathematician who reshaped Cambridge’s math through innovative teaching, a pioneering introduction to ca…
00:04:15 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
The Diderot Effect: How One New Thing Sparks a Chain of Purchases
A thoughtful dive into Denis Diderot’s famous wardrobe moment and how it echoes in today’s world of ads and trends. We unpack the psychology behind the Diderot Effect, from ‘Diderot Unities’ to the e…
00:11:17 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
John Coulson and Making Mathematics Accessible in the 18th Century
In this episode of our Lucasian Professors series, we turn to John Coulson, the fifth holder of the chair. From a schoolmaster to a Fellow of the Royal Society and a tireless translator, Coulson cham…
00:19:37 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
Shadows Through Time: A History of Espionage
From ancient Egypt to the digital age, this deep-dive traces the evolution of espionage, revealing how spies blended in, how nations built intelligence services, and why the core aims—gathering infor…
00:16:02 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
OEIS A000055: Unlabeled trees
We explore A000055, the OEIS entry for the number of unlabeled trees with n nodes. From the tiny first terms to the explosive growth at larger n, we’ll glimpse generating functions and asymptotics, a…
00:12:56 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
OEIS A000053: The New York City 1 train sequence
We explore A000053, the OEIS entry that encodes the distances between stops on NYC's 1 train (the Broadway–Seventh Avenue local). See how a subway line becomes a mathematical fingerprint, with gaps s…
00:04:16 |
Sat 30 Nov 2024
SKA Deep Dive: Listening to the Universe with the World’s Largest Radio Telescope
Join us as we unpack the Square Kilometre Array (SKA): a global network of thousands of antennas across Australia and South Africa that will act as one giant telescope. Learn how aperture synthesis, …
00:14:35 |
Sat 30 Nov 2024
First Light: The Birth of the Universe’s Stars
Trace the journey from the early gas clouds after the Big Bang to the first blazing stars, the elements they forged, and how they sculpted the cosmos. Learn how we infer their existence with radio as…
00:10:49 |
Sat 30 Nov 2024
Following Newton: William Whiston and the Fragile Line Between Science and Faith
Join us as we trace William Whiston’s path from Cambridge prodigy to Newton’s successor as Lucasian Professor. We explore his bold blend of mathematics and theology, his millennial prophecies, and hi…
00:20:41 |
Sat 30 Nov 2024
Barrow and the Dawn of Calculus: The First Lucasian Professor
In this episode of The Deep Dive, we trace Isaac Barrow's remarkable journey—from a disruptive student to Cambridge's first Lucasian Professor. We explore his pioneering work on tangents and the earl…
00:12:26 |
Fri 29 Nov 2024
Pythagorean Numbers Unlocked: Conjugates, Sequences, and Almost-Integers
Dive into the world of Pythagorean numbers: real algebraic integers whose Galois conjugates lie inside the unit circle, with the golden ratio as a centerpiece. See why powers of these numbers cling t…
00:17:02 |
Fri 29 Nov 2024
OEIS A000052: Alphabetical ordering of numbers by their English names
We dive into A000052, the OEIS sequence that sorts integers not by value but by the alphabetical order of their English names, using US spelling conventions. We'll explore how single digits and large…
00:08:23 |
Fri 29 Nov 2024
OEIS A000051: 2^n + 1
Explore A000051, the sequence a(n) = 2^n + 1. We’ll trace its tidy binary shape (11, 101, 1001, …), its rare square at n = 3 (9) proven by de Bessy in the 1600s, and its surprising web of connections…
00:10:47 |
Fri 29 Nov 2024
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