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
- 1388
- Years Active
- 2024 - 2025
Sistine Secrets: Conclaves, Controversies, and Michelangelo
Take a headlong tour of the Sistine Chapel—from papal conclaves beneath Michelangelo’s ceiling to the controversies sparked by the Last Judgment and its restorations. We compare Vatican perspectives …
00:12:52 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Rome by Design: The Ingenious Engineering of Ancient Rome
From the Pantheon’s unreinforced dome to miles of aqueducts and city sewers, this episode explores how Roman engineers achieved lasting feats with limited math. We’ll uncover materials like opus caem…
00:08:42 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Elemental Insights: How the Periodic Table Shapes Our World
Take a deep dive into the periodic table—from atomic numbers and valence electrons to trends in atomic size, ionization energy, and electronegativity. We'll explore why elements in the same group beh…
00:13:21 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Phosphorus: Glow, Fire, and the Fertilizer Frontier
From Henning Brand’s urine distillation in 1669 to Robert Boyle’s practical chemistry, this episode traces phosphorus’s wild history and surprising versatility. We’ll explore its four allotropes—whit…
00:13:08 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Smooth Numbers: Pebbles, Primes, and the Power Behind Cryptography
A concise journey into smooth numbers—the quiet, powerful building blocks behind cryptography, integer factorization, and big math questions. We explain what 'smooth' means, the Dickman-De Bruijn fun…
00:09:52 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Silicon: The Silent Architect of Earth, Plants, and Us
Ditch the computer chips for a journey into silicon’s natural side. From its abundance in Earth's crust to plant phytoliths that sculpt plant skeletons, and its intriguing but still-mysterious role i…
00:07:29 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Scandium: The Quiet Element Powering High-Tech
From Mendeleev’s predicted gaps to discovery in rare minerals, scandium hides in plain sight yet plays a big role. Discover its quirky chemistry, how it strengthens aluminum alloys for jets and sport…
00:11:35 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Python Origins: From ABC to Open Source Powerhouse
Join us as we uncover Python's origin story—from Guido van Rossum's ABC-inspired vision at CWI to the early prototypes, the BeOpen era, and the birth of the Python Software Foundation. Explore how re…
00:16:25 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Potassium Deep Dive: Beyond Bananas
We pull in insights from the Royal Society of Chemistry, NIH, and Wikipedia to answer what potassium is, where it comes from, and why it’s essential. We map its role in cells, muscles, the heart, flu…
00:08:57 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Snowflake Feature Store and dbt
Learn about Snowflake Feature Store and dbt
00:12:40 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Space Bubbles: Could a Brazil-Sized Sunshade Save the Planet?
We explore the audacious idea of using giant, inflatable space bubbles as a sunshade to cool Earth. From the Earth–Sun L1 point to ultra-thin reflective shells and launch concepts, we weigh feasibili…
00:09:27 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Grains of Power: The Surprising Science of Sand
From beaches and deserts to the chips in your phone, this episode unpacks sand—its geology, its varieties, and its vital role in our built world. We trace how sand forms, why purity matters in high‑t…
00:12:30 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Legible AI: See How AI Thinks and Explains Its Work
In this episode, we unpack legible AI—systems that not only answer questions but show their reasoning in a way humans can verify. We break down OpenAI's prover-verifier training (including the sneaky…
00:11:53 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Inside the Spin: O'Neill Cylinders and the Future of Space Habitats
We break down Gerard K. O’Neill’s visionary rotating habitats—from the iconic two-cylinder design to Bernal spheres and Stanford toruses. How would life, weather, and society function in a sealed, se…
00:09:03 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Nvidia: From Denny's to the AI Factory — The Making of a Tech Titan
We trace Nvidia's ascent—from a late-night brainstorm at a Denny's in 1993 to a cornerstone of the AI era. Using Nvidia-story.pdf and Nvidia's Wikipedia page, we unpack the missteps, the comeback wit…
00:09:38 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Scratch to Science: The Mohs Scale and the Secrets of Hardness
A lively deep-dive into how the simple scratch test ranks minerals on the Mohs scale, its ancient origins, and why the numbers tell a story—yet not the whole truth. We’ll explore the scale’s limits, …
00:08:55 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Netflix TimeSeries Data Abstraction Layer
Learn about Netflix TimeSeries Data Abstraction Layer
00:09:32 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
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