Rationally Speaking #222 - Spencer Greenberg and Seth Cottrell on "Ask a Mathematician, Ask a Physicist"

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2018

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode features the hosts of "Ask a Mathematician, Ask a Physicist," a blog that grew out of a Burning Man booth in which a good-natured mathematician (Spencer Greenberg) and physicist (Seth Cottrell) answer people's questions about life, the universe, and everything. Spencer and Seth discuss the weirdest and most controversial questions they've answered, why math is fundamentally arbitrary, Seth's preferred alternative to the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics, how a weird group of parapsychologists changed the field of physics, and whether you could do a Double Slit Experiment with a Cat Cannon.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode of Rationally Speaking is brought to you by Stripe.
0:03.2	Stripe builds economic infrastructure for the internet.
0:06.3	Their tools help online businesses with everything from incorporation and getting started,
0:10.9	to handling marketplace payments, to preventing fraud.
0:14.4	Stripe's culture puts a special emphasis on rigorous thinking and intellectual curiosity.
0:19.3	So if you enjoy podcasts like this one and you're
0:21.8	interested in what Stripe does, I'd recommend you check them out. They're always hiring.
0:25.8	Learn more at Stripe.com. Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
0:46.2	I'm your host, Julia Galef, and I have two guests with me today.
0:49.7	They're both good friends of mine.
0:51.3	Spencer Greenberg, who you might know because he was on a previous
0:54.9	episode of this podcast, he's a mathematician and entrepreneur running Sparkwave, and Seth Cottrell,
1:00.9	who is a physicist specializing in quantum information theory. Hey, guys. Hey, it's great to be here.
1:05.8	How you doing? Well, let's just, hold on. Seth, say hi. Hey, how you doing? And Spencer say hi.
1:11.8	Hey, it's great to be here.
1:13.1	Okay, so now you audience know what their voices sound like.
1:16.2	So Spencer and Seth together run a website called Ask a Mathematician, Ask a Physicist.
1:22.3	It's at Ask a Mathematician.com.
1:24.5	Guys, does anyone call it Amop?
1:27.3	No. Well, I'll call it Amop? No.
1:29.6	Well, I'll just blaze a trail then and call it Amop during this episode.
1:35.5	That is the Twitter handle, but I've only read it, not heard it.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -2312 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York City Skeptics, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York City Skeptics and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.