Given the number of them he hears on a weekly basis, your Podthinker is always delighted when a particular podcast is grounded in the geographic location of its recording. What cooler way to convey all the internet has allowed us than to play a variety of podcasts from all over the place, all displaying their own local color? Your podthinker is always delighted when he comes across math-centric podcasts, as well — or at least The Math Factor [iTunes link], the sole math-centric podcast he’s ever found and one straight out of Arkansas at that, has done more than its fair share of Podthinker-delighting.
While it stands perfectly well alone as its own mini-program, the podcast is actually a weekly segment of Ozarks at Large, the local news magazine from KUAF. (Note to certain smugger Euro-Max Funsters: for the last time, yes, that part of the United States has electricity.) In it, regular host Kyle Kellams is joined in the studio by mathematician — specifically, geometer — Chaim Goodman-Strauss to work out a math puzzle, interview a math person or just marvel at some neato math concept.
Having picked one of the oldest disciplines in the book, Kellams and Goodman-Strauss are guaranteed never, ever, ever to run out of material. (And if by some quirk of fate they find themselves nearing the barrel’s bottom, they could just start discussing infinity — word on the street says there are infinity kinds of infinity.) Some of mathematics’ many corners they’ve already explored together include numbers you can’t Google [MP3], math education in America [MP3], mathematical questions that can’t be computed [MP3], the ultimate mathematician’s toy [MP3] and, of course, Graham’s number [MP3]. They’ve also sat down and chatted with a biographer of M.C. Escher [MP3], a math consultant on TV’s Numb3rs MP3] and an actual “mathemagician” (yes, they exist) [MP3]. Truly, these guys come at math from a new angle every week — no pun intended. Sort of.
Unfortunately, many readers who might very much enjoy The Math Factor probably won’t make it this far into the review. Why? Because, upon identifying the word “math”, their brains immediately flashed back to the crushing tedium of mathematics as taught in, oh, grades one through twelve, roughly, and maybe into college and/or grad school. Alas, generations and generations of kids have grown up to associate math with laboriously ground-through worksheets, desperate flips to the back of the book for the answers and the crib sheets of formulae taped onto the underside of their baseball caps’ bills. This is not how it should be, and Kellams and Goodman-Strauss appear to know it. On their show, math is broken down to its most basic, most fun elements: quantities and logic, approached with curiosity. Amazing how many amusing tricks, games and stumpers you can get from those.
(For a more eloquent treatment of the woeful state of schools’ approach to math, see Paul Lockhart’s “A Mathematician’s Lament“.)
Vital stats:
Format: math talk
Running since: show since 2004, podcast since October 2005
Duration: 5m-15m
Frequency: weekly
Archive available on iTunes: all since they started podcasting
[Podthinker Colin Marshall would’ve been a math major, but university bureaucracy got in his way, man. Get him at colinjmarshall at gmail, suggest podcasts for Podthoughts here or submit your own podcast for the next by-Max-Funsters column here.]