I talk with physicist Ryan Patterson about how we detect neutrinos and what we have learned from them.

I talk with philosopher Kevin Zollman about how game theory helps us understand the human and biological worlds.

Machine learning using neural networks has led to a remarkable leap forward in artificial intelligence, and the technological and social ramifications have been discussed at great length. To understand the origin and nature of this progress, it is useful to dig at least a little bit into the mathematical and algorithmic structures underlying these techniques. Anil Ananthaswamy takes up this challenge in his book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI. In this conversation we give a brief overview of some of the basic ideas, including the curse of dimensionality, backpropagation, transformer architectures, and more. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/24/336-anil-ananthaswamy-on-the-mathematics-of-neural-nets-and-ai/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Anil Ananthaswamy received a Masters degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle. He is currently a freelance science writer and feature editor for PNAS Front Matter. He was formerly the deputy news editor for New Scientist, a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, and journalist-in-residence at the Simon Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California, Berkeley. He organizes an annual science journalism workshop at the National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bengaluru, India.Web siteAmazon author pageWikipedia See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the November 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy! Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/17/ama-november-2025/ In the intro I mentioned a couple of my favorite TV shows of this year. Here is a more thought-out list (no particular order):Slow HorsesMurderbotThe ResidencePoker FaceSeverancePluribus and Down Cemetery Road also look promising, but too early to tell. (There are a huge number of shows I've never seen, so feel free to add recommendations.) Support Mindscape on Patreon. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I talk with cosmologist Andrew Jaffe about how models and probability help us make sense of the cosmos.

The universe as revealed by physics is objective: it's out there, existing and behaving in ways that are completely independent of human thought. But the process by which we learn about the universe, and the language with which we talk about it, is extremely human-dependent. Does that mean that aliens would do science differently, and even think differently about physics, even if we all live in the same universe? Physicist Daniel Whiteson has teamed with cartoonist Andy Warner to investigate these questions in their new book Do Aliens Speak Physics? Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/03/334-daniel-whiteson-on-the-physics-of-and-by-aliens/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Daniel Whiteson received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and recipient of an Emmy nomination. He is the author of several books, often with co-author Jorge Cham. He is the co-host (with Kelly Weinersmith) of the podcast Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe.UCI web pageGoogle Scholar publicationsAmazon author pageWikipedia See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I talk with psychologist Gordon Pennycook about why people are susceptible to misinformation and conspiracies.

I talk with composer/music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko about the mathematical patterns underlying music.

Ask Me Anything episode for October 2025.

I talk about apparent fine-tunings in nature, and what they mean for science.

I talk with computational social scientist Petter Törnberg about the dynamics of online information.

I talk with Steven Pinker about the concept of common knowledge and how we use it in social life.

I talk with author Mary Roach about the science of replacing human body parts.

Ask Me Anything episode for September 2025

I talk with legal scholar Cass Sunstein about liberalism, broadly construed, and modern challenges to it.

I talk with planetary scientist Natalie Batalha about exoplanets, their atmospheres and other properties, and future prospects.

I talk with Alvy Ray Smith about the birth of Pixar and the pixelization of human knowledge.

I talk with computer scientist Elizabeth Mynatt about universities and basic research.

Welcome to the August 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy! Blog post with questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/08/04/ama-august-2025/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I talk with physicist/philosopher Jacob Barandes about a new stochastic approach to quantum mechanics.