Episode notes
Jordan Ellenberg has good news: artificial intelligence is just math you can actually understand. The mathematician joins Hakeem to pull back the curtain on how large language models really work, revealing that the "miracle" of AI is closer to trial and error scaled up billions of times than anything resembling thought. Jordan breaks down why the process works so well, how every word becomes a point in a space with hundreds of dimensions, and why your chatbot's "personality" is engineered, not accidental. Learn more about NOVA and visit our YouTube channel. -------------------------- Guest…
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Particles of Thought
GBH · Tech & Science · English
Ready to break your brain? Particles of Thought , the hit video podcast from the producers of NOVA is back with new mind-expanding conversations with scientists on the edge. Host Hakeem Oluseyi dives into how to hack your own anxiety, the surprising connection between dark matter and black holes, t
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S6 · E26 · 3 Sep 2026 · 38 min
Glacier Rescue
Brent Minchew has a plan that could stop the “Doomsday Glacier” in its tracks, and we don’t even need new technology to do it. The Caltech glaciologist returns to unveil an intervention that could save coasts around the world: refreezing Thwaites Glacier to its own bedrock using passive principles of physics. Brent walks Hakeem through the natural process that slows glaciers down, and lays out a plan to investigate if they can truly deploy it on the world's most precarious glacier. Learn more about NOVA and visit our YouTube channel. -------------------------- Guest Bio: Brent Minchew is a…
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S6 · E25 · 1 Sep 2026 · 25 min
The Glacier That Could Change the World
Brent Minchew is an expert on the glacier that could devastate the world’s coastlines. As a glaciologist at Caltech, he's spent his career tracking Thwaites Glacier, AKA the "Doomsday Glacier." It’s roughly the size of Florida and already losing 50 billion tons of ice a year. Brent joins Hakeem to break down what scientists know – and don’t know – about the glacier that could determine our future. How certain is that “doom,” and how fast could it happen? They nerd out about what happens as glaciers slip into the sea, how satellites can measure glacier movement down to the millimeter from…
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S6 · E24 · 27 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 16 min
Full Interview: The Hidden Math Behind Everything
Jordan Ellenberg tells Hakeem that math isn't just about numbers. It's about everything. The mathematician and bestselling author shares how AI models are trained through trial and error, why geometry secretly governs everything from family trees to statistical correlation, and why uncertainty, not certainty, is the true language of the universe. From new dimensions to hurricanes we can't quite predict, Jordan and Hakeem trace math's fingerprints across physics, language, and daily life in a preview of his upcoming book, Don't Be Too Sure. -------------------------- Guest Bio: Learn more…
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S6 · E23 · 25 Aug 2026 · 25 min
Certainty Is Overrated
Jordan Ellenberg finds mathematical certainty overrated. Calming our fear of the unknown, the mathematician joins Hakeem to explore why math, contrary to popular belief, is less about proof and more about probability. He traces uncertainty's surprisingly recent arrival in mathematical history and its deep ties to quantum physics. Jordan also unpacks the difference between what's unknown and what's fundamentally unknowable, why hurricanes and earthquakes are "certain u Learn more about NOVA and visit our YouTube channel. -------------------------- Guest Bio: Jordan Ellenberg is a professor of…
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S6 · E22 · 20 Aug 2026 · 27 min
Next Dimension Geometry
Jordan Ellenberg says geometry isn’t about shapes. It’s about distance. In a tour of geometry far stranger than anything from high school, the mathematician breaks down how our ancient understanding of triangles evolved into the invisible architecture behind AI, family trees, and human relationships. Minds expand as we ask why the "closeness" between two ideas is a literal angle in a vast multi-dimensional space, and what can a 19th-century novella about a talking square teach us about worlds we'll never see? Learn more about NOVA and visit our YouTube channel. --------------------------…
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S6 · E20 · 13 Aug 2026 · 58 min
Full Interview: Hobbits, Neanderthals, and Dragon Man
Ella Al-Shamahi explores what it means to be human. She reveals the surprising truth that our ancestors shared the planet with at least seven other human species as recently as 50,000 years ago. Ella and Hakeem dig into Neanderthal culture and the mysterious Denisovans who were identified from a single finger bone. Then Ella shares something more personal: her own journey from creationist to one of the leading voices in paleoanthropology. Learn more about NOVA and visit our YouTube channel. -------------------------- Guest Bio: Ella Al-Shamahi is a paleoanthropologist, explorer, and…
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S6 · E19 · 11 Aug 2026 · 16 min
Creationist to Evolutionary Biologist
Ella Al-Shamahi set out to disprove the theory of evolution. Now she’s one of its greatest advocates. In this deeply personal conversation, Ella tells Hakeem her story. She started university as an avid creationist missionary with the intention of disproving evolution, and then her world started to fall apart. This candid conversation covers what the journey from creationist to paleoanthropologist actually looked like, and the evidence that shifted her thinking. It is a path with personal costs and the impact of changing worldviews. It's a thoughtful reflection on science, identity,…
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S6 · E18 · 6 Aug 2026 · 22 min
Rethinking Neanderthals
Ella Al-Shamahi thinks Neanderthals have a reputation problem, and the science backs her up. For decades, the word "Neanderthal" has been shorthand for something primitive and brutish. But the archaeological record tells a more nuanced story. Ella joins Hakeem to explore what we actually know about our closest ancient relatives: how they looked, how they lived, what their culture reveals about their inner lives, and if we would even recognize one walking around today. They also dig into the remarkable story of the Denisovans, a species shrouded in mystery and identified first not from a…
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S6 · E17 · 4 Aug 2026 · 23 min
Real Hobbits?
Ella Al-Shamahi says the iconic picture of human evolution is all wrong. She joins Hakeem to take apart the conventional image of the straight-line march of evolution from ape to modern human. The fossil and DNA record tells a far more complex story. As recently as 50,000 years ago, our ancestors shared the planet with at least seven other human species. From the small-statured Hobbits of Indonesia to the mysterious Denisovans of East Asia, the world was very different, and new research suggests that roughly 20% of our genome may trace back to an unknown “ghost lineage” of human species.…
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S6 · E16 · 30 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
Full Interview: The Future of AI and Us
Daniela Rus brings robots and AI together, and as a computer scientist and roboticist at MIT, she's here to set the record straight. She's not just studying AI from the outside. She's building it, and finding ways to make everyday life better. Daniela joins Hakeem to pull back the curtain on what AI actually is, how it really works, and where it is genuinely headed. What happens when AI leaves the cloud and moves into your phone, your car, and even your body? And what does a tiny worm with 302 neurons have to do with the future of machine intelligence? From the history of AI to so-called…
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