The Quanta Podcast

Has the secret to understanding gravity been hiding in plain sight for nearly 50 years?
The article Old ‘Ghost’ Theory of Quantum Gravity Makes a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Generally, dark energy and dark matter are regarded as separate entities, but recent astronomical observations have spurred scientists to look further into a less widespread idea — that the two are in fact physically intertwined.
On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with Physics Editor Kathryn Jepsen about the theories surrounding dark energy’s ties to dark matter and the possibility of a shared dark universe.
This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  
Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

There’s no scientific consensus about what makes living things so different from inorganic material. Some scientists cite replication or metabolism. Others have another answer: Living organisms are different because they do stuff — for reasons. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Philip Ball on the hotly contested idea of “biological agency” and what it means to be alive.
This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  
Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same?
The article ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In 1992, mathematicians Dave Bayer and Persi Diaconis proved that seven riffle shuffles are enough to shuffle a deck of cards — but only if you can cut your deck with precision. Decades later, a new proof has finally extended the finding to less precise cuts. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about how a mathematical cutoff phenomenon still exists for riffle shuffling — randomness seems to happen all at once.
This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  
Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.
In "The Best (and Worst) Ways to Shuffle Cards" from the YouTube channel Numberphile, Persi Diaconis demonstrates different kinds of shuffles, why you might want to stick with a classic riffle shuffle instead of what is called the overhand method and explains his seven shuffles result: https://youtu.be/AxJubaijQbI?si=WctYYRtCZVupMldO