Ideas Worth Exploring
by Mark McDonald
Latest episode
Optimization algorithms and the life lessons they taught me
Optimization algorithms and the life lessons they taught me
About this podcast
Science is the best way we have for understanding how the world works. And you know what makes science better? Puns! This podcast is meant to introduce a variety of scientific topics in a way that is approachable for people without a scientific background and entertaining even for the nerds who think they know everything.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 32 episodes
- Optimization algorithms and the life lessons they taught me · 31 minOptimization is about maximizing or minimizing something. The math behind how you do that has taught me some important life lessons, including: (Gradient descent) Incremental…
- The secret to getting rich is to be boring · 24 minI’ve been interested in investing recently, the idea that if you have money then you can use it to make more money. This is a really important topic that I wish my past self had…
- Climate Change Part 3: The solutions to global warming and what they have to do with cows · 36 minIf we want the globe to stop warming, then we need to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Methods to reduce emissions include: renewable energy, electric vehicles, feeding…
- Climate Change Part 2: Blind octopuses and lonely turtles · 34 minClimate change will cause droughts, floods, heat waves, and might even make our vegetables less nutritious. In this episode we will talk about some of the consequences global…
- Climate change part 1: Your car is a greenhouse · 38 minCow burps and car emissions are making the atmosphere heat up. This is the greenhouse effect, and it’s the same thing that turns your car into an inferno in the summer, with some…
- Game Theory part 2: playing chicken with potatoes · 33 minIf you ever encounter a situation where you think “who’s going to give in first?” it’s probably a game of chicken. This is the dynamic that shaped the arms races of Cold War…
- Game Theory Part 1: Society is in a prisoner’s dilemma · 33 minWhat do tic-tac-toe, international politics, and animal grooming behaviors have in common? Much more than you might expect. In this episode we’re going to talk about game theory…
- Oh no! Polymers are taking over the world! · 31 minPolymers are everywhere. There are dozens of types of plastics, but there are also biological polymers such as DNA and proteins, and together, most of the materials you use every…
- Thinking, fast and slow · 37 minGambling, advertising, politics, and household chores. What do these have to do with each other? They’re all areas where your brain can steer you wrong when making decisions, as…
- A brief history of life, the universe, and everything · 39 minA walk through the history of the universe, starting with the Big Bang and the creation of the elements in stars, moving through the first molecular replicators, the RNA world…
- Building a planet, one climate at a time · 30 minPretend you’re making a new planet from scratch, and you want to know how the climate and weather patterns will be affected by each new feature you add. In this episode we will…
- Evolution through natural selection: “I choose you, Darwin!” · 24 minUnlike in Pokemon, evolution in our world happens slowly, over many generations. In this episode, we talk about how all life on earth is part of the same family and arose from a…
- The Big Bang and the fate of the universe · 30 minYou may have heard of something called the Big Bang, where all the stuff in the universe spread out from a single point. Did you know that the Big Bang is still happening? Well…
- Matter, antimatter, and beyond! · 22 minThe universe is full of stuff. Big stuff, small stuff, red stuff, blue stuff, normal stuff, ridiculously weird stuff. Most people don’t understand just how weird some of that…
- Brains! Part 2: Memory matters · 26 minWhat is a memory, physically? Do people really only use 10% of their brain? Is my short term memory bad, or is it just my short term memory? Answers to follow!
- Brains! Part 1: The humble neuron · 16 minBrains! Brains are made of neurons that use electrical and chemical signals in a way that somehow gets turned into us thinking and writing podcasts about brains. This episode is…
- Eat your nutrients! · 30 minKeto, paleo, flexitarian, Mediterranean, it seems like everyone is interested in the newest diet fad. But does eating soy protein puree really make you healthier than eating…
- Archimedes’ Principle of Floatiness · 14 minHow do ducks float? Is it because they’re made of wood? Well, why does wood float? The answer, in a way, has to do with a naked man and a crown. But the real answer is found in…
- Black holes don't suck! · 24 minYou’re flying through the universe on your spaceship, seeing the sights, having a great time, when all of a sudden you see a black hole! Oh no, it’s sucking you in! Then it…
- Microwaves, eyeballs, and why the sky isn't purple · 23 minX-rays, gamma rays, microwaves, radio waves, what do they have in common? They’re all colors of light that you can’t see. This episode about electromagnetic radiation, the thing…
