Intellectually Curious
Intellectually Curious is a podcast by Mike Breault featuring over 1,400 AI-powered explorations across science, mathematics, philosophy, and personal growth. Each short-form episode is generated, refined, and published with the help of large language models—turning curiosity into an ongoing audio encyclopedia. Designed for anyone who loves learning, it offers quick dives into everything from combinatorics and cryptography to systems thinking and psychology.
Inspiration for this podcast:
"Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson."
― Frank Herbert, Dune
Note: These podcasts were made with NotebookLM. AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information.
Podcasting since 2024 • 1561 episodes
Intellectually Curious
Latest Episodes
Juhyo: The Ice Monsters of Mount Zao
A deep dive into Mount Zao’s awe-inspiring juhyo—giant, feathery ice formations sculpted by the perfect storm of geography, biology, and brutal weather. We break down ice-snow accretion, the role of the hardy Maris fir, and how supercooled drop...
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5:14
Frobenius Normal Form: The Unique Fingerprint of Matrix Similarity
Dive into the Frobenius (Rational) Canonical Form and discover how it gives each square matrix a unique fingerprint that survives changes of basis. We’ll see why this form avoids eigenvalue factoring, using invariant factors and companion block...
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5:04
Chewbacca Coral: The Shaggy Giant of the Deep Sea
Dive into the discovery of Iridogorgia chewbacca, a shimmering deep-sea bamboo coral whose thousands of active polyps cloak its stalk in a fuzzy, iridescent halo. We unpack what a monopodial spiral axis means, how this species survives at 400–1...
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5:04
Ultra-Black: From Vantablack to Biomimicry
A tour of the darkest materials, from nanotube forests like Vantablack to nanofibril fabrics and melanin-based layers inspired by deep-sea organisms. We explore how nanoscale structures trap nearly all light, why durability and scalability matt...
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5:44
Newcomb’s Paradox in the Age of AI: One Box, Two Boxes, and Free Will
We unpack the classic predictor dilemma—two boxes, a near-perfect forecaster, and a choice that seems to predefine your fate. We compare the one-box and two-box strategies, dive into the idea of character formation, and discuss what ultra-accur...
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4:23
