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.
Intellectually Curious
Gaia BH2: The Quiet Black Hole in the Milky Way’s Hidden Population
We combine Gaia astrometry, ground-based spectroscopy, and TESS asteroseismology to study Gaia BH2, a red-giant star orbited by a dormant black hole of about 8.9 solar masses in a 1,277-day orbit—the widest known black-hole binary. The star’s oscillations provide an independent mass, confirming the black hole, while its alpha-enhanced chemistry hints at an ancient origin. This system implies a vast hidden population of quiet, wide binaries and previews how Gaia DR4/DR5 will map the Milky Way’s missing mass.
Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information.
Sponsored by Embersilk LLC