Intellectually Curious
Intellectually Curious is a podcast by Mike Breault featuring over 1,600 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
The Bellman Equation: Turning Big Problems into Bite-Sized Plans
A tour through the Bellman equation and dynamic programming: how to turn a sprawling, multi-step problem into a sequence of manageable steps using backward induction. We unpack the principle of optimality, the role of the discount factor in balancing present fun against future growth, and what it means for real-life planning like retirement or career moves. We also explore randomness, the curse of dimensionality, and how approximate dynamic programming and AI help us estimate future value without blowing up computation. Practical takeaway: treat every next step as the best possible move from your current state.
Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information.
Sponsored by Embersilk LLC