Jason Bardi - The Great Math War: How Three Brilliant Minds Fought for the Foundations of Mathematics
A Book with Legs
Smead Capital Management
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when brilliant minds disagree not just on answers, but on the very rules of how answers can be found? These questions are addressed in the latest episode of A Book with Legs, where Smead Capital Management CEO and Portfolio Manager Cole Smead is joined by journalist and author Jason Socrates Bardi to discuss his book, "The Great Math War: How Three Brilliant Minds Fought for the Foundations of Mathematics."
Cole and Jason trace the historical and intellectual battle between mathematical titans David Hilbert, who saw mathematics as a game with strict rules, and L.E.J. Brouwer, whose concept of intuitionism rejected many classical methods. They also discuss how these mental frameworks can be considered when investing and interpreting data.
Sign up to be notified about new A Book with Legs episodes: https://hubs.ly/Q0452Lh70
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to A Book with Legs, a podcast presented by Smead Capital Management. |
| 0:07.9 | At Smead Capital Management, we advise investors who play the long game. |
| 0:12.3 | You can learn more at smeedcap.com or by calling your financial advisor. |
| 0:26.2 | Welcome to a book with legs podcast. I'm Cole Smead, CEO, and portfolio manager here at Smead Capital Management. At our firm, we are readers and we believe in the power of books to help shape |
| 0:31.9 | informed investors. In this podcast, we speak to great authors about their writings. The late |
| 0:37.0 | great Charlie Munger prescribed using multiple mental models and analysis. |
| 0:41.0 | We analyze their works through the lens of business, markets, and people. |
| 0:46.3 | Today, we're going to discuss a work that in so many respects is big because of the people that are in it. |
| 0:53.1 | It's big because of the personalities that are in it. It's big because of the personalities |
| 0:54.6 | that are in it. It's big because in many ways it's informed a lot of the mathematics, |
| 1:00.2 | the logic, and really the compute that we think of today. Jason Socrates Barty is joining |
| 1:06.4 | us to discuss his new book, The Great Math War, Brilliant Minds, that fought for the Foundations |
| 1:11.8 | of Mathematics. |
| 1:13.4 | A little bit about Jason for our listeners. |
| 1:16.8 | Jason, pardon me, Jason is an award-winning journalist who has written two books about the |
| 1:22.4 | history of math. |
| 1:23.1 | Those two other titles are the calculus wars and the fifth postulate. |
| 1:26.6 | He has published hundreds of articles |
| 1:28.4 | about modern science and medicine outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Good Morning America, |
| 1:33.7 | U.S. Neuros and World Report, and The Lancet. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University |
| 1:39.2 | of Hartford and a master's in molecular biophysics and also in science writing. Jason, thanks for joining |
| 1:47.1 | me today. Thank you. So, you know, based on your prior titles, I can make assumptions, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Smead Capital Management, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Smead Capital Management and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.