S4 Preview: More Big Questions and No Sasquatches
The Joy of Why
Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin and Quanta Magazine
4.9 • 577 Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How did complex life evolve? Where did space-time come from? Will computers ever understand language like we do? How did geometry create modern physics? These are just a few of the big and bold questions that we’ll be exploring in the latest season of Quanta’s interview podcast, “The Joy of Why,” starting March 20, and released every other Thursday.
As ever, we will be talking to researchers and exploring the latest thinking on great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. But this season sees a new format, with the two of us — mathematician Steven Strogatz and physicist Janna Levin — together in conversation for the first time to offer our own thoughts and questions about each topic.
As a preview, we discuss why we are particularly excited about the new season, and we reveal our favorite standout moments from the previous season.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the joy of why. I'm Steve Strogatz. And I'm Janelle Levin. And here we are together. |
| 0:11.5 | This is a little different wrinkle for us last season. We took turns at the microphone, |
| 0:16.0 | interviewing guests from all different walks of science and math. Now, we're some kind of team. |
| 0:22.8 | We're going to sit down together more. We're going to interview big scientists about big ideas. |
| 0:27.9 | I'm really looking forward to it because, first of all, it's fun to work with you. You can |
| 0:32.6 | always learn a lot from your friends. But what do you think is being brought to the table by having us do this |
| 0:38.3 | together? Well, I think that we have an opportunity as research scientists to dig really deep |
| 0:43.7 | into particular ideas of our choosing, but we don't really get a chance ourselves even to talk |
| 0:49.1 | to other people deeply in other fields. And I think that's going to be a real pleasure. |
| 0:53.7 | We're going to |
| 0:54.2 | home in on four pillars that Quanta covers, like math, physics, computer science, and biology. |
| 1:01.9 | I think it's great to single those four areas out because they are very important to us at |
| 1:07.4 | Quanta and at the Joy of Why. There are all kinds of great science outlets where you can |
| 1:13.5 | learn about applied areas like climate or health, engineering. Yeah, I sometimes worry that a lot of |
| 1:21.6 | people are consuming science that really is kind of all about ourselves. How is it going to make my |
| 1:27.1 | life better, you know, extend my life. So it's a lot of all about ourselves. How is it going to make my life better, you know, extend my life. |
| 1:29.9 | So it's a lot of medical and health. |
| 1:31.7 | But I really sometimes feel the blue skies and the big, dreamy ideas. |
| 1:37.0 | That's actually really valuable for us and a good way to keep the world in perspective. |
| 1:42.7 | Yeah, we also won't be covering Sasquatch or ESP or alien abductions. |
| 1:49.0 | You just lost us half our audience. I know. I wish I had their numbers. Their ratings are incredible, those Sasquatch people. But this is actual science we're going to be doing here. |
| 2:00.1 | I really think our audience will find their curiosity sparked. |
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