Math Podcasts

Below is a (not complete) list of podcasts and radio shows with downloadables that I have heard over the years that have some connection to math. I have arranged them first by podcasts that are specifically About Teaching Mathematics, then podcasts with specific topics that are About Mathematics, then podcasts that are about Related to Mathematics topics and then finally Miscellaneous Episodes that relate to math. I know that there are more that I haven't listed. That is because I will only list things here that I have actually listened to. If you have any that you have heard that I have missed, please contact me at davidpetro314@gmail.com.

About Teaching Mathematics

OAME talks Podcast

One thing we are trying with the OAME (Ontario Association for Mathematics Education) is to do a podcast with brief interviews with some of our annual conference speakers. We have a short first season this year starting with @MrOrr_Geek & @MathletePearce, next up is @Marian_Small, then @FawnPNguyen and ending up with @MarkChubb3. We also have some preview episodes about sessions from the upcoming OAME conferences as well. Check out all the episodes as they are released (and the webinars if you are an OAME member) at this link 
https://talks.oame.on.ca/

Making Math Moments that Matter 

This podcast from @MakeMathMoments is the work of @MathletePearce and @MrOrr_Geek where they take their three part framework and unpack it over several episodes. The focus here is one what makes good teaching and how do we do it in a way that ideas stick with kids. They are now up over 20 episodes and they focus on the keys to Making Moments Matter. I particularly like some of the newer episodes where they have "Mentoring Moments" with teachers from around North America. They also have episodes with some of the big names in math education like the always joyous @JamesTanton, or creator of the games Prime Climb & Tiny Polka Dots @MathforLove as wells growth mindset guru @JoBoaler, Ontario's own @Marian_Small & @mathgarden and Thinking Classroom guru @pgliljedahl. Even for the speakers that I have heard before, there is always at least one take away that I love. For example, for Marian Small it was how she ended by saying that "Until you show your kids you love what you do, they're not going to love what you do either." and from the Peter Liljedahl episode he said "...the thinking classroom framework is 14 things to build a thinking classroom. There's about a hundred ways to screw it up..... " and "... but all those (good) things were trumped by one piece of research.... it's not that standing is so good, it's that sitting is so bad.... it turns out that when the kids are sitting, they feel anonymous...". Each episode has info and extra resources to extend your thinking on each topic.
http://makemathmoments.com/podcast/

Math Teacher Lounge

Though @lockhartedu & @ddmeyer have been at it for a while,  Math Teacher Lounge officially came out as a podcast. And although I think they are done, you can watch the first two seasons on their website and also have them in your favourite podcast feed. Season 3 starts with @Howie_Hua and you can be sure to hear all kids of tips for teaching math regardless of the episode you listen to and listen all the way to the end of season 6.
https://amplify.com/math-teacher-lounge

Think Thank Thunk

If you are at all interested in @pgliljedahl's Building Thinking Classrooms then you will like this podcast where @vendi55, @MaeganGiroux and @webbkyle go through each chapter of the book plus more (including talking with Peter directly) https://thinkthankthunk.kylewebb.ca/




It's always interesting to hear about math education in different parts of the world (especially when it is from a fellow mathematics association). In this case it's the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT). They are only a few episodes in but you can already see similar ideas. I guess math is math. And I also like how they ask each guest about a lesson that went wrong (we have all been there). Check it out. 



Math is Figure-out-able

In this relatively new podcast from @PWHarris and @KimMontague, Pam and Kim go through strategies and ideas around moving away from algorithms. As the title says, they think that math is figure-out-able and that is the mantra that we should have with students. As for grade levels, I would say that the topics primarily deal with elementary and middle school. However, Pam is a High School teacher so she gives perspectives that make any of the topics relevant to all levels of teachers. These are nice and "bite sized" (20 min-ish) and are released just about every week. And don't forget to check out her main website for resources and participate in #MathStratChat every Wednesday for discussion on strategies around math problems. 
https://podcast.mathisfigureoutable.com/ 

Debate Math

For years @CLuzniak has been asking his students to debate math topics in his class. Now he's taken that idea and put it in a book and a podcast. In the podcast he has teachers or groups of teachers take a topic (Stop making students memorize, Cut quadratics, should students have homework etc) and pick a side and then use the standard debate format to talk about it. 
https://debatemath.com/


Math Before Breakfast 

This is a recently introduced podcast to me that's been around since the fall of 2018 and are now up over 20 episodes. The premiss of @mathb4breakfast is that two elementary teachers (@math6teacher and @tracyjoproffitt) go for runs together a few mornings a week and talk about their math teaching practice. So they started to record their conversations (thankfully, not while they are actually running). I wasn't sure what to expect when I started to listen but I really love the way that they talk through pedagogical ideas in order to plan out what they are doing in their classes. They share a lot of resources (like tonnes of links per episode) and even if you may have heard of some (or all) of those resources, that peak into their teaching and planning process is really useful. 

Math Therapy

Some math teachers may not like this podcast because often the themes are critical of math teaching, past and present. But I think this is a really important listen because although there are some well known  people like @MathGarden & @JohnMighton (from the math community) and @drimogencoe,  @SamanthaZY & @OnlineKyne (from the science community), the majority of the guests are people who struggled with (or through) math. Now I will point out that I don't always agree with some of the comments (but I haven't figured everything out yet either) and there is some NSFW language (that may turn some people off), but there is a great theme that goes throughout the episodes - that there is no such thing as a "math person". These are important stories for any teacher to hear because not everyone we teach will "get it" (at all or right away) and having some first hand accounts of what that's like is potentially helpful in our regular classes. But these are also important stories for struggling students (and parents of struggling students) to hear so they know that a) they are not alone and b) there is hope for improvement. https://www.maththerapypodcast.com/

Estimation 180 Podcast

For years @Mr_Stadel has been advocating estimation (and other things) in math classes and now has started a podcast where he plans to share tips and tricks of using Estimation 180 (and other things) in the classroom. Season 2 has just started so check out the new episodes.
https://estimation180.com/podcast/



Mr. Barton Maths Podcast

I have found resources at the Mr. Barton Maths website for years and just recently found out that @MrBartonMaths had a podcast. On it he does a lot of long form (an hour plus) interviews with math educators and researchers. Certainly worth the listen check out all the episodes here but here are a few of my faves (so far) 
  • I can't seem to get enough of Hannah Fry and so this long form interview is just enough to give me a fix. One of my favourite quotes from this episode is "People think mathematicians are people who just find stuff really easy and know exactly what their doing. They’re the people who aren’t put off when they hit dead end after dead end after dead end." Listen here http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/hannah-fry-algorithms-love-and-being-a-mathematician/
  • Sept. 9, 2018 - Simon Singh: Fermat’s Last Theorem and stretching high-attainers - Here @SLSingh talks about his many books including Fermat's Last Theorem and the Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets. He also mentions some of his initiatives to support high end math in schools. And if you haven't listened to it yet, scroll up closer to the top of this page for info on Simon's great series 5 Numbers, Another 5 Numbers and A Further 5 Numbers.  http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/simon-singh-fermats-last-theorem-and-stretching-high-attainers/
  • May 20, 2018 - Dylan Wiliam – the return! Creating the Schools our Children need - There are a lot of great nuggets that @DylanWiliam talks about in this over 2 hour interview. One of my favourite parts was when he suggested that the most important characteristic of a good teacher was not content knowledge or pedagogy execution but instead the willingness to continue learning and especially to not think that everything you do in the classroom is correct. But there is way more than that here. http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/dylan-wiliam-the-return-creating-the-schools-our-children-need/ 

10-Minute Teacher

The 10-minute teacher podcast is a very practical podcast where teachers of all variety are interviewed and are giving tips of the trade in these small 10 minute nuggets. They are not all about math but I have highlighted some of the math related ones (though some of the others are pretty good too. They put out an episode every weekday (every day with a different theme) and @coolcatteacher does the interviewing. I only found out about it because I was suggested to them by someone as a potential guest. I'm glad I know about it now.


About Mathematics

Numberphile 

Most of us (I hope) are familiar with the Numberphile Youtube channel but now they have a podcast. As I write this there are only three episodes but all of them are long form interviews that start to go into some of the basics of being a mathematician and doing mathematics in the wild. The first episode introduced me to a new (to me) Youtube channel 3Blue1Brown which has great math visuals. Then we hear from the current president of the American Mathematical Society and the latest (as I type this) is of Hannah Fry, who is a frequent contributor to the Numberphile Youtube channel. I absolutely loved the episode with Cliff Stoll. So many good stories (some sad, some inspiring) but Cliff's excitement about what he does just bleeds into the conversation. The next is an interview with story teller Simon Singh were we get insights into his books, his lawsuit and what he's doing now with what he calls "Top Top Maths" and the website http://parallel.org.uk . That's a great start and there has been more to follow, including interviews with James Grime talking about the origins of Numberphile and John Urschel talking about mixing math and pro sports among others.
https://www.numberphile.com/podcast/

Uncharted with Hannah Fry

[New Added June 2024] This is a relatively new podcast series (Fall of 2023) where @FrySquared tells the stories behind some important sets of data. This is perfect for any statistics or data management class. 




Stats and Stories

From the American Statistical Association this podcast tries to tell about the statistics in the stories and the stories about the statistics. They do this on various topics  (Economics, Education, Entertainment, Environment, Health, Media, Methods, Politics, Society, Sports) and bring in experts to make sense of the stats and to give the back story to the statistics. 
https://statsandstories.net/


Carry the Two

This is a curiosity-driven podcast that looks to find unique perspectives from the fields of mathematics and statistics. They use stories to convey how mathematical research drives the world around us, with each episode tackling a different topic. This can be anything from modeling how bees in a swarm make group decisions to how we can use textual analysis to reveal surprising changes in policy documents.



A Brief History of Mathematics

A Brief History of Mathematics In this 10 episode BBC series, Professor of Mathematics Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations and argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00srz5b/episodes/downloads


Simon Singh's Numbers

Originally this was a five part series (Pi, Phi, i, 0 and infinity) and then it was expanded to a 10 then a 15 part series. It's more than a decade old but each short episode is about 12-15 minutes long and is well produced with many great facts about all kinds of math.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cl73s/episodes/player

The Sum of All Parts


This relatively new podcast has episodes that focus on numbers. Though some are more general, with stories around a particular number, there are also some that related directly to mathematics. Like this one on the first chord in The Beatles' A Hard Days Night (which would be good for any courses dealing with composition of functions), this one on rock & roll frontman who turn himself into a mathematician, this one on why the US may be resistant to switching to the metric system, or this one on the idea of indefinite hyperbolic numerals like 'zillion', 'squillion' and 'kajillion'. Season two http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sum-of-all-parts/
should be starting soon.

The Math Guy

Keith Devlin is a Stanford Mathematician, but for almost 20 years he's had a side gig talking about mathematics on NPR's Weekend Edition. He does these in no regular interval but you can listen to almost all of the complete archive here:
https://web.stanford.edu/~kdevlin/MathGuy.html







My Favourite Theorem

Hosted by mathematicians @niveknosdunk and @evelynjlamb this relatively new podcast interviews other mathematicians & math teachers and ask what their favourite theorems are. Although some are well above high school levels, some of the discussion does hinge around theorems and mathematics that could be done in high school and elementary classes like the fundamental theorem of Calculus, Archimedes’ theorem that π is a constant, Fermat's Little Theorem, how this mathematician connects Pythagorean Theorem with his Navajo identity, and Varignon’s theorem for quadrilaterals (here is my 2D @desmos graph, 3D @geogebra graph and this short @desmos activity where students construct it). More recently there was a great episode featuring @stecks and the fold and cut theorem she showed on @numberphile and this episode on assigning a value to teamwork may not seem like it connects well to secondary school math but the bit at the end about how he applied his favourite theorem in game development will have the gamers in your classes thinking more about why math is important.
https://kpknudson.com/my-favorite-theorem/ For more info you can see a blog post for each podcast at https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/

Related to Mathematics

A Podcast of Unnecessary Detail 


My new favourite podcast doesn't always have a direct connection to math but there always seems to be math floating around. It's really a science podcast that sometimes has math. Hosted by @StandupMaths, @MouldS and Helen Arney, the trio take a common word and then each tell a sciency or mathy story about that word (mostly science). It's very clever and entertaining in a nerdy way. If you like math and science you won't be disappointed by this podcast. 
https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/podcast/


A Problem Squared

It seems that @StandupMaths can't stop creating stuff. Another podcast he co hosts with comedian @BecHillComedian where people submit there problems and they two of them try to solve them. I most cases @StandUpMaths tries to use Math to do so (or Maths as he calls it).


The Joy of X Podcast

If you haven't read The Joy of X by @StevenStrogatz then you are missing out. And although this is not that, it is still pretty cool. In each episode Steven interviews a working scientist or mathematician and lets us get a glimpse of what they do. Some of the mathematicians you can hear include Tadashi Tokieda, @JohnCUrschel, Corina Tarnita and @AlexKontorovich. They are great conversations (listen to the scientist ones too) and totally worth a listen. 

More or Less

Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life. There is usually something on each episode that relates to math class, especially statistics (they are UK centric, however). I have highlighted a few particularly good ones for math class (though really all could be used).
  • A great estimation problem, how many swimming pools of vaccine would be needed to vaccinate the world https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09dwvsh
  • A few weeks ago @standupmaths posted a video about proving there was cheating happening on a record breaking speed run on MineCraft. Here's a shorter audio version. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09ch7qv
  • How much room would all the Covid-19 "particles" take if you gathered them together. Spoiler alert - not a lot. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p096v4k2
  • Some interesting math to reverse engineer the Covid-19 numbers coming out of Iran to give something that may be more realistic.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p086krm0
  • In this episode they talk to @standupmaths about his new book "Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors" where he talks about things like rounding mistakes and other errors with mathematics in history. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07113q3
  • If you are doing any work with measurement and specifically units then this one may have some good info about how we are finally at a place when all of our standard measurements are now based on scientific data. That is, we just got rid of the standard kilogram (a physical kilogram) as the thing that defines mass. Hear more here  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06s0shc
  • I liked this episode because there were some examples of problems with rating scales, the math of estimating how many wizards are in England in the Harry Potter books and picking apart the numbers in a study about the safety of home births. All of these, I thought, were really good at talking about how to analyze statistics critically.   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p068w7c8
  • Do you use "math" or "maths" it seems there is evidence why either can be acceptable. This segment starts at 17:43 and the jury may still be out, even after this.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066x9fh
  • I think when you are teaching statistics it is good to give students some strategies to help tell if a statistic is valid. On this episode, they do it on the back of a postcard. That is, there are five main points and they fit on the back of a postcard. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05yfqph
  • If you are dealing with metric prefixes or imperial metric conversions then this episode might be useful. It starts with the story of losing a Mars probe due to mixing up imperial and metric measurements and then ends with discussion of some of the larger metric prefixes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05jgh5y
  • In this episode they look at the possible reason that albums are getting longer. The short answer is - more tracks means more potential clicks and higher chart placing. There is some interesting info about Spotify. I'm thinking you could have some conversations about rate using the information here about things like how many clicks is equated to one "purchase" - 1500 plays equates to one record sale.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05mpr59
  • The idea of a 100 or 500 year storm often is misleading to humans. In this episode they look at what that probability actually means.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05f4qp9
  • The Story of Average - Everything has to start somewhere. And even things that are so common have a beginning. In this case it's the story of where the idea of "average" came from. You can listen to this 10 min story on the origins of average by the BBC radio Show More or Less and wow your students with anecdotal info about mathematics. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qprk7
  • The Math(s) of Spies and Terrorists - a really nice example of how 99% success rate in terrorist detection would result in a large amount of false positives in a country like th US with 300 million people. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01snyk3
  • Testing Public Opinion - Do you need to give real examples of how the way you ask questions on a survey can become biased by using Leading Questions then listen to this More or Less episode on how a poorly conducted survey in India likely gave unreliable results. This clip from the Yes Prime Minister that shows how by using leading questions you can get opposite results for the same question. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04jz6sr
  • Using order of operations. Listen to the More or Less podcast (starting at about the 11min mark) to hear the story behind the story and watch these two videos to see examples from the gameshow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfa3MHLLSWI & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-mx3RSvOQ

RadioLab

This is a well produced show that is mostly about Science (though lately it can be just about anything) and sometimes math shows up. They do a great job of storytelling

Whats the Point

This podcast was created by 538. That is Nate Silver's site about sports and politics (and entertainment) statistical analysis. On this show they do a great job of breaking apart stats and having experts explain what they mean. Most shows are good (though they are more like interview shows). but the ones below, I think, could be particularly useful when teaching stats. Although this Podcast is not in production anymore, you can still browse their archives.

Planet Money

Planet Money is an NPR segment that has longer form shows on the economics of everything. They are well produced and often have things you can use in your standard math classes.
  • If you are teaching students anything about compound interest (and more advanced annuities) then you might find a great example in this episode that connects to baseball.  You could use it just to talk about the power of compound interest but for advanced math you can verify that Bobby Bonilla's deal of over a million dollars a year pay after retirement. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/25/1010404697/bobby-bonilla-day
  • I don't normally watch Jeopardy but lately I have been interested since James Holzhauer started using Math to game the system and become the winningest player in Jeopardy History (with no signs of stoping - at the time of typing this). Here's Planet Money's take on the way he does it.   https://www.npr.org/2019/05/10/722198188/episode-912-how-uncle-jamie-broke-jeopardy
  • 10 11 51 52 62 18 - When ever I used to teach combinatorics I wouldn't miss talking about lotteries and specifically those like the 6/49 or the Powerball. Invariably we would talk about being able to buy all the possible combinations and what that would take. It was pretty quickly determined that you would need a huge effort or at least some sort of automation (much like Lazlo had if you have ever seen the movie Real Genius). Well, as it turns out, somebody has actually done this. They filled out and played every combination.  http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/01/13/462982983/10-11-51-52-62-18
  • The Experiment Experiment - This story from Planet Money is about the fact that many psychological studies are actually not repeatable. When talking about data management we often talk about bias and this episode talks about how bias could be why some of these studies are not repeatable. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/01/15/463237871/episode-677-the-experiment-experiment
  • Why A Pack Of Peanut Butter M&M's Weighs A Tiny Bit Less Than A Regular Pack - I like collecting real data in classes, and so I was thrilled with a reason to do so. That is, the mystery of why there are different weights of regular M&Ms vs Peanut Butter M&Ms per bag. The actual reason is a bit of a mystery. But collecting data about how many M&Ms are in each pack (or how much each pack weighs in reality) is a good way to talk about measures of central tendency, dot plots, and standard deviation. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/06/05/319084976/why-a-pack-of-peanut-butter-m-ms-weighs-a-tiny-bit-less-than-a-regular-pack
  • What's Your Major? - Many have long said that mathematics was the way to a high paying job. Well now I guess we have the data to prove it. The US Census has always asked about income and level of schooling but in their most recent surveys they have also asked what people's majors were. The Planet Money people have a great podcast on the results (long and short versions below). And the survey says: Applied math (engineering, computer science etc) seems top the list. What's at the bottom? Psychology. A couple of things that resonated with me about this were a) that, in general, it didn't matter where you got your degree and b) it really had more to do with supply and demand.  http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/11/221417806/episode-485-whats-your-major
  • At $17.5 Million A Year, LeBron James Is Underpaid - I am not completely sure how this could be used in a math class but I was fascinated by the connection of math and economics to show that LeBron James is actually severely underpaid at $17M per year. I am pretty sure you could tie this into statistics. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/25/170176590/at-17-5-million-a-year-lebron-james-is-underpaid

The Indicator

An offshoot podcast from Planet Money is called The Indicator which is a short look at a number in the news. They happen every weekday and all could be connected to some math course. But here are a few specific ones

Freakonomics Radio


Along the same lines as Planet Money, Freakonomics Radio takes the ideas of the book and continually applies them to all sorts of things. Sometimes they get into the math too.
  • @MarcusduSautoy has a new book about shortcuts in mathematics. It's not about "math tricks" but more about the idea that by finding patterns we can be more efficient in how we use mathematics. Here is an interview with him on the topic. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/frbc-thinking-better/
  • In this episode, Stephen Levitt is back and he takes on the curriculum of math and - spoiler alert - the data says that kids need to be more data literate and less calculus literate. Many things resonated with me but here are two: "The college teachers say, “Very few things matter and matter a lot.” The high school teachers say, “Everything matters.” " and "About 2 percent said that they use calculus on a daily basis, and almost 80 percent say they never use it." and if you want a similar take, here is Arthur Benjamin's short TED talk on the same topic.  http://freakonomics.com/podcast/math-curriculum
  • "John Urschel of the Baltimore Ravens was the only player in the N.F.L. simultaneously getting a Ph.D. in math at M.I.T. But after a new study came out linking football to brain damage, he abruptly retired" - this story is probably a nice general interest topic spanning sports to math. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/brain-damage/
  • How Do We Know What Really Works in Healthcare? - In data management it seems reasonable to talk about random controlled trials and why they are so important for research (especially medical research). With that being said, this is about that very thing. Certainly worth a listen, if only to gain insight we can pass on to our students. Personally, it's the kind of thing I would have students listen to and then have the discussion afterwards. http://freakonomics.com/2015/04/02/how-do-we-know-what-really-works-in-healthcare-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

People I Mostly Admire

[New Added Sept 2024] - This is an off shoot of the Freakonomics Radio podcast (and for some reason I'm just adding it). In this one Steven Levitt interviews people from different areas of speciality. Regardless of who it is you can usually find something interesting. That being said, there are over 100 episodes and there are a handful of them that relate directly from math. Ken Ono - The Language of the Universe (this is my personal favourite), Conrad Wolfram - Why do we still teach people to calculate?, Steven Strogatz Thinks You Don’t Know What Math Is, The Joy of Math With Sarah Hart, Talithia Williams - Bring data to life, Nate Silver Says We’re Bad at Making Predictions, Mathematician Sarah Hart on Why Numbers are Music to Our Ears, America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add Up. 

Short Wave

This is a daily (short) science podcast that is quite good at summarizing scientific principles and ideas in a easy to listen way. So far only one of the episodes is math related but I am sure there will be more. 

Science Friday

Science Friday is a weekly two hour radio show on all things science. That being said, they often have segments that relate to math.

NPR

There are often math related stories that appear elsewhere on NPR. Here are a few

The Story Collider

The Story Collider is a podcast that is about people telling true stories about science (and some math). They are all recorded live at story slams and science festivals and are often quite interesting. Here are a few dealing with math in some way.

CBC

99% Invisible


99% Invisible is a show about architecture and design but often it has tangential topics. It is very well produced and even the episodes about math are quite interesting.

Miscellaneous Episodes

Here's a nice little story from @standupmaths about how easy it is to win on a gameshow when the randomness isn't really random.

I listen to the Cyber podcast regularly and they have a relatively new feature called My First Hack where they interview a cyber security professional and ask how they got started. On this episode Patrick Wardle's first hack was creating a program on his high school TI-84 calculator that would do calculus but only once he put the right code in (so the program looked benign if his teachers checked his calculator out). https://play.acast.com/s/cyber/howpatrickwardlehidabackdoorinhishighschoolcalculator



One of my new favourite podcasts is not about math at all. It's about language and it's called The Allusionist. I have been binge listening to it over the last few weeks. But, as it turns out, there was some math in an episode called Zillions where they talk about indefinite hyperbolic numerals like 'zillion', 'squillion' and 'kajillion'. And now with a mashup of math, drag queens and language, they are going in the other direction and talking about zero.
https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/zillions
https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/zero






This American Life: What's in a Number - This American Life is one of the big wigs of well produced radio shows and although there is very little math, this particular episode was all about one number and the good statistical methods that went into creating it. That number was the number of deaths caused by the Iraq War (as it was going on). It's longer but very well produced and, I think, is a must listen to for anyone teaching data management.    https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/320/whats-in-a-number-%E2%80%94-2006-edition


@TimHarford has created many podcasts. One of his current shows, Cautionary Tales, he talks about what we can learn from historical events and how we can apply those learnings to current times. I this episode he talks about his upcoming book " The Data Detective" and the origins of the book "How to Lie with Statistics" https://timharford.com/2020/09/cautionary-tales-storks-smoking-and-the-power-of-doubt/ In one of the recent episodes he talks about Florence Nightingale and her famous graph that told the story of the infections happening and why increasing sanitary conditions would lower the death rate in the military hospitals.



Adam Spencer has his Ph.D in math, has been a morning radio drive time DJ and has hosted many shows on math and science topics. His latest podcast is called Big Questions and on the first Episode of the 2nd season he interviews former Baltimore Ravens player @JohnCUrschel who is now doing his Ph.D in Math at MIT. Every interview I hear with John makes me like him even more.
https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Whats-it-like-to-be-the-biggest-maths-geek-to-ever-play-in-the-NFL-the-big-questions




On this episode of Note to Self they speak to @MonaChalabi who is the data editor for The Guardian who does some very cool stuff both in the publication and on her Instagram feed. She picks interesting data sets and creates interesting visualizations to represent them. Listening to a podcast doesn't do her work justice but listen at the link below and then and then check out her feed.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/data-mona-chalabi/


If you ever want to give students an example of the dangers of exponential growth, then this story of a hacker who's "worm" inadvertently shut down the most popular site on the Internet (at the time) and did so because it grew exponentially. Listen to his story (starting at 1:19:17 ) on how he shut down MySpace (this was clearly a while ago) and how it eventually got him banned from using computers. @SamyKamkar is a hacker and he is being interviewed by venture capitalist and self experimenter @tferriss. It's a great (and long) podcast but the story in question starts at 1:19:17.  http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/05/02/samy-kamkar/


Have not heard of the Museum of Math (MoM)? Listen hear to find out why you should go to New York to visit it. http://www.wnyc.org/story/264330-down-and-dirty-at-the-museum-of-math/

Listen to JoBoaler on Math, gender, mindsets and controversy in this radio interview  https://soundcloud.com/inflectionpointradio/jo-boaler-revolutionizing-math-education-at-stanford




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