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Celebrating Pi Day with the stars of our podcast!

This Pi Day, March 14th, we say thank you to to all the wonderful mathematicians and scientists who have helped make our podcast, Maths on the move! Our podcast celebrates the researchers themselves, as well as their research, and we hope it conveys the creative and dynamic nature of doing mathematics – bringing mathematics to life.

We relaunched our podcast channel in March last year, but we've been producing podcasts since waaaay back in 2007. We love reporting the latest news from the world of maths, as you can hear in our latest episode Communicating from the frontiers of mathematics. And we also bring you the maths behind the headlines you see every day – such as in our special series On the mathematical frontline where we spoke to the mathematicians grappling with the unprecedented challenge of live pandemic.

We hope you enjoy discovering some their mathematical stories in your favourite episodes from the podcast over the last year!

Happy listening and happy Pi Day everyone!

Maths, our environment, our climate

How can maths help us tackle the climate crisis? And how can it help us understand the world we live in? Find out from these experts in climate science and modelling ,and those working on the innovative technologies that could make a difference.

How to predict our changing climate — In this podcast we ask climate modelling experts Emily Shuckburgh and Chris Budd to explain the models that predict how the Earth's climate will behave in the future.

A 60% chance of rain: Weather, climate, and how to deal with uncertainty — We talk to world-leading climate scientists Tim Palmer about climate and weather, the science of uncertainty, and why there needs to be a CERN for climate change.

What are liquid metal batteries? — Find out why liquid metal batteries hold much hope in our move to renewables in our interview with Donal Sadoway, following on from an event organised by the Newton Gateway to Mathematics in Cambridge.

New ways of seeing with the INTEGRAL project — We ask the INTEGRAL team about their innovative machine learning approaches to understanding remotely gathered images, and the significant impact these technologies can have on the world.

Maths on the red carpet!

We were very excited to be able to take you direct to Helsinki for the International Congress of Mathematicians in July 2022! (Forgive the slightly intense theme music – we were very excited!)

The ICM takes place very four years and is one of the highlights of the mathematical calendar - as well as being the biggest maths conference of them all, attracting thousands of participants, it also sees the awards of some very prestigious prizes, including the famous Fields Medals. In these podcasts meet the new Fields Medallists and find out what made this ICM so different.

Maths on the red carpet – Fields Medallist Maryna Viazovska — We were very excited to announce the winners of Fields Medals for 2022, as well as the all the other prizes live from the ICM 2022! And in this podcast we talked to Fields Medallist Maryna Viazovska.

Maths on the red carpet - Fields Medallist James Maynard — In this podcast we talked to James Maynard, who won a 2022 Fields Medal for his spectacular contributions to number theory.

Maths on the red carpet – Fields Medallist Hugo Duminil-Copin — In this podcast we talked to Hugo Duminil-Copin, who tells us how his work in statistical physics brings together his two loves – maths and physics.

Maths on the red carpet - Fields Medallist June Huh — Fields Medallist June Huh tells us about maths you can "feel and touch" and why maths mirrors who we are as a species.

Listener favourites from the archive

Relaunching the podcast has given us the chance to sprinkle our podcast feed with fantastic interviews from our archive. These episodes have been clear favourites with our listeners!

Stadium maths — In this podcast, one of the first we ever made and one of your favourites, Paul Shepherd tells us about the maths of football stadiums and why his work required him to listen to Belgian techno.

Are the constants of nature really constant? — There are some numbers you can rely on: the speed of light, the gravitational constant. But can you really rely on these constants of nature? To celebrate what would have been John D. Barrow's 70th birthday, we revisit our 2009 podcast where we asked him: Are the constants of nature really constant?

Women of Mathematics: Holly Krieger — In 2017 we were lucky enough to interview the Cambridge mathematicians whose portraits were included in the Women of Mathematics photo exhibition. In this interview we talk to Holly Krieger about the joys of learning and conversations with colleagues. And you can find all the other interviews here.

The maths and magic of shuffling — We all have our favoured methods of shuffling cards - but there's so much more to be discovered! In this podcast mathematician Cheryl Praeger and magician Will Houstoun reveal the maths and magic behind shuffling cards. And as this podcast, first published in March 2021, was the first podcast we produced in collaboration with the Isaac Newton Institute, Dan Aspel also tells us all about the INI!

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify and through most other podcast providers via podbean.


Many of these podcasts form part of our collaboration with the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI), an international research centre and our neighbour here on the University of Cambridge's maths campus. INI attracts leading mathematical scientists from all over the world, and is open to all. Visit www.newton.ac.uk to find out more.

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