This is the first Monday in quite a while that I haven’t had a new episode of Relatively Prime to listen to. That’s because all eight episodes have now been released. I meant to put a little post up each week reminding you to listen to the latest episode, but I completely forgot to do that, so here’s a post saying you can now listen to the whole lot. And you should.
The episode titled Chinook was a compelling tale of the quest to solve the game of draughts by computing all positions. Cory Doctorow said it was “one of the best technical documentaries I’ve heard.”
My favourite of the eight episodes by far was the one about Paul Erdős. Wikipedia says Erdős was a “legendarily eccentric” personality, and this episode embellished that legend considerably. It was quite fascinating, and moving, to hear about the most distinctive mathematician of modern times from the people who worked with him.
The other six episodes, while tightly focussed, were all interesting and well-researched, with engaging guests. The series ended on a whimsical note, with Sam asking each of his guests the question, “what’s your favourite number?” They gave some good answers!
The entire series was of a remarkably high quality, considering it was made by one man on a shoestring budget. Hopefully someone sensible has been listening in each week and will give Sam the resources to tell some more “stories from the mathematical domain”.
So well done, Sam. This was a triumph!
I just finished listening to the final episode today – excellent stuff. I think 91 is my favourite number, by the way.