In this series of posts, we’ll be featuring mathematical podcasts from all over the internet, by speaking to the creators of the podcast and asking them about what they do.
We spoke to Marshall Poe from the New Books Network about the NBN podcast New Books in Mathematics.
Podcast title: New Books in Mathematics
Website: newbooksnetwork.com/category/science-technology/mathematics
Links: RSS – Spotify – Stitcher – Apple
Average episode length: 60 minutes
Recommended episode: Mage Merlin’s Unsolved Mathematical Mysteries
What is your podcast about, and when/why did it start?
It started in 2012 – that was a couple of years after I founded the New Books Network, and I thought we needed a math channel because, well, math, right? I recruited the mathematician and author Jim Stein to host. Jim really deserves credit for the success of NB Math.
What is the New Books Network?
“New Books in Mathematics” is part of the New Books Network, or NBN. The NBN was founded a decade ago by me, back when I was a professor. Its mission is public education, full stop. The NBN has 100 “channels” (podcasts), each on a subject. We have 450 hosts (most professors, and all volunteers) and publish 55 episodes a week. We’ve published 9,200 episodes. Our listeners download 1.5 million episodes a month.
What is the podcast like, and who is it for?
It’s for anyone interested in math. All our episodes are author interviews: we have an expert (in this case, a mathematician) interview an author-expert (a mathematician) about said author-expert’s new book. We publish a couple times a month.
Why should people listen to this podcast?
People should listen if they are interested in math, and particularly interested in math books. We only cover books!
What are some highlights of the podcast so far?
That’s a hard one. Any episode with Alfred Posamentier. He’s great.
What exciting plans do you have for the future?
Our plans are to recruit new hosts so we can produce more episodes and spread the word about how cool math is. So if you know anyone who might want to become a host, I’ll sign them up!