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All Squared, Number 9: Miscellanea with CP and Cushing

By Christian Lawson-Perfect and David Cushing. Posted October 14, 2013

We have an unusual All Squared podcast for you this time. My good friend David Cushing has been asking to do a podcast for absolutely ages. We couldn’t decide on a single topic to talk about, so instead I suggested we just sit down and chat about maths in general, like we do when there isn’t a microphone in front of us.

We talked for about an hour and a half, but because I’m completely stupid we lost a big chunk of it when the microphone switched off. To make things even worse, we recorded in a room with a ridiculously loud fan, so there’s that to contend with. Anyway, we talked about some fun stuff, so I think it’s worth listening to.



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All Squared, Number 8: Martin Gardner (Colm Mulcahy part 2)

By Christian Lawson-Perfect, Katie Steckles and Card Colm. Posted October 6, 2013



This is the second and final part of our interview with Colm Mulcahy. Last week we talked about card magic; in this part we moved on to the subject of Martin Gardner and the gatherings of interesting people associated with his name.

We’ve tacked on some blather we recorded about the British Science Festival in Newcastle to the end of this podcast. Listen in to hear what we think about maths! (We’re broadly in favour of it.)



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All Squared, Number 7: Card Magic (Colm Mulcahy part 1)

By Christian Lawson-Perfect, Katie Steckles and Card Colm. Posted September 29, 2013



Colm Mulcahy is an original Aperiodical contributor (Aperiodicontributor?) and friend of the site. He’s spent the last year and a bit writing his new book, Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects. It came out a few weeks ago, so we thought it was a good opportunity to talk to him and find out just what’s so great about mathematical magic tricks.

Actually, we had that thought quite a while ago and if we’d been the least bit organised this podcast would’ve come out the same day as the book. As it happened, we first arranged to talk to Colm back in May, and then it took literally three months before we actually managed to record the interview.

… And then it took us three weeks to edit it up and upload it. Sorry!

Because Colm had so much interesting stuff to say, we’ve split the interview into two parts. In this first half we talk about the book and mathematical card magic; in the second part, out next week, we talk about Martin Gardner and the Celebration of Mind.

Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects is published by CRC Press, priced £19.99/$29.95.



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All Squared, Number 6: Favourite maths books (part 2)

By Christian Lawson-Perfect and Katie Steckles. Posted May 18, 2013



This number of the All Squared podcast contains the final third of our interview with the inestimable David Singmaster, and then a bit from CP about his favourite book, “A treatise on practical arithmetic, with book-keeping by single entry“, by William Tinwell.



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All Squared, Number 5: Favourite maths books (part 1)

By Christian Lawson-Perfect and Katie Steckles. Posted May 11, 2013



Good maths books are simultaneously plentiful and rare. While there are a few classics almost everyone knows about and has copies of (Gardner, Hardy, etc.), the trade in lesser-known maths books is considerably less well-organised. Very few bookshops have well-stocked maths sections, and insipid pop maths books dominate. Unless you hear about a good maths book through word of mouth, you’ll often only encounter it once it’s ended up in a second-hand bookshop, usually a refugee from an emptied maths department library.

But books, more than anything else, are where the beauty of maths really manifests itself. It’s where ideas are presented most clearly, after they’ve had time to percolate through a few more brains. We talked to David Singmaster, professor of maths and metagrobologist, about his favourite maths books.



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All Squared, Number 4: How interesting!

By Christian Lawson-Perfect and Katie Steckles. Posted April 9, 2013

It’s a repeat booking for the Festival of the Spoken Nerd in number 4 (or 16 if you belong to Team All Squared) of our podcast. Standup mathematician Matt Parker joined us to talk about interesting coincidences.



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All Squared, Number 3: As Easy As…

By Christian Lawson-Perfect and Katie Steckles. Posted March 14, 2013

Remember, remember,
The fourteenth of March.

While the previous number of All Squared failed to achieve topicality by appearing several weeks after the event it was about, this time we’ve hit the nail bang on the head with a podcast all about π day… on π day!


We chatted to Festival of the Spoken Nerd’s Steve Mould about remembering π – how much can you memorise; how much should you memorise; and if you really insist on memorising it, what’s the best way to do it?



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