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A Recast of ‘The Joy of Why’

“The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the cosmologist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. New episodes are released every other Wednesday. Quanta Magazine is a Pulitzer Prize–winning, editorially independent online publication launched and supported by the Simons Foundation to illuminate big ideas in science and math through public service journalism. Quanta’s reporters and editors focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences, emphasizing timely, accurate, in-depth and well-crafted articles for its broad discerning audience. In 2023, Steven Strogatz received a National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications partly for his work on “The Joy of Why.”

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Recastable Episodes (55)

1. Trailer: The Joy of Why March 17, 2022
2. Why Do We Die Without Sleep? March 23, 2022
3. Untangling Why Knots Are Important April 6, 2022
4. Why Is Inflammation a Dangerous Necessity? April 20, 2022
5. Where Do Space, Time and Gravity Come From? May 4, 2022
6. Will the James Webb Space Telescope Reveal Another Earth? May 18, 2022
7. How Could Life Evolve From Cyanide? June 1, 2022
8. What Is Life? June 15, 2022
9. Can Computers Be Mathematicians? June 29, 2022
10. How Do Mathematicians Know Their Proofs Are Correct? July 13, 2022
11. Why Do We Get Old, and Can Aging Be Reversed? July 27, 2022
12. What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete? Aug. 10, 2022
13. Why and How Do We Dream? Aug. 24, 2022
14. The Joy of Asking About Infinity, Jellyfish and the End of the Universe Feb. 9, 2023
15. How Will the Universe End? Feb. 22, 2023
16. Can We Program Our Cells? March 8, 2023
17. Is There Math Beyond the Equal Sign? March 22, 2023
18. What Has the Pandemic Taught Us About Vaccines? April 5, 2023
19. How Can Some Infinities Be Bigger Than Others? April 19, 2023
20. Is Perpetual Motion Possible at the Quantum Level? May 4, 2023
21. Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse? May 17, 2023
22. What Is the Nature of Consciousness? May 31, 2023
23. What Causes Giant Rogue Waves? June 14, 2023
24. What Can Jellyfish Teach Us About Fluid Dynamics? June 28, 2023
25. Can Math and Physics Save an Arrhythmic Heart? July 12, 2023
26. Does Nothingness Exist? July 26, 2023
27. Trailer: The Joy of Why Season 3 Jan. 25, 2024
28. What Makes for ‘Good’ Math? Feb. 1, 2024
29. How Did Altruism Evolve? Feb. 15, 2024
30. What Is the Nature of Time? Feb. 29, 2024
31. What Is Quantum Teleportation? March 14, 2024
32. How Is Flocking Like Computing? March 28, 2024
33. Can Information Escape a Black Hole? April 11, 2024
34. What Does Milk Do for Babies? April 25, 2024
35. Will Better Superconductors Transform the World? May 9, 2024
36. What Happens in the Brain to Cause Depression? May 23, 2024
37. Can Psychedelics Improve Mental Health? June 6, 2024
38. How Is Science Even Possible? June 20, 2024
39. What Can Tiling Patterns Teach Us? July 3, 2024
40. Will AI Ever Have Common Sense? July 18, 2024
41. How Does Math Keep Our Secrets? Aug. 1, 2024
42. Are Robots About to Level Up? Aug. 15, 2024
43. Do We Need a New Theory of Gravity? Aug. 29, 2024
44. Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? Sept. 12, 2024
45. From Sidedoor — Cosmic Journey I: "Stellar Buffoonery" Sept. 19, 2024
46. What Can Cave Life Tell Us About Alien Ecosystems? Sept. 26, 2024
47. How Can Math Help Beat Cancer? Oct. 10, 2024
48. Why Is It So Hard to Define a Species? Oct. 24, 2024
49. How Is AI Changing the Science of Prediction? Nov. 7, 2024
50. What Can Birdsong Teach Us About Human Language? Nov. 21, 2024
51. How Is Cell Death Essential to Life? Dec. 5, 2024
52. How Will We Know We’re Not Alone? Dec. 19, 2024
53. S4 Preview: More Big Questions and No Sasquatches Jan. 25, 2024
54. S4 Preview: More Big Questions and No Sasquatches March 13, 2025
55. How Did Multicellular Life Evolve? March 20, 2025