Favorite theorems, no quiz attached.
My Favorite Theorem is a conversational math show built around a guest’s chosen theorem and the pleasures that sit beside it. Evelyn Lamb and Kevin Knudson keep the room informal, moving from calculus, graph theory, knots, and geometry into food, music, biking, and weather.
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My Favorite Theorem is a math conversation show with an unusually gentle premise: a guest names a theorem, explains its pull, and pairs it with some delight from outside the formal proof. The result is not a lecture hall. It is a table conversation where abstraction can sit beside food, music, biking, weather, and ordinary digressions. Evelyn Lamb and Kevin Knudson give the show its shape, often opening with personal check-ins before turning toward the guest’s mathematical choice. The excerpts show a broad range. The fundamental theorem of calculus is explained through a mountain hike and changing elevation. The Rado graph brings in random processes, isomorphism, and first-order graph statements. The Poincaré-Hopf theorem prompts a loose, generous discussion of what “favorite” even means. Binary quadratic forms and ideal classes appear through the surprise of structure becoming natural after a change in viewpoint. The isoperimetric theorem leads from children playing with string to circles, constant-width shapes, and coin geometry. Knot theory enters through reducible crossings, region crossing changes, and unknotting. The show is comfortable with technical vocabulary. It is also comfortable with hesitation. A host can ask for something to be repeated, admit to being only provisionally comfortable with an idea, or follow a side path before returning to the theorem. That makes the math feel worked through in real time rather than polished into false simplicity. The guest list in its episodes includes Kyne Santos, Jeremy Alm, Robin Wilson, Kate Stange, Karen Saxe, Allison Henrich, Lily Khadjavi, and Yoon Ha Lee, with conversations that range from pure mathematical structures to the human reasons a theorem stays memorable. The show’s charm comes from that combination: serious results, low-pressure pacing, and a format that asks mathematics to share space with taste, memory, and personality.
Made for: Suits a listener who enjoys mathematical ideas explained through conversation, analogy, and visible curiosity. It especially fits people who like advanced topics without a classroom tone.
What sets it apart: The show pairs each chosen theorem with something from ordinary life, so the math is framed by taste and personality as much as by proof. Its best moments keep the difficulty in view while making room for pauses, jokes, and re-explanations.
Join us as we spend each episode talking with a mathematical professional about their favorite result. And since the best things in life come in pairs, find out what our guest thinks pairs best with their theorem.
A mountain hike turns into calculus just as you start rooting for the downhill.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A mountain hike turns the fundamental theorem of calculus into a clear route from small changes to total change.
Calculus turns unusually concrete here, with a mountain hike serving as the map for the fundamental theorem of calculus. A six-hour climb gives the idea a physical route: track each rise and dip along the way, or compare the starting and ending elevations, and both views arrive…
A random graph becomes a clear, lively route into logic, isomorphism, and the value of one more question.
The episode turns to the roto graph, a countably infinite graph that can emerge almost surely from a random process where each pair of distinct vertices is connected with probability one half.
A favorite theorem gets memory, hot fudge flow, and a little room to be rated.
My Favorite Theorem turns the Poincare-Hopf theorem into a relaxed look at how a result can become meaningful at a particular point in a mathematician's life.
A multiplication-like pattern in quadratic forms becomes clearer through ideals and a shift in viewpoint.
Kate Stang's conversation on binary quadratic forms opens with a quiet hook: a multiplication-like pattern shows up in objects where multiplication is not the obvious operation.
A child-friendly circle experiment opens into constant-width shapes and the geometry behind British coins.
A conversation about circles, fixed perimeters, and shapes of constant width starts with a classroom-ready experiment: hand children some string, ask for the largest closed shape they can make, and the circle naturally takes over.
Odd math, made approachable.
Monthly maths puzzles for practical teachers.
Everyday objects, carefully turned toward maths.
Spinach, schoolteachers and Fields Medals: mathematics as life story
Two hosts, three problems, and the working shown.
My Favorite Theorem episode 95 features Kine Santos, a drag queen from Kitchener, Ontario, who says the fundamental theorem of calculus is best understood through a six-hour hike up Acatenango volcano in Guatemala.
My Favorite Theorem centers on Jeremy Alm's choice of the Rado graph, a countably infinite random graph that sits between combinatorics and logic.
Robin Wilson explains the Poincaré Hopf Index Theorem through a surface, a smooth vector field, and Euler characteristic.
My Favorite Theorem centers on Kate Stange's bijection between quadratic forms and ideal classes, introduced as her favorite theorem for the day.
My Favorite Theorem episode 91 with Karen Sachs centers on the isoperimetric inequality on Pi Day during Women's History Month.
Hosts Kevin Knutson and Evelyn Lamb introduce the podcast and chat about Evelyn's upcoming 40th birthday and Janelle Monae concert before discussing a mathematical theorem.
Hosts Evelyn Lam and Kevin Knutson introduce the podcast and share personal holiday stories before diving into mathematical discussions.
Hosts Evelyn Lam and Kevin Knudson interview science fiction writer Yoon Ha Lee about his favorite mathematical theorem and his background in math.
A podcast where mathematicians discuss their favorite theorems, with this episode featuring a live taping announcement and a conversation about Desargues' theorem.
Mathematician Edmund Harris discusses his favorite theorem and the art of illustrating mathematics.
Hosts Kevin Knudson and Evelyn Lam introduce the podcast and discuss an upcoming math calendar project and a geometry/topology workshop.
Hosts Kevin Knudsen and Evelyn Lam interview mathematician Judy Walker about her favorite theorem and pairings.
Hosts Evelyn Lam and Kevin Knutson introduce the podcast and chat about gardening and birdwatching before discussing a mathematician's favorite theorem.