The show, episode by episode

The Joy of Why

Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin and Quanta Magazine

“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…

72 episodes tracked

The Joy of Why

What Does the Fourth Dimension Actually Look Like?

Where Does the Quantum World End and Ours Begin?

Live from ICM 2026: What Is Math For in the Age of AI?

Are We Thinking Correctly about AI Intelligence?

How Does Touch Lead To Pain Or Pleasure?

How Fast Is the Universe Really Expanding?

Will We Ever Find Alien Civilizations?

What Is the Positive Grassmannian and Why Does It Show Up Everywhere?

What’s the Future of Gene Editing?

Do Beautiful Birds Have an Evolutionary Advantage?

How Can Math Protect Our Data?

Why Did The Universe Begin?

How Can Regional Models Advance Climate Science?

How Does Graph Theory Shape Our World?

Does Form Really Shape Function?

Will We Ever Prove String Theory?

How Did Geometry Create Modern Physics?

Will AI Ever Understand Language Like Humans?

Can Quantum Gravity Be Created in the Lab?

What Is the True Promise of Quantum Computing?

How Did Multicellular Life Evolve?

S4 Preview: More Big Questions and No Sasquatches

How Will We Know We’re Not Alone?

How Is Cell Death Essential to Life?

What Can Birdsong Teach Us About Human Language?

How Is AI Changing the Science of Prediction?

Why Is It So Hard to Define a Species?

How Can Math Help Beat Cancer?

What Can Cave Life Tell Us About Alien Ecosystems?

From Sidedoor — Cosmic Journey I: "Stellar Buffoonery"

Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum?

Do We Need a New Theory of Gravity?

Are Robots About to Level Up?

How Does Math Keep Our Secrets?

Will AI Ever Have Common Sense?

What Can Tiling Patterns Teach Us?

How Is Science Even Possible?

Can Psychedelics Improve Mental Health?

What Happens in the Brain to Cause Depression?

Will Better Superconductors Transform the World?

What Does Milk Do for Babies?

Can Information Escape a Black Hole?

How Is Flocking Like Computing?

What Is Quantum Teleportation?

What Is the Nature of Time?

How Did Altruism Evolve?

What Makes for ‘Good’ Math?

S4 Preview: More Big Questions and No Sasquatches

Does Nothingness Exist?

Can Math and Physics Save an Arrhythmic Heart?

What Can Jellyfish Teach Us About Fluid Dynamics?

What Causes Giant Rogue Waves?

What Is the Nature of Consciousness?

Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse?

Is Perpetual Motion Possible at the Quantum Level?

How Can Some Infinities Be Bigger Than Others?

What Has the Pandemic Taught Us About Vaccines?

Is There Math Beyond the Equal Sign?

Can We Program Our Cells?

How Will the Universe End?

Why and How Do We Dream?

What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete?

Why Do We Get Old, and Can Aging Be Reversed?

How Do Mathematicians Know Their Proofs Are Correct?

Can Computers Be Mathematicians?

What Is Life?

How Could Life Evolve From Cyanide?

Will the James Webb Space Telescope Reveal Another Earth?

Where Do Space, Time and Gravity Come From?

Why Is Inflammation a Dangerous Necessity?

Untangling Why Knots Are Important

Why Do We Die Without Sleep?