Welcome to the December 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll] (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/12/15/ama-december-2025/

In the intro I give a plug for the Pods Fight Poverty effort organized by GiveDirectly [https://www.givedirectly.org/podsfightpoverty/]. Please consider making a donation to help families in Rwanda!

Enjoy!

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AMA | December 2025

The story goes that Wolfgang Pauli, who first proposed the existence of neutrinos, was embarrassed to have done so, as it was considered uncouth to hypothesize new particles that could not be detected. Modern physicists have no such scruples, of course, but more importantly neutrinos turn out to be very detectable, given sufficient resources and experimental technique. I talk with neutrino physicist Ryan Patterson about what current and upcoming experiments teach us about neutrinos themselves, as well as implications for dark matter and why there are more particles than antiparticles in the universe.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/12/08/228-ryan-patterson-on-the-physics-of-neutrinos/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Ryan Patterson received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University. He is currently Professor of Physics at Caltech. His research involves a number of aspects of experimental neutrino physics, including involvement in the NOvA [https://novaexperiment.fnal.gov/] and DUNE [http://www.dunescience.org/] experiments.

 * Caltech web page [https://www.its.caltech.edu/~rbpatter/]
 * Publications at inSpire [https://inspirehep.net/authors/1046583?ui-citation-summary=true]



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338 | Ryan Patterson on the Physics of Neutrinos

Game theory is a way of quantitatively describing what happens any time one thing interacts with another thing, when both things have goals and potential rewards. That's a pretty broad class of interesting events, so it is unsurprising that game theory is a useful way of thinking about everything from international relations to the evolution of peacock feathers. I talk with philosopher Kevin Zollman about what game theory is and how it gets used in biology and human interactions. We discuss how thinking in game-theoretic terms can help understand the origin of meaning and intentionality in human language.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/12/01/337-kevin-zollman-on-game-theory-signals-and-meaning/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Kevin Zollman received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Irvine. He is currently the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Philosophy and Social and Decision Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also an associate fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and a visiting professor at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. He serves as the Director of the Institute for Complex Social Dynamics [https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/social-dynamics/] at CMU. He is the co-author, with Paul Raeburn, of The Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting [https://www.amazon.com/Game-Theorists-Guide-Parenting-Negotiators-ebook/dp/B015CLB53M/].

 * Web site [https://www.kevinzollman.com/]
 * CMU web page [https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/philosophy/people/faculty/kevin-zollman.html]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XMu62aQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao]
 * PhilPeople profile [https://philpeople.org/profiles/kevin-zollman]



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337 | Kevin Zollman on Game Theory, Signals, and Meaning

Machine learning using neural networks has led to a remarkable leap forward in artificial intelligence, and the technological and social ramifications have been discussed at great length. To understand the origin and nature of this progress, it is useful to dig at least a little bit into the mathematical and algorithmic structures underlying these techniques. Anil Ananthaswamy takes up this challenge in his book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI [https://anilananthaswamy.com/why-machines-learn]. In this conversation we give a brief overview of some of the basic ideas, including the curse of dimensionality, backpropagation, transformer architectures, and more.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/24/336-anil-ananthaswamy-on-the-mathematics-of-neural-nets-and-ai/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Anil Ananthaswamy received a Masters degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle. He is currently a freelance science writer and feature editor for PNAS Front Matter. He was formerly the deputy news editor for New Scientist, a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, and journalist-in-residence at the Simon Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California, Berkeley. He organizes an annual science journalism workshop at the National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bengaluru, India.

 * Web site [https://anilananthaswamy.com/]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Anil-Ananthaswamy/author/B001HPNL1M]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Ananthaswamy]



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336 | Anil Ananthaswamy on the Mathematics of Neural Nets and AI

Welcome to the November 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll] (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/17/ama-november-2025/

In the intro I mentioned a couple of my favorite TV shows of this year. Here is a more thought-out list (no particular order):

 * Slow Horses [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Horses]
 * Murderbot [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murderbot_Diaries]
 * The Residence [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Residence_(TV_series)]
 * Poker Face [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_Face_(TV_series)]
 * Severance [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severance_(TV_series)]

Pluribus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluribus] and Down Cemetery Road [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Cemetery_Road] also look promising, but too early to tell. (There are a huge number of shows I've never seen, so feel free to add recommendations.)

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

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AMA | November 2025

Science has an incredibly impressive track record of uncovering nonintuitive ideas about the universe that turn out to be surprisingly accurate. It can be tempting to think of scientific discoveries as being carefully constructed atop a rock-solid foundation. In reality, scientific progress is tentative and fallible. Scientists propose models, assign them probabilities, and run tests to see whether they succeed or fail. In cosmologist Andrew Jaffe's new book, The Random Universe [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300250503/the-random-universe/], he illustrates how models and probability help us make sense of the cosmos.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/10/335-andrew-jaffe-on-models-probability-and-the-universe/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Andrew Jaffe received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. He is currently a professor of astrophysics and cosmology and Director of the Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology at Imperial College, London. His research lies at the intersection of theoretical and observational cosmology, including the Planck Surveyor, Euclid, LISA, and Simons Observatory collaborations.

 * Web site [https://andrewjaffe.net/]
 * Imperial web page [https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/a.jaffe]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=g-x0VlsAAAAJ&hl=en]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Andrew-H.-Jaffe/author/B0FZVMC2SG]



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335 | Andrew Jaffe on Models, Probability, and the Universe

The universe as revealed by physics is objective: it's out there, existing and behaving in ways that are completely independent of human thought. But the process by which we learn about the universe, and the language with which we talk about it, is extremely human-dependent. Does that mean that aliens would do science differently, and even think differently about physics, even if we all live in the same universe? Physicist Daniel Whiteson has teamed with cartoonist Andy Warner to investigate these questions in their new book Do Aliens Speak Physics? [https://sites.uci.edu/alienphysics/]

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/03/334-daniel-whiteson-on-the-physics-of-and-by-aliens/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Daniel Whiteson received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and recipient of an Emmy nomination. He is the author of several books, often with co-author Jorge Cham [http://jorgecham.com/]. He is the co-host (with Kelly Weinersmith [http://www.weinersmith.com/]) of the podcast Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe [https://sites.uci.edu/danielandkelly/].

 * UCI web page [https://sites.uci.edu/daniel/]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C21&q=daniel+whiteson&btnG=]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Daniel-Whiteson/author/B078H9D52X]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Whiteson]



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334 | Daniel Whiteson on the Physics of and by Aliens

Why are people wrong all the time, anyway? Is it because we human beings are too good at being irrational, using our biases and motivated reasoning to convince ourselves of something that isn't quite accurate? Or is it something different -- unmotivated reasoning, or "unthinkingness," an unwillingness to do the cognitive work that most of us are actually up to if we try? Gordon Pennycook wants to argue for the latter, and this simple shift has important consequences, including for strategies for getting people to be less susceptible to misinformation and conspiracies.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/10/27/333-gordon-pennycook-on-unthinkingness-conspiracies-and-what-to-do-about-them/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Gordon Pennycook received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Waterloo. He is currently an associate professor of psychology and Dorothy and Ariz Mehta Faculty Leadership Fellow at Cornell University as well as an Adjunct Professor at University of Regina’s Hill/Levene Schools of Business. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, and a 2016 winner of the IgNobel Prize for Peace.

 * Web site [https://gordonpennycook.com/]
 * Cornell web page [https://psychology.cornell.edu/gordon-pennycook]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AIbJenwAAAAJ&hl=en]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Pennycook]
 * IgNobel Prize citation [https://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2016]



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333 | Gordon Pennycook on Unthinkingness, Conspiracies, and What to Do About Them

Music is math that you can dance to. The fact that certain notes sound good when played together, or in succession, is related to the mathematical properties of the frequencies to which they correspond, an idea that goes back as far as Pythagoras himself. These days we have a much more intricate understanding of these relationships and how to manipulate them. I talk to composer and music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko about how different musical scales are constructed and the math underlying what sounds good.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/10/20/332-dmitri-tymoczko-on-the-mathematics-behind-music/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Dmitri Tymoczko received a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a professor of music at Princeton University as well as a composer and performer. He has been the recipient of Rhodes and Guggenheim fellowships. As a composer, his works have been performed by multiple groups, and recorded on several albums.

 * Personal web site [https://dmitri.mycpanel.princeton.edu/index.html]
 * Princeton web page [https://music.princeton.edu/people/dmitri-tymoczko]
 * Mad Musical Science [https://www.madmusicalscience.com/]
 * Spiral diagrams: rock music [https://www.madmusicalscience.com/cs.html?chord=C,E,G&scale=12], classical music [https://www.madmusicalscience.com/cs.html?chord=C,E&scale=7]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C21&q=dmitri+tymoczko&btnG=&oq=dmitri+tym]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dmitri-Tymoczko/author/B0046CHXOO]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Tymoczko]
 * William Sethares's Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale [https://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/ttss.html]



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332 | Dmitri Tymoczko on the Mathematics Behind Music

Welcome to the October 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll] (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/10/13/ama-october-2025/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AMA | October 2025

Ever wanted to know how music affects your brain, what quantum mechanics really is, or how black holes work? Do you wonder why you get emotional each time you see a certain movie, or how on earth video games are designed? Then you’ve come to the right place. Each week, Sean Carroll will host conversations with some of the most interesting thinkers in the world. From neuroscientists and engineers to authors and television producers, Sean and his guests talk about the biggest ideas in science, philosophy, culture and much more.

Sean Carroll

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