June 18, 2025

A Numbers Game: Mathspiracies

47 minutes

EPISODE 139 | A Numbers Game: Mathspiracies

Guest: Gary Arndt, writer and host of the Everything Everywhere Daily podcast

We aren't really very good with numbers, so naturally we've come up with a lot of wacky ideas about them. Gary Arndt talks about numbers of all sorts, like why Pi is stupid, why prime numbers are cool, why the Fibonacci sequence isn't all that, when math leads to murder and much more.

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SECTIONS

02:25 - Numeracy rates, gambling is (usually) a sucker's bet, numerology, the Bible Code, p-hacking, Equidistant Letter Sequencing (ELS)

13:09 - The Hidden Hand of Mathematics, the Ultraviolet Catastrophe and the birth of quantum physics, the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio

20:05 - Pi, tau, the Cult of Pythagoras, irrational numbers, transcendental numbers, squaring the circle, Alex Jones and math, the real number of the Beast

28:51 - Why people believe conspiracy theories

30:13 - Angel numbers, the "meanings" of numbers

33:43 - Numbers stations

37:25 - Prime numbers, Prime Target TV series, trapdoor functions in cryptography, Al-Khwarizmi, double entry bookkeeping, the idea of zero, zero and null are different

43:20 - Base-10, base-12, base-60, and our timekeeping and calendar systems

Music by Fanette Ronjat

More Info

Everything Everywhere Daily podcast

The Bible Code book review in Notices of the AMS

The Significance of The Number Forty-Two (42) by By Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)

Magic Apologetics: Equidistant Letter Sequencing in the Christian Research Journal

Assassinations Foretold in Moby Dick!

THE UNREASONABLE EFFECTIVENSS OF MATHEMATICS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES by Eugene Wigner

The Ultraviolet Catastrophe and the Creation of Quantum Mechanics episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

What is the Fibonacci sequence? on LiveScience

Fibonacci Sequence on Math Is Fun

Composing Balanced Images: The Golden Ratio on ProGrade Digital

Everything You Need to Know About Pi episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Why Tau Should Replace Pi episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

The Cult of Pythagoras episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Irrational Numbers episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Squaring the Circle episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

e: Euler’s Number episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Pi Is Encoded in the Patterns of Life

Alex Jones and 666 video

A Guide to Angel Numbers and What They Mean

Numerology Numbers 1-9: Exploring the single digit numbers in Numerology on Numerology.com

Numbers Stations episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Number Stations on Priyom.org

Number Station Recordings - Creepy radio broadcasts from unknown origins (video with over 4 hours of recordings)

All About Cryptography episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Prime Numbers episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Prime Target TV series on IMDb

Zero, My Hero episode of Everything Everywhere Daily

Zero and NULL values

What is the Base-10 Number System?

Base 12: An Introduction

Babylonian Mathematics and the Base 60 System

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