#370 – Edward Frenkel: Reality is a Paradox – Mathematics, Physics, Truth & Love

Edward Frenkel is a mathematician at UC Berkeley working on the interface of mathematics and quantum physics. He is the author of Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00)– Introduction
(05:54)– Mathematics in the Soviet Union
(16:05)– Nature of reality
(27:23)– Scientific discoveries
(40:45)– Observing reality
(56:57)– Complex numbers
(1:05:42)– Imagination
(1:13:33)– Pythagoreanism
(1:21:28)– AI and love
(1:34:07)– Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems
(1:54:32)– Beauty in mathematics
(1:59:02)– Eric Weinstein
(2:20:57)– Langlands Program
(2:27:36)– Edward Witten
(2:30:41)– String theory
(2:36:10)– Theory of everything
(2:45:03)– Mathematics in academia
(2:50:30)– How to think
(2:56:16)– Fermat’s Last Theorem
(3:11:07)– Eric Weinstein and Harvard
(3:18:32)– Antisemitism
(3:38:45)– Mortality
(3:46:42)– Love