The Mathematicians Podcast12 Nov 2025

Episode 47 - Isidorus of Miletus - Build it, and they will come

This week, we bridge the gap between Alexandria and Constantinople with Isidorus of Miletus, a mathematician and architect who preferred teaching to writing. We look into how he and his partner, Anthemius of Tralles, were commissioned to build the legendary Hagia Sophia in a mere five years, after a sports riot burned down half the city. Discover the architectural genius behind its "floating" dome, a marvel of pendentives that has stood for centuries.

Then, we follow the extraordinary journey of a lost text by Archimedes, which Isidorus himself studied. From a library in Constantinople to a 10th-century copy in Jerusalem, this priceless work was scraped clean by a monk for a prayer book, painted over by an art forger, and finally sold at auction for millions. Uncover the cutting-edge science that resurrected the hidden text, revealing Archimedes' work in combinatorics—the Stomachion puzzle. It’s a tale of genius, destruction, and incredible rediscovery, proving that sometimes the most interesting things are hiding in the most boring places.

Hashtags:#HistoryOfMathematics #IsidorusOfMiletus #HagiaSophia #ByzantineArchitecture #Archimedes #Palimpsest #AncientHistory #MathsPodcast #STEM #Constantinople #HistoryPodcast #Architecture

Keywords:Isidorus of Miletus, Hagia Sophia, Anthemius of Tralles, Byzantine, Constantinople, Archimedes Palimpsest, The Method, Stomachion, Procopius, Justinian, Nika Riots, Pendentive Dome, History of Science, Combinatorics, Eutocius of Ascalon.

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Avsnitt(59)

Episode 59 - Varāhamihira (And Bhāskara I) - Back to School

Was Varāhamihira the world's first statistician? Could a sixth-century mathematician really predict the monsoon using observational data? And how did Bhāskara I produce one of the greatest approximati...

3 Aug 24min

Episode 57 – Aryabhata – From hero to zero

The Gupta Empire reaches its scientific zenith as we meet one of the greatest mathematicians of Late Antiquity. Aryabhata (476–550 CE) helped transform astronomy and mathematics in India through a rem...

3 Juli 47min

Episode 57 - Yavanesvara - The Lord of the Greeks

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9 Juni 44min

Episode 56 - Pingala - Beats us up

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17 Maj 10min

Episode 55 - Injective - Thomas K Briggs - On The Mathematicians' Library

In this special book club episode of 'The Mathematicians Podcast', I sit down with author, maths communicator, and museum learning consultant, Thomas K. Briggs. Join us for a glass of wine and a deep ...

20 Apr 1h 20min

Episode 54 - Umaswati - Mind the Gap

In this episode of The Mathematicians Podcast, I am jumping ahead 800 years and travelling 5,000 km back to India to pick up the threads of a fascinating mathematical tradition. I’ll be introducing yo...

25 Mars 30min

Episode 53 - Nabu-rimanni & Kidinu - Systematically Speaking

When is an approximation "good enough"? This week on The Mathematicians Podcast, host Benjamin Cornish opens the doors to his gem and fossil shop to discuss why a polished piece of glass, or a clever...

17 Feb 28min

Episode 52 - Apastamba - What He Said.

Episode 52 of The Mathematicians Podcast, takes us deep into the world of ancient Indian mathematics with a focus on Apastamba and his contributions to the Sulvasutras. Following in the footsteps of B...

27 Jan 22min