Puzzling Maths Podcast
A sideline
23 December 2020
During the first Covid lockdown back in April 2020, a couple of friends heard me do an item on Radio 4's More or Less. "You should do a podcast about fun maths stuff," they both said. "We would listen to it!"
I liked their enthusiasm, but I wasn't convinced. I didn't fancy doing some sort of monologue, and I don't have the production or editing facilities to make the output sound even half-professional. And there's a lot of competition out there. How many people would seek this out to listen?
Coincidentally at about the same time my friend Andrew Jeffrey landed a daily slot setting puzzles on BBC Radio 5Live, for which I acted as a sounding board. Andrew's item was popular and generated a lot of audience feedback.
When that daily radio slot came to a natural post-lockdown end, we wondered what to do next to fill some of those Covid-filled gaps in the diary. A joint podcast? Why not.
And so Puzzling Maths was born.
It's aimed at that broad general audience who aren't particularly into maths, but who enjoy hearing puzzles on the radio. The sort of people who listen to 5Live, in fact.
At the time of writing we've recorded six episodes, and now have a cluster of subscribers that probably numbers into, ooh, double figures. But we've really enjoyed doing it. You can take a listen here. If you want to get into the Christmas spirit I suggest you start at Episode 6: Puzzling Maths