Radio host Adam Spencer fills Sydney's drive-time mornings with smart math and science talk.

Why you should listen

Adam Spencer is the breakfast host on 702 ABC Sydney, the most listened-to talk show in Australia's biggest and most competitive market -- but (or maybe because) in between the usual fare of weather, traffic and local politics he weaves a spell of science, mathematics and general nerdery. Really! In a radio landscape dominated by shock jocks and morning zoos, he plays eclectic tunes, talks math, and never misses the chance to interview a Nobel Prize winner. Which is unsurprising once you find out that this former world debating champion had actually started on a PhD in Pure Mathematics before he began dabbling in improv comedy, which eventually led to his media career.

"Numbers," he says, "are the musical notes with which the symphony of the universe is played."

Watch Adam's promo video for this talk -- and follow the hashtag #PrimePush.

What others say

“It's people like this that give maths the respect it deserves so all can enjoy.” — James Rumsby on TED.com

Adam Spencer’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Adam Spencer

Science

Adam Spencer on why you should watch his TED Talk

September 3, 2013

Adam Spencer isn’t just the host of the Australian radio program Triple J Breakfast Show. He also has a degree in pure mathematics and, in today’s talk, he ascends into “geek heaven” to explains his deep love of massive prime numbers, the largest of which was discovered earlier this year and is 17.5 million digits […]

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Education

Hunting monster primes: Adam Spencer at TED2013

February 28, 2013

Adam Spencer is a radio host in in Sydney during the morning commute. But he says he’s here not as a radio host or as a comedian, “But as someone who is was and always will be a mathematician.” He got bit in second grade when a teacher told him, “That would be like putting a […]

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News

Coded Meaning: Speakers in Session 8 at TED2013

February 28, 2013

Communication in 2013 looks so different from what it ever has before. Will technology be the ruin of all that is good and true in language? We don’t think so. The speakers in this session explore how the future will bring even greater shifts in how we communicate — and it may well be for […]

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