Episode · People I (Mostly) Admire · 2025-01-11
Books mentioned on Why Numbers are Music to Our Ears (Update)
Sarah Hart investigates the mathematical structures underlying musical compositions and literature. Using examples from Monteverdi to Lewis Carroll, Sarah explains to Steve how math affects how we hear music and understand stories.
Steve Levitt discussed Once upon a Prime by Sarah Hart, Not Quite what I was Planning: Six-word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Rachel (ed.) Fershleiser, and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll and others. Sarah Hart discussed The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton and others and A Void by Georges Perec.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Once upon a Prime
Discussed“Sarah wrote a book called once upon a prize which dives into the magical overlap between literature and Mathematics”
Where to get it
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The Luminaries
Discussed“there's a book called The Luminaries by Elena Katen won the book of prize in 2013 and that book has a mathematical structure underneath it which is that every chapter is half the length of the one before”
Where to get it
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Not Quite what I was Planning: Six-word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure
Discussed“my freaking a author Steven dub he started to get obsessed with these Six Word Stories and he was invited to be part of a book where they asked famous authors to write their own Memoir in six words”
Where to get it
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A Void
Discussed“whereas perex book called Lis barion The Disappearance and in English it's called aoid which both clever titles”
Where to get it
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Through the Looking-Glass
Discussed“Through the Looking Glass the sequel is based on chess and he actually said you could play that book as a genuine game of chess”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
“Alice in Wonderland is based on cards there's the queen of hearts and those things”
Plugged Once upon a Prime
“my book once upon a prime about the wondrous connections between mathematics and literature had just been published since then”