PODCAST · education
The Polymath
by Achintya Krishnan
Join me on The Polymath in learning about a diverse range of topics in easy to understand podcasts to uncover complicated topics.
Episodes
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Reversibility: Decisions You Can and Can't Undo
Hernán Cortés burned his ships on the coast of Mexico, eliminating retreat for 600 soldiers facing an empire of millions. That's the most extreme irreversible decision ever made. But most of us make irreversible decisions every day without realizing it—and paralyze ourselves over reversible ones....
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Episode 39: Scale: Why Size Changes Everything
A giant sequoia and a blade of grass need the same things—sunlight, water, nutrients. Same inputs. Completely different organism. That's scale. And it changes everything—not just how big something is, but how it fundamentally works. We'll explore the square-cube law (why ants can carry 50x their...
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Episode 38: Asymmetry: Why Equal Inputs Don't Mean Equal Outputs
One match starts a wildfire. One decision at 25 shapes an entire career. One habit compounded over 30 years determines your health at 60. Small inputs create massive outputs. Large inputs sometimes create nothing. The relationship between effort and result is almost never equal—and this asymmetry...
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Episode 37: Skin in the Game: Why Stakes Matter
The single best predictor of whether advice is worth taking isn't credentials or confidence—it's whether the person giving it has something real to lose if they're wrong. Skin in the game means bearing the consequences of your own decisions. When you do, incentives align, decisions improve, and...
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Episode 36: Circle of Competence: Knowing What You Don't Know
Warren Buffett is one of the greatest investors ever—not because he knows everything, but because he knows exactly what he knows and refuses to go outside it. That's the circle of competence: the area where your understanding is deep enough to make reliable judgments. We constantly violate it...
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Episode 35: The Map Is Not the Territory: Models vs Reality
Every model is a simplified representation of reality—and that's both its power and its limitation. A map of San Francisco shows streets and landmarks, but not the smell of sourdough, the fog, the hills, the culture. The map is useful because it's simpler than the territory, but it's never the…
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Episode 34: Marginal Thinking: The Next One, Not the Average
Don't think about the average. Think about the next one. Most people ask "Is this good overall?" Marginal thinkers ask "Is the next one worth it?" At a buffet, you've paid $20 for unlimited food. Should you get a third plate? Average thinking: "$6.67 per plate, good deal!" Marginal thinking: "Am…
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Episode 33: Opportunity Cost: What You're Really Giving Up
The real cost of anything isn't the price—it's what you could have done instead. Every yes is a thousand nos. Buy a $50,000 car? The cost is $50,000 invested at 7% = $380,000 in 30 years. Spend 3 hours scrolling? The cost is everything else you could have done. Take a safe job? The cost is the…
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Episode 33: Marginal Thinking: The Next One, Not the Average
Don't think about the average. Think about the next one. Most people ask "Is this good overall?" Marginal thinkers ask "Is the next one worth it?" At a buffet, you've paid $20 for unlimited food. Should you get a third plate? Average thinking: "$6.67 per plate, good deal!" Marginal thinking: "Am…
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Episode 32: Probabilistic Thinking: Dealing with Uncertainty
Most people think in absolutes: "This will work" or "This will fail." Probabilistic thinkers think in likelihoods: "This has a 70% chance of working." Nothing is certain—everything is probability. But our brains hate this. We round small probabilities to zero and high probabilities to certainty.…
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Episode 31: Inversion: Working Backwards to Find Answers
Instead of asking "How do I succeed?" ask "How do I fail?" Then avoid those things. Inversion means approaching problems backwards—from the opposite end. Carl Jacobi said "Invert, always invert." Charlie Munger says "Tell me where I'm going to die, so I never go there." Why does this work?…
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Episode 30:Second-Order Thinking: What Happens After What Happens?
Most people stop at first-order effects—the immediate, obvious result of a decision. Second-order thinking asks "And then what?" It's about seeing the consequences of consequences, the ripple effects, the ways systems adapt and respond. We'll show you the cobra effect (how a bounty to reduce…
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Episode 29: First Principles Thinking: Building from Bedrock
Most people reason by analogy—copying what works, following convention, doing what everyone else does. First principles thinking is different: breaking problems down to fundamental truths and reasoning up from there. It's how Elon Musk made rockets 10x cheaper, how Galileo corrected 2,000 years…
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Episode 28: Why Do the Rich Get Richer? The Mathematics of Advantage
Why do the rich get richer while the poor stay poor? It's not about morality or work ethic—it's mathematics. Compound interest, network effects, economies of scale, information asymmetry, risk tolerance, path dependence, and winner-take-all dynamics all amplify existing advantages. Start with...
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Episode 27: Feedback Loops: Why Things Accelerate or Stabilize
You've already seen feedback loops without knowing it. When we talked about inflation spiraling, housing bubbles bursting, interest rates cooling the economy—those were all feedback loops. Today we're making the pattern explicit. Reinforcing loops make things spiral: wealth compounds, confidence...
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Episode 26:What Is Quantum? Why the Small Stuff Breaks All the Rules
At human scale, reality is predictable. Throw a ball, it follows an arc. Push an object, it moves. Cause and effect are clear. But zoom down to electrons and atoms, and all the rules break. Particles exist in multiple places at once. They tunnel through walls they shouldn't be able to cross. They...
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Episode 25:Electromagnetism Basics: The Force That Runs Your Entire Life
Your phone. Your car. Your lights. Credit cards. They all run on one trick: electricity and magnetism are the same thing. Move charges, get magnetism. Move magnets, get electricity. That loop—discovered in 1820—transformed civilization in 50 years. We're explaining how motors work (same device as...
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Episode 24: Light as a Wave and a Particle: The Universe's Dumbest Magic Trick
Light is a wave. Also, light is a particle. No, you can't pick one—it's both. Simultaneously. Deal with it. In this episode, we're explaining wave-particle duality, the physics concept that broke everyone's brain in the 1900s and still makes no intuitive sense. We'll show you why light behaves…
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Episode 23: Sound Explained: Why You Can't Hear Space Explosions (And Other Lies Hollywood Told You)
Space explosions are silent. Your recorded voice is what you actually sound like. You can't hum while holding your nose. Opera singers can't really shatter glass (usually). In this episode, we're breaking down sound—what it actually is, how it works, and why every Hollywood space battle is lying…
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Episode 22: Waves and Oscillations: Why Everything That Matters Repeats
Your heart beats 100,000 times a day. Ocean waves crash every 10 seconds. Markets boom and bust. Fashion cycles every 20 years. Political power swings left and right. Your energy oscillates between high and low. Why does everything important repeat? Because the universe doesn't like straight...
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Episode 21: Momentum: Why the Universe Won't Let You Change Direction
Why can't you just stop? Stop the bad habit. Leave the dead-end job. End the wrong relationship. You know what you should do. But you don't. Here's why: momentum. The same physics law that makes freight trains take three miles to stop makes your habits impossible to break. The same principle that...
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Episode 20: Work and Power: Why Effort Isn't Enough
You can push against a wall for an hour and do zero work. A child lifting a book does more. Why? Because in physics, work isn't about effort—it's about results. In this episode of Polymath, we break down what work and power actually mean, why the universe doesn't reward trying, and why speed...
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Episode 19: Energy Basics: The Currency of Everything
What is energy, really? In this episode of Polymath, we build a true, intuitive understanding of the most important concept in all of science. Learn what energy actually is (not just "the ability to do work"), explore its many forms—kinetic, potential, thermal, chemical, electrical, radiant, and...
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Episode 18: Conservation Laws: The Universe's Ironclad Accounting System
Discover the invisible rules that govern everything in the universe. In this episode of Polymath, we explore conservation laws—the fundamental principles that say energy, momentum, and mass can never be created or destroyed, only transformed. Learn why roller coasters don't need engines after the...
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Episode 17: Newton’s Three Laws: The Simple Rules Behind Every Motion in the Universe
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion are short enough to memorize but powerful enough to explain nearly everything that moves — cars, rockets, sports, falling objects, walking, flying, and even planetary orbits. In this episode, we bring the laws to life with clear explanations, real‑world examples, and...
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Episode 16: Physics: The Hidden Rulebook of Reality
Physics isn’t just equations — it’s the operating system of the universe. This episode introduces physics as the deepest rulebook behind everything: smartphones, rockets, bridges, fire, time, and even economics. We explore matter, energy, motion, space, and time with vivid examples and zero heavy...
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Episode 15: Exchange Rates: Why Money Has Different Prices Around the World
Why is one U.S. dollar worth many pesos but less than one British pound? Why do exchange rates constantly change? And why does the U.S. dollar dominate global finance? This episode demystifies currency exchange using intuitive examples — from baseball cards to vacation money to online shopping....
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Episode 14: Trade Deficits: Why Countries Buy More Than They Sell
Trade deficits are one of the most misunderstood ideas in economics. Are they bad? Are they normal? Do they mean a country is “losing”? In this episode, we break down trade deficits using simple analogies, real historical stories, and modern global dynamics. You’ll learn why countries like the…
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Episode 13: Rent-Seeking: The Hidden Force That Quietly Makes Life More Expensive
Rent‑seeking is one of the most important — and least understood — forces in modern life. It’s how individuals, companies, and entire industries make money not by creating value, but by controlling bottlenecks, rules, and resources. In this episode, we break down rent‑seeking with simple examples...
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Episode 12: Why Housing Is So Expensive: The Real Story Behind the Crisis
Housing feels unaffordable because it is — but not for the reasons most people think. In this episode, we unravel the tangled systems behind today’s housing crisis: zoning laws that restrict supply, NIMBY politics that stall construction, construction labor shortages, investor buying frenzies,...
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Episode 11: Supply, Demand, and the Hidden Patterns Running the World
Supply and demand isn’t just a graph from Econ 101 — it’s the invisible engine behind sneaker drops, gas prices, housing shortages, concert ticket chaos, and even social media trends. In this episode, we break the concept out of the classroom and into real life. You’ll learn why prices don’t…
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Episode 10: Unemployment: The Most Misunderstood Number in the Economy
Unemployment is the human face of recessions — but the official unemployment rate often feels disconnected from real life. This episode explains how unemployment is actually measured, who gets counted, who gets excluded, and why definitions shape the story more than the number itself. We explore...
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Episode 9: Recessions: Why Economies Fall, Why They Rise, and Why the Cycle Never Ends
Recessions are not accidents — they are features of the system. In this episode, we break down recessions as cyclical outcomes of credit booms, human psychology, leverage, expectations, and policy decisions. You’ll learn why booms plant the seeds of busts, why fear spreads faster than facts, why...
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Episode 8: GDP: The Scoreboard That Shapes Nations — And Misleads Them
GDP is the number governments obsess over, markets react to, and journalists repeat — but few people understand what it actually measures. This episode reveals GDP as a measurement system, a political story, and a deeply imperfect proxy for real life. We explore what GDP counts, what it ignores,...
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Episode 7: Interest Rates: The Hidden Lever Behind Everything You Feel in the Economy
Interest rates are the most powerful invisible force in modern life. They determine the cost of your mortgage, the APR on your credit card, the job market, the stock market, and even the political climate. In this episode, we explain interest rates as the price of time, the price of risk, and the...
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Episode 6: Inflation & Deflation: The Real Forces Shaping Your Money, Your Life, and Your Future
This episode breaks inflation and deflation out of the textbook and into real life. Instead of treating them as abstract economic terms, we explore them as everyday forces that shape groceries, rent, wages, savings, debt, and political moods. You’ll learn why inflation is more than “prices going...
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Episode 5: What Central Banks Really Do
Deep Dive into One of the Hidden Systems Behind Money, Stability, and Modern Life
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Episode 4: How Taxes Actually Work: Incentives, Power, and the Hidden System Behind Everyday Life
Deep dive into how taxes actually work, specifically targeting the misunderstandings in society.
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Episode 3: Why Prices Rise and Fall: The Hidden Systems Behind Everything You Buy
Deep Dive in episode 3 shifting focus to how money works and how the price on your goods have changed and why.
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Episode 2: How the World Actually Works: Incentives, Power, and Systems You Were Never Taught in School
Diving deeper off of episode 1, we explore how the world works and the systems that you can see in the real world.
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Episode 1: What are systems and who is a Polymath
In this intro episode, we go over the meaning of the name of the podcast, and the purpose of this podcast.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Join me on The Polymath in learning about a diverse range of topics in easy to understand podcasts to uncover complicated topics.
HOSTED BY
Achintya Krishnan
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Polymath have?
The Polymath currently has 41 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Polymath about?
Join me on The Polymath in learning about a diverse range of topics in easy to understand podcasts to uncover complicated topics.
How often does The Polymath release new episodes?
The Polymath has 41 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Polymath?
You can listen to The Polymath on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Polymath?
The Polymath is created and hosted by Achintya Krishnan.
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