A Problem Squared

Matt Parker, Bec Hill
  • 4.9 (226)
  • COMEDY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Matt Parker and Bec Hill present: A Problem Squared. A podcast dedicated to solving problems of all kinds, such as, "What should I listen to right now?". A Podcast Squared. First one's free. You're welcome. Episodes released twokly on Mondays.

  1. 2H AGO

    126 = Temperature Levels and Special Vessels

    🧊 Why doesn’t the coldest day fall on the shortest day? 🥂 If you don’t drink, what can you use fancy drinking glasses for? 🏊 And we take the plunge into some Any Other Brrrrrrrness. If you’d like to read about defibrillator testing using a turkey, here’s the paper sent in by Hans: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12879378/ If you’d like to see Matt and Bec - alongside Steve Mould and Helen Arney and more - at An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail in London on Monday 26th January, you can get tickets here: https://www.universe.com/events/an-evening-of-unnecessary-detail-tickets-TFK426?ref=ticketmaster If you’d like to see Bec at the Adelaide Fringe in March, you can get tickets here: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/bec-hill-creates-the-perfect-show-work-in-progress-af2026  And if you’d like to see Matt on tour, all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows  If you’d like to ask Matt and Bec anything for our special 2^7 episode in February go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com - select ‘Problem’ and start your message with AMA! Please get your AMA questions in by Friday 23rd January 2026! Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard! If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    59 min

  2. JAN 5

    125 = Toots from Bums and Attitude Sums

    💨 How many people are needed to guarantee that there is always someone farting somewhere? 🔠 If you match each letter with the corresponding number in the alphabet and add them together, which words add up to 100. 🏁 And there is some unfinished business. Head to our socials for pictures of Matt’s Homemade Sea Salt and Bec’s Brilliant Branding, an assortment of Massive Hourglasses, the beautiful sketch of Bec, and a smiley jerk on the beach in the sunshine 🌅 Here is the full list of words that add up to 100 (and do be warned that it contains some words that may not be suitable for young eyes) https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r0u9hnx0c63ma3ovky3gp/100_letter_sum_shuffled.txt?rlkey=n62ik3j22tnwujod53wqrf4cc&e=1&dl=0  If you have a suggestion of dates for us to do a Rock Special and a Tooth Special,, go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com and select ‘Solution’ and do mention ‘International Teeth Day’ See Matt on tour in 2026! http://standupmaths.com/shows  Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths  And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6 Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard! If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    1h 1m

  3. 12/22/2025

    124 = Dangerous Angling and Harmonious Wrangling

    👼 What is the Angle of Death? 🎼 What is the best filing system for sheet music? 🎄And there’ll be some A-ho-ho-ho-B If you have any maths-studio-based-names for the Newdio, go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com and select ‘Solution’ and be as funny and punny as possible! If you’d like to ask Matt and Bec anything for our special 2^7 episode in February go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com - select ‘Problem’ and start your message with AMA! See Matt on tour in 2026! http://standupmaths.com/shows  Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths  And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6 Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard - and a special APS Christmas Card! If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    55 min

  4. 12/08/2025

    123 = The Science of Fries and Mounting Sea Level Rise

    🍟 Why does the nutritional value of frozen chips change depending on whether they are cooked in an air fryer or in an oven? ⛰️ How large a mountain could we make from 2.2 meters of dredged sea bed (combatting sea level rise in the process)? 🃏And there’ll be some AOB, as easy as 123. Head to our socials for pics of LIVE MATHS, chip nutritional values, post-Totoro Bec, ESA Souvenirs. If you’d like to ask Matt and Bec anything for our special 2^7 episode in February go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com - select ‘Problem’ and start your message with AMA! See Matt on tour in 2026! http://standupmaths.com/shows  Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths  And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6 Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard. If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    56 min

  5. 11/24/2025

    122 = Shocking Theories with Quickfire Queries

    🔥 How many quickfire problems is it possible to solve in a single episode of A Problem Squared?  🧑‍💼 Why is Matt dressed like a maths teacher? 🃏And we will deal out some Any Other Business If you’d like to ask Matt and Bec anything for our special 2^7 episode go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com - select ‘Problem’ and start your message with AMA! A chicken slapping machine - click to view at your own risk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68L6JA_CnmU Here’s where you’ll find the video of Matt in 374 different outfits (and the 375th outfit is on our socials) https://www.youtube.com/@standupmaths/videos  From AOB here’s Chris’ working… https://chrisboettner.github.io/blog/posts/2025-10-28-card_game_blog.html …and here’s Dede’s working… https://github.com/dedebenui/cardgame  See Matt on tour! http://standupmaths.com/shows  Specifically, see Matt in London on Monday 1st December! https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/matt-parker/  Or if you would like to see Bec in Brighton on Monday 1st December, tickets are here: https://www.komedia.co.uk/shows/john-luke-roberts-geoffrey-chaucers-mediaeval-christmas-festivitye/ Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths  And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6 Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard. If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    51 min

  6. 11/10/2025

    121 = Bi-annuals and Diagonals

    🗓️ Does bi-weekly mean every two weeks or twice a week? 🧊 What is the name of the line between two opposing corners of a cube? 🕑 And daylight will be saved with some Any Other Brightness. For more on Rupert and Nopert Shapes: Euler Brick: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/EulerBrick.html Tom7 - Rupert's Snub Cube and other Math Holes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4MviUE0_s Tom7’s Print files for Platonic, Archimedean and Catalan Solids: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1617011-platonic-archimedean-and-catalan-solids#profileId-1706419 Follow Dr Ben Whittle, The Excellent Etymologist, on Instagram! @schnebwhittle Joey Parrish and his Sega Slides https://github.com/joeyparrish/sega-slides See Matt on tour! http://standupmaths.com/shows  Specifically, see Matt in London on Monday 1st December! https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/matt-parker/  Or if you would like to see Bec in Brighton on Monday 1st December, tickets are here: https://www.komedia.co.uk/shows/john-luke-roberts-geoffrey-chaucers-mediaeval-christmas-festivitye/ Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths  And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6 Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard. If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!  If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    52 min

  7. 10/27/2025

    120 = Dealing Probability and Healing Gullibility

    🃏 What are the odds of actually winning Morgan’s very specific, very fun card game? 🤯 Are people more gullible now? And what are the best ways to persuade someone they are wrong? 👻 And, appropriate to the season, there will be some Any Other Boooooooooooooosness If you have some ingenious suggestions of what Matt can do in lunar gravity, head to www.aproblemsquared.com and submit your idea as a ‘Solution’ Head to our socials to see Matt’s graph plot and stats on the odds of winning the card game, as well as Bec’s beautifully laid out existence proof of the 52 Card Game! Some further reading on The Gullibility Problem: Why are people so gullible? https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20160323-why-are-people-so-incredibly-gullible Research paper on political extremism: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612464058 Nobel Disease: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nobel_disease And some tetrahedron-shaped packaging - or TetraPaks, if you will: TetraPak: https://www.tetrapak.com/solutions/packaging/packages  SunnyBoys: https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/2016-goodbye-sunnyboy/  See Matt on tour! http://standupmaths.com/shows  And if you want to see Matt in London on Monday 1st December, tickets are here: https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/matt-parker/ Or if you want to see Bec in Brighton on Monday 1st December, tickets are here: https://www.komedia.co.uk/shows/john-luke-roberts-geoffrey-chaucers-mediaeval-christmas-festivitye/ Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths  And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6 If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    1h 8m

  8. 10/13/2025

    119 = Proportions by Bananas and Polygons from Lava

    🍌 Is there a more consistent system of measuring things (and is it ‘Banana For Scale’)? 🌋 Why and how do hexagons occur in nature? 🔔 And there will be a whole Bec of Any Other Becness Head to our socials to see Matt and Bec playing The Metre Game, lots of bananas for scale, and Matt sporting some very fetching headwear. Some further reading on the origins of ‘Banana For Scale’: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale  Some further reading on hexagons in basalt: European Geoscience Union article: https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/ts/2023/05/26/features-from-the-field-columnar-basalts-and-why-hexagons-are-natures-favourite-shape/ Physical Review Letters:  https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.154301 See Matt on tour! http://standupmaths.com/shows  Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths  And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6 If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

    54 min
See All (129)

Hosts & Guests

4.9
out of 5
226 Ratings

About

Matt Parker and Bec Hill present: A Problem Squared. A podcast dedicated to solving problems of all kinds, such as, "What should I listen to right now?". A Podcast Squared. First one's free. You're welcome. Episodes released twokly on Mondays.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Parker, Bec Hill
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    129
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Matt Parker, Bec Hill
  • Show Website
    A Problem Squared

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