Adam Spencer Gets His Geek On

Adam Spencer has been a breakfast radio announcer on Triple J and ABC Sydney, tv personality on everything from comedies, Good News Week and The Glasshouse to weekly sports wrap the Back Page and is a member of Sleek Geeks Science Team with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. So we thought it was high time we sat down and had a chat with Adam to get the low down on math, Comedy and AI.

Q: I was in my late teens when I used to listen to you on Triple J and loved your humour and I was surprised to see your mug on a book about numbers some years later. Have you always loved numbers and math or was this something that developed later in life?

Adam: Absolutely from my earliest days. And I was actually at The University of Sydney doing a PhD in Pure mathematics when I won Triple J’s inaugural Raw Comedy. That’s how I got started in radio. It was such a big part of my thinking at that time, I carried a lot of the geeky maths across into the radio show – not to everyone’s delight I must say!

Q: For kids and teens or even adults struggling with math, what advice can you offer to inspire them?

Adam: The important thing is to hang in and keep trying. Don’t be afraid to ask someone about things that don’t make sense and don’t move on to the next bit until the current bit makes sense. You’ll get there.

Q: What’s your favourite number or equations?Adam: The thing I most enjoy explaining to people, to really blow their minds, is that some infinities are bigger than others!Q: Why do you think so many kids fall out of love with maths?

Adam: I won’t run down teachers – it’s a noble and dignified profession and one we don’t value enough. But we need more primary school and early high school teachers who really love mathematics and can communicate their passion for the subject.

Q: Do you think the government could be doing more to encourage kids to take up STEM?

Adam: If I could change one thing in the Australian education system, I’d have every primary school equipped with one classroom that was a ‘lab’ with a specialist science teacher. Every school I’ve seen that uses this model gets incredible results. Kids queue up during lunch to get the best seats. That kindles the fire from the youngest of ages.

Q: We love it when we see or hear an accurate scientific idea portrayed in pop culture media, do you think pop culture (TV shows, comics, movies etc) have a role to play in inspiring younger generations?

Adam: Yes, but we have to be wary of the downside. For all the good “Big Bang Theory” may do normalising physics, there is the damage that can be done by movies or TV shows that depict one dimensional mad genius scientists, (who are always white men) and potentially turn off a generation of students.

Q: Favourite element in the Periodic table?Adam: Carbon goes pretty well.

Q: Now we know you’re a funny dude so tell us your best science or math joke

Adam: The square root of minus one is chatting to his psychologist. “Describe yourself in one word” the psych asks. “Complex”

Q: There is a lot of positive and negative reporting on AI. What’s your thoughts on the topic?

Adam: Massively important. Will definitely happen. Potentially of great benefit to humanity, but we must be extremely wary of the downsides of creating a generalised super intelligence if we haven’t worked out how to put safeguards in place to make sure it’s operation aligns with our goals.

Get 20% off Adam’s new book ‘The Number Games’ with coupon code STEM from www.adamspencer.com.au