A Problem Squared – Details, episodes & analysis

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A Problem Squared

Matt Parker, Bec Hill

Comedy

Frequency: 1 episode/17d. Total Eps: 142

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.

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🇬🇧 Great Britain - comedy
09/07/2026
#94

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http://www.aproblemsquared.com/
48 shares
https://aproblemsquared.bsky.social/
44 shares
http://standupmaths.com/shows
42 shares

https://twitter.com/aproblemsquared?lang=en
100 shares
https://twitter.com/AProblemSquared
8 shares
https://twitter.com/aproblemsquared
2 shares

https://www.instagram.com/aproblemsquared
112 shares
https://www.instagram.com/art.pete.repeat
2 shares
https://www.instagram.com/longcovidrockstar
2 shares

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Score global : 58%

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139 = Music Down Where It’s Wetter and Throwing Darts Better

Season 1 · Episode 139

Monday, July 20, 2026 • Duration 56:22

🎺 What would standard instruments sound like if they were played under water?

🎯 What would be the average score of one randomly thrown dart?

📂 And there’s some Any Other Business.AOB.zip

On THIS episode of A Problem Squared we’re joined by a special guest! The musical (and regularly quite wet) musical maestro Steve Pretty tells us all about playing music underwater - illustrated with some very bubbly examples. You can hear more from Steve on his podcast Origin Of The Pieces: https://www.originofthepieces.com/ and hear more from Steve playing shells here: https://www.shellectronica.com/

This is the episode of Steve Pretty’s Origin of the Pieces with Richard Sabin, whale expert and lead curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum, who shares sonic insights from the deep. https://www.originofthepieces.com/episodes/episode-31-earwax-echoes-and-entropy

To find out more about Aquasonic, the ethereal underwater quintet, head here: https://www.betweenmusic.dk/aquasonic

Here is the full Hermeto Pascoal video in all its glory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZbfNtDCHdM

And here’s the video of a hydraulophone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgU0OZkGhGI

World Darts Federation Playing and Tournament Rules for all the specifications used in Matt’s working out: https://dartswdf.com/storage/uploads/fb05b306-c92c-4f08-b512-affb092a1b3d/2018-02-28_WDF_Playing_and_Tournament_Rules_rev20.pdf

The fabulously detailed Data Genetics blog post on where to aim on a dart board to maximise point-scoring - A Geek Plays Darts: http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/january12012/index.html

Here’s more about the (excellent) book that Bec shouted out: Gemma Correll - Anxietyland https://www.gemmacorrell.com/

If you’d like to see Bec’s Work In Progress shows, her upcoming gigs can be found here: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs

Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here:

http://standupmaths.com/shows

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.

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138 = Crossword Panels and Crossing Channels

Season 1 · Episode 138

Monday, July 6, 2026 • Duration 59:35

📝 What is the perfect arrangement of black squares in a crossword?

🚣 Does weight on an aqueduct increase as a boat goes over it?

🛟 And there’s some Any Other Boardness (not ‘boredness’)

Head to our BlueSky/Twitter/Instagram to see some crossword arrangements and some cross-bridge arrangements.

Michael Keith’s Crossword research paper: http://www.gathering4gardner.org/g4g16gift/KeithMichael-GiftExchange-CrosswordGrids-G4G16.pdf

Michael Keith’s Pilish book, Not A Wake: https://www.cadaeic.net/notawake.htm

If you’d like to see Bec’s Work In Progress shows, her upcoming gigs can be found here: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs

Matt is bringing An Evening of Unnecessary Detail to New York! The Bell House, Brooklyn on Sunday 12th July. Tickets can be found here:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/300064B84CCCF567

And Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here:

129 = People off Ground and Pound for Pound

Season 1 · Episode 129

Monday, March 2, 2026 • Duration 54:25

🛫 How many people are flying in the air at any given moment?

⚖️ What weighs a pound and costs a pound?

🏈 And there’s some Any Other (Foot)Ballness

Head to our socials to see Bec’s glasses 🤓Pat Patriot 🇺🇲and our Pound for Pound items!

Here is a link to the book Flying With Confidence (which helped Producer Laura with her fear of flying and also helped her answer the problem correctly!)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/415543/flying-with-confidence-by-patricia-furness-smith-and-captain-steve-allright/9780091947859

They Did The Math, They Did The Monster Math on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/

https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemonstermath/

Flight Radar 24: https://www.flightradar24.com/

If you’d like to see Bec at the Adelaide Fringe, 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:

042 = Plate or Bowl Guesses and Faster Processes

Season 1 · Episode 42

Monday, September 12, 2022 • Duration 37:09

In this episode...

* When does a plate become a bowl?

* And, five five-letter words with twenty-five unique letters: Some mind-blowing solutions.

Juat a reminder that you can now buy APS merch! Head on over to: https://a-problem-squared.teemill.com.

As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com.

And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared, find us on Twitter and Instagram.

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041 = Table Surface Braced and Toothbrush Versus Paste

Season 1 · Episode 41

Monday, August 29, 2022 • Duration 50:34

In this episode...

* How do you stop a wobbly table from wobbling?

* Which is more effective for your dental hygiene: a toothbrush without toothpaste or toothpaste without a toothbrush?

* A-to-the-O-to-the-B.

* Plus! Some exciting merch news.

If you want to see more of Matt's wobbly tables on ridiculous maths surfaces, you can do that here: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0511490.

For the best system for teeth brushing and more tips on dental hygiene have a listen to ‘APS 03 - Teeth Tips and Defining Decades’ https://aproblemsquared.libsyn.com/aps-003.

And, you can now buy APS merch! If you want a t-shirt of your own, head on over to: https://a-problem-squared.teemill.com.

As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com.

And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared, find us on Twitter and Instagram.

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040 = Anniversary Crazes and Any Cursory Praises

Season 1 · Episode 40

Monday, August 15, 2022 • Duration 55:13

In THIS episode...

* What's the most appropriate gift for a couple’s -1 year anniversary?

* How do you write a podcast review without Apple podcasts?

* And Bec and Matt return to rather a lot of AOB.

We would like to thank shittyflute on YouTube for letting us use their rendition of the A-Team theme tune. You can find more tunes you love, badly played here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHMmLi8z1HbyhTEvfBgXpyg

As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com.

And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared, find us on Twitter and Instagram.

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039 = Many Ways to Replace Lights and Trebuchets Shooting Space Flights (live at Bluedot Festival)

Season 1 · Episode 39

Monday, August 1, 2022 • Duration 41:47

In this very special episode, live from Blue Dot Festival... * How many astronauts does it take to change a light bulb? * What is the most environmentally friendly way to launch an object into space? * And APS are live for the first time at Blue Dot Festival! A huge thank you all the contributors that helped make this episode happen; To Professor Steven Lockley from Harvard. You can find more about his contributions to sleep in space here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576512001336 If you want to find out about Circadian Rhythms on Earth, have a listen to Episode 026: ‘Sliding on Snow and Skipping on Sleep’. To Trent Burton from Cosmic Shambles who helped us get in touch with Tim Peak. You can listen to their incredible selection of podcasts here: https://cosmicshambles.com/podcasts/ And of course, to Sarah Bennetto for booking us! You can find her on Twitter here, she's very funny: https://twitter.com/sarahbennetto?s=20&t=mf8AoKcmvUXVbHw2YQAoQA As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on aproblemsquared.com. And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared (and who doesn't) find us on Twitter and Instagram.

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038 = Fldxt in Wordle and Improv Tact Hurdle

Season 1 · Episode 38

Monday, July 18, 2022 • Duration 55:15

In this episode... * Can you guess 5 unique words with unique letters in Wordle? * How do you get out of your head and into the scene in improv? * And any other Cheesness. Here's the dictionary text file Matt started with for his problem. It contains 370,000 words: https://github.com/dwyl/english-words A huge thank you to everyone who helped with Bec's dinglett. Alex Holland at the Free Association - this is where Bec did her improv course, and you can find details about that here: https://thefreeassociation.co.uk. David Reed, his play Guy Fawkes will be showing at the York Theatre from October:https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/guy-fawkes/. Also to Rachel Pariss, you can find her on 'The Latenight Mash' with Nish Kumar or here on Twitter: https://tinyurl.com/33emshys And the brilliant Josie Lawrence. You can find more about her on twitter too: https://tinyurl.com/JosieLawrence As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on aproblemsquared.com. And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared (and who doesn't) find us on Twitter and Instagram.

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037 = Digital Displays and Digits All Splayed

Season 1 · Episode 37

Monday, July 4, 2022 • Duration 47:11

In this episode... * When does a high five become a low five? * What is the most efficient digital display? * And, some any other beesness Just 18 more sleeps until APS is LIVE at Bluedot - that's between 19:45 - 20:45 on Friday the 22nd July. Please send in your Bluedot specific questions to the Problem Solving Page including the phrase 'Bluedot'. You can do this on Twitter too, but it might get lost! A big shout out to Mr Thing, just because they are fantastic. You can find them on Twitter: @wearemrthing or on their website here: https://www.wearething.co.uk/. You can also see them at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Fest, and buy tickets for that here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/mr-thing-show. As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com. And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared, find us on Twitter and Instagram.

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036 = Score Menu Sets and Door Etiquette

Season 1 · Episode 36

Monday, June 20, 2022 • Duration 56:46

In this episode:

Can you create an order from a numbered menu that is always comprehensible to the server?
When someone is behind you as you open a door, what is the polite distance to wait for them?
And, the cards are on the table.

As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com. Please send in your Blue Dot problems, and we may just solve it live on stage. Just post your problem with the tag 'Blue Dot' to aproblemsquared.com - Do it now! If you want to come and see us at Blue Dot, you can catch us on Friday, and can buy tickets here: https://tinyurl.com/BlueDotTickets

You can find more about Emma Haruka Iwao's record breaking Pi calculation here: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/calculating-100-trillion-digits-of-pi-on-google-cloud

And, of course, if you want want more from A Problem Squared, come find us on Twitter and Instagram.

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A Problem Squared – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

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Apple Podcasts

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A Problem Squared – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

Twitter16

Instagram5

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

Twitter16

Instagram5