Mathematician Philip Ording joins me to discuss his book, 99 Variations on a Proof, in which he finds the solution to (or "proves" his solution to) the same cubic equation over and over and over again - each time in a different style. Philip and I discuss how this approach can be described as mathematical anarchism, how math can be understood as everything from inflexibly authoritarian to infinitely free, and whether or not mathematical anarchism could be used to reshape math education. Plus Wittgenstein.
