Episode 22 of the Pop Apocalypse features part two of Matt's epic interview with musician and mathematician, Robert Schneider. Robert and Matt discuss the status of the third Olivia Tremor Control record (2:44), and how that story is interwoven with Robert’s own move from music into mathematics. From there, we explore the mysticism and mystery of mathematics through figures like Pythagoras and the twentieth-century visionary and mathematician Ramanujan. Robert also reflects on his revelatory experiences with mathematics and how number theory speaks to a central concern in the history of philosophy: the one and the many.

Robert Schneider bio

Robert Schneider is a musician, producer, and mathematician. He co-founded The Elephant 6 Recording Co. in the early 1990s, a collective of independent musicians and artists. Schneider is the lead singer and songwriter for The Apples in Stereo, a psychedelic pop band that has recorded seven studio albums. As a producer, Robert recorded and mixed some of the most celebrated albums of the 1990s, including Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Olivia Tremor Control’s Dusk at Cubist Castle. He completed his PhD in Mathematics at Emory University in 2018, specializing in number theory and combinatorics. Robert is now Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Michigan Technological University, where he helps run the Mathematics and Music Lab.

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Robert Schneider links

• Faculty page
• "Encounter with the Infinite" article
• The Apples in stereo on bandcamp
• The Apples in Stereo biography

Elephant 6 links

• Homepage
• Elephant 6 documentary
• Endless Endless by Adam Claire
• Olivia Tremor Control on bandcamp
• Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea