In Our Time (radio series)

P v NP, first broadcast November 5, 2015 The most famous open problem in computer science, and the one most likely to scare a newcomer off, made graspable by talk alone. Timothy Gowers, Colva Roney-Dougal and Leslie Ann Goldberg work outward from one simple question, whether every problem whose answer a computer can check quickly can also be solved quickly, to why a $1 million Clay Mathematics Institute prize is still unclaimed and why encrypted online payments depend on the answer. It is the most abstract pick here, so save it for when you can give it your full attention.