Maria Popova
speaker
931 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 22 Jun
Maria Popova’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Oh, absolutely.
So I am a refugee for mathematics.
I grew up doing a lot of science and never, I guess, was properly educated in literature.
And, of course, the way we humans tend to have of dismissing what we don't understand.
And Debbie's raising her hand.
Yeah.
And, you know, calling useless what we don't know how to use.
I dismissed poetry.
And then, across the aisle on a transatlantic flight, across 50 years of age difference, I became very fast friends, much to the discontentment of the entire coach cabin.
Okay.
With a lovely woman named Emily Levine, who was a comedian, a philosopher of science, deeply erudite, deeply sensitive, funny as hell.
And she took it upon herself to educate me in poetry.
She started sending me a poem a day, reciting poetry.
Magnificent voice.
In fact, I mean, you asked about figuring and mortality.
Emily, a few years into our friendship, I really loved her so much.
She was a kind of mother figure to me and friend.
And she became terminally ill and was actively dying while I was writing Figuring.
which was dedicated to her.
And in fact, she died the day it was published.
Showing 261–280 of 931 · page 14 of 47
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