Best Math Contest Podcasts (2025)

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15| Caution Sweat Floor/Cuidado Piso Sudor 24:20

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14d ago24:20

24:20

What, you've never seen a sweat floor before now? Don't stare, and watch your step. Tough luck for Braydon; I was really rooting for him not to get totally disintegrated by Principal Fendleton's left hook. Witness me and my bus racing! Whoever reheated cod in the teachers' lounge microwave is gonna get a slap across the back for a job well done. Th…

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14| Yeah, We Shadow-Dropped Toilet Bowls 20:20

1M ago20:20

20:20

Three hurrahs for mascot DNA splicing! Don't talk to my son until he's had his coffee. Yooo we shadow dropped toilet bowls last week. You're all so smelly. I am become my own HR person. ASB elections were a suprise upset, and I owe Mr Stanovich fifteen bucks. If I have to think about that hand turkey again, I know I'll puke. These unsactioned Jamba…

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13| The Chemistry Lab Floor is Lava 22:40

2M ago22:40

22:40

The floor is lava; go figure. Elections are here, cool kids! Those shifting halls in the high school are hiding a door that has been long lost to this school. Mr Minotaur is leading the charge (safely behind a wall of students) into the catacombs to battle the combat enhanced rat king! Woah, who could have seen the twist the came from the Egg Board…

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12| Gerald's Limbs Have Finally Fallen Off 20:03

3M ago20:03

20:03

Our wonderfully undead former mascot, Gerald Fitzgerald, has at last succumbed to gravity—well—most of him has. Have a heart; donate your heart! Those death metal band names are GNARLY. Sirit Week is here at last, and it's going to be a blast! Boy was it wild when Justin Rice laid that egg in front of us all. This month's music was provided by SSS …

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11| Putting a Moratorium on This Crematorium (Kindergarten Classroom) 21:29

5M ago21:29

21:29

Come spell "Sheldon the Egg Board Egg" with our cheer squad and your community at the next sports function! Mr Minotaur stamps his hooves and makes us laugh, cry, and long for those days far behind us. Nothing is happening in the teachers' lounge; a profit is not being made by nothing going on in the teachers' lounge; silence your inquisitivity. Th…

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10| Show-and-Tell Went Fine Everybody Clapped 19:32

8M ago19:32

19:32

Poor Bethany—she was our mascot for only a few minutes—that HAS to be a Jambalaya record. A warm welcome back to Jonathan Bowers who was crushed physically—now he's crushed figuratively. Show-and-Tell has been CANCELLED for no bad reason. Seriously, stop asking and demanding answers, as it's a boring story. Please refrain from making bovine jokes i…

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9| The Stanky Leg Is Prohibited 24:56

9M ago24:56

24:56

Gerald Fitzgerald isn't the best mascot, but we're finding a use for him in the upcoming Harvest Dance. Speaking of which, our late shop teacher, Mr. Johnson, will be attending...as a cadaver. His widow will be dressing him up and posing him for pictures. It will be so much fun. Be sure to adhere to the dance move regulations! I'm serious. Our smar…

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8| Our Gun Library is Open to All 27:20

10M ago27:20

27:20

It's so great that Gerald Fitzgerald has been ressurected and is aimlessly wandering around campus! Mr. Manadult was not who he/they appeared to be. The toilet situation is crappy—pun unfortunately intended. It's plastic bag awareness month; students, prepare yourselves for a three-hour mandatory lecture on safety when cinching. Don't accept the wr…

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7| Jambalaya Does Not Stink 22:32

11M ago22:32

22:32

Whoever spray painted those distasteful remarks about Jambalaya's natural musk wouldn't know a good smell if it invaded their nostrils. Yes, the hall minotaur is still reigning terror in the high school halls—we're working on it. We welcome a new sponsor: The Egg Board of 'Merica! And just in time for book fair; check out a book about eggs and the …

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6| Beware the Hall Minotaur 23:58

12M ago23:58

23:58

The long-closed high school wing of our school has been unearthed. Too bad there's a minotaur roaming the labyrinth-like hallways. Be aware that soccer tryouts are spontaneous. Keep a lookout for Mr. Frito's glass eye. Oh, jeez, those pen pal letters from Gumbo Elementary are...graphic. Music by Chelicerae. Find more of their brutal music at chelic…

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5| New Sun Roof (Hole) in the Math Room 20:11

1y ago20:11

20:11

Joseph Wheeler, our thought-to-be-lost school mascot, has returned and now rules the playground with an iron fist (Hulk Hands). School bus jousting is here again, even though two people died last year. Budget cuts saw our janitorial staff laid off—even the cute janitor we all like. But Jambalaya is opening its long-closed high school wing of our bu…

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4| One of the Recess Aides is a Mole 18:22

1y ago18:22

18:22

Joseph Wheeler, the new mascot, is MIA. On top of that the 4th graders had a gang war. It happens. It's possible that the hall monitor was involved. But good news; we have the license to use Minions in Jambalaya School plays! The school is being remodeled. The teachers' lounge is not being remodeled, though. Nor will it ever. EVER. I went through t…

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3| Lunch Ladies Are Inherently Evil 19:17

1y ago19:17

19:17

A portal to Lansing, Michigan caused the cafeteria to burn down. Bobby Warner is transferring to Grindlewald but not because of the fire, I swear. Billy Turner was a great mascot. Was. Thank you to Duraflame for sponsoring our fair school in this time of need! Try to avoid Principal Fendleton and her ruthless high fives in the hallways. Verbally-ta…

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2| Barely Used Trampoline For Sale 19:44

1+ y ago19:44

19:44

Did you hear what happened to Garfield the Bottlenose Dolphin? I don't think I'll ever get over that one. Spirit week is here! Don't go into the teacher's lounge on Wednesday. Look out FOR but don't look AT the escaped specimens as well as the hooded figures hunting them. This month's newsletter is in memory of Tyler Lockhart—RIP. Most of the music…

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1| The Milk-Chugging Contest is Mandatory 16:27

1+ y ago16:27

16:27

Did you hear what happened to Larry the Crocodile? It was so tragic. Don't forget to fill your kid's backpack with milk for the contest! Picture day approaches—remember what we talked about. Don't go into the teacher's lounge. I'm sorry, but did you just say the kindergarten classroom caught fire again? Dangit, I owe Mr. Stanovich twenty bucks. I s…

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24: Santa's big sleigh [****] 3:59

8+ y ago3:59

3:59

A parking lot has 16 spaces in a row. Twelve cars arrive, each of which requires one parking space, and their drivers choose their spaces at random from among the available spaces. Santa Claus then arrives in his oversized and very full sleigh, which requires two adjacent spaces. What is the probability that there’s a place for him? // Spiciness: *…

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23: Your prime choice [***] 4:58

8+ y ago4:58

4:58

What’s the largest 2-digit prime factor of “200 choose 100”? // Spiciness: *** out of ****By Wes Carroll

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22: Split the check [*] 2:41

9y ago2:41

2:41

Last week, two of my friends and I went to a restaurant and had a lovely meal. We decided to evenly split the check, so we asked the waiter to just combine the totals. However, when the waiter came with the check, he revealed that there had been a mistake and instead of recording the complete total, the computer only returned a list of the totals o…

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21: The faulty odometer [***] 2:40

9y ago2:40

2:40

A faulty car odometer proceeds from digit 3 to digit 5, always skipping the digit 4, regardless of position. For example, after traveling one mile the odometer changed from 000039 to 000050. If the odometer now reads 001729, how many miles has the car actually traveled? // Spiciness: *** out of ****By Wes Carroll

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20: The middle digit [**] 2:51

9y ago2:51

2:51

How many three-digit numbers satisfy the property that the middle digit is the average of the first and the last digits? // Spiciness: ** out of ****By Wes Carroll

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19: The token tax [**] 2:44

9y ago2:44

2:44

A game is played with tokens according to the following rule. In each round, the player with the most tokens gives one token to each of the other players and also places one token into a discard pile. The game ends when some player runs out of tokens. Players A, B, and C start with 15, 14, and 13 tokens, respectively. // How many rounds will there …

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18: The circular track [***] 6:34

9y ago6:34

6:34

Brenda and Sally run in opposite directions on a circular track, starting at diametrically opposite points. They first meet after Brenda has run 100 meters. They next meet after Sally has run 150 meters past their first meeting point. Each girl runs at a constant speed. // What is the length of the track in meters? // (Also, a challenge for all lis…

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17: The red one [***] 3:35

9y ago3:35

3:35

My perpetually tricky friend told me that while she was walking through town she saw four particularly vibrant houses. There was an auburn one, a brick one, a cherry one, and one the shade of dogwood rose. She wanted me to figure out the order of the houses. She said that the the auburn came before the the brick one while the cherry one came before…

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16: In 80 days [*] 4:27

9y ago4:27

4:27

A friend of mine told me that she can walk a mile south, a mile east, a mile north and end up back home. I first thought she lived at the north pole, but she laughed and told me that, since there was no land there, she would be unable to make the walk. She asked me to try again, so I thought for a few minutes before finally saying that I knew how t…

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15: Coats of paint [***] 3:41

9y ago3:41

3:41

Working alone, I put two coats of paint on a wall, one before lunch and one after. Yesterday, I began at the usual time. Two hours before lunch I was joined by my good friend Aidan, who paints at the rate of 600 sqft per workday, and who left just as the first coat was finished. I promptly began the second coat, and had lunch at the usual time. One…

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14: O gnats, tango! [**] 3:31

9y ago3:31

3:31

Earlier this week I was rob...er...exploring tombs and I accidently triggered a trap that locked me in a room. With me are a pair of plates, a few thousand tiny statues of gnats and a puzzle that should lead to my escape. I need to place specific numbers of gnats onto each of the two plates. The number of gnats on the left plate needs to be a 3-dig…

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13: Order of operands [*] 8:10

9y ago8:10

8:10

Cindy was asked by her teacher to subtract 3 from a certain number and then divide the result by 9. Instead, she subtracted 9 and then divided the result by 3, giving an answer of 43. What would her answer have been had she worked the problem correctly? // // (Spiciness: * out of ****)By Wes Carroll

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12: One light switch [****] 5:48

9y ago5:48

5:48

For years you were a lonely prisoner here. But earlier today, you were brought to a courtyard to join the others, where you are all addressed by the Warden. There have been budget cuts, he explains, and the one hundred of you need to leave this facility. Whether you will be sent to another high-security facility, or set free, depends on whether you…

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11: The loopiest puzzler [***] 3:00

9y ago3:00

3:00

I have four lengths of rope. I hold them so that you can see all eight ends, but you can’t tell which end connects to which other end. You pick a pair of ends, and I tie them together. We repeat -- you pick, I tie -- until we run out of ends. // What’s the expected value of the number of loops you’ll have at the end? Or, in plain English, if we pla…

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10: Eight's too many [**] 6:14

9y ago6:14

6:14

In the eight-term sequence "a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h", c represents 5, and the sum of any three consecutive terms is 30. What’s a+h? (Spiciness: ** out of ****)By Wes Carroll

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09: Coin flip winner [***] 6:34

9y ago6:34

6:34

We’re going to play a simple coin-flip game. We take turns flipping a fair coin. The first one to get “heads” wins. You go first. // What’s your chance of winning? // Spiciness: *** out of ****By Wes Carroll

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08: Strawberry ice cream [***] 3:21

9+ y ago3:21

3:21

A friend of mine has pictures of his three daughters on his mantle. He took the pictures when each of the girls was a particularly adorable age — the same age for all three of them, as it happens. Unfortunately, this made it impossible for me to determine which was the oldest. So I had to ask him. Since my friend is a puzzle junkie, however, he dec…

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07: Kiana's twin brothers [*] 3:17

9+ y ago3:17

3:17

Kiana has two older twin brothers. The product of their three ages is 128. What is the sum of their three ages? // Spiciness: * out of **** // (Today’s puzzler comes from the 2009 AMC 10 exam. Learn more at dtmath.com/amc.)By Wes Carroll

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06: That sounds accurate [***] 2:35

9+ y ago2:35

2:35

You have just tested positive for a condition known to affect 1% of the population. However, your doctor assures you that the test for this condition is only 90% accurate. You’re not sure whether that’s supposed to make you feel better or not. So, you tell me: assuming no other information, what’s the chance that you have the condition? // Spicines…

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05: Ted's three statements [**] 2:04

9+ y ago2:04

2:04

Ted has three numbered statement for us to consider, and he wants to know whether the third one is true. Here they are: // 1. There are three numbered statements. 2. Two of the three statements are false. 3. You know the answer to the question. // So: is Statement 3 true? // Spiciness: ** out of ****…

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04: Many stuffie lines [*] 7:41

9+ y ago7:41

7:41

You have four stuffed animals. You line up three of them at a time, always single file. How many distinct lineups are possible? // Bonus points if you also tell me the number of distinct ways you can arrange them in a circle instead of a line. // Spiciness: * out of ****By Wes Carroll

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03: Two square dice [***] 6:04

9+ y ago6:04

6:04

(Errata alert! This episode was re-uploaded with a correction on Monday March 28 at 10am PST. The corrected version is 6m04s long; the old one is 6m02s. Visit http://www.buzzsprout.com/56982 if your feed contains the old version.) // Here's a game you can play with two fair dice, one red and one green. You throw both dice, and use the throw to gene…

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02: Glass half full? [*] 2:53

9+ y ago2:53

2:53

I have two cylindrical glasses that, when full, hold the same amount of water. The short glass has a radius that is half again as large as the tall one’s. Last night, I filled the short one completely, and then I filled the tall one to exactly the same level. // How full was the tall glass? (You can answer as a fraction or a percentage.) // Spicine…

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01: Peyton's great score [*] 2:16

9+ y ago2:16

2:16

Welcome to the podcast! Here are the rules, and the first puzzle. // Mr. Patrick teaches math to 15 students. He was grading tests and found that when he graded everyone's test except Payton's, the average grade for the class was 80. After he graded Payton's test, the test average became 81. What was Payton's score on the test? // Spiciness: * out …