“My ideal is the cocktail-party chat,” Jim Holt writes in the preface to When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought, his new collection of essays, “getting across a profound idea in a brisk and amusing way to an interested friend by stripping it down to its essence (perhaps with a few swift pencil strokes on a napkin). The goal is to enlighten the newcomer while providing a novel twist that will please the expert. And never to bore.” His cocktail party companions include Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Benoit Mandelbrot, and, of course, Albert Einstein, who help him articulate the world and time with math and a bit of amusement and understanding.

Lewis H. Lapham talks with Jim Holt, author of When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought.

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