Are We Really Only 6 Handshakes from Taylor Swift? | Pi & the Pound | Kavya Mehta | Sanika Demicha

Are you really only 6 handshakes away from Taylor Swift? It sounds like a late-night internet myth, but the math proves it’s a guarantee. This week on Pi & the Pound, we are breaking down the terrifying mathematical reality of your social life. I brought on my favorite math and tech genius - Sanika Demicha, to help expose how Big Tech uses Graph Theory, Eigenvector Centrality, and Matrix Factorization to map our networks, manipulate our feeds, and turn our friendships into a billion-dollar monopoly. We dive into the behavioral economics of "Clout," why the algorithm isn't actually fair, and how the code decides exactly who you're allowed to be famous with. You aren't making free choices online; you're just following the path of least resistance in a pre-coded network. Pi & the Pound: Your free will is just a rounding error. Drop a comment: Who is the most famous person you are mathematically connected to? 👇 Subscribe for more quantitative analysis and behavioral economics that actually applies to your life. Chapters: 0:00 - The Taylor Swift Equation (Intro) 1:45 - What is Graph Theory? 4:10 - Eigenvector Centrality & The Economics of Clout 7:30 - How TikTok Reads Your Mind (Matrix Factorization) 10:15 - Are We Just Variables? #PiAndThePound #BehavioralEconomics #GraphTheory #Algorithms #SixDegreesOfSeparation #TechPodcast #QuantitativeAnalysis