Math Therapy

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)You’re probably thinking “what the F*CK is a dude wall?!”, and today Vanessa talks to the incredible Katie Hafner to find out.  Katie is an author, journalist, and host of the podcast “Lost Women of Science,” whose mission is to tell the stories of female scientists who history has inconveniently forgotten. But how do we prevent this from happening in the future? How do we encourage more girls and women to go into STEM, and how do we ensure their portraits aren’t left off the walls of our academic institutions?About KatieKatie Hafner is host and executive producer of Lost Women of Science. She is a longtime reporter for the New York Times, where she continues to be a frequent contributor, writing on healthcare and technology. Hafner is uniquely positioned to tell these stories. Not only does she bring a skilled hand to complex narratives, but she has been writing about women in STEM for nearly 30 years. The author of six books of nonfiction, she is currently host and executive producer of Our Mothers Ourselves, an interview podcast that celebrates extraordinary mothers.Show notes:If you see a dude wall, please email: lostwomenofscience@gmail.comListen to Lost Women of ScienceListen to Our Mothers, Ourselves, Katie’s other podcastPre-order “The Boys,” Katie’s book coming out in July (where the main character and his mom talk in Fortran!)Read the study from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about interest and perceived interest in computer scienceConnect with us:Katie Hafner: (Twitter, Website)Lost Women of Science: (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)One of the missions of this podcast is challenging stereotypes, and on today’s episode we tackle a big one: Asians and math. Steven Tran grew up with Asian parents, and the pressures and expectations from his family, community, and society as a whole affected his perception of his own math ability.  Getting caught cheating in high school could have led him down a very different educational path if not for a teacher that treated him with genuine care and compassion, and, most importantly, believed in Steven and told him so.  Steven tells Vanessa about how that experience informed his own approach to teaching his students math as a tutor at The Math Guru.About StevenSteven Tran is an undergraduate student at Ryerson in the Biomedical Sciences program, working as a tutor and in a startup.Show notes:Visions of Science, where Steven worked and had his great mentor, Cam!Connect with us:Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)This one’s for all the adults out there who are like “hmmm maybe it’s not too late to learn a little math…”! On today’s episode Vanessa talks to journalist A.K. Whitney, who went back to school at 38 to learn math and chronicled it in Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, and her own podcast/website delightfully titled “The Mathochism Project”. She is basically the definition of overcoming math trauma and making it less of a stigma - but how did she do it? Why don’t more people do it? And how can we make math less traumatic for women and girls?About A.K.A.K. Whitney is a journalist with 25 years of experience in print and online. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan and more. She was a regular contributor to Noodle, an educational website, writing mostly about society’s fraught relationship with math, which is the subject of her website, The Mathochism Project.Show notes:A.K.’s article for Cosmopolitan: How I Finally Got Over My Fear of MathA.K’s article for The Washington Post: Why did I give up on math? Ask my mom.The Ohio State MOOC calculus course that A.K. recommendsAn article about “the cult of genius” from the mathematician, Jordan Ellenberg, who coined the termThe CBC article explaining why saying “it’s not rocket science” isn’t fair to other professionsConnect with us:A.K. Whitney: (Twitter)The Mathochism Project: (Twitter, Website)Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)Nothing shows how important teacher-student relationships can be than actually being friends with some of your students over a DECADE later, as is the case with Vanessa and Sophie Soberano. Sophie was one of Vanessa’s first tutoring students, long before The Math Guru even existed! Sophie went from daily math meltdowns in high school to becoming a math teacher who leads her class with compassion and creativity, and today she shares how she uses a mindfulness approach to get her students ready for learning before class. Whether you’re a teacher, a student, a parent, or you just want to hear some hope and optimism about overcoming math anxiety, this episode is for you.About SophieSophie Soberano has a passion for early childhood education. With almost 10 years experience as an ECE and a Masters of Primary Education, Sophie uses her experience from daycares, nursery schools and elementary schools, to provide an individualized play-based approach to learning. She is currently teaching private pods in family homes in addition to senior nursery at a community school. 

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)Today’s guest has a dream: to dance on the moon.  With a robot.  The craziest part?  This is actually an attainable goal for Dr. Merritt Moore, better known as the “Quantum Ballerina”! Merritt has a PhD in Atomic & Laser Physics and is also a professional ballerina, and if that’s not enough for one resumé, she was recently selected for astronaut training. She went viral during a pandemic lockdown with a video of her dancing with an actual robot as her partner. Today, Merritt tells Vanessa about her fascinating journey, how all her interests intersect, and the inspiring role her parents played early on in fostering an environment in which learning was not just encouraged but celebrated.About MerrittDr. Merritt Moore calls herself the “quantum ballerina.” She has a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford AND has pursued a professional ballet career, previously with the Zurich Ballet, Boston Ballet, English National Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet. She was recently awarded Forbes 30 Under 30, and she was one of the 12 selected candidates to undergo rigorous astronaut training on BBC Two "Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?" She is featured in the bestseller "Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls".Show notes:Check out Merritt dancing with her robot!Connect with us:Merritt Moore: (Insta, Twitter, LinkedIn)Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)Today’s guest is an actual celeb in the math-world. We’re talking A-list, we’re talking literally MILLIONS OF FANS. Grant Sanderson explains very high level math on his YouTube channel, 3Blue1Brown, in a way that is accessible for anyone to tune in and learn from!  Vanessa and Grant discuss how he makes math so appealing and unintimidating, how a feeling of discovery or usefulness can help students develop a sense of ownership over a topic, and how teachers can motivate their students to pay attention offline in the classroom.About GrantGrant Sanderson is the creator behind the very popular math YouTube channel, 3Blue1Brown (over 4 million subscribers!). He has collaborated with places like Quanta, Udacity and the Julia Lab at MIT on math education and outreach projects, as well as with other YouTubers, such as Numberphile, Stand-up Maths and Physics Girl.  You can listen to Grant’s own podcast, The 3b1b Podcast.Show notes:Grant’s bitcoin video that Vanessa referencesGrant's video about colliding blocks computing piSunil Singh (who Grant and Vanessa spoke about) was a guest on Math Therapy season 2 - listen to his episode here and learn lots of juicy mathematician gossip!Connect with us:3blue1brown: (YouTube, Twitter)Grant Sanderson's personal YouTubeVanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)We’re not the only ones who binge-watched Netflix’s The Circle over the pandemic, and one reason we were OBSESSED was the breakout star of the show: Terilisha, a math teacher AND musician, who stole our hearts with her IDGAF attitude! Today Vanessa chats with Terilisha about her experience on the show, how the media (and society) struggle to accept that people can be multifaceted, how the educational system fails us early by not prioritizing practical math skills like personal finances, and how she’s determined to defy the stereotype of who/what a “math person” can be.About TerilishaTerilisha is a songstress, songwriter, actress and native of Dallas, Texas. She was featured on Season 2 of Netflix’s The Circle, and her latest EP, “The Blue Heart” is available on Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, iTunes/Apple Music and all digital & streaming locations.Show notes:Watch The Circle Season 2 on Netflix to see Terilisha!Listen to Terilisha’s “The Blue Heart” EP on all digital & streaming platformsConnect with us:Terilisha: (Insta, Twitter, Spotify)Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)Will you be watching the Oscars this Sunday, comparing the winners with your predictions? Well one person who definitely will be is our first guest of season 4 - Ben Zauzmer, author of Oscarmetrics!  Ben, who is also the director of baseball analytics for the New York Mets, uses stats from past and present awards to try to predict this year's winners, and we also discuss representation and diversity among award winners and across all media, as well as the classic Math Therapy debate: can math and pop culture truly be BFF?Show notes:Buy Ben’s Book: “Oscarmetrics: The Math Behind the Biggest Night in Hollywood”The article Ben co-wrote for The Hollywood Reporter about diversity in the Oscars: Is the Oscars’ Inclusion Push Working? Breaking Down the Surprising Academy NumbersCheck out Ben’s predictions for the 2022 OscarsConnect with us:Ben Zauzmer: (Twitter)Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)Transcript for today’s episode: www.maththerapypodcast.com

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)We are BACK!  We've got 10 incredible and inspiring guests lined up for the new season of Math Therapy, each with a totally different history and relationship with math.Season 4 launches March 24th and because that’s a few days before the Oscars, we’re starting with a fascinating chat with Ben Zauzmer, author of Oscarmetrics - he uses statistics to try to predict this year’s winners!  We discuss some juicy topics like representation and diversity in the media & among award-winners, and how math and pop culture can totally be BFF, so I can’t wait for you to hear it. Until then, you can:Make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast wherever you listenCatch up on past episodesShare the show with a friendRate/review the podcastFollow me, Vanessa, @themathguru on Instagram or Twitter

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)When this podcast started, interviewing a convicted murderer - while he was still in prison, no less - was admittedly not on Vanessa’s “Math Therapy guest” bingo card. But then we heard how Christopher Havens discovered math in solitary confinement halfway through a 25-year sentence, and committed the rest of his life to rehabilitating himself and repaying his debt to society.  On today’s season 3 finale of Math Therapy, Vanessa chats with Christopher about how a lack of purpose in his youth and the misguided desire to be “cool” led him down a very dark road, how math gave him a sense of spirituality and purpose in prison, and how his own rehabilitation led him to withdraw from the stereotypical “prison game” and devote the rest of his life to developing programs and resources for other prisoners to do the same.About Christopher Christopher Havens is a mathematician & president/cofounder of the Prison Mathematics Project, a nonprofit program that uses the transformative powers of mathematics to lead prisoners to a life of desistance from crime. While his current focus is in cryptography and the theory of groups, he works to popularize mathematics and redefine what productivity looks like in prison. He is a researcher in number theory and has recently published his first academic paper in the journal or Research in Number Theory, while serving out his sentence. Show notesPopular Mechanics profile on Christopher’s life storyPrisonMathProject.orgHumanMe.org blog feat. inmates committed to rehabilitationConnect with us:Prison Mathematics Project: (Twitter, Insta, Facebook)Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)Transcript for today’s episode: www.maththerapypodcast.com