Inspired by Math!

Ken Fan is a PhD mathematician who became very interested in improving math education. He founded an organization, Girls' Angle, to improve the relationship of girls to mathematics. Ken and I discuss a number of topics of interest to both of us in a bit of a looser format than usual for these podcasts. But, ultimately, we both share our love of mathematics and our deep desire to make a difference in the lives of young people.

Lance Fortnow wrote a great book about the P/NP problem for a general audience. We discuss the problem, its importance, its interest to Lance, how difficult it is to solve, what some of the difficult problems are, and a bunch more.

Gili is a 10th grader who is an inspired math community-builder in the Albany Area Math Circle together with Mary, who founded the circle in 2001. The two of them are making a big difference in how kids learn, love, and share math. We talk about math circles, about the importance of community and collaboration, and more.

I interview the mother-daughter team who authored "Math on Trial: How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom." We talk about inspiration for writing the book, flaws in mathematical thinking, how justice is derailed by bad math in the courtroom, a number of examples of cases from the book, and more.

Matthew Watkins authored the "Secrets of Creation" trilogy, with illustrator Matt Tweed. The trilogy is amazing. It goes very deep into some very fundamental areas of mathematics. Matthew and I talk about his background, about the trilogy, about his inspiration for creating it, about his concerns of how much of the world relates to math, and much more. A big interest for both of us is the wonder and awe that is math, not the "quantified" experience that most think is all there is to the subject.

Through the math education world Maria has become a wonderful friend. Maria is working tirelessly to start a mass math movement. We discuss her kickstarter project that has authored a book, Moebius Noodles, of advanced math ideas for toddlers and their parents, what math is, what math literacy is, the connection between math and computer programming, her Math Future project, and more.

Jason Ermer has spearheaded the Collaborative Mathematics project at collaborativemathematics.org. I interview Jason about what the project is, what inspired him, what the response so far has been and what he is hoping to accomplish.

Erica Klarreich has been writing about mathematics and science for a popular audience for more than ten years. We talk about her relationship with math, how she defines the subject, her relationship to it, problems with how math is taught in school, one of her favorite articles, her perception of the outlook for math writers, and more.

Julie Rehmeyer writes about mathematics and science for Science News, Wired, Discover and other magazines. Julie and I discuss a bunch of things. Do you have a story of when you first realized that you really liked math? How did you get into writing about math and science? Have you always been a writer? Tell us about your math education and how that's served your writing career. You've written quite a number of articles for Science News and for Wired Magazine. Where do your ideas for articles come from? And, what's your secret for weaving mathematical ideas into interesting stories? Would you share your process of going from an idea to a completed article? What's the interaction like with the publisher? How long does it take to write an article? What's your writing process like? What's a typical day like? Is there a favorite article or two among the many you've written? I notice that there are very few women math communicators. Why is that? And, which other women should I try to interview for this series? What advice would you give to girls and young women (or really anyone) who think they might want to become math writers? The question I ask everyone: What advice would you give to a parent whose child was struggling with math in school?

Dave Richeson is a mathematician, math professor, and math blogger. He loves topology and geometry among other things. He's taught inquiry-based math which engages students to the n-th degree, he wrote a book for Princeton University Press "Euler's Gem," about Euler's polyhedron formula, he's working on a new book about four classic construction problems, and he's finishing up an article "Who first proved that C/d is a constant?" We discuss all these things on this podcast.