Math-Life Balance

This episode is about women in math, from the perspective of sociology! Many thanks to Olga Paris-Romaskevich for the conversation.

Olga's webpage: https://olga.pa-ro.net/

The book "Matheuses": https://www.insmi.cnrs.fr/fr/matheuses

Here is a link for Olga's talk on gender and mathematics: https://amubox.univ-amu.fr/s/SBRqbTLHSG5PFMF

Here is a list of references Olga used when spoke about social psychology:

1) Definition of social stereotype : (Leyens, Yzerbut, Schadron, 1994), slide 7

2) Stereotype threat result : Spencer, Steele, & Quinn (1999). Stereotype Threat and Women’s Math Performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35

Social psychology : stereotype threat, slides 9 and 10

3) Aronson, J., Lustina, M. J., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C. M., & Brown, J. (1999). When White men can't do math: Necessary and sufficient factors in stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35(1), 29–46.

4) pp.12-13 : John VS Jennifer study Moss-Racusin, Dovidio, Brescoll, Graham, & Handelsman (2012). PNAS, 109, 16474-16479

5) Begeny, C. T., Ryan, M. K., Moss-Racusin, C. A., & Ravetz, G. (2020). In some professions, women have become well represented, yet gender bias persists- Perpetuated by those who think it is not happening. Science advances, 6(26), eaba781

0:00 teaser

1:03 Olya's book about "math girls"

5:38 why there are so few women in math

9:01 brilliance as social construct

14:11 russian tease of women in math

18:05 math in the sociology book

22:35 why to make women only math events

30:33 and why we definitely need them

34:19 how to make a good outreach event

38:33 cool gender equity initiatives

41:12 Mura's experience in math as a girl

46:55 female role models in math

51:18 homage to Sophia Kovalevskaya

53:34 fun facts everyone should know!

58:56 moral support for women in math

Richard is a math professor at Brown University as well as an author of very funny books about math for kids! Enjoy learning about Richard and his adventures in the world of math and art :)

Richard's webpage: https://www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/

Chapters:

0:00 teaser

0:33 why math books for kids

5:22 crazy cool visualizations vs obsessions

8:50 most of math is failure

13:23 accessibility vs precision in papers

17:55 what about abstract more math

23:25 being Thurston's student

29:32 advice for those who feel not good enough at math

32:42 how Richard almost quit math

34:41 story from Mura about Berkeley woods

35:45 Richard's famous April 1st prank

43:16 and other pranks

44:43 and the mask! oh my god the mask

Jordan is a mathematician as well as an author of popular books about mathematics, with great sense of humour. And this interview goes as wild as the picture of the interviewee on his webpage!

Jordan's webpage: https://people.math.wisc.edu/~ellenberg/

Chapters:

0:00 intro

0:28 a year of writing fiction

4:12 what's hard about writing

11:31 finding math everywhere

15:19 cool thoughts on writing

22:58 teaching writing to math folks

24:55 pain & joy of bad writing

29:15 Jordan's workshop where we met

34:30 how to know when the article is ready

38:34 how to make interviews?

45:51 Mura complaining about interviewees :)

51:26 how people really feel about math

54:55 how to survive the lack of feedback

1:03:32 bringing standup tricks into writing

1:09:08 sentimental approach to finishing books

1:12:00 Jordan's book recommendation for us

Steven Strogatz, who works at Cornell University, is a well-known math popularizer and the first applied mathematician on Mura's channel. Enjoy their chat about unexpected applications of math, befogged communication amongst mathematicians and what not :)

Steven's homepage: https://www.stevenstrogatz.com/

Chapters:

0:00 teaser

0:37 when catholic priests become useful

6:35 math, philosophy & couples therapy

13:23 Steven's studies on sleep

21:27 Steven's insecurities in math

24:21 what's wrong with math talks

34:13 no carrot, no stick...

38:24 opinion on strong opinions

41:34 advice about giving up

49:24 different approaches to graduate advising

52:27 chat about Mura's advisor

57:11 Steven Strogatz Prize for Math Communication

1:01:40 how to write friendly math outreach

Enjoy the interview with Dennis Gaitsgory, who thinks about questions deeply yet answers lightly! Jokes included :)

Dennis webpage: https://people.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/gaitsgde/

0:00 teaser

0:30 attending a class by Witten

5:15 math vs physics: difference?

9:20 doing math: happiness and frustration

13:10 what changes with age

17:10 non-math problems: oh no! ;)

23:23 advice for getting back into math

26:45 how to prove Langlands correspondence...

31:49 when math doesn't work

33:25 raising kids: thoughts

36:00 book recommendation from Dennis

37:38 stories about India

40:36 beautiful non-math hobby

42:40 hot take on grant system

45:06 guess Dennis' favourite animal!

47:12 advice to young mathematicians

David Kazhdan:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kazhdan
• http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/~kazhdan/

Dennis Gaitsgory:

• https://people.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/gaitsgde/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gaitsgory

Quanta article: https://www.quantamagazine.org/monumental-proof-settles-geometric-langlands-conjecture-20240719/

Israel Gelfand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Gelfand

George Luszting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lusztig

Vladimir Voevodsky: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Voevodsky

0:00 intro

0:25 why math

5:35 student of Gelfand

11:04 Langlands program & motives & physics

14:35 math heroes

16:37 main interest in math

21:01 how about math puzzles

24:34 approaches to hard problems

27:30 negative emotions? introspection?

31:41 collaboration with Lusztig

36:20 thoughts on Voevodsky

41:02 impressions from conferences

45:23 Harvard in the good old days

48:25 family connections

Simon Singh is, according to himself, "an author, journalist and TV producer, specialising in science and mathematics, the only two subjects I have the faintest clue about". In this interview we chat about various projects of Simon, from theatre festivals to math education in schools, and argue about math outreach. Have fun listening!

Simon's webpage: simonsingh.net

Parallel project: parallel.org.uk

Math-Life Balance on YouTube: youtube.com/@math-life-balance

Chapters:

0:00 teaser

0:41 math & magic at Fringe

9:15 cool math for teenagers

16:16 why kids really need it

18:52 confidence for various projects

20:41 Shakespeare in math class?

28:51 what could go wrong

30:48 outreach and effectivity

34:56 Simon gets annoyed :)

37:03 too much outreach?

39:50 math in Simpsons and writing

44:38 sweet book selling story

46:45 how I learned about Simon

Grant Sanderson is the creator of the coolest math youtube channel, "3blue1brown". In this interview, Grant and Mura chat about a bunch of different topics, such as feelings towards abstract math, and even hear Grant read a piece from his poem. Enjoy Grant's beautiful thoughts and exquisite English!Grant's channel: youtube.com/ 3blue1brownGrant's homepage: 3blue1brown.com/aboutGrant's poetry: 3blue1brown.com/blog/poemsThe Math-life balance YouTube channel: youtube.com/@math-life-balanceChapters:

0:00 teaser

0:45 introducing Grant and his job

2:52 struggles of having a popular YouTube channel

6:03 sociology of math outreach

10:36 why people love 3blue1brown

13:22 how to popularize abstract math

17:40 making algebraic K-theory popular

21:17 how to measure success

27:16 did god hand you the definition of a topological space?

32:27 who writes wiki pages and and why

36:13 which feelings cause abstraction

44:39 what if you don't understand math

46:49 unpacking genius

51:48 how Grant deals with the frustration of not understanding math

55:16 Grant's poetry

1:01:47 Grant's question to mathematicians

1:03:38 advice from Grant

In this interview, Jeremiah Heller and Vesna Stojanoska share their experience of combining math and family life, discuss their ways to get over occasional demotivation in research and speak about social aspects of research. Jokes included!

Jeremiah's homepage: https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~jbheller/

Vesna's homepage: https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~vesna/

Mike Hopkins’ talk at Paul Goerss’ birthday conference: youtu.be/Ix4pg87LKVk

Chapters:

0:00 teaser

0:34 their family and other animals

4:04 kids’ curiosity about math

8:30 wishes for kids’ future

11:04 existential chat about adulthood 

13:51 research & relationship

16:13 finding friends outside math bubble

19:26 two-body problem

21:59 math talks as storytelling

27:01 approaches to doing math

31:02 getting over demotivation in research

35:23 mathematics is a social endeavour

37:12 jobmarket pressure

43:24 having kids & academia

47:18 solid advice

Dhruv Ranganathan is a lecturer at Cambridge University, working in algebraic geometry. In this video, Dhruv talks about doing research with undergrads, being tortured by math problems, looking for friends to write math papers, and other cool stuff!

Dhruv's webpage: https://www.dhruvrnathan.net

Photo: from the webpage

0:00 teaser

0:41 from cricket to air planes

2:16 adventure novels childhood

4:46 what do algebraic geometers do

8:39 experience of undergrad research

12:30 how undergrad research really works

15:35 “now I’m a believer”(c)

18:25 why so much pressure in doing math

21:09 how we create pressure for young people

23:44 doing math as a coping mechanism

27:00 math torture vs intense cartoon watching

28:50 speakers love getting any math questions

30:54 math for extroverts 

34:25 teaching students who leave academia

37:33 don’t beat yourself up for math mistakes

39:39 how we try and fail to improve inclusivity

43:44 don’t put people from minorities on every committee

45:45 the advice that’s too hard to follow

48:35 fireplace