In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student Yara Tarie interviews Talika Basantani, a math teacher at Energy Tech High School. So many school students dread math – a phenomenon commonly known as “math anxiety.” How can we combat this anxiety? And how can we encourage students to find meaning and support while learning math? Yara sits with Talika to talk about her love for math, how her time at NYU informed her teaching practice, and what a supportive math classroom might look like. 

Talika Basantani is a math teacher at Energy Tech High School in Queens. She is also an alum of NYU Steinhardt, where she earned her MA in Teaching in 2023. While at NYU, she learned about the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum, which she now applies daily in her classroom to make math useful and enjoyable for her students. 

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected].