Relatively Prime: Stories from the Mathematical Domain

We are back with a new series in Relatively Prime that we are going to be calling Seminars! The seminars are going to be going out into the Relatively Prime feed off and on and they will be tackling the big questions about mathematics. In other words the seminars will be more of a meta conversation about what goes on in mathematics and our first conversation is going to be about funding in mathematics. If you have a question that you want to hear a seminar about please just email [email protected] Joining our host Sam Hansen to discuss funding in mathematics we have Carrie Diaz Eaton (BSky), a mathematician, an associate professor of digital and computational studies at Bates College, and the executive director of the Rios Institute, Drew Lewis (BSky), a mathematician and independent consultant, and Jude Higdon (BSky), the chief operation officers of the Institute for Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity or QSide (BSky). Timeline of Executive Actions from the American Institute of Biological Sciences Resources Mentioned in the Seminar:Breakdown of Federal Mathematics FundingFederal Funding for all Disciplines ReportCruz ReportSilicon Reckoner NewsletterScience Magazine Reporting on Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence Fellows Program CancellationNIH in Your StateIbberson Spreadsheet Music:lowercase n Transcript ACMEScience · Funding

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus that has now lasted for four years, but our host and producer Sam Hansen has had a lot of life events and changes that led them to not be able to devote the time they needed to making the show. We are planning on coming back very soon, but until then please enjoy this episode about the Mathematics of Voting from the podcast Carry the Two made by the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation where Sam is the new Director of Communications and Engagement. Download Episode ACMEScience · RelPrimeCt2 Mix ——————– IMSI is very proud to announce that Carry the Two is back and with a new co-host, IMSI’s new Director of Communications and Engagement Sam Hansen! Subscribe:   Apple Podcasts  •  Spotify  •  RSS We in the United States are deep in the middle of a major national election, and over half of the world’s population also have elections in 2024. This is why Carry the Two is going to focus on the intersection of mathematics and democracy for our new season. In this episode, the first episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we speak with mathematician Ismar Volić of Wellesley College and Director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy and Victoria Mooers, an economics PhD student at Columbia University. We discuss what mathematics has to say about our current plurality voting system, how switching to preference ranking votings systems could limit polarization and negative campaigning, and why too much delegation causes problems for those pushing for Liquid Democracy.   Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links: Ismar Volić Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation  Institute for Mathematics and Democracy Victoria Mooers Liquid Democracy. Two Experiments on Delegation in Voting Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute Music by Blue Dot Sessions and lowercase n The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

On this episode of Relatively Prime, Michole Enjoli and Noelle Sawyer take over for Black in Math Week. They talk to Brea Ratliff and José Vilson, two Black math educators, and discuss what it’s like to be Black in math, what they would say to people making common false statements about Black students in math, and better hopes and dreams for Black students. Black in Math week is November 8th – 13th, 2020! It’s a week on Twitter to celebrate community among and uplift Black mathematicians. Check us out @BlackInMath for updates!  Brea is currently pursuing a PhD at Auburn University in Math Education. She is the founder of and CEO Me to the Power of Three and is a past president of the Benjamin Banneker association.  José is located in New York City and is the founder and executive director of EDUcolor. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Teachers College at Columbia University in Sociology and Education. We talk a bit about Afrofuturism in this episode. If you’re interested in checking out more on Afrofuturism, try SpaceBox, a STEM escape room to save astronauts from a virus, and this special minizine from Bitten Magazine! Download Episode Music:Kirshmusic Transcript: Michole: This is Relatively rime Black in Math Week in the mathematical domain. I’m one of your host, Michole Enjoli. Noelle: And I’m Noelle Sawyer Noelle: We’e here as a part of Black and Math Week to talk to some Black math educators. I’m actually an assistant professor of math at Southwestern university in Georgetown, Texas. So I, myself, am a math educator, I’m from The Bahamas and I’ve also got a few teachers in my family line there. So education has got a special place in my heart. Michole: And again, Michole Enjoli, I’m a mathematician, educator ,and STEM edutainment producer. I originally hailed from Atlanta, Georgia, and Seattle, Washington, but now I’m in Ann Arbor working on my PhD in math education. I also have a lot of educators in my family and I always like to make it be known that I’m an educator before mathematician. Noelle: I talked to Bria Ratliff for this podcast and I asked her how she introduces herself to strangers. If you’re sitting next to a stranger in the before times, right. When we did that and someone and someone asked you, like, what do you do? How do you answer them? Brea: Um , generally I say that I’m a mathematics educator and can we go back for a minute? Cause the before times, and the Hunger Games was reference just really gives me life right now. (laughs) Um, that that pretty much is mathematics or STEM educator, I think is probably the best collective term for all the things that I do. And I’m involved with. I have been an administrator and a coach and currently delving deeper into research and have been a research coordinator and whatnot for a while. And I have my own business also, I’m consulting on mathematics and STEM, but at the heart of what I do, I am a mathematics educator. Noelle: Brea is in the math education doctoral program at Auburn university. Right now. She’s also the founder of Me to the Power of Three, which specializes in curriculum development and designing educational programs. They’ve done work for the Dallas Cowboys stadium and she’s a past president of the Benjamin Banneker association. Michole: And I took the time to talk to José Bilson and I also asked him, because he lives in New York city. If he’s ever on the train or walking down the street, how does he introduce himself as strangers? José: Usually I tell them my name is José Vilson. I’ve been, before this year I was a math teacher for the better part of 15 years. In addition, I am also the executive director of EduColor an organization dedicated to race, class and education, but also as a proud father, husband, and any number of other roles that I take on a daily basis. Michole: And Noelle, let me tell you, José is a dope math educator, but he’s also the founder and executive director of EduColor color. And he’s currently pursuing a PhD at Teacher’s college at Columbia university in sociology and education. But before he was doing his PhD, I thought he was already a doctor because we met a couple of years ago at the CIME conference at MSRI. So CIME is a conference in mathematics education and MSRI is a mathematical sciences research Institute. And for anyone who’s listening, I’ll say this again at the end, please follow José on Twitter. You will be enlightened every single moment, Brea: Even though Brea and José both have these really cool jobs and backgrounds, I was kind of curious Michole: What were you’re curious about? Brea: Whether or not people still make the statement that all math people are tired of hearing. Do people still respond and say, Oh, I hate math. (Laughing) Brea: I’m sure you hear that all the time. It’s, it’s, it’s still s

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel is joined by Brittany Rhodes the creator of the amazing monthly mathematics subscription box Black Girl Mathgic. They discuss where the idea of the box came from, what comes in the boxes each month, and why everyone benefits when young Black women are centered in mathematics. If you want to help Brittany and Black Girl Mathgic reach more people you can help out by donating a box. ACMEScience · Relatively Prime: Black Girl Mathgic Download the episode Music:Broke For Free (Night Owl) (Only Instrumental) [The podcast episode file has been update to remove repeated narration segments]

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel is joined by Brigitte Stenhouse of the Open University to talk about the life and times of Mary, and William, Somerville. Download the episode Music:Lowercase n

On this month’s Relatively Prime Samuel shares three scenes from the life of Benjamin Banneker. One about a clock, one about a solar eclipse projectsion, and one about a puzzle. You can learn more about the life of Benjamin Banneker by checking out the book The Life of Benjamin Banneker by Silvio Bendini which was essential in the production of this episode and it is available to borrow for free on the Internet Archive or if you prefer a physical copy your library may have it on hand and if they do not the amazing system that is Interlibrary Loan should be able to provide for you. Download the Episode Music:Chris ZabriskeRodrigonzálezGriffin Lundinᕲi̾r̾੮ Porcelai̾n Transcript: 3 Scenes from the life of Benjamin Banneker Scene 1: The Clock It was only the second timepiece he had ever seen. And, to those of us alive today, the first we would have thought of as such, as this was a pocket watch and the other a simple sundial. That Benjamin Banneker had never seen a watch before is not that surprising. After all he was a teenaged free African American man in the colony of Maryland in either the late 1740s or early 1750s. While there were a number of clockmakers who provided their works to farmers in the Chesapeake region, it will likely not come as a surprise that a family where the father is a freed slave and the mother the daughter of a freed slave and a formerly indentured servant were not among those clockmakers clients, though the family’s tobacco farm did allow them to be self-sufficient. The most likely thing is that Benjamin found a merchant or a traveler who not only owned a pocket watch but was willing to let a precocious free young black man take a good long look at it. There is no historical evidence of what exactly Benjamin did when he set his eyes upon the second timepiece he had ever seen but we can make some educated guesses. We can guess that he was able to get a good look at workings within. We can guess that he felt fascinated by these workings. We can guess his mind raced trying to understand how such workings were able to keep time so well that they could be relied upon. We can guess he wanted a clock of his own. We can make those guesses because of what we know. We know that after seeing the pocket watch Benjamin began to draw out the internal workings of gears and wheels and springs. We know he then worked on calculating the sizes and ratios needed to make a clock function correctly. And we know he used those drawings and calculations to make a clock all his own. Fashioned primarily out of wood he carved himself, up to and including the gears, the clock Benjamin Banneker designed and built at 21 worked until he died at 74. Scene 2: The Projection More than 30 years of working the farm later Benjamin Banneker learns about, and quickly falls in love with, astronomy. At first it is only through occasional discussions with neighbor and noted amateur astronomer George Ellicott, likely with some nighttime telescopic adventures. Never one to do things in half measure though, Benjamin wanted more. Which he got in 1788, when George offered to lend to him a telescope, some drafting instruments, and many astronomical texts. George also offered Benjamin lesson to help him through the texts and to learn to use the instruments. These lessons turned out to be unnecessary as Benjamin took to his Astronomical studies so vigorously that he worked through the texts before George to make his way back from an extended business trip. Benjamin did not stop with going through some texts, no he moved right on to practical Astronomy. As well he should have considering it led him, a free African American man, in the newly minted state of Maryland to publish 6 Almanacs from 1792-1797 and to have a correspondence with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. But those happened later, and while impressive and great achievements there is a smaller one which tells us just as much about Benjamin Banneker. Within the first year of receiving the texts and tools from George, Benjamin put to himself the task of making a projection of an eclipse of the sun. Using the tools at hand, his newly found knowledge and his skill at logarithmic calculation he completed his task which he eventually he sent it along to George Ellicott who was still away on business. George was understandably stunned that someone with whom he had left some books but not provided the lessons which should have been needed to understand them had produced such a work, so much so that the very small error in calculation the projection contained did nothing to lessen its sheen. Upon receiving George’s reply though Benjamin did not agree, he was distressed that he had made any error at all and endeavored to determine how such a thing could have happened. Which of course he did. It turned out that Benjamin was using two books, one from James Fergusen and another from Charles Ledbetter, both of which had correct methods for projecting solar eclipses but which co

In this live episode recorded at the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Denver Samuel Hansen talks about the truth behind the stories we all tell in mathematics. In order to do this they will investigate the actual facts of the Galois narrative, have a conversation about where and when the decimal point appeared with Glen Van Brummelen of Quest University, and play a game of 2 lies and a truth with some people in the audience. 2 Lies and a Truth Slide The podcast was recorded live on the occupied land of the Arapaho and Cheyenne Nations. Taken finally through violence in the Sand Creek Massacre. Colorado is also the current headquarters of the Southern Ute and Mountain Ute Tribes. There was also parts recorded on the occupied lands of the Anishinaabeg (including Odawa, Ojibwe, and Boodewadomi) and Wyandot tribes. Download the Episode Music:lowercase nSteve O’Brien

To wrap up the year 2019 Samuel Hansen is joined by Katie Steckles and Christian Lawson-Perfect of Aperiodical.com to discuss some of the big stories from the world of mathematics this year.The stories they discuss include Hannah Fry’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Karen Uhlenbeck’s Abel Prize, year two of the Big Internet Math Off, a new multiplication algorithm, a new pi digits record, 33 and 42 as the sum of three cubes, and advances toward solutions for Collatz and Riemann. Download the episodeMusic:lowercase n

On this episode of Relatively Prime we explore the thoughts of authors of general audience mathematics books. Specifically they share why they started writing, how they choose their topics, and how they think about their audiences. It features clips from interviews Samuel Hansen conducted with Colin Adams, Ivars Peterson, John Allen Paulos, Jordan Ellenberg, Dave Richeson, Matt Parker, Steve Strogatz, and Alex Bellos. Download the EpisodeMusic:Lowercase nZombie Horde Sound Effect:Mike Koenig

For this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel decided that instead of speaking to a guest they would instead talk about the research they are conducting now that they are a Mathematics & Statistics Librarian. This research looks into how the citations of mathematical publications age over time, and its discussion includes a first for Relatively Prime – Data Sonification! These sonifications were created using Jonathon Middleton’s website Musical Algorithms (you hear more about Jonathan and this site on the Relatively Prime Season 1 episode The Score) Median Citation Age Median Oldest Citation Download the episode Music:Lowercase n

On this month’s episode of Relatively Prime Samuel Hansen speaks with Professor Mike Spivey from University of Puget Sound about his interactive fiction game A Beauty Cold and Austere. They discuss how interactive fiction and mathematics work together, some of the mathematical puzzles in the game, and just what easter eggs might be hiding within the game. You can play A Beauty Cold and Austere here. Download the Episode Music:SepgilBroke for Free A Beauty Cold and Austere Voiceover:Bree PrehnKT Howard

This episode is a bit of a blast from the past. Samuel has recently been going back through some of the old episodes from season 1 and while there were listening to The Score they realized that while the story about Robert Schneider and the non-Pythagorean scale was great it barely scratched the surface of amazing things Robert talked about in the interview. Upon registering to the original conversation, 7 years after it was recorded, Samuel realized not only did the story barely scratch the surface, the rest of the interview was absolutely fascinating. Robert’s mind works in amazing ways and the connections it draws between mathematics and music and art and life need to be heard. There is a reason Samuel considers Robert to be one of their favorite people in the world to talk to. So, sit back, listen, and enjoy Robert Schneider from Apples in Stereo, The Elephant 6 Record Co., and freshly minted mathematics PhD (a degree which had just been begun when this interview was conducted). Download the episode Music:Apples in Stereo

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel Hansen is joined by fellow podcasters and friends Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett of the Aperiodical to talk about their new mathematical podcast Mathematical Objects. They discuss about where the idea for the podcast came from, how talking about objects can lead to conversations which range from research mathematics to history and back again, and it even features two episodes of their show, one about a shirt and other about a piece of citrus. Once you hear it you will want to subscribe, which you can do here. Download the episode Music:Kevin MacLeod

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel speaks with the founders, Sylvia Bozeman of Spellman College and Rhonda Hughes of Bryn Mawr, a current director, Ami Randunskaya of Pomona College, and a former director, Ulrica Wilson of Morehouse College, of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) program. They discuss why EDGE was started, how it transformed from a program to help young women entering graduate school into a multi-academic generation mentoring community, and its impact on mathematics. If you want to support the amazing work EDGE does you can donate here. Download the episode Music:Lowercase n

If a person is going to become a mathematician it is important for them to be able to see examples of people like themselves who have already made that journey. All too often this type of representation is few and far between for many mathematically inclined black and brown young people. On this episode of Relative Prime Samuel Hansen is joined by the four co-creators of Mathematically Gifted & Black: Candice Price, Erica Graham, Raegan Higgins, and Shelby Wilson. Together they talk about why they wanted to tell the stories of a wide breadth of black mathematicians lives, the importance of representation, how some of the stories they are still having to tell in 2019 show how much mathematics has to grow, and potentials paths for that growth. Download the Episode Music:LocoflopNina Simone

Here on Relatively Prime we have discussed mathematical novels and poetry and music and even featured mathematics sketches, but we have yet to talk movies. That oversight is going to rectified on this episode by featuring two interviews Samuel had done with people who have made movies where mathematics is the star. First up is Samuel’s conversation with the creators of the Flatland and Flatland² Sphereland animated movies writer and director Dano Johnson and the producer Seth Caplan Then you will here Samuel’s interview of Christopher Boone, the creator of the Kickstarter funded mathematics movie Cents. Quick disclaimer, Samuel was one of the funders of the Kickstarter. Download the Episode Music:Lowercase n

On Relatively Prime we talk a lot about mathematicians and their research, but it has been a long time since we have talked about an absolutely integral part of how people end up becoming mathematicians and doing research…Math Teachers. After all if there were no math teachers then who would first tempt us into the world of mathematics with wondrous things like factoring, which is totally what got Samuel hooked. Hey don’t look at them that way, they just love a good difference of two squares quadratic. On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel speaks with mathematics teacher Jo Morgan. They discuss how Jo went from banking to teaching, how twitter totally changed Jo’s teaching practice, and the work Jo does helping teacher to find resources to use in their teaching. To learn more about Jo follow her on twitter and check out her blog Resourceaholic.com. Download the Episode Music:Lowercase n

Samuel has been in the middle of a big move this month, more on this in upcoming episodes, but they did not want you to be without a mathematical podcast to end the old and start the new year so here is a year in review episode (with a special twist)x from Samuel and Peter Rowlett’s old podcast Math/Maths. From the original Math/Maths description: In a traditional move for the start of January we attempt a review of the year. In an untraditional move, we choose the year 1811. Samuel and Peter weren’t able to speak directly because of the ongoing tension following American independence and the brewing Anglo-American war of 1812, but they cover some mathematical hot topics and the work of several contemporary mathematicians, including Carl Friedrich Gauss, Joseph Fourier, Mary Sommerville, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Siméon Denis Poisson and Marie-Sophie Germain, plus the tale of a mathematician born this year: Évariste Galois. Links: Mathematics Chronology for 1800 to 1810 Mathematics Chronology for 1810 to 1820 Math/Maths History Tour of Nottingham – George Green: Miller, Mathematician, and Physicist Carl Friederich Gauss Joseph Fourier Mary Sommerville Joseph-Louis Lagrange Pierre-Simon Laplace Siméon Denis Poisson 200 years of Poisson’s ratio Marie-Sophie Germain Evariste Galois Music by Lucas Gonze   Download the Episode

This bonus episode of Relatively Prime features a live podcast recording from 2018’s Annual MathsJam Gathering. This live podcast featured segments from Math/Maths, Wrong But Useful, Talkdust, Strongly Connected Components/Travels in a Mathematical World/All Squared, The Aperiodcast, Relatively Prime, Taking Maths Further, and a surprise bonus show. It was a blast to record and hopefully also a blast to listen to. The Aperiodical did a more complete round-up of the live podcast which you can read here. Download the Episode Music: Lowercase n

Welcome to the fourth and final episode of the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we are covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this this episode we arrive at the inspiration step of the cycle. Specifically we hear from Michelle Girvan from the University of Maryland on how the Watt-Strogatz paper on small world networks discussed in the first episode of this mini-series helped motivate a definitely not insignificant amount of Michelle’s research. Stayed tuned for to this feed for a special bonus live mathematics podcast recorded at MathsJam 2018 which will be dropping in a couple of weeks. It is a weird one and I think y’all will enjoy it. Download the Episode Music: ARSY LOCOFLOP

Welcome to the third episode of the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we are covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this this episode we bring to you a tour of where mathematics articles go after they are published so that they may be found, Mathematical Reviews/MathSciNet. Samuel is shown the path a paper follows through the Mathematical Reviews by Managing Editor Norm Richert, with stops to talk to many department heads along the way. Stayed tuned for next month’s final entry in the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series which will feature mathematics which was directly inspired by the work featured in the first episode of the mini-series. Download the Episode Music: Chris Zabriskie (1)(2)(3)

Welcome to the second episode of the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we are covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this this episode we bring to you the story of the hidden labor of mathematical research, that of the editors and the peer review referees. In order to do this Samuel spoke with Rachel Kuske, then of the University of British Columbia and now the Chair of Mathematics at Georgia Tech, and W. Ted Mahavier of Lamar University. They spoke about how an editor manages a peer review process, the three things a peer review referee needs to check, and why there is so little time for peer reviewing. Stayed tuned for next month’s entry in the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series which will feature a behind the scenes tour of one of the most important buildings in mathematics. And as a special bonus here are the peer review notes Duncan mentioned in the last episode. Referee reports for my small-world paper w @duncanjwatts. Luckily ref 2 was so brief that @nature had to ask ref 3 pic.twitter.com/ElnaEqseZ5 — Steven Strogatz (@stevenstrogatz) September 4, 2018 Download the Episode Music: Lowercase n

Welcome to the new Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we will be covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this first episode we bring to you the story of the ground breaking small-world network research of Duncan Watts and Steven Strogatz which spawned the mathematical discipline of network theory. This work was published in Nature in 1998 in a paper title Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks. In order to tell this tale Samuel spoke with Duncan themself to get the inside story on where the idea came from, the process of the research, and why Duncan had to bring extra calling cards on a trip to Catalonia. Stayed tuned for next month’s entry in the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series which will be all about the behind the scenes of mathematical publication. Download the Episode Music: P C III Jahzzar

As this is being written there is around 18 hours left in the final match of the Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off between Matt Parker and Dr. Nira Chamberlin. In honor of the final Samuel got on the phone and talked with the creator of the Math Off Christian Lawson-Perfect about where the idea came from and what it has been like to run. Samuel also got a hold of Dr. Nira Chamberlin who was kind enough to take carve out some time from a busy schedule at a new job to take a call from Samuel to discuss what it has been like to take part and make it to the final of the Math Off. UPDATE! After the episode originally went out Samuel was able to get in touch with Matt Parker for a discussion of Matt’s unique strategy in the competition and why breaking voting systems can be fun. Please enjoy this episode, and make sure to hurry up and vote in the final match of the Big Internet Math Off. Download the Episode Music: lowercase n

Sadly Samuel did not make it to the final round of The Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off, but lucky for y’all in a fit of profound arrogance, as well as trying to deal with some potential scheduling issues which could have accompanied victory, they had already made all of their entries. Instead of letting them languish in the dust bin of mathematical communication history Samuel has decided to release them anyway. This would-be final entry is all about checkers, well checkers and AI and hubris and death and rivalry and the devil’s work. In fact this is really a re-airing of the Series 1 episode Chinook which Samuel will happily tell you is the greatest story they have ever had the story to tell. Here is the description from the originally episode’s post: You may not think of checkers as an important game intellectually. It certainly has never had the cachet of chess. That did not stop it from becoming the obsession of the University of Alberta computer science professor for nearly two decades and the center of one of the most ambitious Artificial Intelligence projects ever undertaken. This is their story. Jonathan Schaeffer is a Computer Science Professor at the University of Alberta where he is also the current Dean of the Faculty of Science. Download the Uncut Jonathan Schaeffer Interview Chinook is the greatest checkers player in the world, in fact it is impossible to beat. The product of an 18 year project in computer artificial intelligence, Chinook represents one of the greatest breakthroughs in computer game playing and was the first machine to ever hold a human world championship. Music: sr_cafe Mgen Joe Nathan 007 sciencectn (2) (3) xlcntr marcalexandre thedeadsoul amethystdeceiver _Oce_   Download the Episode Music and Effects: Ken MacLeod tim.kahn dr_skitz DickBlox misjoc

Sadly Samuel did not make it to the semi-final round of The Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off, but lucky for y’all in a fit of profound arrogance, as well as trying to deal with some potential scheduling issues which could have accompanied victory, they had already made all of their entries. Instead of letting them languish in the dust bin of mathematical communication history Samuel has decided to release them anyway. This would-be semi-final entry is all about Gerrymandering. It features interviews taken from two different episodes, Mathematistan from the second season and Re District from the third. Check out those episodes to find out more about the guests and their work. <iframe width=”100%” height=”166″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”no” allow=”autoplay” src=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/473595000&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true”></iframe> Download the Episode Listen to the original episodes Mathematistan Re District Music and Effects: Ken MacLeod tim.kahn dr_skitz DickBlox misjoc

Sadly Samuel did not make it to the second round of The Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off, but lucky for y’all in a fit of profound arrogance, as well as trying to deal with some potential scheduling issues which could have accompanied victory, they had already made all of their entries. Instead of letting them languish in the dust bin of mathematical communication history Samuel has decided to release them anyway. This would-be second round entry is all about William Rowan Hamilton, quaternions, and the walk in their honor. It includes a beautiful song by Jess Charlton.You can hear the PRX STEM Story Project funded piece some of the tape was originally gathered for here. Don’t forget to vote in the second round of The Big Internet Math Off even though Samuel is not in it. All the apologies to Lin-Manuel. Download the Episode Music and Effects: Ken MacLeod tim.kahn dr_skitz DickBlox misjoc Hamilton Jess Charlton

It is time for you to vote for Samuel in the first round of the 1st ever Aperiodical.com Big Internet Math Off! In the first round Samuel is facing off against Paul Taylor, and they need y’all’s help to win. Head over to the match page and vote for Samuel so they can tell y’all about what an Irish bridge, graffiti, and the letters i, j, and k have to do with getting to the moon in the second round. For their first round entry Samuel shares with you the story of why your, well not you wise, beautiful listener but definitely for everyone you know, their friends have more friends than they do and how this paradox can help fight epidemics. If after listening you want to find out more about why your friends have more friends than you do you can read Scott’s paper and check out Nicholas’s work or you can listen below to the season one RelPrime episode a longer version of this story was in. Samuel also wrote an expository piece about the friendship paradox for Second-Rate minds you might want to check out. Download the Episode Longer Version from Season 1 Music and Effects: Ken MacLeod tim.kahn dr_skitz DickBlox misjoc

On this month’s episode of Relatively Prime we are excited to bring to you the story of Girls Talk Math. Girls Talk Math is a 2 week mathematics camp for high school women, as well as a podcast made by the campers about women from the history of mathematics. Samuel spoke with the founders Francesca Bernardi and Katrina Morgan about where the idea came from, why they decided to include podcasting as part of the camp, and the ways they reached out beyond the typical women you would expect to want to attend a summer mathematics camp. You can see how you can get involved here. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and help Samuel survive the month! Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Girls Talk Math Episodes Featured: Grace Hopper Suchitra Sebastian Joan Birman Music: The Ants Go Jumping by ScienceCTN

This month’s Relatively Prime is all about classification. Samuel is joined by Fabian Müller of zbMath for a discussion of the Mathematics Subject Classification, the benefit of using a hierarchical scheme to organize mathematics, and the work Fabian is doing to help revise MSC as a part of MSC 2020. This is a really important work which effects your ability to search and find the mathematical work you are need, so please think about taking part. To read more about the MSC 2020 revision, check out this article from Nature Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and help Samuel survive the month! Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Jahzzar  

In this chapter of Diegetic Plots on Relatively Prime Larry Lesser shares the poem “The M Word” and there is a very unfortunate customer service call at Kroneckea. Many thanks must go to Bree Prehn for no particular reason for this episode. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and help Samuel survive the month! Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Jahzzar Alive Encedalus Freaks  

On this episode so Relatively Prime Samuel talks with former office mate at UNLV Cody Palmer. When this conversation was recorded Cody was a PhD student at the University of Montana and has since moved on to become a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling. Samuel and Cody talk about the research Cody did into Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever and how the number of relapses effect its dynamics, plus some advice on burger toppings and the worst(or the best) research strategy to use when studying an infectious disease spread by biting insects.   Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and help Samuel survive the month! Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music lowercase n  

Samuel has been feeling a bit nostalgic recently and was thinking about an old show we can almost guarantee you have never heard of, called Science Sparring Society. It was all based around this idea that from a Frank Swain tweet to make a podcast that told the stories of fights from the history of science. It was so much fun making this show, and Samuel was always sad that more people did not get the chance to hear it. Which is exactly why this episode features the two mathematical fights from the 2012 podcast Science Sparring Society. Thankfully the topics were history already when the show first came out. Episode 1: The first fight to be featured in the Science Sparring Society is between the two biggest intellectual heavyweights of the late 17th Century, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. Their battle over the Calculus was so epic they call it a war! Episode 7: For the seventh bout we bring to you the fight of infinity. Pitting two of the greatest mathematical minds of their generation against one another, the fight over infinity changed the face of mathematics itself. In the corner of multiple infinities was Georg Cantor and fight for the finite was Leopold Kronecker. You will have to listen to find out who won, and who hits below the belt. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and give Samuel the best present ever! Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS For the rest of the fights from the Science Sparring Society you can head here, or check out this playlist: Music: Liverpool Guitar Society DJlo CameronMusic folkcello Rob Simpson T.C. Randolph ejlflop Bleerix

We are happy to bring to you a special holiday episode of Relatively Prime during this festive period. Samuel is joined by old pals Katie, Peter, and Christian from the Aperiodical for an often funny, sometimes serious, and always entertaining conversation about the phenomenon of formulas for “The Perfect X” which are often seen in newspapers, especially around the holidays. Some of the examples discussed were the perfect Christmas song, perfect Christmas tree, perfect penalty kick, perfect scone cream ratio, perfect Christmas day, and here are plenty of other ones too that the Aperiodical has gathered. Happy Holidays!!! Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and give Samuel the best present ever! Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Weihnachtsorama3000  

  It is that time of year where you, and everyone else, is coughing and sniffling and sneezing and generally getting gross germs all over the place. That is why for this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel Hansen speaks with Benjamin Morin about infectious disease modeling and the best mitigation strategies those models indicate to deal with disease while minimizing cost, both for individuals and for societies. Fair warning, those best strategies may be depressing and definitely not what Samuel was hoping for. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Supermilk  

Sure DNA is important, some might even claim it is absolutely integral to life itself, but does it contain any interesting math? Samuel is joined by UC-Davis Professor of Mathematics, Microbiology, and Molecular Genetics Mariel Vazquez for a discussion proves conclusively that mathematically DNA is fascinating. They talk about the topology of DNA, how knot theory can help us understand the problems which occur during DNA replication, and how some antibiotics are really pills of weaponized mathematics. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Jahzarr  

Have you ever wondered what mathematicans’ favorite theorems were? How about what food or music pairs perfectly with those theorems? Well whether your answer to those questions was yes or no or what are you talking about there is a new mathematics podcast on the scene you need to check out called My Favorite Theorem. My Favorite Theorem is the brain child of Kevin Knudson and Evelyn Lamb. You may recognize those names as a writer who contributes to The Conversation, Forbes, and is a mathematics professor at the University of Florida and as freelance mathematics journalist who runs the Scientific American blog Roots of Unity. They were kind enough to talk to me early in the morning about where the idea for the show came from, why the pairings are so cool, and how mathematical audio can help humanize mathematicians. Oh, and I make them come up with a pairing for our conversation. Plus, as a super special bonus they were kind enough to let me share episode 3 of My Favorite Theorem with Emille Davie Lawrence as part of the episode. I know you will soon have another podcast added to you subscription list. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music SUPERMILK  

Mathematics has been showing up in the news a lot more than usual lately. It has shown up in Slate, The New York Times, and The New Yorker and each time it has been accompanied by one other word, gerrymandering. While Relatively Prime has covered gerrymandering once before in the season 2 episode Mathematistan(a story we just rereleased as an encore presentation in the feed so y’all can get a refresher on the mathematics of gerrymandering) so many important new things have been happening recently it seemed very important to talk about it again. The first interview in this episode is with Eric McGhee, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, who developed a new test for gerrymandering called the Efficiency Gap which takes into account wasted votes. Eric’s work on the Efficiency Gap with his research partner Nicholas Stephanopoulos was integral to the argument in Gail v. Whitford the Wisconsin gerrymandering case going before the Supreme Court this October. Samuel is then joined by Moon Duchin, a mathematics professor at Tufts University. Moon is the head of the new Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group. They are all about intersection of mathematics, technology, and redistricting. One of their big focuses is a series of conferences, the first one in Boston just recently took place, where they have a couple of days of public lectures and panels and then private workshops where they train PhDs to be expert redistricting witnesses and consultants, provide mathematical educators with tools to integrate gerrymandering into their curriculums, and hold a hackathon to develop tools for analyzing redistricting plans. Future conferences are coming up in WIsconsin, North Carolina, and Texas. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Broke for Free  

Gerrymandering – the dividing of a state, county, etc., into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible. Few aspects of politics are as clearly open to mathematical analysis as gerrymandering. Just looking at district maps seems to scream for geometric analysis, and there really are a lot of different tests out there. Samuel spoke to David Austin about some potential gerrymandered districts and ways to test for them, then things got a bit bizarre. Samuel also sat down with Jonathan Hodge to talk about a technique Hodge helped develop to test for gerrymandering called the Convexity Coefficient. Not all of the ways to test for possible gerrymandering rely on geometry. Duke University Professor Jonathan Mattingly and his former student Christy Vaughn, she is currently a graduate student at Princeton, decided to use probability theory to check to see if the districts used in North Carolina’s 2012 elections had been drawn fairly. The results were eye opening. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music lowercase n  

On this episode of Relatively Prime is the other panel Samuel hosted at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta. This panel was called Outside the Equation and focused on mathematical communication outside of the typical, i.e. writing and lecture. The panel consisted of three Relatively Prime guests you already know and love: Tim Chartier, the mathematical mime, Anna Haensch, the co-host of The Other Half podcast, and Robert Schneider, singer, songwriter, and guitarist behind Apples in Stereo. If you want to know how mathematical mime goes over at a Renaissance fair or how mathematicians react to an NPR piece on Poincare conjecture or hear a logarithmic scale as played on a marimba stop reading this and press play now. If you want to hear a story featuring Samuel and an editor and number systems you must become a patron on Patreon and then you will get bonus audio for every episode, including the full audio of the Outside the Equations panel. Many thanks to the MAA, AMS, and Atlanta for the JMM where this panel was taped and to all the math loving people who came out to see it in person. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Supermilk  

Mathematics is not always the easiest thing to talk or write about, especially when the audience is not other mathematicians. This doesn’t mean talking about math is impossible though, just that it takes some experience and maybe some tricks. Of course that leaves a very clear question: What are these tricks and how can I get this experience? In order to answer just this question Samuel gathered together mathematical communicators Dana Mackenzie, Beth Malmskog, and Colin Adams back in January 2017 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings for the panel “What We Talk About When We Talk About Mathematics”, and in this episode of Relatively Prime you will hear from the panel. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Plus, you can get access to the RelPrime bonus feed and hear the panel in its entirety. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music LOWERCASE n

There are stories all the time about race and policing in the United States. They do not typically focus on search rates of traffic stops, but that is a mistake we are not going to make. On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel talks to Lily Khadjavi of Loyola Marymount University about the relationship between race and searches during traffic stops in Los Angeles. It is not pretty, but it is fascinating and very important. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Plus, you can get access to the RelPrime bonus feed and hear Samuel’s full conversation with Lily, including the bit where Samuel talks about the time as a teenager he consented to a search. Download the Episode Subscribe: Apple Podcasts or RSS Music Supermilk (2) SteveCombs

Cancer is a truly terrible disease. We all know it too, in fact it is very likely not a person reading this right now who has not had their own lives or the lives of their nearest and dearest affected by it. This includes your host Samuel. This is one reason Samuel was so interested in hearing to the two brilliant mathematicians you will be hearing from today talk about the work they have been doing using mathematics to better understand how to tackle this horrible disease. First you will will hear Jennifer Chayes, Managing Director of Microsoft Research New England, talk about her work using Steiner Trees to help understand Gene Regulatory Networks as related to Glioblastoma and Breast Cancer. Then the conversation shifts focus to the emerging field of immunotherapy cancer vaccines. To better understand how mathematics may help drive this treatment forward we are joined by Ami Radunskaya of Claremont College in Pomona. Ami discusses how modeling can help create better treatment protocols for these vaccines, and leaves us with a very important action item. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Plus, you can get access to the RelPrime bonus feed and hear the full interviews Samuel conducted with both Jennifer Chayes and Ami Radunskaya. Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS Music Lowecase n  

Sorry for the late episode this month, but your intrepid host and producer Samuel Hansen had to go and get himself concussed at his day job. This means he was not able to put together the episode he was planning on releasing, not to worry though he has some tricks up his sleeve. As you may know March 2017 is the month of #TryPod, where podcasts from all over are banding together to convince their listeners to help raise awareness of podcasts by suggesting podcasts to friends and family they may like. This meant that while Samuel was unable to put together a show himself this month he figured why not do a #TryPod for all his listeners and feature an episode of one of his favorite mathematical podcasts The Other Half(To be fully above board Samuel is the Executive Producer and Editor of The Other Half, but all of the genius of the show is fully down to the knowledge and skills and the two amazing hosts Anna Haensch and Annie Rorem). The Other Half Episode 3: Math and Patent Law After a conference Anna attended this summer, during which she and her colleagues considered whether they could legally protect the work they produced, we began to wonder: To what extent can math be considered—and protected as—intellectual property? Already comfortable with mathematical logic and reasoning, we turned to Sarah Wasserman Rajec from William & Mary Law School to help us approach this topic using logic and reason from the legal standpoint. As we work out an answer in Math and Patent Law, we yuck it up about upstream innovation, a very important encryption algorithm, prime factorization, and whether math is created, invented or…just a matter of eyesight. Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS Music Lowercase N  

  We live in a culture obsessed with the Origin Story, and not without reason. There is very rarely a story more fascinating than the one which tells us why it is people do what they do. So, for the first ever live episode of Relatively Prime we present to you the mathematical origin stories of Lily Khadjavi and Robert Schneider. The episode was recorded live at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta, Georgia. Many thanks to the MAA and the AMS for putting on the meetings and giving us the opportunity to have a live show, as well as so much thanks to the wonderful crew at the Hilton for all their help pulling everything together. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Plus, you can get access to the RelPrime bonus feed and hear about the most amazing live composition Robert Schneider ever heard. Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS Music ScienceCTN Lowercase N Broke for Free  

We are right in the middle of that time every four years when the United States of America focuses very intently on the government, the whole government and not just the elected officials. Right now there are confirmation hearings happening, the executive branch is going through the final steps of transition, and a bunch of fresh congress people are settling into their new roles. This period is always a great reminder of all of the parts of the government which tend to be forgotten, like say the Department of the Interior. That is right, there really is a Department of the Interior. Since the USA’s focus is all on the government right now, so is Relatively Prime’s. In particular we will be focusing on the role mathematics and mathematicians should play in our government. No matter what your personal political persuasion, if you are listening to this podcast it is a safe bet you wish mathematics had a place a little closer to the center of the political action. You are not alone, there are people working to make this happen. One such group are the AMS Congressional Fellows and this episode features an interview host Samuel Hansen conducted with the 2009-2010 AMS Congressional Fellow Katherine Crowley, actually she is not only a congressional fellow, she was also a AAAS policy fellow at the Department of Energy from 2011-2013. They discuss what Katherine’s fellowships entailed, how mathematics can help with policy, and how policy can help with mathematics. The interview was recorded in at the Seattle Joint Mathematics Meetings in January of 2016 where Katherine presented a talk about her time on the hill and in the executive branch. For anyone worried about being burnt out on political discussion after this last election season do not worry, this interview happened well before the election was in full swing and there is no talk about it at all. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and make sure Samuel can afford to make rent next month. Plus, you can get access to the RelPrime bonus feed and hear Katrine Crowley’s first mathematical memory. Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS Music Jahzarr  

Lottery Daze Welcome to the new season of Relatively Prime! There will be a few changes for the new season, primarily each episode will feature only a single story, but to make up for that episodes will be coming out monthly, starting with this one which features the story of how Sharif Ibrahim developed the lottery which was used to award licenses for the retail sale of cannabis in Washington State after the referendum legalizing it was passed in November, 2012. You can support Relatively Prime by becoming a patron of the show on Patreon. Any support you can give the show is greatly appreciated, and goes a long way to making sure it is sustainable. If you are going to be attending the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta(or just happen to live in the great city) next month you can not miss the LIVE recording of an episode of Relatively Prime. There are great guests lined up and you can be in the room while the magic is happening. All you have to do is show up at Regency Ballroom VII at the Hyatt on Friday January 6 at 8:00 PM. Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS Music Jahzarr Arbiter 617 The Phish audio was via @PhrankieC1 and the tape from the Draft Lottery came from CBS.    

Diegetic Plots: Chapter Two This is the final episode of the 2nd season of Relatively Prime. It is also the second chapter of the ongoing series Diegetic Plots. Which means we will once again be exploring the intersection of mathematics and the humanities. This time by exploring what happens when haiku is used to procrastinate from writing a dissertation, how exactly theorems get born, all the possible continuums upon which feelings can be rated, and the executive summaries of some less than successful grant applications. Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS Support the Kickstarter! Executive Summaries of Less than Successful Grant Applications Samuel spends a lot of his time searching the internet for cool mathematical things, so you can guess how excited he was when he stumbled on these amazing grant applications. Calculus of Your Body After hearing the amazing mathematical poems from the first chapter of Diegetic Plots Samuel decided to try his own hand at mathematical poetry. This is what came out of it. A Difficult Delivery Etta Devine, Gabriel Diani, Tekurah McCullough, and Rob Schultz play Karen, Jeff, Dr. Vittles, and the Narrator in Relatively Prime’s presentation of this piece of mathematically bent theater written by Colin Adams Much Depends Upon Good Mathematics Haikus In This Episode Courtney Gibbons was just trying to find a way to not write her dissertation. Little did she know that 17 syllables of mathematics would so entrance Helene Tyler, Andrew Gainer-Dewar, and Greg Stevenson that the next thing they all knew they were engaged in a mathematical haiku battle the likes of which the world had never before seen(to be fair the world had probably never seen any sort of mathematical haiku battle before). Special thanks to Greg Harries for being a great stand-in Greg.   Bonus Haiku As Promised From Courtney: Go hear about that time I wrote Facebook haikus about my research From Helene: Who ever thought that Math haiku would pave my way To internet fame. The Continuum This piece was written by Rob Schultz with a tiny, tiny, almost minuscule amount of help from Samuel. The character of Murphy was voiced by Etta Devine and Doc was voiced by Rob. Music Broke for Free Supermilk Jess and Frank Charlton While the interviews in this episode Relatively Prime are licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license, the authors reserve all rights for the sketches and haiku which appeared in this episode and if you want to reproduce or otherwise use their work please contact the authors to ask for their permission.

f(θ)=1-sin(θ) If you ever want to conduct a quick social experiment on the status of mathematics in the world just get yourself a dating profile and mention on it that you are a mathematician. The messages you get will be quite illuminating: “I hate to break it to you, but while I appreciate math for its logic and beauty, I don’t think I’ll ever like it. lol TOO many formulas.” “I got up to AP Calc during my senior year of high school, cheated off my best friend on all the tests and still got 70s in the class, and swore off math from thereon.” Even when people do not say outright that they despise math the contents can leave a bit to be desired: “I’m awful at math but it fascinates me–much like historical linguistics and conjugating Russian.” It is not like it was all bad though. Samuel did once get this message: “I also really like math and spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to get people to like it more!” But come to think of it he doesn’t think they actually ended up actually going on a date. We really shouldn’t be so negative about all of this. Samuel has been told by more than one person that being a mathematician makes him sexy, really he has and it is so validating for him, and he doubts anyone ever turned me down for a date just because he loves mathematics. But given all the times he has received messages with gloomy words about math and how often on a first date some of the first words out of his companion’s mouth is how much they hate math he couldn’t help but wonder if mathematics has impacted my dating life negatively, if only a little bit. Of course mathematics has never let us down in the past, doubt it is going to start now. Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS Support the Kickstarter An Economist Cupid Andrea Silenzi was the host of Why Oh Why, a radio show about where love and sex meets technology and she was looking for a date. So when Planet Money called her up and asked if she would be interested in getting some dating advice from economist Tim Harford she definitely said yes. Samuel spoke with Andrea about what it was like to follow an economist’s advice on dating, why we should not treat dating like a job, and where to draw the line when it comes to formulaic dating. Helping you Math your way to Someone Special Back in 2009 for the podcast Strongly Connected Components Samuel interviewed Sam Yagan then the CEO and co-founder of an upstart online dating site which was differentiating itself from the competition by putting a real focus on the data side of dating. That little upstart was OKCupid and Sam is now the CEO of Match Group, which includes Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder. They talked about why OKCupid puts such a focus on math and data, how the OKCupid algorithm relies on its users, and why you shouldn’t stress out on having the perfect dating profile photo. Full Strongly Connected Components Interview: Optimal Date Stopping Mathematics communicator and comedian Matt Parker tells Samuel about the optimal stopping problem, and how it could help him date more effectively. Masters and Disasters of Relationships John Gottman is a psychologist, therapist, mathematician, and co-founder, with his wife Julie Schwartz Gottman, of the Gottman Institute where they do research in order to better understand relationships. For our purposes we are most interested in the work John has done in mathematically modelling marriage, in particular the factors which lead to divorce. John tells Samuel about his research, how he transitioned from mathematics to psychology, and what, mathematically, is the biggest predictor of a lasting relationship. Social Network Leveraged Speed Dating Andrea and Samuel had so much fun talking about her economist advised dating experiments that they continued chatting for quite a while. This is eventually where they eventually landed.

Principia Metropolica Your host Samuel Hansen loves cities. Small Cities, Dense Cities, New Cities, Twin Cities, Reborn Cities, he doesn’t care what type of city cities. He loves them all. This of course made it inevitable Samuel would at some point become interested in the intersection of cities and mathematics, and once he became interested in that intersection it became inevitable he would have to make a podcast featuring stories about it. And now here we are. Cause and effect, it really is a marvelous thing. Support the Kickstarter Download the Episode Subscribe: iTunes or RSS The Dimension of Cities Michael Batty is the chair of CASA, the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis . He is also the author of the books The New Science of Cities and Cites and Complexity. Samuel spoke to him about how cities grow, the similarity of cities and trees, and the fractal dimension of cities. Listen to Samuel’s full interview with Michael Batty: A Bunch of Two Parameter Driving Models One truth about living in most cities is traffic, and quite often that truth is slow and all clogged up. As bothersome as all the traffic is, where there is a problem there is often interesting mathematics to do and in this case the mathematics is being tackled by University of Michigan professor Gabor Orosz. Samuel spoke with Gabor about why jams form, if there is any hope in the future for less of them, and what role robots in the hallways of the university play in his studies. See the Sights Maths in the City is an outreach program conceived by Marcus du Sautoy which shows groups the mathematics of London and Oxford. Samuel spoke with one of the tour guides, Thomas Woolley about the program and some of the mathematical sights you could see on one of the tours. If these mathematical city tours sounds interesting to you, but you are not anywhere near London and Oxford do not fret as the Maths in the City website has you covered. There is an entire section where people can post their own examples of mathematics in cities all around the world, and you can easily search to see if there is any notable city mathematics near you. The Universe of Urban Planning Lisa Schweitzer is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC. Samuel spoke to Lisa about the intersection of urban planning and mathematics, where mathematical tools are the most useful, where they fall short, and what the role of mathematics and statistics will be in urban planning moving forward. Kolmogorov’s City Kolmogorov complexity can be thought of as the smallest amount of computational resources needed to designate some object. Sim City is a computer game where you build and manage cities. Samuel Arbesman is a senior adjunct fellow at the Flatiron Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. Yes, they do all come together. Click here if you like spoilers(aka the article Samuel interviewed Samuel about) Music Jazz Town Jimmer Man Jonantan Hal (2) Chris Zabriskie