Relatively Prime: Stories from the Mathematical Domain

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! Music: Kirshmusic Transcript available at https://relprime.com/bimw

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. Music: Broke For Free (Night Owl) (Only Instrumental)

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. 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.

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 R Van Brummelen of Quest University, and play a game of 2 lies and a truth with some people in the audience.

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. Music: 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.

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 the Mathematics & Statistics Librarian at the University of Michigan. 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)

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. Music: Sepgil Broke for Free A Beauty Cold and Austere Voiceover: Bree Prehn KT 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).

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.

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 at edgeforwome.org

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. Music: Locoflop Nina 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

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.