Math Therapy

When this podcast started, interviewing a convicted murderer - while he was still in prison, no less - was admittedly not on Vanessa’s “Math Therapy guest” bingo card. But then we heard how Christopher Havens discovered math in solitary confinement halfway through a 25-year sentence, and committed the rest of his life to rehabilitating himself and repaying his debt to society. On today’s season 3 finale of Math Therapy, Vanessa chats with Christopher about how a lack of purpose in his youth and the misguided desire to be “cool” led him down a very dark road, how math gave him a sense of spirituality and purpose in prison, and how his own rehabilitation led him to withdraw from the stereotypical “prison game” and devote the rest of his life to developing programs and resources for other prisoners to do the same.

About Christopher

Christopher Havens is a mathematician & president/cofounder of the Prison Mathematics Project, a nonprofit program that uses the transformative powers of mathematics to lead prisoners to a life of desistance from crime. While his current focus is in cryptography and the theory of groups, he works to popularize mathematics and redefine what productivity looks like in prison. He is a researcher in number theory and has recently published his first academic paper in the journal or Research in Number Theory, while serving out his sentence.

Show notes

• Popular Mechanics profile on Christopher’s life story
• PrisonMathProject.org
• HumanMe.org blog feat. inmates committed to rehabilitation

Connect with us:

• Prison Mathematics Project: (Twitter, Insta, Facebook)
• Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)
• Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Transcript for today’s episode: www.maththerapypodcast.com

Forget Uber Eats - get some math delivered to your doorstep! Yep, that’s a thing, and it’s all thanks to Brittany Rhodes, the founder of math-activity subscription-box company Black Girl MATHgic! Vanessa chats with Brittany about why she saw a need for representation in math education, how consistency is the key to kids building confidence in their skills, and how her quest to show Black girls that they belong in the world of math has been so successful that she’s even received a shoutout from Beyonce!
About Brittany

Brittany Rhodes is a math tutor, former GED Math Instructor, and Founder and General MATHager of Black Girl MATHgic (BGM). BGM is a movement dedicated to increasing math confidence, awareness, enthusiasm, identity, fluency and persistence in children, with a focus on girls and black children. BGM's flagship product is the Black Girl MATHgic Box, which is the first and only monthly subscription box designed to increase math confidence and decrease math anxiety in girls on a 3rd-8th grade math level. Black Girl MATHgic has been featured on BEYONCE.com, Forbes, National Math & Science Initiative, and more, and named STEM Toy Expert's 2020 Best STEM Subscription Box for Kids: Best for GRL PWR and one of Hello Subscription's 2020 Best Subscription Boxes for Kids.

Show notes

• 15:10 - Black Girl MATHgic on Beyonce's website!
• 15:21 - Black Owned Everything, where you can shop from Black-owned businesses, curated by Beyoncé’s stylist, Zerina Akers

Connect with us:

• Black Girl Mathgic: (Insta, Twitter, Facebook)
• Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)
• Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Transcript for today’s episode: www.maththerapypodcast.com

Season 3 of Math Therapy kicks off today with a brand new theme: math in the media! Historically, media representations of math have left a LOT to be desired, but change is in the air and we are HERE for it.

Today Vanessa chats with / fangirls over Kyne Santos - a true trailblazer when it comes to showing how complex and multi-dimensional we can be if we give ourselves permission! From fierce competition on Canada’s Drag Race to taking math viral on TikTok, they discuss how Kyne has been redefining stereotypes and courageously breaking down boundaries in both the Queer and math communities.

About Kyne

Kyne Santos is a world-class drag queen and mathematics communicator. He graduated high school with the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship to study at the University of Waterloo, where he is a candidate for a Bachelor of Mathematics with a major in Mathematical Finance. Kyne’s short-form math videos, delivered in full high-glamour drag, have gone viral on TikTok and YouTube, where she tells riddles, gives lessons on history’s greatest mathematicians, and teaches her followers how to spot misleading statistics in the media. Fusing her two passions together, Kyne brings STEM education to the queer community and queerness to STEM.

Show notes:

• Kyne's official (and super glam) website
• 10:48 - Buzzfeed article about Kyne
• 14:10 - NBC article about Kyne using math for good and not evil

Connect with us:

• Kyne Santos: @onlinekyne (Insta, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube)
• Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)
• Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Transcript for today’s episode: www.maththerapypodcast.com

In Vanessa's masters thesis titled "Imagining a World Where Paris Hilton Loves Math", there was nobody quoted more frequently than today's guest, Stanford professor Dr. Jo Boaler. On the season 5 finale of Math Therapy, Vanessa sits down with her math ed hero to discuss how limiting beliefs vs a growth mindset impact the brain, how struggle and mistake-making benefit learning, and the extremely personal resistance she's faced in a career dedicated to making math more equitable and accessible.

About Jo: (Website, Twitter)
Stanford Professor Dr Jo Boaler is author of 18 books, numerous articles, and a White House presenter on women and girls. Her latest book is called: Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead and Live without Barriers. She co-founded www.youcubed.org, is currently one of the writing team creating a new Mathematics Framework for the state of California, co-leading a K-12 Data Science Initiative and was named as one of the 8 educators “changing the face of education” by the BBC.
Links mentioned:

• App: Struggly
• Website: www.youcubed.org
• Book: Limitless Mind
• Standford study by Jo's colleague Lang Chen finding growth mindset helps student success
• Story of Nicholas Letchford - written off as a child with learning disabilities who went on to get a PhD in applied math

Connect with us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)
• Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

While we're working on Season 2, we want to hear from you! Send us your math stories/questions - the good, the bad, and the ugly :) How do you feel about the term "math person"? Do YOU have math trauma?! Share your story with us and we'll pick some to play/read on our 1st ever mailbag episode! Ways to share:

• Send your written story via email to vanessa at themathguru dot ca
• Record using your fave phone app & send via email or dm (@themathguru on twitter, insta, or facebook)
• Go to anchor.fm/maththerapy and hit the "message" button