S3E09: I’m not a math person, don’t @ me w/ Bex

Explicit content warning

06/03/21 • 34 min

The year was 2020. A tweet went viral on the interwebs and Vanessa damn near lost her mind. Somewhere in the UK, Bex had tweeted that the best part of being an adult was “opting out” of math; online mag Bustle picked it up and next thing we know Bex was on our podcast - turns out she’s even more hilarious over Zoom than she is on Twitter! On today’s episode she describes how dyscalculia (number dyslexia) influenced her rocky relationship with math, how she learned to cope and ended up working in the financial industry, and how things could have been different if she had better educational support at school. And as a bonus, she shares how her give-no-f*cks attitude helps her ignore the haters on social media - get ready to laugh, cry, and contemplate all your life choices!

About Bex

Bex is a 26 year old, living in London. Despite working in financial services, she struggles with numbers. Outside of avoiding basic mathematical problems between 9-5, she is a prolific tweeter, at-home karaoke extraordinaire and dog admirer.

Show notes

1:06 - Bustle’s Instagram post with Bex’s tweet
2:02 - Bex’s tweet about opting out of math
2:08 - Vanessa and Bex’s Twitter back-and-forth
7:04 - Drama re: Gracie Cunningham’s viral TikTok asking about the origins of math

Connect with us:

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

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

About Bex

Show notes

1:06 - Bustle’s Instagram post with Bex’s tweet
2:02 - Bex’s tweet about opting out of math
2:08 - Vanessa and Bex’s Twitter back-and-forth
7:04 - Drama re: Gracie Cunningham’s viral TikTok asking about the origins of math

Connect with us:

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

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

Previous Episode

S3E08: There are no stupid questions w/ Roger Fischer

Alright teachers, this one’s for you! Today Vanessa chats with Dr. Roger Fischer, an educator from Montana who is not just a hardcore fan of the podcast but also a natural math therapist himself! Roger explains how small instances of math trauma can lead to long-term effects on students, how he incorporates mindfulness and compassion into his lesson plans, and how there is absolutely no such thing as a stupid question.
About Roger

Dr. Roger Fischer loves math. He hasn’t always loved it, though - it took a really good math tutor to show him how passionate he is about making sense of problems and helping others do the same. He has been teaching math for 16 years and developed a unique way to engage learners by first making them feel safe, heard, and validated. You can follow him on YouTube at Dr. Roger Fischer, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit his website compassionatemathtutoring.com.

Show notes

11:53 - “The Teaching Gap”, the book that talks about teaching as a cultural activity
12:45 - Vanessa’s interview this season with teacher/mathfluencer Esther Brunat
14:26 - “Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You Had” by Tracy Zager, the book Roger gave to his student to help her become a math teacher
27:25 - The John Mighton episode from Math Therapy season 2 that Roger and Vanessa can't stop talking about

Connect with us:

Roger Fischer: @rfischeresq (Twitter)
Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)
Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

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

Next Episode

S3E10: How math rehabilitated a murderer w/ Christopher Havens

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

Math Therapy - S3E09: I’m not a math person, don’t @ me w/ Bex

Transcript

Bex 0:02 (intro quote)
My paper said, like "C / D ?", and then they just put a "C" and they just, like never spoke about it again. They were like "this girl's not passing this again"!
Bex 0:09 (intro quote)
So like, if you tell a fish to climb a tree, it will think it's a failure. But it does really well if it's like, swimming around its bowl - we're all good at different things and that's okay. You don't have to be good at everything.
Vanessa Vakharia 0:23 (show intro)
Hi, I'm