Talking Maths In Public

TMiP Podcast

The Talking Maths in Public Podcast is a community podcast for members of the TMiP network, which collects short segments from different people working in maths communication to share their projects, ideas and thoughts, as well as discuss maths communication and education research, and provide a regular opportunity to hear from others in the community.

The podcast will be produced monthly for six-month blocks, in even-numbered years (when no TMiP conference is taking place). This will allow for a more sustained exchange of ideas between events, and produce a resource for TMiP members and other maths communicators to draw on.

Series 1 of the podcast will begin in July 2024, and episodes will be released monthly. Each episode will consist of four roughly 10-minute segments, each covering a different aspect of maths communication. Details of how to access episodes and release dates will be added here shortly.

The first two series of the TMiP Podcast are funded by a Public Engagement grant from the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences.

Talking Maths in Public Podcast

Listen to individual episodes below, or subscribe:

Spotify - Apple Podcasts - YouTube - Amazon Music - RSS Feed

Series 1 (2024)

Photo of Hana's multilink cube version of Number City, laid out on a piece of paper on the floor

Episode 1 - Cardboard Boxes, Russell’s Paradox and a Sense of Belonging

In this episode, we’ll be hearing from science communicator and project manager Hana Ayoob, who’s running Matt Parker’s MEGA Grant project for 2024, Number City. We’ll also hear about some recommended popular maths books, discuss mathematical explanations, and find out about some maths communication research.
Episode 1 transcript (.txt)

My MathsComm Project - Number City (1:20)

An interview with Hana Ayoob about the forthcoming Number City project, taking place at Orkney Science Festival in September as part of the MEGA Grant.
Hana Ayoob
MEGA Grant
Orkney Science Festival

Top Three - Popular Maths Books (11:20)

Chalkdust Magazine's Ashleigh Wilcox and Calum Ross share their picks of this year's pop maths literature.
Chalkdust Magazine
Full 'Book of the Year' shortlist for 2023
Once Upon a Prime, by Sarah Hart
'The book that doesn't mention the letter e'
That's Mathematics! by Chris Smith and Elīna Brasliņa
The Truth Detective by Tim Harford

Obtuse Angles - How much do you explain? (25:20)

Mathematicians talking in public have to negotiate between accuracy and clear communication. Maths communicators with opinions Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett discuss accuracy and clarity, and ask whether it's okay to sacrifice accuracy in favour of clear communication.
In Our Time - Emmy Noether
Colva Roney-Dougal
Barber and Russell's paradox
George Green

Research into Practice - Anna Maria Hartkopf (33:40)

TMiP 2023 keynote speaker and maths communication researcher Anna shares an interesting research paper by Alison Marzocchi, on students participating in an outreach program in the USA called Upward Bound, and how it impacted on their sense of belonging in mathematics.
The Development Of Underrepresented Students' Sense Of Belonging In The Mathematics Community Through Participation In College Outreach, at the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
Upward Bound Math and Science Program
Anna's research project MIP.labor

Photo of musicians in MathsCity, seated in a line against a window through which a shopping centre is visible

Episode 2 - Blaming it on Bernoulli, definitions and debugging Python code

In this episode, we’ll be hearing from maths author and proofreader Sam Hartburn, who has organised a live music night with a mathematical flavour. We’ll also discuss the terms we use to define maths communication, and hear the first part of an interview with YouTuber Grant Sanderson about his work on the 3Blue1Brown channel.
Episode 2 transcript (.txt)

My MathsComm Project - Maths Music Night (1:16)

An interview with Sam Hartburn about the Maths Music night that took place at MathsCity in Leeds earlier in the summer, inspired by the MathsJam Jam.
Maths Music Night, on Eventbrite
Photo from the event, on the MathsCity Eventbrite page
MathsCity Leeds
MathsJam UK Gathering

Obtuse Angles - What is maths communication? (18:15)

There are many overlapping terms describing the type of activity we do. Maths communicators Alison Kiddle and Katie Steckles both enjoy defining terms precisely, and share their thoughts on what the difference is between maths comm, enrichment, outreach and public engagement, and why it’s useful to have distinct terms for these.
Turing's Sunflowers project

My Story (Part 1) - Grant Sanderson (32:22)

Part 1 of 2, from an interview in which maths presenter and YouTuber Grant Sanderson talks to Ben Sparks about the story of his journey so far in maths communication, and how he creates the animations on his YouTube channel 3Blue1Brown.
3Blue1Brown website
3Blue1Brown on YouTube
Grant's MANIM package
Khan Academy website

Screenshot of the Big Bang Fair programme in 2016, showing promotional material for the Maths Counts campaign

Episode 3 - Math Exposition, standing around holding a snake, and the World’s Most Interesting Mathematician

In this episode, we’ll hear the second part of our interview with YouTuber Grant Sanderson about his math communication competition, Summer of Math Exposition. We'll also hear some more Obtuse Angles on how people doing more general science communication can support the cause of maths promotion. And we’ll chat to the World’s Most Interesting Mathematician (for 2019) about the Big Internet Math-Off.
Episode 3 transcript (.txt)

My Story (Part 2) - Grant Sanderson (1:23)

Part 2 of 2, from an interview in which maths presenter and YouTuber Grant Sanderson talks to Ben Sparks about how he's encouraging the next generation of maths communicators.
Summer of Maths Exposition website
James Schloss' LeoisLabs

Obtuse Angles - Maths in Other Subjects (16:40)

Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett share their opinions on how science communicators more generally can support the cause of promoting maths - which is fundamental to most other areas of science, but can be ignored when you’re trying to encourage people into STEM.

Stories from the front line - The Big Internet Math-Off (23:55)

An interview with 2019 Big Internet Math-Off winner Sophie Carr about the Aperiodical’s Math-Off, and what it was like to be crowned World’s Most Interesting Mathematician.
The Aperiodical
Posts from the 2019 Math-Off, which Sophie won
Posts from this year’s Math-Off

Photo of a children's financial literacy activity, involving sorting coins into piles, seen from above with an unseen child holding a coin ready to place

Episode 4 - Imaginary money, maths puzzles and audience segmentation models

In this episode, we’ll hear about RedStart, a charity teaching primary school children about financial literacy, find out how a national science magazine handles maths content, and talk about our audiences and how we define them, whether for research or in deciding how best to communicate with them.
Episode 4 transcript (.txt)

Stories from the Front Line - Maths in New Scientist (1:20)

Alison Flood is comment and culture editor for New Scientist magazine, a weekly science and technology publication based in the UK. It includes several regular mathematical features including a puzzle column, and Alison discusses how they approach maths content at the magazine.
New Scientist magazine
Maths articles on New Scientist
New Scientist puzzles section

Research into Practice - Audience Segmentation Models (13:23)

Katie chats with podcast regular Peter Rowlett, and audience researcher and freelance science communicator Hannah Ford-Tomlinson - and gets Hannah’s feedback on the audience segmentation model Peter and Katie developed for their research project.
Peter & Katie’s informal maths learning paper
Peter & Katie’s Case Studies project
MHM Culture Segments
Hannah on LinkedIn

My MathsComm Project - RedSTART (31:45)

RedSTART is a UK charity that works with primary school children to teach them about financial literacy. Katie chatted to Sarah Marks, CEO of RedSTART, about how the project originated and how their sessions run.
RedSTART website
RedSTART on LinkedIn
RedSTART on Twitter

Content

If you'd like to submit content for the podcast, we've created a submission form you can use to send us your ideas. Each episode will consist of four segments of ten minutes, and we will aim to make each segment fit one of the suggested formats below, although alternative formats will be considered. Completing the form will not guarantee your segment's inclusion in the podcast - this is merely a way to suggest content, and editorial decisions will rest with the TMiP team. If you have any questions, please email info@talkingmathsinpublic.uk.

My MathsComm Project: a maths communicator describes a project they’ve been involved with and how it went - how it was funded, what their audience was, how the project met its goals and what they learned
Research Into Practice: a maths communicator chooses a research paper which discusses an aspect of science communication research relevant to maths, summarises its findings and discusses how it might be applied to the practice of maths communication
Obtuse Angles: thoughts and experience sharing from professional maths communicators discussing a particular aspect of maths communication - an approach, a format, or a recently seen instance of public maths, and their opinions of the positives and negatives
Room p₂₆: a maths communicator describes an aspect of, or approach to, maths communication they would like to consign to the bin, and justifies their choice
Stories from the front line: maths communicators sharing their best advice and learnings from their maths communication work, covering a variety of formats and audiences
Top Three: a maths communicator shares three great examples they’ve seen of a particular type of maths communication, such as books for a particular audience, YouTube channels or competition events
My Story: a maths communicator shares a summary of their career path and how they’ve found success
Zeeman Catastrophe: The story of when a piece of maths communication went terribly wrong, and what we learned from it