Math Therapy

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Today’s guest has a dream: to dance on the moon.  With a robot.  The craziest part?  This is actually an attainable goal for Dr. Merritt Moore, better known as the “Quantum Ballerina”! Merritt has a PhD in Atomic & Laser Physics and is also a professional ballerina, and if that’s not enough for one resumé, she was recently selected for astronaut train...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Today’s guest is an actual celeb in the math-world. We’re talking A-list, we’re talking literally MILLIONS OF FANS. Grant Sanderson explains very high level math on his YouTube channel, 3Blue1Brown, in a way that is accessible for anyone to tune in and learn from! Vanessa and Grant discuss how he makes math so appealing and unintimidating, how a feeling o...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) We’re not the only ones who binge-watched Netflix’s The Circle over the pandemic, and one reason we were OBSESSED was the breakout star of the show: Terilisha, a math teacher AND musician, who stole our hearts with her IDGAF attitude! Today Vanessa chats with Terilisha about her experience on the show, how the media (and society) struggle to accept that p...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Will you be watching the Oscars this Sunday, comparing the winners with your predictions? Well one person who definitely will be is our first guest of season 4 - Ben Zauzmer , author of Oscarmetrics ! Ben, who is also the director of baseball analytics for the New York Mets, uses stats from past and present awards to try to predict this year's winner...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) We are BACK!  We've got 10 incredible and inspiring guests lined up for the new season of Math Therapy, each with a totally different history and relationship with math. Season 4 launches March 24th and because that’s a few days before the Oscars, we’re starting with a fascinating chat with Ben Zauzmer , author of Oscarmetrics - he uses statistics to...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) 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 repayin...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) 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 episo...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) 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...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) We all hate harmful stereotypes, but have you ever thought of breaking stereotypes … by simply fulfilling them?! Being an Indian woman who doesn’t like STEM carries many consequences, and on today’s episode, Vanessa talks to South Asian comedian Abby Govindan about how women are pressured to either resist or conform to social and cultural expectations, an...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) 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...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Late last year AT&T ran a full-page ad in the New York Times depicting a mother and daughter in despair over math homework, and Vanessa was NOT impressed.  Whether we realize it or not (and we usually don’t), the media plays a massive role in shaping everything from our collective social values to our individual self-worth.  So what if brands acknowle...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Yep, you read that right: mathfluencers are the future of education and today’s guest is leading the way! Esther Brunat and The Squadratics (think Mean Girls but like, if Mean Girls somehow had even MORE math) are on a mission to market math to Gen Z, and they’re gaining mad momentum. Today Vanessa talks to Esther about how teachers can embrace new techno...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) This season's interviews were all done remotely over Zoom with our producer Sabina Wex and technical producer David Kochberg listening in, and the conversations were so much fun that we often kept chatting after the actual interviews were over! Vanessa's convo last week with astrologer Anthony Perrotta got us all especially fired up, and since s...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) If you follow Vanessa on Instagram, you may know that a) she has really gotten into astrology, and b) that is slightly controversial for an aspiring mathfluencer**.  So today Vanessa is joined by modern astro-celeb Anthony Perrotta to discuss how his background in architecture and love of math led him to exploring patterns in the movements of our universe...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) It is no exaggeration to say that this podcast (and Vanessa’s entire career in math education) would not exist if she hadn't crossed paths with superhero math teacher Ewa Kasinska in high school.  Today, Ewa spills the tea on what Vanessa was like as a 17-year-old, how she managed to turn a math-hater into a Math Guru, and what the media gets wrong a...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) 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...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Season 3 starts April 8th, and for the next 10 weeks Vanessa Vakharia, aka The Math Guru, will be exploring the relationship between math and the media with a diverse range of guests.   Subscribe now! Contact us : Vanessa Vakharia : Instagram , TikTok , Email Math Therapy: Text the Podcast More Math Therapy: Get the book : Corwin , Amazon Audiobook : Audi...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) We're back!!  Well, we'll be back for real April 8th when Season 3 of Math Therapy officially launches.   To get in the zone, today Vanessa is sharing a few short stories we received from some teachers who are determined to be part of the education solution after their own brushes with math trauma. If you have a story you want us to consider for...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) It’s a Math Therapy holiday miracle!!  After bawling her eyes out watching the groundbreaking Netflix Christmas movie Jingle Jangle and raving about it to literally everyone in earshot, Vanessa had the most festive chat in the history of the podcast with the film’s creators!  Writer/director David E. Talbert & producer Lyn Sisson-Talbert discuss repre...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) This season of Math Therapy might be over, but not before Vanessa meets her own personal mathematical hero, Canada’s very own Dr. John Mighton. Brace yourself for a season finale filled with joy, laughter, and tears (shockingly, NOT Vanessa’s) as Vanessa and Dr. Mighton dig deep into the way in which math, the most divisive subject of all, could actually...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) This week Vanessa goes out on a limb and does something she’s never done before on the pod: she talks to real, actual children (and their mom, of course)! Despite her rocky relationship with math growing up, Tamara Rebick chats with Vanessa about her determination to show her two daughters that math ability isn’t genetic, and that anyone - even MOMs, can...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Ever wonder what it would be like if your math teacher was like, the editor of TMZ and like, if your textbook was filled with juicy goss about all of those seemingly-boring-actually-scandalous mathematicians that plagued your high school existence? Today Vanessa talks to Sunil Singh about how different our relationship to math would be if we humanized mat...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) You’d think by 2020 we’d finally be done with the archaic views society has traditionally held on women and math ... um, not quite.  Today Vanessa chats with Feminist Book Club founder Renee Powers about the different ways that boys and girls perceive mathematical intelligence, why women get a bad rep when it comes to reading maps, and how feeling confide...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Have you ever had the feeling that you might have peaked too early? Meet Mike: a math-dropout-turned-software-cloud-architect. He chats with Vanessa about faking it til’ you make it, learning that it’s ok to admit you don’t know everything, and that #selflove can sometimes be way harder than #SOHCAHTOA. About Mike Mike is a big phony who is somehow able t...

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply) Welcome to our most intense (and successful!) math therapy session yet!  Has your inability to fit into that mythical “math person” category haunted you for your entire life?  Today Vanessa talks to Tamica Marcano about how being labelled ADHD led to mega feelings of inadequacy, especially when it comes to math, and they discover what’s truly possible whe...