Text us about this episode! When Vanessa crossed paths with Dan Meyer at a math conference, she sensed some pushback on her concept of math therapy. So naturally, she invited him on the podcast to get into it! The ensuing rollercoaster interview blurred lines between clearing the air and settling the score, as they hilariously debated hot topics ranging from the need for student-centred educational reform ... to which of them holds the most impressive Guinness World Record. You be the judge! Abo...
May 11, 2023•37 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Text us about this episode! We have some serious A-list math celebs coming at your podcast feeds over the next 10 weeks - here's a little sample until season 5 launches this Thursday!
May 08, 2023•2 min
Text us about this episode! Longtime listeners will remember Season 2's Jill Waddell who shared her inspiring decision to switch careers at age 40 and go back to school for power engineering - facing down her lifelong math anxiety along the way! Vanessa caught up with her after graduation to find out how things turned out (spoiler alert - she was class valedictorian!) and hear what advice she'd give her younger self. Jill's epic story can show everyone that it's never too late in life to face yo...
May 04, 2023•14 min
Text us about this episode! There's no other way to say this: we went to prison for Pi Day this year. Longtime listeners will remembers Vanessa's fascinating and inspiring interview with Christopher Havens, an inmate serving a 25-year sentence for murder who has rehabilitated himself with math and founded the Prison Mathematics Project ( Season 3, Episode 10 ). Vanessa helped with the virtual Pi Day celebration last year, but this year was a first: PMP was able to host an in-person event at Bell...
Mar 30, 2023•47 min
Text us about this episode! Math Therapy is (briefly) back! We've been hard at work on a new season which I can't wait for you to hear soon, but I had to share an excerpt of one of the interviews I just did - you'll see why. Stanford professor Jo Boaler is one of my math heroes, I referenced her all through my master's thesis, and her work in trying to make math education more equitable has been an inspiration to literally millions of people. But there are some who disagree with her vision so mu...
Mar 23, 2023•18 min
Text us about this episode! In our final episode of the season, Vanessa chats with math professor Dr. Anthony Bonato about what it means to be queer in - let’s face it - the historically snobby and closed-minded field that is math. But as soon as you hear Anthony in today’s episode, you’ll understand there will be no silencing his advocacy for diversity & inclusion in math … or for that matter his insistence that Adele’s album titles actually form a unique prime-numbers based mathematical se...
May 26, 2022•27 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Text us about this episode! Did you know that the infamous math movie Mean Girls was actually inspired by Rosalind Wiseman’s non-fiction book called Queen Bees and Wannabes ? Today Vanessa talks to Rosalind about why we need to change the media and messaging that girls get about how it’s not “cool” to be good at math. How can we teach students that they can be good at more than one thing? How can we help them embrace who they are individually in the face of the completely insane pressures of hig...
May 19, 2022•32 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Text us about this episode! You’re probably thinking “what the F*CK is a dude wall?!”, and today Vanessa talks to the incredible Katie Hafner to find out. Katie is an author, journalist, and host of the podcast “Lost Women of Science,” whose mission is to tell the stories of female scientists who history has inconveniently forgotten. But how do we prevent this from happening in the future? How do we encourage more girls and women to go into STEM, and how do we ensure their portraits aren’t left ...
May 12, 2022•37 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Text us about this episode! One of the missions of this podcast is challenging stereotypes, and on today’s episode we tackle a big one: Asians and math. Steven Tran grew up with Asian parents, and the pressures and expectations from his family, community, and society as a whole affected his perception of his own math ability. Getting caught cheating in high school could have led him down a very different educational path if not for a teacher that treated him with genuine care and compassion, and...
May 05, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Text us about this episode! This one’s for all the adults out there who are like “hmmm maybe it’s not too late to learn a little math…”! On today’s episode Vanessa talks to journalist A.K. Whitney, who went back to school at 38 to learn math and chronicled it in Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, and her own podcast/website delightfully titled “The Mathochism Project”. She is basically the definition of overcoming math trauma and making it less of a stigma - but how did she do it? Why don’t more...
Apr 28, 2022•26 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Text us about this episode! Nothing shows how important teacher-student relationships can be than actually being friends with some of your students over a DECADE later, as is the case with Vanessa and Sophie Soberano. Sophie was one of Vanessa’s first tutoring students, long before The Math Guru even existed! Sophie went from daily math meltdowns in high school to becoming a math teacher who leads her class with compassion and creativity, and today she shares how she uses a mindfulness approach ...
Apr 21, 2022•33 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Text us about this episode! 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 training. She went viral during a pandemic lockdown with a video of her dancing with an actual robot as her partner. Today,...
Apr 14, 2022•27 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Text us about this episode! 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 of discovery or usefulness can help students develop a sense of ownership over a topic, and how teachers can motivat...
Apr 07, 2022•31 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Text us about this episode! 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 people can be multifaceted, how the educational system fails us early by not prioritizing practical math skills like...
Mar 31, 2022•24 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Text us about this episode! 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 winners, and we also discuss representation and diversity among award winners and across all media, as well as the classic Mat...
Mar 24, 2022•31 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Text us about this episode! 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 try to predict this year’s winners! We discuss some juicy topics like representation and diversity in the media & am...
Mar 17, 2022•3 min
Text us about this episode! 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 ...
Jun 10, 2021•37 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Text us about this episode! 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 ...
Jun 03, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Text us about this episode! 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...
May 27, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Text us about this episode! 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, and how she’s navigated that struggle through humour - especially through provocative tweets which is how Vanessa fou...
May 20, 2021•21 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Text us about this episode! 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 eve...
May 13, 2021•26 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Text us about this episode! 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 acknowledged that responsibility and used marketing not just to sell products but to also promote positive change in the worl...
May 06, 2021•22 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Text us about this episode! 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 technology, genuinely connect with their students, and even learn valuable marketing lessons from hideous footwear trends...
Apr 29, 2021•38 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Text us about this episode! 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 she and Sabina are super into astrology and tarot, and David is super NOT, we wanted to share a little bonus episode diving fu...
Apr 27, 2021•13 min
Text us about this episode! 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 and the use of sacred geometry through history. Together they explore how spirituality and science can coexist and ...
Apr 22, 2021•32 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Text us about this episode! 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 about teachers, and she also shares her fave tips for teachers on how to engage, inspire, and excite even the most skeptic...
Apr 15, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Text us about this episode! 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 discu...
Apr 08, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Text us about this episode! 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! Follow Vanessa @themathguru on Instagram or Twitter Math Therapy is also on Twitter: @maththerapy Transcript for this episode can be found at www.maththerapypodcast.com...
Apr 01, 2021•3 min
Text us about this episode! 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 any of these stories resonated with you, let Vanessa know @themathguru on Instagram or Twitter , and follow our brand new Twitter account @maththerapy ! If you have a story...
Mar 25, 2021•10 min
Text us about this episode! 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 representation on screen and why they chose to make math such an integral (didn’t you miss the math puns?!) element to thi...
Dec 17, 2020•33 min
