Sorry for the unannounced hiatus that has now lasted for four years, but our host and producer Sam Hansen has had a lot of life events and changes that led them to not be able to devote the time they needed to making the show. We are planning on coming back very soon, but until then please enjoy this episode about the Mathematics of Voting from the…

On this episode of Relatively Prime, Michole Enjoli and Noelle Sawyer take over for Black in Math Week. They talk to Brea Ratliff and José Vilson, two Black math educators, and discuss what it’s like to be Black in math, what they would say to people making common false statements about Black students in math, and better hopes and dreams for Black …

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel is joined by Brittany Rhodes the creator of the amazing monthly mathematics subscription box Black Girl Mathgic. They discuss where the idea of the box came from, what comes in the boxes each month, and why everyone benefits when young Black women are centered in mathematics. If you want to help Brittany a…

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel is joined by Brigitte Stenhouse of the Open University to talk about the life and times of Mary, and William, Somerville. Download the episode Music: Lowercase nACMEScience

On this month’s Relatively Prime Samuel shares three scenes from the life of Benjamin Banneker. One about a clock, one about a solar eclipse projectsion, and one about a puzzle. You can learn more about the life of Benjamin Banneker by checking out the book The Life of Benjamin Banneker by Silvio Bendini which was essential in the production of thi…

In this live episode recorded at the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Denver Samuel Hansen talks about the truth behind the stories we all tell in mathematics. In order to do this they will investigate the actual facts of the Galois narrative, have a conversation about where and when the decimal point appeared with Glen Van Brummelen of Quest Uni…

To wrap up the year 2019 Samuel Hansen is joined by Katie Steckles and Christian Lawson-Perfect of Aperiodical.com to discuss some of the big stories from the world of mathematics this year. The stories they discuss include Hannah Fry’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Karen Uhlenbeck’s Abel Prize, year two of the Big Internet Math Off, a new …

On this episode of Relatively Prime we explore the thoughts of authors of general audience mathematics books. Specifically they share why they started writing, how they choose their topics, and how they think about their audiences. It features clips from interviews Samuel Hansen conducted with Colin Adams, Ivars Peterson, John Allen Paulos, Jordan …

For this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel decided that instead of speaking to a guest they would instead talk about the research they are conducting now that they are a Mathematics & Statistics Librarian. This research looks into how the citations of mathematical publications age over time, and its discussion includes a first for Relatively Prime…

On this month’s episode of Relatively Prime Samuel Hansen speaks with Professor Mike Spivey from University of Puget Sound about his interactive fiction game A Beauty Cold and Austere. They discuss how interactive fiction and mathematics work together, some of the mathematical puzzles in the game, and just what easter eggs might be hiding within th…

This episode is a bit of a blast from the past. Samuel has recently been going back through some of the old episodes from season 1 and while there were listening to The Score they realized that while the story about Robert Schneider and the non-Pythagorean scale was great it barely scratched the surface of amazing things Robert talked about in the …

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel Hansen is joined by fellow podcasters and friends Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett of the Aperiodical to talk about their new mathematical podcast Mathematical Objects. They discuss about where the idea for the podcast came from, how talking about objects can lead to conversations which range from research…

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel speaks with the founders, Sylvia Bozeman of Spellman College and Rhonda Hughes of Bryn Mawr, a current director, Ami Randunskaya of Pomona College, and a former director, Ulrica Wilson of Morehouse College, of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) program. They discuss why EDGE was started, …

If a person is going to become a mathematician it is important for them to be able to see examples of people like themselves who have already made that journey. All too often this type of representation is few and far between for many mathematically inclined black and brown young people. On this episode of Relative Prime Samuel Hansen is joined by …

Here on Relatively Prime we have discussed mathematical novels and poetry and music and even featured mathematics sketches, but we have yet to talk movies. That oversight is going to rectified on this episode by featuring two interviews Samuel had done with people who have made movies where mathematics is the star. First up is Samuel’s conversation…

On Relatively Prime we talk a lot about mathematicians and their research, but it has been a long time since we have talked about an absolutely integral part of how people end up becoming mathematicians and doing research…Math Teachers. After all if there were no math teachers then who would first tempt us into the world of mathematics with wondrou…

Samuel has been in the middle of a big move this month, more on this in upcoming episodes, but they did not want you to be without a mathematical podcast to end the old and start the new year so here is a year in review episode (with a special twist)x from Samuel and Peter Rowlett’s old podcast Math/Maths. From the original Math/Maths description: …

This bonus episode of Relatively Prime features a live podcast recording from 2018’s Annual MathsJam Gathering. This live podcast featured segments from Math/Maths, Wrong But Useful, Talkdust, Strongly Connected Components/Travels in a Mathematical World/All Squared, The Aperiodcast, Relatively Prime, Taking Maths Further, and a surprise bonus show…

Welcome to the fourth and final episode of the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we are covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this this episode we arrive at the inspiration step of the cycle. Specifically we hear from Michelle Girvan fr…

Welcome to the third episode of the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we are covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this this episode we bring to you a tour of where mathematics articles go after they are published so that they may be fo…

Welcome to the second episode of the Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we are covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this this episode we bring to you the story of the hidden labor of mathematical research, that of the editors and the pe…

Welcome to the new Cycle of Mathematics mini-series from Relatively Prime. In this mini-series we will be covering mathematics from its start as an idea to its publication to it inspiring the cycle to start anew. In this first episode we bring to you the story of the ground breaking small-world network research of Duncan Watts and Steven Strogatz w…

As this is being written there is around 18 hours left in the final match of the Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off between Matt Parker and Dr. Nira Chamberlin. In honor of the final Samuel got on the phone and talked with the creator of the Math Off Christian Lawson-Perfect about where the idea came from and what it has been like to run. Samuel a…

Sadly Samuel did not make it to the final round of The Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off, but lucky for y’all in a fit of profound arrogance, as well as trying to deal with some potential scheduling issues which could have accompanied victory, they had already made all of their entries. Instead of letting them languish in the dust bin of mathemat…

Sadly Samuel did not make it to the semi-final round of The Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off, but lucky for y’all in a fit of profound arrogance, as well as trying to deal with some potential scheduling issues which could have accompanied victory, they had already made all of their entries. Instead of letting them languish in the dust bin of mat…

Sadly Samuel did not make it to the second round of The Aperiodical’s Big Internet Math Off, but lucky for y’all in a fit of profound arrogance, as well as trying to deal with some potential scheduling issues which could have accompanied victory, they had already made all of their entries. Instead of letting them languish in the dust bin of mathema…

It is time for you to vote for Samuel in the first round of the 1st ever Aperiodical.com Big Internet Math Off! In the first round Samuel is facing off against Paul Taylor, and they need y’all’s help to win. Head over to the match page and vote for Samuel so they can tell y’all about what an Irish bridge, graffiti, and the letters i, j, and k have …

On this month’s episode of Relatively Prime we are excited to bring to you the story of Girls Talk Math. Girls Talk Math is a 2 week mathematics camp for high school women, as well as a podcast made by the campers about women from the history of mathematics. Samuel spoke with the founders Francesca Bernardi and Katrina Morgan about where the idea c…

This month’s Relatively Prime is all about classification. Samuel is joined by Fabian Müller of zbMath for a discussion of the Mathematics Subject Classification, the benefit of using a hierarchical scheme to organize mathematics, and the work Fabian is doing to help revise MSC as a part of MSC 2020. This is a really important work which effects yo…

In this chapter of Diegetic Plots on Relatively Prime Larry Lesser shares the poem “The M Word” and there is a very unfortunate customer service call at Kroneckea. Many thanks must go to Bree Prehn for no particular reason for this episode. Don’t forget to support Relatively Prime on Patreon and help Samuel survive the month! Download the Episode S…

On this episode so Relatively Prime Samuel talks with former office mate at UNLV Cody Palmer. When this conversation was recorded Cody was a PhD student at the University of Montana and has since moved on to become a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling. Samuel and Cody talk about the research Cody did into Tick-Bor…

Samuel has been feeling a bit nostalgic recently and was thinking about an old show we can almost guarantee you have never heard of, called Science Sparring Society. It was all based around this idea that from a Frank Swain tweet to make a podcast that told the stories of fights from the history of science. It was so much fun making this show, and …

We are happy to bring to you a special holiday episode of Relatively Prime during this festive period. Samuel is joined by old pals Katie, Peter, and Christian from the Aperiodical for an often funny, sometimes serious, and always entertaining conversation about the phenomenon of formulas for “The Perfect X” which are often seen in newspapers, espe…

It is that time of year where you, and everyone else, is coughing and sniffling and sneezing and generally getting gross germs all over the place. That is why for this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel Hansen speaks with Benjamin Morin about infectious disease modeling and the best mitigation strategies those models indicate to deal with disease w…

Sure DNA is important, some might even claim it is absolutely integral to life itself, but does it contain any interesting math? Samuel is joined by UC-Davis Professor of Mathematics, Microbiology, and Molecular Genetics Mariel Vazquez for a discussion proves conclusively that mathematically DNA is fascinating. They talk about the topology of DNA, …

Have you ever wondered what mathematicans’ favorite theorems were? How about what food or music pairs perfectly with those theorems? Well whether your answer to those questions was yes or no or what are you talking about there is a new mathematics podcast on the scene you need to check out called My Favorite Theorem. My Favorite Theorem is the brai…

Mathematics has been showing up in the news a lot more than usual lately. It has shown up in Slate, The New York Times, and The New Yorker and each time it has been accompanied by one other word, gerrymandering. While Relatively Prime has covered gerrymandering once before in the season 2 episode Mathematistan(a story we just rereleased as an encor…

Gerrymandering – the dividing of a state, county, etc., into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible. Few aspects of politics are as clearly open to mathematical analysis as gerrymandering. Just looking at district …

On this episode of Relatively Prime is the other panel Samuel hosted at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta. This panel was called Outside the Equation and focused on mathematical communication outside of the typical, i.e. writing and lecture. The panel consisted of three Relatively Prime guests you already know and love: Tim Chartier, t…

Mathematics is not always the easiest thing to talk or write about, especially when the audience is not other mathematicians. This doesn’t mean talking about math is impossible though, just that it takes some experience and maybe some tricks. Of course that leaves a very clear question: What are these tricks and how can I get this experience? In or…

There are stories all the time about race and policing in the United States. They do not typically focus on search rates of traffic stops, but that is a mistake we are not going to make. On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel talks to Lily Khadjavi of Loyola Marymount University about the relationship between race and searches during traffic st…

Cancer is a truly terrible disease. We all know it too, in fact it is very likely not a person reading this right now who has not had their own lives or the lives of their nearest and dearest affected by it. This includes your host Samuel. This is one reason Samuel was so interested in hearing to the two brilliant mathematicians you will be hearing…

Sorry for the late episode this month, but your intrepid host and producer Samuel Hansen had to go and get himself concussed at his day job. This means he was not able to put together the episode he was planning on releasing, not to worry though he has some tricks up his sleeve. As you may know March 2017 is the month of #TryPod, where podcasts fro…

Transportation matters. When people need to get places, but don’t have a good way to do so, it’s more than just a drag for them – it’s also a drag for the economy. Americans are living increasingly far from their places of employment, which knocks walking or biking out of the way for many. And not everyone has a car to get themselves from place to …

We live in a culture obsessed with the Origin Story, and not without reason. There is very rarely a story more fascinating than the one which tells us why it is people do what they do. So, for the first ever live episode of Relatively Prime we present to you the mathematical origin stories of Lily Khadjavi and Robert Schneider. The episode was reco…

We are right in the middle of that time every four years when the United States of America focuses very intently on the government, the whole government and not just the elected officials. Right now there are confirmation hearings happening, the executive branch is going through the final steps of transition, and a bunch of fresh congress people ar…

Lottery Daze Welcome to the new season of Relatively Prime! There will be a few changes for the new season, primarily each episode will feature only a single story, but to make up for that episodes will be coming out monthly, starting with this one which features the story of how Sharif Ibrahim developed the lottery which was used to award licenses…

We know that The Weather is the most basic, most mundane small talk topic in, you know, the world. We understand that The Weather is just boring to discuss. Except when it isn’t. Join us in this episode as we discuss the fascinating, and varied, uses of math in weather predictions, from model-building to handling competing forecasts. We speak with …