Math-Life Balance

This episode is about women in math, from the perspective of sociology! Many thanks to Olga Paris-Romaskevich for the conversation.

Olga's webpage: https://olga.pa-ro.net/

The book "Matheuses": https://www.insmi.cnrs.fr/fr/matheuses

Here is a link for Olga's talk on gender and mathematics: https://amubox.univ-amu.fr/s/SBRqbTLHSG5PFMF

Here is a list of references Olga used when spoke about social psychology:

1) Definition of social stereotype : (Leyens, Yzerbut, Schadron, 1994), slide 7
2) Stereotype threat result : Spencer, Steele, & Quinn (1999). Stereotype Threat and Women’s Math Performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35
Social psychology : stereotype threat, slides 9 and 10
3) Aronson, J., Lustina, M. J., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C. M., & Brown, J. (1999). When White men can't do math: Necessary and sufficient factors in stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35(1), 29–46.
4) pp.12-13 : John VS Jennifer study Moss-Racusin, Dovidio, Brescoll, Graham, & Handelsman (2012). PNAS, 109, 16474-16479
5) Begeny, C. T., Ryan, M. K., Moss-Racusin, C. A., & Ravetz, G. (2020). In some professions, women have become well represented, yet gender bias persists- Perpetuated by those who think it is not happening. Science advances, 6(26), eaba781

0:00 teaser
1:03 Olya's book about "math girls"
5:38 why there are so few women in math
9:01 brilliance as social construct
14:11 russian tease of women in math
18:05 math in the sociology book
22:35 why to make women only math events
30:33 and why we definitely need them
34:19 how to make a good outreach event
38:33 cool gender equity initiatives
41:12 Mura's experience in math as a girl
46:55 female role models in math
51:18 homage to Sophia Kovalevskaya
53:34 fun facts everyone should know!
58:56 moral support for women in math

Richard is a math professor at Brown University as well as an author of very funny books about math for kids! Enjoy learning about Richard and his adventures in the world of math and art :)

Richard's webpage: https://www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/

Chapters:
0:00 teaser
0:33 why math books for kids
5:22 crazy cool visualizations vs obsessions
8:50 most of math is failure
13:23 accessibility vs precision in papers
17:55 what about abstract more math
23:25 being Thurston's student
29:32 advice for those who feel not good enough at math
32:42 how Richard almost quit math
34:41 story from Mura about Berkeley woods
35:45 Richard's famous April 1st prank
43:16 and other pranks
44:43 and the mask! oh my god the mask

Jordan is a mathematician as well as an author of popular books about mathematics, with great sense of humour. And this interview goes as wild as the picture of the interviewee on his webpage!

Jordan's webpage: https://people.math.wisc.edu/~ellenberg/

Chapters:
0:00 intro
0:28 a year of writing fiction
4:12 what's hard about writing
11:31 finding math everywhere
15:19 cool thoughts on writing
22:58 teaching writing to math folks
24:55 pain & joy of bad writing
29:15 Jordan's workshop where we met
34:30 how to know when the article is ready
38:34 how to make interviews?
45:51 Mura complaining about interviewees :)
51:26 how people really feel about math
54:55 how to survive the lack of feedback
1:03:32 bringing standup tricks into writing
1:09:08 sentimental approach to finishing books
1:12:00 Jordan's book recommendation for us

Steven Strogatz, who works at Cornell University, is a well-known math popularizer and the first applied mathematician on Mura's channel. Enjoy their chat about unexpected applications of math, befogged communication amongst mathematicians and what not :)

Steven's homepage: https://www.stevenstrogatz.com/

Chapters:
0:00 teaser
0:37 when catholic priests become useful
6:35 math, philosophy & couples therapy
13:23 Steven's studies on sleep
21:27 Steven's insecurities in math
24:21 what's wrong with math talks
34:13 no carrot, no stick...
38:24 opinion on strong opinions
41:34 advice about giving up
49:24 different approaches to graduate advising
52:27 chat about Mura's advisor
57:11 Steven Strogatz Prize for Math Communication
1:01:40 how to write friendly math outreach

Enjoy the interview with Dennis Gaitsgory, who thinks about questions deeply yet answers lightly! Jokes included :)

Dennis webpage: https://people.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/gaitsgde/

0:00 teaser
0:30 attending a class by Witten
5:15 math vs physics: difference?
9:20 doing math: happiness and frustration
13:10 what changes with age
17:10 non-math problems: oh no! ;)
23:23 advice for getting back into math
26:45 how to prove Langlands correspondence...
31:49 when math doesn't work
33:25 raising kids: thoughts
36:00 book recommendation from Dennis
37:38 stories about India
40:36 beautiful non-math hobby
42:40 hot take on grant system
45:06 guess Dennis' favourite animal!
47:12 advice to young mathematicians