Math-Life Balance

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

David Kazhdan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kazhdan
http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/~kazhdan/

Dennis Gaitsgory:
https://people.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/gaitsgde/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gaitsgory

Quanta article: https://www.quantamagazine.org/monumental-proof-settles-geometric-langlands-conjecture-20240719/

Israel Gelfand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Gelfand
George Luszting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lusztig
Vladimir Voevodsky: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Voevodsky

0:00 intro
0:25 why math
5:35 student of Gelfand
11:04 Langlands program & motives & physics
14:35 math heroes
16:37 main interest in math
21:01 how about math puzzles
24:34 approaches to hard problems
27:30 negative emotions? introspection?
31:41 collaboration with Lusztig
36:20 thoughts on Voevodsky
41:02 impressions from conferences
45:23 Harvard in the good old days
48:25 family connections