When I was in high school, a favorite movie was a signifier of identity. At the time, I thought that the film Repo Man had changed my life. Now I’m more likely to share my favorite podcasts as cultural markers: Reply All, The Nod, Stay Tuned with Preet.
Last week I was thrilled to discover that the Art of Problem Solving has launched a new podcast called After Math. Richard Rusczyk hosts the show and has put out four episodes to date. I’ve been aware of Richard’s work since he started AoPS and also through the elegant problems he wrote for the Mandelbrot Competition (which was much more about beautiful mathematics than competition).
MC2 students will be familiar with After Math’s first guest, Po-Shen Loh, who has given a couple of MC2 hosted talks. They are also likely to be familiar with the work of Eli Luberoff, the creator of Desmos. If I had to choose an episode to start with, however, I’d recommend the one that features Meena Boppana.
Meena is an advocate for increasing diversity in STEM, and her conversation with Richard initially centers on her experience as a girl and young woman in math classes and enrichment settings (MathCounts, Harvard). The podcast is extremely thoughtful about issues of identity and the way in which the ‘math world’ is, and how it is changing. I found Meena to be an inspiration, and I’m sure that others in the MC2 community will too!